Telegraph - Latest Comments in Complementary medicine - does it work?

Re: Complementary medicine - does it work?

crookwatcher — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 03:39:21 -0000

People should stick to medicines made from petrochemicals and tested on rodents and dogs ..
The fact, that medically-induced disease is the only thing more out of control than the deluge of cash pouring down the national disease money-pit, is purely coincidental.

Re: Complementary medicine - does it work?

targeran — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 14:55:11 -0000

Are you suggesting that the commenters here are, in fact, people?

Re: Complementary medicine - does it work?

dickgreendoxon — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 13:58:02 -0000

Acupuncture works....as my family, and a billion-plus Chinese, would happily testify. Whether it always works, and for what list of ailments, I have little idea. As noted below, it may be placebo....but who cares, as long as it delivers the goods?

Re: Complementary medicine - does it work?

goldfinger — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 13:13:54 -0000

“Two percent of the people think; three percent of the
people think they think; and ninety-five percent of the people would rather die
than think." George Bernard Shaw. It applies to the commenters here.

Re: Complementary medicine - does it work?

BobT — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 15:56:50 -0000

“It’s arrogant not to accept an individual’s opinion as evidence that the tooth fairy left then a shiny pound coin.”

Re: Complementary medicine - does it work?

dinitative — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 08:29:15 -0000

Quacks in both camps, avoid them all!

Re: Complementary medicine - does it work?

lordmuck — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 18:57:37 -0000

My daughter's neighbour performs psychic pet healing and claims particular success in treating poorly snakes. This isn't so remarkable as the fact that she earns quite decent fees (they are paid by the pet owners, rather than the snakes). Does it work ? Don't ask me...ask an expert on complementary medicine...step forward Prince Charles....

Re: Complementary medicine - does it work?

TheBoggart — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 15:50:10 -0000

Take your fountain pen down to the beach at Dover.
Empty it into the ocean.
Take a trip across to France.
Go down to the beach and fill up your pen again.
If you believe that you might be able to write with it, you'll believe in homeopathy.

Re: Complementary medicine - does it work?

KathStolle — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 14:59:06 -0000

A little amazed at the lack of information on the part of quite a few of my fellow commenters. There actually IS scientific proof - ie. evidence-based research that supports the benefits of a large number of modalities considered complementary or alternative available at www.spaevidence.com. These studies have been compiled from medical data bases around the world - not just the U.S. Have a look!

Re: Complementary medicine - does it work?

targeran — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 12:41:00 -0000

It's just basic science, really, lots of it found in courses on Human Physiology. Here's an interesting piece of the puzzle to consider:
http://ukpmc.ac.uk/articles...

Re: Complementary medicine - does it work?

targeran — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 12:17:38 -0000

Ah, how unoriginal - the faith of skeptics, like honor among thieves, infusing the comment thread for an article on alternative medicine. If only they would demand as much
evidence for their own 'cleverness' as they clamor for from others. And certainly there must be a better media outlet for publicizing their passionate discontent then this comment thread. Or maybe no one else is interested in listening...

Re: Complementary medicine - does it work?

BadlyShavedMonkey — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 04:40:02 -0000

"Kankanamge wasn’t surprised by the results. “In stressful situations our adrenal glands kick in to action. Our kidneys subsequently struggle to process the by-products of this adrenaline and the excess toxins get stored."

Please, ask Mr Kankanamge to name these toxic by-products and tell you where they are stored.

A subeditor could have shortened your article considerably, but I'm happy to help.

I was relying on coffee to wake me up, alcohol to relax after work. I stopped doing this and felt better.

All neatly wrapped up in 21 words.

Re: Complementary medicine - does it work?

BadlyShavedMonkey — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 04:34:17 -0000

Complementary medicine- does it work?

To a very high degree of accuracy the answer is, NO!

The US NCCAM has wasted billions of $ showing that this is the case. If you wish to waste large sums of your own money having a lie down and letting someone rub your head, I don't want to stop you, but please don't confuse this with medicine.

Re: Complementary medicine - does it work?

Paul Hayes — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 18:56:02 -0000

Yes, well... Some 'enlightened' quacks have taken to distorting the science of and exaggerating the power of "the" placebo effect instead of making absurd claims about Qi or water memory or whatever:

http://www.sciencebasedmedi...

Re: Complementary medicine - does it work?

anrawel — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 18:15:05 -0000

We should and do look into these things. Even though there is often no causal link, science is discovered by investigating theories and keeping records.

Re: Complementary medicine - does it work?

anrawel — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 18:14:45 -0000

Please ignore this post. I was trying to reply to mem_somerville.

Re: Complementary medicine - does it work?

anrawel — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 18:09:09 -0000

I'm quite surprised nobody's mentioned the placebo effect. Believing that somebody's curing you and you are going to get better will cause about 30% more people to get better according to a large-scale scientific survey (and according to Ben Goldacre in Bad Medicine, also from a survey of scientific surveys). I think it's slightly higher than that, if you are interested please look into the science studies yourself.

Do people need to pay a specialist with a persuasive voice £70 per session and visit them in a different setting to feel they will get better and to change their lifestyle? I'm sure some people do. I know a few people for whom if it isn't expensive, it isn't worthwhile. They wouldn't stop stressing themselves for advice on the internet. So in my view, yes, he's providing a health service. The doctor is also right. But doctors know about placebos.

Re: Complementary medicine - does it work?

mem_somerville — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 17:36:48 -0000

Really?

“It’s arrogant not to accept an individual’s opinion as evidence that a
certain treatment has benefited them.”

Shall we also accept anyone's claim that vaccines harmed them, and caused autism? Or that we should abandon wifi because of their electrical sensitivities? Or that since it's snowing there's no global warming?

Re: Complementary medicine - does it work?

Paul Morgan — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 17:35:20 -0000

So much nonsense in one article, where do you start? Anecdotes are not evidence. And why train practitioners in ineffective (even harmful) therapies? As for our kidneys struggling to get rid of the by-products of excess adrenaline and storing the excess toxins - oh dear! I can only laugh at this level of daftness.

Re: Complementary medicine - does it work?

Paul Hayes — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 17:19:42 -0000

“I was as sceptical as the next person about complementary medicine”

Unfortunately, as your article lavishly illustrates, being 'sceptical' is utterly useless if your knowledge and critical thinking skills are so poor that you can't recognise pseudoscientific nonsense and logical fallacies for what they are. For example, this:

“I felt rejuvenated afterwards – although from a
cynic’s point of view this could have been the result of a lie-down in my
lunch break”

is not the point of view of a cynic - it's the point of view of an informed sceptic who knows what the 'post hoc ergo propter hoc' fallacy is and why it's the quack's greatest ally.

Re: Complementary medicine - does it work?

mugglewump — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 15:36:59 -0000

Looks like an 'Advertorial' to me, how much of the treatment is free to the author after this. It is well known that beauty editors push products for the perks offered by the companies;is this any different?
Shameful advertising!