medicine

Maybe something other than homeopathy once in a while? Alright, here's my beef with AIDS: Its not a disease or a condition, it is first of all a definition. Example: If you got HIV and you've got tuberculosis, you've got AIDS. If you don't have HIV and you've got tuberculosis, you've got...

Link Oh, and in case you missed it, the ingredient in the Veggie Booty blamed for the Salmonella cases has been traced back to China. :mad:

Has anyone had experience with intraocular lens implants, especially the newest procedure--Rezoom is the brand name, I believe--wherein you have somewhat less distance vision than you do with the older procedure, but better vision all around? With the newer procedure you can go without glasses...

This is Awesome. It still needs to be tested, but if it succeeds, it seems to me that this could count as the worlds first medical nanotechnology application. Would it be to "Sci-Fi" to think that these molecules could be a foundation that further nano-tech could be built on?

Should having a drug prescribe for an off label use, so that it was not actually studied for its effectiveness for that use, be considered evidence based medicine? I have wondered how much off label use is effectively a placebo for a while. I am sure for some it is and some it isn't, and the...

http://alternativemedconcepts.com/Healthcare_Products/Erchonia.htm Maybe this has been discussed here, in this case I apologize. My girlfriend baught one of these low oevel devices some years ago (before I knew her) for no less than 100 000 ATS (about 7000 Euro). Any opinions? respectful Robert

According to cnn.com: One thing that jumped out at me though: Emphasis mine. Any comments?

Does this qualify for the challenge? I can control my heart frequency. By touching a certain point on my neck I can reduce my heart beat frequency from the norml 65 to 75 beats per minute down to between 20 and 30 beats for at least 5 beats. I can do that anytime, measuring instruments...

http://dilbertblog.typepad.com/the_dilbert_blog/2007/01/voice_update_1.html Scott Adams report on his spasmodic dysphonia treatment. The guy seems to have many quack warning signs, but there at least seems to be some amount of empirical evidence. Can anyone with some medical background comment?

A few days ago, I received a message from someone explaining why pharmaceutical medicine is an evil, not to be trusted, conspiracy! There is a JAMA article that this someone has never laid eyes on, but they found an excellent link that quotes said JAMA article! (Link of course is to "naturodoc...

OK I need some advice, I've done some Google hunting around and unfortunately I've come up largely empty. I know many of you are well versed in medicinal matters so I thought I'd start a thread. I have a lovely baby, he's 1 year old on the first of january. Like most babies his age he has a...

I hadn't noticed anybody commenting on Randi's call for comparative education of chiropractors and doctors. I don't have first hand knowledge of either, but I will say that I have heard chiros trott out the "equivalent or more schooling" thing before. In my view, they're offering a very...

Here is an interesting piece to show your woo friends. It demonstrates how responsible medical practitioners are able to accept objective scrutiny and adjust their views if the objective data contradict their previous opinions. You can still detect the existence of vested interests and...

Mainly for information. The journal of the Royal College of Physicians of London is publishing a series of articles/reviews on "The scientific basis for alternative medicine". The first one is on acupuncture (Volume 6 no4 July/August 2006, p381- 386. Systematic review of systematic reviews of...

Has anyone ever heard of this journal? It's claiming to be peer-reviewed, but completely apart from the title of it making me a bit suspicious, the claims in this article I read (http://gerson-research.org/docs/HildenbrandGLG-1995-1/index.html) sound just a bit too good to be true. 21-43%...

Thought this tied in with a lot of discusions in this part of the forum. Probably stating the obvious for a lot of us sceptics but at least any push towards better testing (or any testing) is a step in the right direction for alternative therapies...

I started a thread on allergy testing via Vega machines last week (http://www.internationalskeptics.com/forums/showthread.php?t=55348), and have been carrying on the conversation with friends outside the forum. Responses to that thread, plus the reams of stuff I've found by googling Vega (and...

Earlier today in my Brain and Behavior class, we were discussing psychosomatic illness, something I've read about countless times personally. I asked if there was such as thing as psychosomatic healing, i.e. televangalist, alternative medicine, acupuncture etc. Essentially, he told me some of...

program description. So far, a bit annoying, at least for a behaviorist. Lots of "the split between mind and body" stuff, and how we are finally looking at the mind... Well, no. We are organisms, dammit, not physical organisms with some non-physical part. I just don't want to hear that bad...

The New York Times and the L.A. Times each have articles about "alternative" medicine, from Feb. 3rd and 4th, respectively. The L.A. Times story discusses a celebrity nutritionist named Feline Butcher.

The latest news story about over-the-counter cough medicine is that it doesn't work. Drug companies are cashing in on a lie. Ailing consumers are wasting millions of dollars. (visit new.google.com and search for "cough medicine") Drug companies defend all this by saying there's a huge demand in...

I am just wondering... I understand that there are people who shun traditional medicine and only use homeopathic remedies. So if a homeopathic remedy becomes accepted by the medical community and becomes traditional medicine, then is it shunned? Do these folks really think the stuff is better...

Well, there are two separate chapters. I've been invited to write a couple of chapters for a reference book on science fiction. Other authors for this book include Orson Scott Card, Piers Anthonny and Ian Banks, so I'm sort of a little fish in ranks of esteemed writers. In the past I've had...

Just finished attending this lecture at the Virginia EMS Symposium. The class/discussion was off to a rough start when it turned out the original presenter had to bow out. A family emergency had a child in the hospital.... One of the state employees stepped up to the plate, one who...

Anyone familiar with this site- http://ebm.bmjjournals.com/ General reliability rating from anyone?

I have just been asked to referee a paper which talks about this organisation. There is next to nothing about it on the web, so I am rather lacking in background. Can anyone point me to useful sources?

I'm a prehospital care provider in Virginia, and just recieved the course offerings for the Virginia Symposium, an annual conference offering classes on a number of EMS and medical topics. Much to my suprise, one of the topic offerings is "Is Prayer good medicine", a two hour class on the last...

I often hear from alt-med fanatics that allopathic medicine only treats the symptoms instead of treating the body holistically. At first, I considered this and thought "hmm, that is an interesting point", but then as I started reading more and more about alternative medicine something struck...

I think Randi is onto something here. http://www.randi.org/jr/080505potential.html#6 When you go see the doctor, they should say "my, that is a pretty dress you are wearing" and "I can't believe someone as sick as you looks so good" and "I see you are very intelligent so I won't offer you any...

If anyone is interested, this was the subject of a British medical Journal editorial this week. http://bmj.bmjjournals.com/cgi/content/full/331/7508/62 Apparently, "In the United Kingdom the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) is consulting on a proposal for a Herbal...