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    • CommentAuthorTimmer
    • CommentTimeJul 30th 2014
    I hear ground up Snow Leopard penis can put hrruummpphhh!!! into your sex life?
    On Friday I ate a lot of dust and appeared orange near the end of the day ~ Bregt
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      CommentAuthorSteven
    • CommentTimeJul 30th 2014
    Well that's a scientific fact!

    Timmer wrote
    Steven wrote
    The problem is knowing which source or study to trust, but I'm sure cranberry will have least some health benefits given that it's a fruit.


    I use it a lot as someone who has suffered gout in the past.


    Did you experience a noticeable improvement when you took it as opposed to not taking it? (Again, cranberry is on somewhat firmer ground since it's a fruit, so it wouldn't surprise me if cranberry is beneficial to a specific ailment.... speaking as a Limey Brit.)
    • CommentAuthorTimmer
    • CommentTimeJul 30th 2014
    I honestly couldn't say. The question regarding my condition would be whether the gout returned upon not drinking it and then I'd have to repeat an experiment I'm not prepared to try ( the pain is near intolerable ), all the Gout sites I've googled recommend Cranberry and it certainly works right now. I believe research has proved it to be more than a placebo.
    On Friday I ate a lot of dust and appeared orange near the end of the day ~ Bregt
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      CommentAuthorSteven
    • CommentTimeJul 30th 2014
    Yeah, seems reasonable to me. Of course, it's hard to say just how much it helps without looking into it further, but at least it's not sold as a cure-all, and of course drinking fruit juice will have surely have other inherent benefits. This really is a case of 'it won't hurt to try it'.
  1. My sister has a PhD in pharmacy. She uses homeopathy (globuli) as well as standard medication. She thinks that homeopathy is mainly but not entirely about the placebo effect. Well, if it works, heck why not? No damage done. From a scientific point of view it clearly shouldn't work at all. But water is a much more complex stuff than one should think. So maybe it can store information.
    I'm interested in homeopathy from a philosophical point of view because the theory is rooted in what is called hermeticism.

    Volker
    Bach's music is vibrant and inspired.
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      CommentAuthorDemetris
    • CommentTimeJul 30th 2014
    Steven you mean shrooms?
    Love Maintitles. It's full of Wanders.
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      CommentAuthorSteven
    • CommentTimeJul 30th 2014 edited
    The damage is that quacks are making a considerable amount of money on the ignorance and credulity of their patients, which is morally reprehensible. As well, if you rely on a treatment like homeopathy (which has continually been shown in strict meta-analyses of rigid double-double blind tests to work no better than placebo, which of course is no surprise given that what you are taking is either water or sugar pills with no active ingredient), it runs the risk of you foregoing the actual treatment your body needs.

    Homeopathy is indeed often prescribed along side regular, proven drugs and treatments, which of course begs the question is it really a bad thing since you are also receiving a extra bout of placebo? Placebo is not necessarily a bad thing, and in some cases it's a very good thing, but the practitioner has to be honest about the efficacy or cause of a specific treatment and cannot make unjustified claims based on highly dubious, and frankly insane reasoning. This is where homeopathy falls flat.

    Water is indeed complex, because it is made from molecules and particles. But that does not suggest that homeopaths' claims about the 'memory' of water hold any, well, water. I believe there have been studies to test whether there is any truth to this claim, and unsurprisingly the result is rather disappointing if you happen to be a fan of homeopathy.
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      CommentAuthorDemetris
    • CommentTimeJul 30th 2014 edited
    As for homeopathy, wasn't that 90's hippie evolution? The way "holistic medicine" is our time's? i had chronic headaches when i was little (which magically went away when i got into my twenties) and my parents tried everything and everyone (conventional doctors and pharmacy etc) with no result so they took me to a homeopathy doctor. That took throughout my entire adolescence which you can imagine, cost a lot, cut me off coffee ( i now live off coffee, 3-4 large cups of black no sugar no milk filter coffee each day) and naturally with no result. The crook was later arrested and jailed from what i hear along some other homeopathy crooks for some local medicine scam. So i am not sure it was just them or the whole homeopathy is indeed a farce.
    Love Maintitles. It's full of Wanders.
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      CommentAuthorSteven
    • CommentTimeJul 30th 2014
    Demetris wrote
    Steven you mean shrooms?


    No. That would be under 'recreational drug' cool
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      CommentAuthorSteven
    • CommentTimeJul 30th 2014
    Demetris wrote
    As for homeopathy, wasn't that 90's hippie evolution? The way "holistic medicine" is our time's? i had chronic headaches when i was little (which magically went away when i got into my twenties) and my parents tried everything and everyone (conventional doctors and pharmacy etc) with no result so they took me to a homeopathy doctor. That took throughout my entire adolescence which you can imagine, cost a lot, cut me off coffee ( i now live off coffee, 3-4 large cups of black no sugar no milk filter coffee each day) and naturally with no result. The crook was later arrested and jailed from what i hear along some other homeopathy crooks for some local medicine scam. So i am not sure it was just them or the whole homeopathy is indeed a farce.


    It was invented in late 18th century (invented, not discovered), but it's had its ups and down since. It's quite a fascinating story. It's certainly on an 'up' in many countries in the world I think, particularly France. I imagine it probably had a resurgence in the 90s.
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      CommentAuthorDemetris
    • CommentTimeJul 30th 2014 edited
    France? Well no wonder, because they smoke and drink all kinds of shit there. Damn i should move to France.
    Love Maintitles. It's full of Wanders.
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      CommentAuthorSteven
    • CommentTimeJul 30th 2014
    I was shocked at the prevalence of homeopathy in France. slant No wonder so many people take it, it's bloody everywhere!
    • CommentAuthorTimmer
    • CommentTimeJul 30th 2014
    Someone should introduce Trepanning to France.
    On Friday I ate a lot of dust and appeared orange near the end of the day ~ Bregt
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      CommentAuthorDemetris
    • CommentTimeJul 30th 2014
    They would love that. They are soooo hipster wink
    Love Maintitles. It's full of Wanders.
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      CommentAuthorSteven
    • CommentTimeJul 30th 2014
    Timmer wrote
    Someone should introduce Trepanning to France.


    I would also recommend blood letting.
    • CommentAuthorTimmer
    • CommentTimeJul 30th 2014
    I couldn't agree more.
    On Friday I ate a lot of dust and appeared orange near the end of the day ~ Bregt
  2. Bloodthirsty lot we have here, isn't it.
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      CommentAuthorSteven
    • CommentTimeJul 30th 2014
    The French bring the best out in us Brits.
  3. But they refuse to speak your language. rolleyes
    Bach's music is vibrant and inspired.
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      CommentAuthorSteven
    • CommentTimeJul 30th 2014 edited
    Tell me about it. I was in France recently, and they all spoke...French! shocked Rude.
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      CommentAuthorSteven
    • CommentTimeJul 30th 2014
    Demetris wrote
    So i am not sure it was just them or the whole homeopathy is indeed a farce.


    I missed this bit. I think your example of the homeopaths being arrested is probably a little misleading. Although homeopathy is a load of bollocks (to put it mildly), its practitioners are not necessarily bad people. In fact, many homeopaths seem to treat their clients extremely well, which probably accounts for the high levels of placebo, but they themselves have unfortunately fallen victim to the horse shit they peddle. I imagine a lot of homeopaths really do believe in the magical properties they ascribe to water, even in the face of quite considerable evidence that effectively shows homeopathy is nothing more than placebo. But it's hard to change someone's mind when their experiences and beliefs suggest otherwise.
  4. Alternative therapy combined with proper medical therapy tends to work wonders when it comes to cancer treatment, though to that I have to add the caveat that maintaining proper medical therapy is crucial here.

    In these cases the alternative stuff simply works psychologically (not medically obviously). And in cancer, more than in any other case, the mental status of the patient is almost as crucial (if not simply *as crucial*) to the recovery as the medical one. There is the danger of just quitting oncological treatment, but if the person is sensible enough not to do it, then alternative therapy, as a sort of psychotherapy, does have its merits. I wonder if it was researched (not by medical scientists though, sociologists or even social psychologists) statistically, but I wouldn't be shocked if the numbers for that weren't quite good.

    Medically it's all bullshit, maybe with the exception of some herbal treatment, which is basically tradition that *works* for certain ailments, but in general even some tribal religious leaders (shamans) actually did have some therapeutic success when they actually went beyond the religious theatre shamanism is connected with. In fact, I think I saw a scene in a film once (fiction, but possibly based on an account or something), where a local shaman made all the dance crap and said "OK, enough with the crap, bring me this and this" and actually healed the patient biggrin .
    http://www.filmmusic.pl - Polish Film Music Review Website
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      CommentAuthorSteven
    • CommentTimeJul 30th 2014 edited
    It's a good point, the whole "added benefit" of 'alternative' medicines, but I would perhaps then argue (and I will!) that placing your trust in proven methods while being aware the rest is all hocus pocus could itself produce similar effects. The placebo effect need not come from woo-woo, but from the knowledge that you are receiving the best and most proven treatments. I find it hard to justify essentially lying to the patient, unless of course the patient was terminally ill (where comfort is of utmost importance).
  5. I think I've heard of doctors actually recommending what I described to patients?
    http://www.filmmusic.pl - Polish Film Music Review Website
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      CommentAuthorSteven
    • CommentTimeJul 30th 2014
    I think the problem is partly, if not largely, that ancient wisdom and mysticism is seen as a positive thing. People would much rather turn to something intangible and mystical than the 'cold' 'harsh' reality of science, which is merely a failure of imagination. So in many cases, added placebo is often found in alternative medicines...unfortunately.
  6. Of course you should not lie about medication. But if people choose to be irrational then thats fine with me. Believe systems, medical, religious, economic ... are a great support for many people. Some peolpe believe in Jesus, others believe in globoli, others yet believe in capitalism. That's all absurd in my opinion but what am I to do about it? Tell a believer that religion is a lie and make him miserable because I have nothing to offer instead but some philosophical vaguenesses? You can't force enlightenment on people, they must seek and find it themselves.
    Bach's music is vibrant and inspired.
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      CommentAuthorSteven
    • CommentTimeJul 30th 2014
    Those who advocate unproven things should at least be made aware of the evidence for their particular bullshit of choice, as well as those that potentially might be taken in by it. Teach people how to think, not what to think. No society has ever suffered from too much skeptical inquiry.
  7. There are time when I think that enlightenment really is a blind end. That this revolution too will eventually devour its children. Because it ultimately does not deliver. No objective ethics, no physical universal equation, no end to war, illness and hunger.
    Bach's music is vibrant and inspired.
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      CommentAuthorSteven
    • CommentTimeJul 30th 2014
    So the answer is homeopathy?
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      CommentAuthorStavroula
    • CommentTimeJul 30th 2014
    I haven't tried homeopathy but many people I know have and they told me they had good results. Being in my fifth antibiotics circle in the last 7 months and have being through 6 different treatment for fungal infection due to antibiotics I'm seriously thinking about it but my problem is that I cannot for the life of me stop drinking coffee ( I know, I know I'm not being serious). Anyway!
    As far as cranberry is concerned my urologist told me that due to being sensitive to urinal infections I should definitely take cranberry tablets for many months from now on and he has nothing to do with homeopathy.
    Whatever you gaze rests on,do not use your vision, but the eyes of your soul...She knows better...