Posts by George Darroch
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Although: rule 34. Does that work for TV?
I'm not sure anyone has written the rules of New Zealand television. Well, the BSA, but they don't count for our purposes.
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if I happened to be bisexually inclined...
That's, what, 65°?
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The best advice I ever got from a GP was "Take up swimming." It worked. I didn't even need the Vitamin I
I can thoroughly recommend that advice too. But that's just another anecdote. ;)
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The present study indicates that OMT is a distinctive modality that significantly reduces low back pain. The level of pain reduction is greater than expected from placebo effects alone and persists for at least three months. Additional research is warranted to elucidate mechanistically how OMT exerts its effects, to determine if OMT benefits are long lasting, and to assess the cost-effectiveness of OMT as a complementary treatment for low back pain.
The conclusions of the metareview; Licciardone JC, Brimhall AK, King LN (2005). "Osteopathic manipulative treatment for low back pain: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials". BMC Musculoskelet Disord 6: 43. doi:10.1186/1471-2474-6-43. PMID 16080794.
Obviously this isn't the final word, but it certainly is evidence.
Dispute causal mechanism. Say that osteopaths exagerate their efficacy, in often dangerous ways, and propose they can cure things they cant. But don't just wave away evidence you don't like.
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Treat GPs as gatekeepers/triage for the specialists and get passed on up if doubtful. The specialists should be current in the literature.
I always try and work out what part of my body is wrong, and then go to a specialist in that area. Failing that, I'll go to a GP, so they can send me to a specialist. The human body is very complex, and by their nature GPs can only give you general advice about anything other than common ailments. Best to go to somebody who knows the problem intimately.
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But it does seem odd to me than when a thoroughgoing skeptic like Stephen Barrett will grant benefit in lower back treatment, citing the study, you guys won't even countenance the idea because it offends you.
Not really all that odd. Medicine and science are as filled with preconceptions and prejudices as any other discipline.
Unfortunately, when scientists and doctors wave away what are real symptoms, or are dismissive of concerns (vaccines are a classic example), they give space to the anti-science brigade, who have no interest in standards of evidence and replicability.
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It's very important to note that placebos are not the same as you merely imagining relief. The placebo effect is real and can be measured.
It can be detected, certainly. But measuring its extent?
That link Russell provided was to a controlled study which used placebos. You've just waved it away and said it was all the placebo affect.
One of the things that really frustrates me about the medical-scientific establishment is its prejudice against things it does not have a way of explaining. Empirical data and direct observation trump theory in science. If the theory does not explain the observations, then the theory is wrong or (more often) incomplete - if something is observed consistently, then there is an explanation for it. It may not be the causal mechanism that is being suggested, but for every observed action, there is some kind of causal mechanism. Does that mean that the causal mechanism postulated by osteopathy is the cause here? Maybe, maybe not. But there is a real and observed result, greater than that expected in a placebo group.
I was sick of being told that the symptoms I observed in a medical condition I suffer were not real. That it was all in my head. It wasn't until I got a proper diagnosis of the exact condition that I found, via an internet discussion group, that these symptoms are common. If I had had less faith in 'science', I could easily have gone over to the quacks by now, at least for that condition.
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From the Herald:
towns such as Russell, Paihia, Kaikohe, Wellsford, Warkworth, Coromandel, Whitianga
What strikes me is that most of these towns have large Maori populations. The ten percent or so of the population who can't get MTV coverage are more than likely places with higher Maori populations.
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Craig, absolutely. In almost every sense, Germany and Austria were centres of Europe. Arendt, and the Frankfurt School brought this idea to the forefront - if it could happen in the most 'civilised' and developed countries in Europe, bringing with it many of the leading lights of the age, it could happen anywhere. My German friends have internalised the horror of this idea.
In Britain, with its triumphalism, and the US with its great moral investiture into fighting another enemy, this lesson washed right by, until the Holocaust was resurrected as a moral spectre in the 1960s. But by then, it was an abstract one, and its lessons for current and future persecutions and wars mired by the cultural politics of the age.
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Giovanni's piece was very very good. Harvest Bird's poetic rejoinder needs to be read as well.
And as someone who makes a very similar pizza, I can recommend his recipe wholeheartedly. Give yourself 2-3 hours on a weekend afternoon, and eat it with people you love.