Isn't CAM sweet?

[deleted128562]

Gotta love CAM.

http://doesitwork.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2008/06/19/1156772.aspx?GT1=43001


Gist of the article: Those foot pads that pull "toxins" out of your body through the feet..... load of crap. I'm posting this in premedical because someday we'll probably all have patients raving about the benefits of garbage like this (while insisting they shouldn't pay for real health care of course).

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[ColKurtz]

Ugh oh. The usual CAM wackjobs should be here any minute with their snakeoil and magic bark.

 

[deleted128562]

Ugh oh. The usual CAM wackjobs should be here any minute with their snakeoil and magic bark.

All for the low, low price of $199.95. Guarenteed to cure gout, HIV, addiction to crossword puzzles, and numerous other maladies, heal broken limbs, and ward off demonic possession.

 

[SaveThisLabRat]

Oh yeah, I read this today.

On the same page I read about the PedEgg. They said it works wonders.

 

[bcat85]

If by sweet you mean witchcraft, then yes... CAM is sweet. ha

Good find.

 

[seraph524]

Uh...whats CAM?

 

[da8s0859q]

Uh...whats CAM?

Complementary and Alternative Medicine.

Known to many SDNers by its pet name of "Absolute horsesh*t."

 

[HumidBeing]

Uh...whats CAM?

Prince Charles's wife - Camilla.

(Complementary and Alternative Medicine)

 

[GoldShadow]

OMG you guys, stop bashing those Kabuki footpads, they work! I swear by them! Just because you can't explain it and because it's better than your fancy, full-of-side-effects "evidence-based medicine", you feel the need to say it's not real.

All my life, whenever I got sick, dumb doctors (the "" is to emphasize how angry I am at them) would tell me I "have an infection" and then prescribe me antibiotics. Of course the antibiotics would never work so I'd stop taking them halfway through. Every time I tell ya!

Now they tell me I have something called "Mursa" or "Mersa" or something, and as usual their antibiotics aren't doing anything! Thank god for these Kontiki footpads! I started using them and I'm feeling better already!

 

[da8s0859q]

OMG you guys, stop bashing those Kabuki footpads, they work! I swear by them! Just because you can't explain it and because it's better than your fancy, full-of-side-effects "evidence-based medicine", you feel the need to say it's not real.

All my life, whenever I got sick, dumb doctors (the "" is to emphasize how angry I am at them) would tell me I "have an infection" and then prescribe me antibiotics. Of course the antibiotics would never work so I'd stop taking them halfway through. Every time I tell ya!

Now they tell me I have something called "Mursa" or "Mersa" or something, and as usual their antibiotics aren't doing anything! Thank god for these Kontiki footpads! I started using them and I'm feeling better already!

Made all the more amusing by your House avatar.

 

[xxbruinxx]

i must say that I'm a bit disturbed how quickly you, as pre-meds, dismiss CAM. I'm not saying i'm a proponent by any means, but i'm willing to keep an open mind for the benefit of patients.

Your word, as a physician, holds a lot of weight...so telling someone that a certain product is sh** even though the patient swears by it, doesn't do them any good (of course if said product is doing harm, then that's a diff. story).

All I'm saying is don't be so quick to dismiss something that you most likely have very little knowledge about...

 

[ManualEvac]

i must say that I'm a bit disturbed how quickly you, as pre-meds, dismiss CAM. I'm not saying i'm a proponent by any means, but i'm willing to keep an open mind for the benefit of patients.

Your word, as a physician, holds a lot of weight...so telling someone that a certain product is sh** even though the patient swears by it, doesn't do them any good (of course if said product is doing harm, then that's a diff. story).

All I'm saying is don't be so quick to dismiss something that you most likely have very little knowledge about...

Not to mention the snake oil still lurking in the materia medica of licensed physicians. how long did it take to get Vioxx off of the market? SDN snarkiness toward anything not covered in 4 years of training is cute and often amuses me, but not always justified.

 

[diosa428]

i must say that I'm a bit disturbed how quickly you, as pre-meds, dismiss CAM. I'm not saying i'm a proponent by any means, but i'm willing to keep an open mind for the benefit of patients.

Your word, as a physician, holds a lot of weight...so telling someone that a certain product is sh** even though the patient swears by it, doesn't do them any good (of course if said product is doing harm, then that's a diff. story).

All I'm saying is don't be so quick to dismiss something that you most likely have very little knowledge about...

Come back after your first patient tells you they stopped taking all of their medicine b/c their CAM "doctor" suggested they use a whole bunch of weirdo OTC meds that no one's ever studied. The harm isn't necessarily what they're taking, it's what they're NOT taking.

 

[bcat85]

Right. CAM is just really a term for "putting crap into or on your body that has no known effect." Once a CAM treatment becomes substantiated, it becomes part of real medicine.

 

[ManualEvac]

Come back after your first patient tells you they stopped taking all of their medicine b/c their CAM "doctor" suggested they use a whole bunch of weirdo OTC meds that no one's ever studied. The harm isn't necessarily what they're taking, it's what they're NOT taking.

A lot of CAM-haters seem to be referring specifically to homeopathy and herbal stuff, i.e. crap you put into or on your body. I don't disagree that this is scary and potentially fatal, but the term CAM also refers to large number of other practices like yoga which don't slather you with or feed you any crap (at least not the tangible kind).

If you don't want to scare future CAM-using patients off with the fumes from your ego, you may want to target specific practices and have on hand some hard facts to support your lack of confidence in such practices to educate you patients. For example, the physical impossibility of a chemical leaving any imprint on water at a 1/1000000th concentration.

 

[GoldShadow]

have on hand some hard facts to support your lack of confidence in such practices to educate you patients.

 

[diosa428]

A lot of CAM-haters seem to be referring specifically to homeopathy and herbal stuff, i.e. crap you put into or on your body. I don't disagree that this is scary and potentially fatal, but the term CAM also refers to large number of other practices like yoga which don't slather you with or feed you any crap (at least not the tangible kind).

If you don't want to scare future CAM-using patients off with the fumes from your ego, you may want to target specific practices and have on hand some hard facts to support your lack of confidence in such practices to educate you patients. For example, the physical impossibility of a chemical leaving any imprint on water at a 1/1000000th concentration.

Sorry, but most patients who go see a CAM provider do not respond to reason. In fact, most patients do not respond to reason, period.

Also, it doesn't matter if it's yoga, meditation, or some other med - most patients who go see a CAM doctor choose to follow their recommendations INSTEAD of yours. They're not integrating the two management plans.

 

[Charles English]

my wife totally bought a pack of those 'miracle' foot pads as a gag. they are complete crap. you get the same 'reaction' from getting them wet. they are full of some powdered tree bark and some other crap...they smell like a camp fire, but without the fire. you stick them to your feet while you sleep and presto!! the sweat from your foot soaks turns the powdered **** into wet, tree-smelling ****... i had saved some 'reacted' packs and was going to bring them into our chem lab and test out the new GC mass-spec to see if they were 'filled' with toxins from my body. but the damn entire 'smart' lab blew some brain cells that week (had to use the old school lab--no mass spec) and then i eventually forgot. too bad really.

i can only dismiss one CAM fraud at a time, to be just and fair and all, and i can definitely mark that one off my list!!

down with the footpad !!!
thumbdown

 

[coffeebythelake]

Sorry, but most patients who go see a CAM provider do not respond to reason. In fact, most patients do not respond to reason, period.

Also, it doesn't matter if it's yoga, meditation, or some other med - most patients who go see a CAM doctor choose to follow their recommendations INSTEAD of yours. They're not integrating the two management plans.

CAM = Complementary and Alternative Medicine

Complementary: used with conventional medicine
Alternative: used in place of conventional medicine

 

[8744]

Not to mention the snake oil still lurking in the materia medica of licensed physicians. how long did it take to get Vioxx off of the market? SDN snarkiness toward anything not covered in 4 years of training is cute and often amuses me, but not always justified.

Whoa, Nelly. "Snake Oil" is medicine that doesn't work and is sold to the credulous by hucksters who play off of the ignorance of the public. Vioxx was a very effective medication for what it did (analgesia) but was withdrawn over concerns that it made some patients more susceptible to heart attacks. Many people with chronic pain still lament that it was taken off the market and many of them would be willing to live with the small (but statistically significant) increase in risk in exchange for being able to take it again.

By the ninth grade I knew enough physics and chemistry to debunk the vast majority of CAM. It did not require a medical degree.