[pointofinquiry (OP)]

On a recent episode of Point of Inquiry we interviewed Andrew Skolnick, Executive Director of the Commision for Scientific Medicine and Mental Health, on the dangers of alternative medicine, including unregulated dietary supplements, homeopathy, and more .

I would love to hear what you guys have to say on the topic, or what you think of the podcast.

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Point of Inquiry is the Center for Inquiry’s radio show and podcast, drawing on CFI’s relationship with the leading minds of the day including Nobel Prize-winning scientists, public intellectuals, social critics and thinkers, and renowned entertainers. Each episode combines incisive interviews, features and commentary focusing on CFI’s issues: religion, human values and the borderlands of science. Point of Inquiry explores CFI’s three research areas:

1. Pseudoscience and the paranormal (bigfoot, UFOs, psychics, communication with the dead, cryptozoology, etc.)

2. Alternative medicine (faith healing, homeopathy, belief in “healing touch,” the efficacy of prayer, etc.)

3. Religion and secularism (church-state separation, the effects and proper role of religion in society, the future of secularism and nonbelief, etc.)

Point of Inquiry is produced at the Center for Inquiry in Amherst, NY. CFI, a think-tank affiliated with the State University of New York, and is devoted to promoting science, reason, and freedom of inquiry in every field of human interest. It maintains additional branches in Manhattan, Tampa and Hollywood, and in eleven cities around the world.

[Gwenrow]

I used to be afraid to try alt. medicine, but when I used some black salve that has treated 5 skin cancers and not one has come back, I am much more willing to open my mind up a bit more. I had a surgeon tell me the edges were all clear from cancer, TWICE, and it was after that that I realized I was a guinea pig anyway( when it returned twice after surgery) so decided to rub this stuff on. It's amazing and I make sure I always keep some in the house. The sad thing is that you have to buy it quick before the FDA bans the site. I am sure the pharmaceuticals don't want this EASY FIX[][!] to spread. How sad!!!

[Ray hinton]

wasnt tholydamide strictly controlled,"they",are not "always" right.
my brother had warts on his hands,an old gypsy(corny i know)said rub a black slug on them,3 days later no warts,and none since,something in the slime maybe.
i swear this is a true story.

[Carolyn]

gwenrow - What is this black salve and where can it be purchased?  My Dad has what looks like another skin cancer on his face.

Carolyn

[Gwenrow]

Carolyn,
I got mine from
http://www.altcancercream.com/store/scripts/prodView.asp?idproduct=15 [nofollow]. I just got the regular strength for my skin cancers and it worked the very first time.

Warm blessings!

[Andrew K Fletcher]

Looking at your point of enquiry, I thought you might be interested in this heated debate on the same subject, which subsequently got shut down, because the alternative argument was winning hands down.
http://www.spiked-online.com/Sections/risk/Debates/cam/Responses.htm
[8D]

Andrew

"The explanation requiring the fewest assumptions is most likely to be correct."
K.I.S. "Keep it simple!"

A Sample post from the debate:


   
(This debate is closed and is a read-only archive.)
 
CAM has been tested in the real world
[22-Jun-2005]  
Mark Henderson champions 'the randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial', and argues that ' all drugs and procedures are equal'. Many mainstream drugs are in fact derived from plants, and are modified mostly to gain patent protection, in order to divert the lucrative flow of currency towards the already powerful drug companies.

 
Henderson's statements are misguided at best, and misleading at worst. I take exception to his contribution to this spiked-debate. He would have us believe that allopathic medicine holds all the cards. It does not. But it does hold all the funding for the trials he speaks of, and the research that's required in order to produce the drugs to be tested.

 
What drug company would be interested in doing a randomised trial on stinging nettle tea? The randomised trials that Henderson refers to are put in place by the drug companies in order to release often dangerous drugs onto the marketplace, with less than 2-3 per cent biased efficacy. These same drugs are often removed from our shelves after the market has been flooded with them, and after the real side-effects from the real-life study - conducted on unwitting people, who are often suffering from serious health problems.

 
In the real world, we see the real results - not the dubious, manipulated statistical results of some drug company's biased funding. But these real-time results are often buried, along with the real-time corpses that these dangerous products deliver to the patients and families, until it becomes blatantly obvious that there's something seriously wrong.

 
How then, if Henderson's randomised trial is so efficient, do these toxic chemicals end up in the veins and guts of people and animals - only to be removed from the shelves, when the true nature of their harmful effects is felt by the general public?

 
Complementary supplements, on the other hand, have been tested in the real world for countless generations, and have been proven safe in the groups of people who have used them over countless generations. There are no skeletons hiding in the complementary food supplements cupboards.

 
If you honestly believe that plant derivatives can't be used to alleviate health problems, then next time you get acid indigestion, try leaving the salt-packed Gaviscon alone and sip a cup of peppermint tea instead. Not only does peppermint tea ease the immediate acid problems, but if taken regularly over several weeks, one tends to forget what the acid indigestion feels like.

 
Perhaps a double-blind study would show that peppermint tea surpasses Gaviscon and the multi billion dollar stomach acid indigestion industry. But can you really see peppermint being treated in the same manor that these drugs are funded?

 
Andrew K Fletcher, UK
 
 
 
 

[Carolyn]

quote:Originally posted by Andrew K Fletcher

 
If you honestly believe that plant derivatives can't be used to alleviate health problems, then next time you get acid indigestion, try leaving the salt-packed Gaviscon alone and sip a cup of peppermint tea instead. Not only does peppermint tea ease the immediate acid problems, but if taken regularly over several weeks, one tends to forget what the acid indigestion feels like.

 
Perhaps a double-blind study would show that peppermint tea surpasses Gaviscon and the multi billion dollar stomach acid indigestion industry. But can you really see peppermint being treated in the same manor that these drugs are funded?

 
Andrew K Fletcher, UK
 

I suffer from acid reflux and have tried numerous doctor prescribed, and over the counter, traditional remedies.  None of these have completely relieved the discomfort.  The peppermint worked well.  I have also recently tried a teaspoon or so of vinegar (I use red wine vinegar) and the results were amazing.  It burns for about 5-10 seconds after consuming, but after that the relief was immediate.

Carolyn

[Carolyn]

Gwenrow - Thanks for the info!!  Is the salve difficult/complicated to mix up?

Carolyn