Alternative medicine...
- Thread starter SckizoBoy
- Start date
Recommended Videos
I'd be more concerned overall in the degree of faith people show in conventional medicines produced by pharmaceutical companies.
Between logistical flaws in double-blind research methodologies, and the number of drugs that in effect say 'We think it does this, but we honestly have no idea, how it actually works', there's more than enough to be concerned about.
Alternative medicines on the other hand run the complete range from things that are so improbable it'd almost be more plausible to believe in magic, to well-known and long-established folk remedies whose effectiveness is just as well established as any modern medicine. (See above for how flimsy that can be mind you.)
But at the end of the day, don't take anything on faith. Alternative medicine often hasn't been tested at all, but mainstream medicine doesn't have as much proof as it likes to pretend about exactly how or why anything does what it does. (Or even that it actually works at all. The Placebo effect is much stronger than you might expect, and quite a bit more complicated to compensate for than researchers have tended to assume in the past. - There is a fair chance we have a bunch of treatments whose apparent effectiveness is closely related to the number of measurable side effects they produce...)
Between logistical flaws in double-blind research methodologies, and the number of drugs that in effect say 'We think it does this, but we honestly have no idea, how it actually works', there's more than enough to be concerned about.
Alternative medicines on the other hand run the complete range from things that are so improbable it'd almost be more plausible to believe in magic, to well-known and long-established folk remedies whose effectiveness is just as well established as any modern medicine. (See above for how flimsy that can be mind you.)
But at the end of the day, don't take anything on faith. Alternative medicine often hasn't been tested at all, but mainstream medicine doesn't have as much proof as it likes to pretend about exactly how or why anything does what it does. (Or even that it actually works at all. The Placebo effect is much stronger than you might expect, and quite a bit more complicated to compensate for than researchers have tended to assume in the past. - There is a fair chance we have a bunch of treatments whose apparent effectiveness is closely related to the number of measurable side effects they produce...)
You didn't explain it well, or provide any actual credentials or evidence, and you're speaking contrary to how medical advances work.jimahaff said:
So "ya," joke's on you.
Alternative medicine seems bullshit to me. It's total placebo...
If there was a cure for a common cold, it wouldn't be sold without prescription in the local corner shop next to the milk aisle... It will be a freaking massive corporate chain worth trillions... Same with all the other alternative medicines... Like ones to cure aches and pains... Bullshit.
If there was a cure for a common cold, it wouldn't be sold without prescription in the local corner shop next to the milk aisle... It will be a freaking massive corporate chain worth trillions... Same with all the other alternative medicines... Like ones to cure aches and pains... Bullshit.
A bunch of naysayers around here.
Anyhow, the trick is to find true "traditional alternatives" to Western medicine as opposed to anything just labeled "alternative" medicine or "ancient Chinese secrets." People will do anything to make a quick buck and a lot of people are guilty of just buying anything that looks Asian or exotic. There is a massive difference between the alternative medicine you buy at Wal-Mart and the getting medicine from your local traditional Tibetan Doctor (And good luck with that. There are less then twenty full trained Tibetan Doctors in the Western World).
My advice? Do one of the following. Make a friend who is actually knowledgeable in that sort of thing or go to a store that sells that stuff specifically and ask for help. Too many people like to screw people out of their money that are rightly afraid of shooting their bodies full of drugs.
Also, I was doing some legit research for a paper and found that in traditional Tibetan medicine, people's immune system's were often strengthen by meditation. Then again, those people live a lot healthier then us so there could be more to that then meets the eye.
Anyhow, the trick is to find true "traditional alternatives" to Western medicine as opposed to anything just labeled "alternative" medicine or "ancient Chinese secrets." People will do anything to make a quick buck and a lot of people are guilty of just buying anything that looks Asian or exotic. There is a massive difference between the alternative medicine you buy at Wal-Mart and the getting medicine from your local traditional Tibetan Doctor (And good luck with that. There are less then twenty full trained Tibetan Doctors in the Western World).
My advice? Do one of the following. Make a friend who is actually knowledgeable in that sort of thing or go to a store that sells that stuff specifically and ask for help. Too many people like to screw people out of their money that are rightly afraid of shooting their bodies full of drugs.
Also, I was doing some legit research for a paper and found that in traditional Tibetan medicine, people's immune system's were often strengthen by meditation. Then again, those people live a lot healthier then us so there could be more to that then meets the eye.
Alternative medicine has nothing to it, plain and simple. You need no degrees, no insurance, no training. There is no law against setting yourself as a distributer of homeopathy because homeopathy solutions have no active ingredient win, by homeopathic logic seawater is the greatest cure all since Jesus. Accupuncture is theraputic, this is true, pressure points are great at relaxing muscles and calming you you down but a) So does some over the counter drugs and b) It costs far more. Crystals...oh come on, crystals? Cosmic vibrations from a rock making you better? It's bollocks, bunkum and quackery, it's the placebo effect of faith healing (also bollocks) and nothing more. Desperate people will pay for crap because of that, they are desperate for a result and alternative medicine is nothing but a cash grab of the desperate and occasionally, the fucking stupid. This subject is something i am bitter about as my grandmother who had PTSD from her husband hanging herself had most of her life savings and life insurance payout taken by an accupuncturist, mother or her other daughter did nothing about it. It should be illegal ¬_¬
As for the OP...dude your body recovers from infections after 3 days anyway. It's how long it takes for the immune system to develop an antibody. Christ, some people will believe anything eh?
As for the OP...dude your body recovers from infections after 3 days anyway. It's how long it takes for the immune system to develop an antibody. Christ, some people will believe anything eh?
"Alternative Medicine" is, pretty much by definition, medicine without evidence. If there was sufficient evidence that a therapy was efficacious, it would be mainstream. Many tenets of TCM have been incorporated already, but there are many many more that have been proven to have no value whatsoever.
Those that are bullshit are, have always been, and will continue to be bullshit, but contrarians will continue to practice them anyway, because "Western" suddenly becomes a curse word when you place it in front of the word "medicine" for many people. This is despite the fact that the west invented antibiotics, general anesthesia, intubation, cpr, etc...
Japan makes a ton of new discoveries, but these are somehow "Western". It's not one culture vs. another. It's reason vs. superstition.
Those that are bullshit are, have always been, and will continue to be bullshit, but contrarians will continue to practice them anyway, because "Western" suddenly becomes a curse word when you place it in front of the word "medicine" for many people. This is despite the fact that the west invented antibiotics, general anesthesia, intubation, cpr, etc...
Japan makes a ton of new discoveries, but these are somehow "Western". It's not one culture vs. another. It's reason vs. superstition.
I didn't acknowledge it because its a non issue, ASPIRIN has the side effect of stomach ulcers. And Curare is still used to treat muscle spasms and is still necessary in the more delicate surgeries as it cant be beaten in terms of immobilizing a patient.Rednog said:
There was a time when i knew thatNightHawk21 said:
salicylic acid is the medicinal ingredient in both aspirin and white willow. We add Acetyl, another naturally occurring compound to it to allow it to digest quicker and easier. The "medicine" you are getting either way remains the same.NightHawk21 said:
What you are describing is known as "anecdotal evidence". It is proof of... nothing. It's the type of evidence that cave people and bedouins trust, but that anyone who has the power of literacy should look upon with derision. Judging from your grammar and syntax, I think I know why you place such stock in it.elcher said:
His point was that anyone who is genuinely intellectually curious would attempt to prove, or view empirical proof of, the efficacy of these therapies through the actual scientific method. Many have tried. Those things in the alternative medicine world that have been tested and passed muster are now known as "medicine". Those things which have been test and did not are now known as "that gross shit your weird grandma makes you eat whenever you get sick."
It's not devotion to mainstream media sources. It's devotion to scientific journals. I don't watch Fox News, and I don't read the Sun. But I do read Lancet and the New England Journal of Medicine, and I'm inclined to place more stock in their medical advice than advice from some asshole who doesn't realize that bronchitis is a self-limited condition (that means it will go away on its own... all we can do is make it go away faster).
Voodoo is voodoo. Just because an ethnic group is large, that doesn't mean it's voodoo is any more valid than any other culture's voodoo.
Here we go:
as almost everyone else has said, most of "alternative" medicine is crap.
Even granted that lots of drugs have active ingredients sourced from plants, the pills still have a very high purity and carefully controlled dosage; things you can't achieve by swallowing herb paste.
It's true that every few years a mainstream drug is found unsafe and pulled from the market; it's also true that the side effects for a lot of prescription drugs read something like "this might cure your pimples, or it might kill you". However, these are not excuses for fleeing back to medieval standards of care.
As a side note, proof by anecdote is no proof at all. Just because something appeared to work for you once or twice means nothing in a scientific sense.
I strongly suspect that a good deal of the enthusiasm for "traditional eastern medicine" is simply people enamored with the exotic at the expense of sense.
as almost everyone else has said, most of "alternative" medicine is crap.
Even granted that lots of drugs have active ingredients sourced from plants, the pills still have a very high purity and carefully controlled dosage; things you can't achieve by swallowing herb paste.
It's true that every few years a mainstream drug is found unsafe and pulled from the market; it's also true that the side effects for a lot of prescription drugs read something like "this might cure your pimples, or it might kill you". However, these are not excuses for fleeing back to medieval standards of care.
As a side note, proof by anecdote is no proof at all. Just because something appeared to work for you once or twice means nothing in a scientific sense.
I strongly suspect that a good deal of the enthusiasm for "traditional eastern medicine" is simply people enamored with the exotic at the expense of sense.
I think you'll find that when you're looking at specific chemical pathways, especially in reference to medication (alternative or not) that aside from tolerance the positive effects are very much the same. Adverse may reactions may vary but the positive is usually pretty consistent.Alexander Bradley said:
Back on topic:
I think there is a lot of validity to TCM, though you should be very careful when referring to it as an alternative medicine just so you know. However, as with real medicine, there are going to be areas of weakness. Unfortunately the media is far more likely to have a pop at alternative medicine that our every day hospitals because lets be honest having a crack at the health care system that keeps us all going isn't wise. As a results of all of this alternative medicine gets a pretty poor wrap where there is actually a lot of validity to be found within it's practices. Just on a personal note i'd stick with western medicine, although there are more synthetics, sometimes synthetics are good things.
As children grown, the diameter of their respiratory tree also grows. Because of the increase in cross-sectional area of the respiratory tract, there is less resistance to airflow as someone matures, and so formerly debilitating respiratory ailments eventually become minor inconveniences. This has been studied, documented, and explained, in great detail, by "Western" (henceforth known as fact-based) Medicine. It happens naturally and without intervention of any kind.elcher said:
MYSTERY SOLVED.
Your miracle cure did exactly the same thing that doing absolutely nothing would do. AMAZING.
You did not have "chronic bronchitis". Chronic bronchitis is an adult illness, limited almost exclusively to adults who have smoked their entire lives. There are very specific diagnostic criteria that have to be met for someone who knows what the hell they are talking about to refer to it as "chronic bronchitis". TCM "cured" a disease you never had in the first place. People question your story because it is not only absurd, but self-contradictory.elcher said:
If you can't produce a single scientific source that suggests your claim might be true, then what's more likely to be correct in reality: That the entire scientific community has failed to produce a single finding that supports a phenomenon that you have discovered, or that you're full of shit? You expect us to critique media sources, but you want us to believe some random guy in an internet forum without question? Come on, dude. Do you read what you write before you hit "post"?
Medicine? Medicine in general makes me raise my brow. Why? Because I know some 'medicine experts'. I know some geniuses up there in their pharma-corps, and just EXACTLY how much brains they've got going on.
Let me tell ya what, if you had half a clue the kind of shit they put in those pretty little pills of yours and call them 'medicine'... well... you'd probably drop over dead. Of course, you might just drop over dead anyways, from taking the things... but hey.
That's the price you pay for 'wellness'.
Sadly, I signed an NDA. So I can't say anything. Or rather, I won't... because I'd like to continue doing business with these folks.
But hey. Don't take my word for it. I would never ask anyone to do such a thing.
But I'm just as disgusted by modern medicine as I am distrustful of the old school herbalism route. It's all quackery and half-baked science, if you ask me. Because there's never a time that potentially killing 20-goddamn percent of your user-base is acceptable.
That's a game of Russian Roulette I refuse to play.
Let me tell ya what, if you had half a clue the kind of shit they put in those pretty little pills of yours and call them 'medicine'... well... you'd probably drop over dead. Of course, you might just drop over dead anyways, from taking the things... but hey.
That's the price you pay for 'wellness'.
Sadly, I signed an NDA. So I can't say anything. Or rather, I won't... because I'd like to continue doing business with these folks.
But hey. Don't take my word for it. I would never ask anyone to do such a thing.
But I'm just as disgusted by modern medicine as I am distrustful of the old school herbalism route. It's all quackery and half-baked science, if you ask me. Because there's never a time that potentially killing 20-goddamn percent of your user-base is acceptable.
That's a game of Russian Roulette I refuse to play.
Personally I don't trust most normal medicine! When you can go into a chemists and get a brand name drug for 7 quid, or an own brand version for 50P that apparently does exactly the same there mst be something wrong!
Personally unless i'm desperate I stay away from all medicines/drugs. Alternative medicines just sound like tripe! Hell, I, like all of you play video games, but I don't go round eating a fistfull of parsley and thyme (herbs) when I cut my finger because I beleive everything I read!
But if anybody wants to beleive that putting a pebble up their nose, or wrapping their ear in the leaf of the rare, endangered mountain shrub from Peru, can cure their sore toe, then let them too it... Just don't expect me to play along!
Personally unless i'm desperate I stay away from all medicines/drugs. Alternative medicines just sound like tripe! Hell, I, like all of you play video games, but I don't go round eating a fistfull of parsley and thyme (herbs) when I cut my finger because I beleive everything I read!
But if anybody wants to beleive that putting a pebble up their nose, or wrapping their ear in the leaf of the rare, endangered mountain shrub from Peru, can cure their sore toe, then let them too it... Just don't expect me to play along!
Most alternative medicine is absolutely bogus. There is usually a reason why it isn't accepted by the majority of the scientific community. You really need to make sure you do your research. One of the biggest issues I have with it is that people will use it to treat serious illnesses and then NOT seek actual medical advice because of it.
Most of the time with alternative medicine, a placebo would work just as well.
Most of the time with alternative medicine, a placebo would work just as well.