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New SDN Article: “The Boards”: USMLE Overview
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we had a guest speaker come into our health psych class to talk about alternative medicine approaches.... he practiced homeopathy, energy healing, and other forms of treatment...
he claimed to have healed a parapalegic through long distance energy healing. aka he was on the other side of the country, transferred his psychic energy to the patient, and within the next few days the patient regained control of his bladder and regained feelikng in his legs.
alternative medicine is cool, but something about that story doesnt sit well with me.
he claimed to have healed a parapalegic through long distance energy healing. aka he was on the other side of the country, transferred his psychic energy to the patient, and within the next few days the patient regained control of his bladder and regained feelikng in his legs.
alternative medicine is cool, but something about that story doesnt sit well with me.
Yes. CAM is the biggest load of horse**** the medical community is faced with right now. They are trying to be counted as PCPs and start getting insurance money and reimbursement for doing what they do. Which is nothing. Oh, and they have no formal medical training. And they dont know how to recognize diagnose actual illnesses. And yet people just dont seem to care...
- Nov 20, 2004
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Nothing like some broad, uninformed generalizations to keep the world (or at least SDN) turning...
I know of a one 'Dr Skywalker' who uses the force to heal. He believes in the good in people and uses manipulation of miti-clorians to properly treat his patients. 
haha i'll believe it when i see it and the results are replicated over and over and over again
not all of CAM is horse ****. they are starting to get NIH funding and are doing actual experimental trials that will determine which techniques are bogus and which actually do aid in the treatment of patients.
whether it is placebo or not really doesnt matter, if it works it works.
No, you can't have people claiming that some treatment does something theraputic when its actually a placebo. That is a great way to make people sick or kill them.
Placebos don't actually do anything. People just think they do. Its the healing power of coincidence. No thanks.
Placebos don't actually do anything. People just think they do. Its the healing power of coincidence. No thanks.
you are wrong. just b/c its a placebo doesn't mean there isn't anything happening physiologically in terms of your bodies response. theyve shown that before and theyve actually begun to determine the biological mechanism behind how the placebo effect works. if you would like a reference, i can give it to you when i am back in my room.
A doctor I shadowed once, actually a DO although that doesn't really matter, once cracked open a book and told me to pick any medication in there with my finger. He then promptly read off the percentages that got better taking the medication and the percentages that got better taking the placebo. A very large chunk of them had only a 15% different or so. Medicines don't always do things either...the human body is a fickle fickle thing. If I have a patient come in and say they got better through meditation, prayer, and other random things then I'd endorse it....after a few tests to make sure they are actually better of course.
I think CAM is beneficial....sometimes. Keep in mind that most people actually resort to it because traditional medicine has failed them. It is rarely the first thing they try. It tends to be with chronic conditions as well. I lived in Germany with a "holistic medicine practitioner" . While a huge chunk of the stuff she did was pure quackery, things like meditation did help a lot. Now the naked cupping, magic crystals in the water, and washing all clothes with bags of nutmeg seeds didn't do much for me, but oh well. She had plenty of happy customers as one could tell by her massive 2 floor penthouse apartment with a clear view of much of Berlin. (It was in East Berlin near a decrepit old east german factory, but it was still a very nice place. and had a courtyard with a second building for her "practice" )
+1. Just because a few people that go there get better doesnt mean we should wholeheartedly endorse it. I know you didnt say that, but thats how people think. And what happens when they claim to be able to cure cancer and make someone better but they cant, and that person dies. Nothing. No lawsuits, no bad smack talking about that CAM practioner, nada. What would happen if you or I as licensed practioners made those claims and then had the same results? Our respective nuts would be on the chopping block and lawyers would have a hay day with it. If they want to be called "doctors" and treat patients as such, they should have the same consequences as we have to deal with. The HMOs, the insurance companies, malpractice, etc. Thats the thing that kills me, they want to do what PCPs do, but dont want to have the underlying responsibilities.
Quackery at its best.
P.s. Yes, my original statement was a bit of a generalization, but honestly, can you show me some proof that it works? I just cant give it any kind of a chance until it can be shown that it is a viable option vs. modern medicine.
My issue is that you can't give someone something and claim that it has some kind of physiological effect, when you know that it actually does not. So the placebo effect can POSSIBLY help people who believe they are getting something theraputic. Big ****ing deal. What if they are actually getting something theraputic? Or even just potentially theraputic?
As for the placebo effect actually healing people, there is no way to possibly test this. What is your control group? Another placebo? Then you'd just be testing which placebo works better. If "nothing" is the control group, then the experimental conditions are not the same for both groups.
As for the placebo effect actually healing people, there is no way to possibly test this. What is your control group? Another placebo? Then you'd just be testing which placebo works better. If "nothing" is the control group, then the experimental conditions are not the same for both groups.
What is your intention with this thread? Are you being facetious? Is this a bad attempt at humor, or is posting this thread an attempt to incite and inflame? Because if it's the second, I'd have to warn you that it is against the TOS to inflame and troll... If we discover that you are committed to doing that, it will result in action.
Anyway, I don't see the point in continuing this thread, so I'm going to close it with the caution that posting with the intent to inflame is not tolerated.
Thanks.
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