Medicine is the best medicine

It'll keep fewer people from dying by following anti-science medicine, to be sure.

The only thing homeopathy can cure is dehydration.

talulahgosh: if there's one thing that doesn't need scientific funding, it's homeopathy.

Well, of course. The less funding homeopathy receives, the more *effective* homeopathic research will be! IT'S GENIUS.

As it's a British article about Homeopathy and education/learning, I feel this may be appropriate...and hilarious. Tim Minchin's Storm (new window)

//my boss' sister told me today that naturopaths saved her life, and that natural medicine is so much better than artificial chemicals. When I told her that most medicines today are sourced from the natural world, she argued vehemently. "No they're synthesized in a lab!" I tried to explain that a molecule is a molecule, aspirin is aspirin, whether you refine it from the bark of a willow tree or synthesize it with a chemistry set. When she refused to accept this, I gave up.

//The scariest thing about these people is how many of them exiset, and THEY VOTE.

The sad part is, the university isn't dropping the programs because they're complete bullsh*t and it's a crime against humanity to give someone practicing them any kind of credibility such as a degree... they're dropping the programs because it's not making money for them.


And now the fun bits:

Homeopathy overdose^

What's the harm^?

Fake acupuncture is more effective than real acupuncture^

=Smidge=

Smidge204: The sad part is, the university isn't dropping the programs because they're complete bullsh*t and it's a crime against humanity to give someone practicing them any kind of credibility such as a degree... they're dropping the programs because it's not making money for them.


And now the fun bits:

Homeopathy overdose^

What's the harm^?

Fake acupuncture is more effective than real acupuncture^

=Smidge=

Acupuncture works...but it seems that the mechanism is NOT what it's purported to be. The only thing that the efficacy of "fake" acupuncture shows is that the whole "energy meridians" aspect of the old chinese practice is horse shiat. So the rationale for acupuncture's bunk...but still, turning people into human porcupines really does work. We just need to figure out why and how.

Did you hear about the homeopathist that died of an overdose?

He forgot to take his medicine!

Shamelessly stolen from James Randi.

You know what you call alternative medicine that gets empirical results supported in clinical trials?

Medicine.

Lexx: As it's a British article about Homeopathy and education/learning, I feel this may be appropriate...and hilarious. Tim Minchin's Storm (new window)

I second the recommendation of Tim Minchin's Storm (new window)

Lexx: turning people into human porcupines really does work. We just need to figure out why and how.

If you watched the video, the "fake" acupuncture included non-penetrating pokes with wooden toothpicks. Poking holes in the skin is not necessary to achieve the desired effect, and in this case not doing so enhances the effect.

A very plausible mechanism for why it works is also provided: Placebo.
=Smidge=

Smidge204: The sad part is, the university isn't dropping the programs because they're complete bullsh*t and it's a crime against humanity to give someone practicing them any kind of credibility such as a degree... they're dropping the programs because it's not making money for them.


And now the fun bits:

Homeopathy overdose^

What's the harm^?

Fake acupuncture is more effective than real acupuncture^

=Smidge=

It's gotta start somewhere - people realize they don't work, so they stop homeopathy, the snake-oil salesmen have less money - maybe it's the cycle of life

Completely agrees. (new window)

Smidge204: Lexx: turning people into human porcupines really does work. We just need to figure out why and how.

If you watched the video, the "fake" acupuncture included non-penetrating pokes with wooden toothpicks. Poking holes in the skin is not necessary to achieve the desired effect, and in this case not doing so enhances the effect.

A very plausible mechanism for why it works is also provided: Placebo.
=Smidge=

Ahh crap. The study I read a year or two ago was acupuncture technique just in non-acupuncture zones (avoiding critical spots naturally). In that case it's a placebo effect and pain must have something to do with it.

For some reason, I'm fine with this.

Actually, it's a bit sad that any university would offer these courses in the first place.

sprawl15: The only thing homeopathy can cure is dehydration.

It can't (new window)even do that

Science always benefits when we stop looking at odd results not predicted by our current understanding of the universe. I'm ever-so-much happier with Newtonian mechanics since we gave up looking at Mercury's orbit.

brantgoose: The Amazing Randi does a bit at his public appearances where he takes an overdose--a whole bottle of homeopathic sleeping pills. If they work, they should kill him like REAL sleeping pills would.

No, silly: that would weaken the stuff's effect. To overdose, he'd have to take none at all.

meat0918: This is another in what will be a long line of psuedoscientific claims falling apart due to the availability of information on the internet.

Yes, there is a lot of FUD out there on this and other crap, but the Internet is creating a generation of skeptics.

//Why yes, I am an optimist.

Its a double-edged sword this Internet thing. Yes, it is empowering skeptics, but it is also letting the wooists proselytize and close ranks. I doubt we would have had the same sort of spread of the anti-vax movement if it were not for Age of Autism and related tardfests (the AoA people, not the autistics are the tards here, mind you). For every Skeptoid or SGU, you have a Skeptiko or a NaturalNews.com

meat0918: NaturalNews.com is such a farking shiatfest. Every one of their links to "sources" is to another farking naturalnews.com article.

Its increasingly a paranoid conspiracy site, too, I've noticed.

Isn't the word you're looking for "underdoses"?

Smidge204: Fake acupuncture is more effective than real acupuncture^

A "no duh" video, but is a 1.3 point increase over the real thing when there is a +/- 2.0 point margin of error statistically relevant?

That Mitchell and Webb Look: Homeopathic A&E (new window)

Lexx: Smidge204: The sad part is, the university isn't dropping the programs because they're complete bullsh*t and it's a crime against humanity to give someone practicing them any kind of credibility such as a degree... they're dropping the programs because it's not making money for them.


And now the fun bits:

Homeopathy overdose^

What's the harm^?

Fake acupuncture is more effective than real acupuncture^

=Smidge=

Acupuncture works...but it seems that the mechanism is NOT what it's purported to be. The only thing that the efficacy of "fake" acupuncture shows is that the whole "energy meridians" aspect of the old chinese practice is horse shiat. So the rationale for acupuncture's bunk...but still, turning people into human porcupines really does work. We just need to figure out why and how.

Pretty sure we know why, it's just not stated simply and widely disseminated. Acupuncture works for the same reason massage works and for the same reason pop music sticks in your head. Your brain chemically reacts to negative stimuli and pain with positive hormonal changes. Humans are smart enough to keep the negative stimuli smaller than the positive result.

Acupuncture works because your brain responds to someone stabbing it with a bunch of needles by increasing blood flow to fight infection and releasing endorphins.

Rubbing the area, warming the area, or even just focusing really hard on the same area will have the exact same effect.

So what you're saying it reiki is the read-deal?

Mr Guy: Acupuncture works because your brain responds to someone stabbing it with a bunch of needles by increasing blood flow to fight infection and releasing endorphins.

Rubbing the area, warming the area, or even just focusing really hard on the same area will have the exact same effect.

Really? You sure?

Wouldn't it be cool to take a scientific approach to that proposition, rather than just snickering? Not that I'm up on the research, but from all we've cited here, it could just as easily be the needles.

steveGswine: Mr Guy: Acupuncture works because your brain responds to someone stabbing it with a bunch of needles by increasing blood flow to fight infection and releasing endorphins.

Rubbing the area, warming the area, or even just focusing really hard on the same area will have the exact same effect.

Really? You sure?

Wouldn't it be cool to take a scientific approach to that proposition, rather than just snickering? Not that I'm up on the research, but from all we've cited here, it could just as easily be the needles.

That seems to be what the research indicates. Needle count or placement doesn't seem to matter much, or whether the needles are inserted and left or just poke you, or even not break the skin at all. I should have kept the links I came across, but finding the studies again is more difficult than it should be. It works better than placebo, worse than aspirin. About what you'd expect from a side effect. There's lots of links to studies on the Wiki page for it, but I don't have the time to figure out which are reputable. That's the problem, there's a huge market in crap unsupported non-peer reviewed studies for all these types of alternative methods that drown reputable research in the noise.

Smidge204: T
Fake acupuncture is more effective than real acupuncture^

=Smidge=

Placebo effect?

ginandbacon: The weirdest thing about these folks and the antivax nuts is how much they like to couch their arguments in "scientific" language while completely ignoring science. I would have a lot more patience around them if they just threw science out the window entirely and said, I am I giant control freak and I can't let anyone else make decisions for me. That I could respect. Or understand at least.

They don't actually know or want to know anything about how or why science works, but even if they hate it (like religious fundies), the one thing no one can deny is that it works insanely well. Therefore science has a lot of "street cred." So of course, if they say things that sound like what actual scientists say, surely what they want to do will work too! This is where BS like "scientific creationism" and "homeopathy" comes from.

So, pretty much like the monkey from the Island of Dr. Moreau who thinks that by stringing long sentences (of nonsense) together, he's smart like the doctor.

Felgraf: talulahgosh: if there's one thing that doesn't need scientific funding, it's homeopathy.

Well, of course. The less funding homeopathy receives, the more *effective* homeopathic research will be! IT'S GENIUS.

Everybody wins! : D

Speaking of the anti-vax movement, it looks like the creator of it has turned his eyes to Texas, again: "Andrew Wakefield, the austism and vaccines guy, files a lawsuit in Travis County" Link (new window)

Hopefully he will be sent packing soon.