Darwin Awards Mottos

"Human beings can always be counted on," says Dean Koontz in False Memory, "to assert with vigor their God-given right to be stupid."


Darwin Awards Mottos
Suggested by Readers

Survival of the Fittest
The tree of life is self pruning. - Joel Determan
I don't think, therefore I am not. - Ken Dockery
Stupidity is a capitol offence.
Tragic Proof of a Missing 'Why?' Chromosome. - Frank Micle
Tales From the Shallow End (of the gene pool) - Jeff and Esrafael
Sperm: To be fastest doesn't imply that you are smartest. -Enrique Herranz
Live and learn. Or you won't live long. -Joanne
Darwin Awards: The Martyrs of Evolution. -Frode Tveit
God's H.R. Department -Pot Nazi
The Extinction of Species -Ken Tholke
Natural Selection in Action -Ken Tholke
Population Control Volunteers - Rod
Chlorinating the Gene Pool - Ed, Jeff Gowdy
Die and Learn. - Greg Hanes
Nature's way of saying goodbye. - Chad Rogers
A Fool and His Life Are Soon Parted - Greg
One gene short of a chromosome. -Tom J
Stupid Human Tricks - Wurdulac
(gene pool) Lifeguard Is Now Off Duty - Kevin 84
Dysfunctional Genomics - Murphy
Unnatural Selection - Brian Peters
Sometimes You Darwin, Sometimes You Darlose - Felz
Where the gene pool thins to a mere trickle- David Szabo
Are You Missing a Helix? - Matt Molnar
And We Are the Top of the Food Chain? - Joanne
Why? Because! - Philip J. Shirk
Adding Insult to Injury - Pete
Evolution Fights Back - Jay
Lifeguarding the Gene Pool - ed
Stupid Is as Stupid Dies - Dean Hopkins
Making the Human Race Smarter, One Idiot at a Time. - Andrew
If Teaching Evolution is Outlawed, Only Outlaws Will Evolve. - Ed Marble
Death by Natural Selection - Dan Ryan
Evolution's Revenge -AJ
Famous Last Words I: I bet no one's ever done this be...
Famous Last Words II: It seemed like a good idea at the time.
Famous Last Words III: Watch this!
Steve, Jefferson, Kevin P. Craver
Evolution For The Hell Of It. - Roy Henock honors Abie Hoffman
Where Evolution Hits the Pavement. - Ingrid
Too Stupid to Live. - Jonathan Sinclair
Gene Pool Reject - Danny Comsa
Next!
Culling the Herd - Jolem
Murphy's Law Personified - John
Caution: Natural Selection at Work - T. Agosti
Selection? Naturally! - T. Agosti
"Who knew?" -W Miller
Gene Pool Belly Flops. - Mumbly Joe
Better Genes for Better Living. - Jon
Better Living Through Natural Selection. - Kevin
I'm glad I didn't think of that! - Laird Boy
Better off Dead - DB Coward
Nothing is foolproof to a sufficiently talented fool. - R. Bullitt
Have a nice trip! See you next fall! -Matt Doughty
The difference between genius and idiocy? Genius has its limits. -TWS
Genius may have its limitations,
but stupidity is not thus handicapped.
Bill Liebler quoting Elbert Hubbard
Gene Pollution
Homo stupidiens
Evolution: The lean, mean gene machine.
Vanish and better the whole human race.
And the winner is.... Eliminated!
The sum I.Q. of the world is a constant.
The more people, the more idiots. -Thomas
You can lead a horse to water,
but you can't make him think! -Ted V
Eliminate warning labels: Help natural slection! -ak-lupin
You can learn a lot from a dummy. -Jim Ozols
Better Dead than In-Bred -Darzilla
Ready, Fire, Aim! -SKY
Reincarnation: Let's you keep trying til you get it right! -Hawk
Where Action Precedes Thought -Robert S
It's better to be silent and thought the fool,
than to speak and remove all doubt.
Ron
Celibacy is not hereditary. Too bad stupidity is.
Mr.Highfield, amie's world history teach.
I find it the greatest pity that she had thought
of contraceptive before her mother...
The Man
Veni, vidi, voops! I came, I saw, I tripped. -John
Give up! The stone wall always wins! -Wokster
Returning the genes that don't fit! -jennifer
Permission to live...DENIED! -Bucket
You can lead a man to knowledge, but you can't make him think!
Andrew Augustus, Jr.
Friends Accumulate, But Idiots Multiply Exponentially -Ev DaSilva
Replace the gene pool filter, it's backing up! -Taraea
Just another ripple in the gene pool of life. -D.Landrum
Darwin and Newton share a hearty laugh. -Meaty
Make it idiotproof, and we'll make better idiots. -J Ritter
Dumber than a bag of hammers.
Stupider than a box of rocks.
K.A. Davis
Forget the adage about learning from your own mistakes.
It'ssafer and more entertaining to learn from other people's mistakes!
Julius
The one award you hope you don't ever win! -Citron
The stitching on the genes is coming undone -Rohan Kaye
One sandwich short of a picnic -M.A. Mayer
One can(not) learn from a fatal error! -R .Duke
Against stupidity, the gods themselves contend in vain. -Friedrich von Schiller
Logic is the cement of our civilization, with which we ascend
from chaos, using reason as our guide. Or not.
Tegan
Stupidity is a sexually transmitted (and terminal) disease. -A Johnson
I say, I say that boy'sas sharp as a sack of wet mice!
D. West's Foghorn Leghorn voice
Just because you can doesn't mean you should. -Tracey
The world's full of oxygen thieves. -K.Morrow
Behold the power of stupidity. -Dan K.
Got Brains? -N. Wanzer
Famous Last Words:
I double dog dare ya! -Nate
I wonder what this button does? -David B. Appleton
Safe?of course it's safe! -Alan
How proud our ancestors must be.
It's smarter to be lucky than it's lucky to be smart. -
Harley Miah sharing a quote from Bob Pippen Fosse
Of all the things I've lost, I miss my mind the most -nesmad
Darwin Awards: From Monkeys To Morons -J Sharpe
Darwin's waiting room is never empty. -Lou
There aretwo things in the universe
that are truly abundant: Hydrogen and Stupidity.
Frank Zappa
Idiot proof is easy. Now, cretin proof, thats a challenge. -Graham
Gravity:It's not just a good idea;It's the law! -Mark
Pain is a great teacher -T. O'Neil
Never underestimate the power of human stupidity--Robert Heinlein
Dan Flanders' Robert Heinlein quote
Everyone starts off with a bag full of luck
and an empty bag of experience. The trick is to fill
the experience bag befor the luck bag is empty.
Raúl
Stupidity Never Sleeps -RC Gonzales (former safety officer)
The intelligence of the planet is a constant.
The population is increasing.
sonia g
The intelligence of a group is determined
by taking the lowest IQ in the group and dividing it
by the number of people in the group.
Chris Maurice
God must love stupid people, he makes so many. -w. gelnaw
Stand back folks, Evolution in progress! -Charles Lehrman
They gave their lives to cleanthe gene pool. -Ken Leatherman
Cogito, ergo sum confusus. -DGardiner
Retroactive birth control. -Mike
In the fight between you and the world, back the world. -CDD00
Dumb as a box of hair. -CD
I see no problems between us that could not be solved by your departure.
I did not go to his funeral, but I wrote a nice letter saying I approved of it.
Mark Twain
Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt.
Abe Lincoln
Another poster child for birth control. -Tony E.
Terminal stupidity is a self-limiting disease. -Ed Connelly
Skimming the Debris from theGene Pool -Betsey Langan
See the Happy Moron
He Doesn't Give A Damn
I wish I were a Moron
My God! Perhaps I am!
Pandora
Keeping a date with dense-ity -Urban Hermit
Proof that God has a warped sense of humor. -pam
If you don't succeed the first time, then skydiving is not for you
Potitilli
The creative answer to the question,'To be or not to be.' -Armour
Learn from the mistakes of others.
You won't live long enough to make them all yourself.
Robert D Johnston
Sinking the cueball on the gene pool table. -Blair Cooper
There's a fine line between bravery and stupidity. -bluefire
In the ongoing battle between aeroplanes and
the ground, the ground has yet to lose.
Graham Bartlett
I like my thumbs. - Alan C.
Better to do something and fail,
than to do nothing and succeed.
T Morrison
A high IQ doesn't make up for a lack of common sense. -Flyn_Falcon
Evolution: Taking care of those too stupid to take care of themselves. -aille
When the world is made to be idiot-proof,
the world will become overpopulated with idiots.
Mark Twain
To be or not to be...
The line between genius and madness is very fine.
Out of billions of opportunities, these sperm were the best?
Tommy Hejl
'Splat' happens! -Christian
You do not need a parachute to skydive.
You only need a parachute to skydive twice.
It's not the fall that kills you, it'ssudden deceleration syndrome. -Chris
Death comes to all men, but some just can't wait. -Doug
Where there's a fool, there's a way. -K.Koch
I support evolution! and they can have my
opposable thumbs when they pry them
from my cold, dead hands!
alyssa
You're only depriving some poor village of it's idiot. -Sophia J.
Life is too important to be taken seriously! -I. Batterbury
They sunk because they hadn't thunk.- czarzie
The Award people are dying to get -Cray
Is this the best we can be? -Nathan E.
Remember, half of the people you know are below average.
Natural Selection is merely attempting
to decrease that proportion.
-Beth
Where the ignorant meet their logical conclusions. -Penth
God's Great Banana Peel -Darwin
Nature's UNDO key. -Rich
Natural contraception. -Gary Townend
Somebody peed in the gene pool. -Rich
Stupidity is self-correcting. -Dusty
Death cures insomnia. -Janne Hirvonen
Natural Deselection -compton
Dead No-Wits Society
Another Sap from the Tree of Life
T. Agosti
Evolution is not an option; It's mandatory! -Mr. E
http://www.pravo.hr/sociologija/polsek/e-tekstovi%20engleski/darwin%20awards.doc


NEW! 23 June 2004:
Artificial intelligence is no match for natural stupidity.
There is nothing more frightful than ignorance in action. -Walter Kerr
What people call fate is mostly their own stupidity. -Arthur Schopenhauer
There is no such thing as an underestimate of average intelligence. -Henry Adams
There are more fools in the world than there are people. -Heinrich Heine

...and an anti-motto:
"It is not clear that intelligence has any long-term survival value." -Stephen Hawking

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1373064/posts#comment



Darwin Awards

Eliane Duvekot, Artist Extraordinaire

The following illustration by Eliane was drawn with an ironic twist. If you look carefully at it, it contains a number of symbols characteristic of various superstitions, quackeries, and pseudoscientific woo-wooisms. A great drawing!

Spirituality

Used by permission.

Eliane Duvekot has a great blog, especially for those interested in good illustrations and art. Eliane, a Dutch mother of two, lives in Toronto. She is a freelance illustrator, while her husband is into computer graphics. She does work for Dutch and Canadian newspapers, as well as illustrating children's books.

Eliane's blog, The Sellotape Files, is a new addition to my list of Reciprocal Links in my sidebar. Please visit her site and check out her blogging entries and her great art. This artist is hot! Great illustrations on all types of subjects.

Here are her links:

Portfolio: http://www.duvekot.ca
Daily: http://www.duvekot.ca/eliane
Also: http://www.altpick.com/eliane

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Why Charles just can't quit the snake oil

The following article is one of the strongest rebukes I've yet seen.

HRH Charles, "Prince of Quacks", seems hell bent on proving that the heir to the throne may well be one of the biggest a**holes ever to sit in the Albert Hall (*) in modern times. Pity the once great British nation! I can understand their shame at having to follow one who does everything health-related in a bassackwards fashion. The accident of his birth notwithstanding, his ignorance is simply appalling! One gets the clear impression that Liz did not pass on anything slightly resembling common sense to her son.

(*) "Now they know how many holes it takes to fill the Albert Hall." - Lennon




Why Charles just can't quit the snake oil

Catherine Bennett
Thursday August 25, 2005
The Guardian


In 1982 the Prince of Wales was elected president of the BMA, and promptly used this platform to lecture doctors on the attractions of healing. Naturally, he anticipated some resistance. "Perhaps," he told the doctors, "we just have to accept it is God's will that the unorthodox individual is doomed to years of frustration, ridicule and failure in order to act out his role in the scheme of things, until his day arrives and mankind is ready to receive his message."

Years of frustration passed, but mankind did not get any readier. The Prince persisted. A speech last year, recommending Gerson therapy, a regime involving much juice and coffee enemas, attracted, if possible, more ridicule than any of his previous observations on alternative medicine. The prince said he knew of a lady, diagnosed with terminal cancer, for whom Gerson had proved a real lifesaver.

The most forceful rebuke, on that occasion, came from Professor Michael Baum, the eminent oncologist, who wrote an open letter in the British Medical Journal, beseeching Charles to be more careful in recommending unproven alternative therapies to patients with life-threatening diseases. "My authority comes with a knowledge built on 40 years of study and 25 years' active involvement in cancer research," Baum pointed out. "Your power and authority rest on an accident of birth." Believers in God's will, of course, might see this accident differently.

Charles persisted. He commissioned his biggest yet challenge to conventional medicine: a report, to be published this autumn, which reportedly argues that the wider provision of complementary therapies such as homeopathy could be cost-effective for the NHS. It has been prepared by Christopher Smallwood, a former economics adviser, whose medical qualifications are identical to Prince Charles's: nil.

It is pointed out that Smallwood has nothing to do with the Prince of Wales's own Foundation for Integrated Medicine, which believes in "promoting a holistic and integrated approach to healthcare which engages with all aspects of a patient's being including mind, body and spirit and which takes into consideration environmental, psychosocial and nutritional aspects of health". It also believes in "the intrinsic healing capacity of every person".

It was not this foundation, but the Prince of Wales himself who commissioned the forthcoming report, of which a draft has been seen by Professor Edzard Ernst, of the University of Exeter and a contributor to this newspaper. Ernst has commented that the report features "outrageous estimates without any strong evidence to support them" and "is based on such poor science, it is hair-raising".

Of course the final draft may be different, but given its authorship, and in the absence of new research which might justify extending NHS provision of complementary therapies, there is every reason to believe the prince's latest plug for magic-based medicine will be received in the traditional fashion: denounced by doctors, and supported by a few like-minded aficionados of coffee enemas, cranial osteopathy, and Samuel Hahnemann's distilled water. If, as it appears, Charles has attempted on this occasion to shape public health policy, there will presumably be further questions about his increasingly ambitious assessment of his constitutional importance.

Since he first declared his antipathy to orthodox treatment, this pattern of events has been repeated so often, and with so little sign that the prince is getting anywhere in revolutionising the health service, that the most interesting aspect of his interventions has ceased to be what he is saying (for these hallowed truths are, in any case, unchanging), and become, instead, the intensity of his need to keep on saying it. It is time, in short, for the thing to be considered holistically, taking into consideration the full environmental, psychosocial and nutritional context.

Ridicule me if you like, but I intuit a quite unusual kind pathology at work here. It has been noted, for years, that the prince's default mood is one of extravagant self-pity, usually on the basis that no one understands/appreciates him, everybody mocks/despises him. But this certainty, so essential to the prince's wellbeing, is apt to be shaken, regularly, by the fact of his being one of the most fortunate men alive. Thus, the prince has become dependent, one might almost say addicted, to the regular supply of condemnation required to trigger a sensation of victimhood, and thus, a truly satisfying bout of self-pity. (It seems no coincidence that his new report - a rather obvious plea for more Baum-style critiques - arrives at a time of personal fulfilment, shortly after marriage to the woman he loves.)

Why is medicine, unlike history teaching, or conventional farming, the subject of the prince's most sustained, deliberately ignorant and vexatious challenges? Because over time, hardened to normal doses of criticism, the prince has become dependent on stronger and stronger levels of denunciation, and discovered that the collective hostility of the medical profession is a more powerful drug than the much milder indignation of the academic or agricultural establishments.

Without actually laying my hands on the prince, I am reluctant to be more definite, and it remains quite possible that a simple case of blocked energy explains his pointless and faintly creepy obsession with other people's diseases. Alternatively, it could stem from a bad experience in a surgery around 60 years ago. Add to that his growing belief in the sacred dimension of his office and you can see how the prince may, quite genuinely, have come to believe that he possesses healing powers, like absolute monarchs of the past.

Unlike his predecessors, who seem to have specialised, with some reluctance, in sufferers from scrofula, Charles generously proposes to heal us one and all, regardless of ridicule and frustration and the rather steep cost to the NHS. Eventually, mankind will be ready to receive his message. Not today, though.

(rest of article deleted, as it deals with another subject)

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Echinacea fails to treat or prevent colds in study

Echinacea fails to treat or prevent colds in study
Popular herbal remedy offers little benefit to patients, researchers say

Updated: 7:47 p.m. ET July 27, 2005
Being sick with a cold is nothing to sneeze at, but new research finds that taking the popular herbal remedy echinacea does nothing to treat or prevent it.

The federally funded study was what fans and foes of such substances say they have long needed — rigorous, scientific testing. It found that patients who took an echinacea plant extract fared no better than those who took a dummy treatment.

“Our study ... adds to the accumulating evidence that suggests that the burden of proof should lie with those who advocate this treatment,” wrote Dr. Ronald Turner of the University of Virginia School of Medicine, who led the study, which appeared in Thursday’s New England Journal of Medicine.

Annual sales of $300 million

Echinacea, or purple coneflower, is sold over-the-counter in pills, drops and lozenges. With reported annual sales of more than $300 million, echinacea is one of the most popular medicinal herbs used by people to treat colds.

Several animal studies and small human trials have pointed to the possible benefit of the herb in preventing respiratory infections. However, one of largest studies — involving 407 children in 2003 — found that echinacea failed to alleviate cold symptoms and even caused mild skin rashes in some cases.

In the newest experiment, researchers recruited 399 healthy patients who got one of three laboratory-made echinacea plant extracts or a dummy preparation. The patients were then exposed to the cold virus and their symptoms were evaluated.

No difference in infection rates

Scientists found no difference in infection rates between the groups who received the herb or placebo. About 90 percent in both groups wound up becoming infected. Symptoms like sneezing, runny noses and sore throat were also about the same, with more than half in both groups showing classic signs of a clinical cold.

The study was funded by the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine, part of the federal National Institutes of Health. Turner, the lead researcher, has consulted for various antibiotic makers.

In an accompanying editorial, Dr. Wallace Sampson, an emeritus clinical professor of medicine at Stanford University School of Medicine, questioned why the government is wasting tax dollars on funding alternative medicine studies, some of which have turned out to be nothing but snake oil.

“Research into implausible remedies rarely produces useful information,” wrote Sampson, who was not connected to the study.

But Mark Blumenthal, executive director of the American Botanical Council, an independent group that studies herbs, said people should not dismiss echinacea as a cold remedy. Blumenthal pointed out that the extract used in the latest study was prepared in the lab and not sold in stores. He also added that the herb might work better if higher doses were used.

“This is not a definitive trial on the efficacy of echinacea, nor should the results be generalized to echinacea preparations widely available,” he said.

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Best-seller ‘Natural Cures’ sparks court battle

Best-seller ‘Natural Cures’ sparks court battle
Consumer agency cries ‘fraud’; infomercial king cries ‘First Amendment’

By Bob Sullivan
Technology correspondent
MSNBC
Updated: 7:50 p.m. ET Aug. 22, 2005

Gerald Bates thought he found the answer to a prayer. The 69-year-old Clyde N.Y., resident has Type II diabetes, and he's concerned about taking insulin injections. But one night in late June, he tuned into a breathtaking infomercial hosted by Kevin Trudeau — “Natural Cures 'They' Don’t Want You to Know About.”

Trudeau, a long-time infomercial master with a preacher's flair for the camera, urged viewers to buy his "Natural Cures" book. In it, Bates understood, readers would find simple, all-natural remedies for terrible conditions like cancer, diabetes, even weight gain.

"I was skeptical. But I thought, 'He pitches a good story,'" Bates said. So Bates paid $39.90 for the book.

Bates is hardly alone. Trudeau's infomercial has helped turn his tome into the top-ranked book on the New York Times self-help Best Seller list. The author says over 4 million copies have been sold. A mountain of the books sit on a table at the entrance of the Barnes & Noble on New York's Fifth Avenue, right next to the Harry Potter mountain. Television infomercials hawking the book are by one measure the most aired long-form ad on TV.

But Bates, and other consumers, now say they were had. There are hundreds of angry posts on Amazon.com's page devoted to "Natural Cures." And about a dozen New York consumers have now contacted the New York State Consumer Protection Board.

"The book is just gobbledygook. There's nothing in it. He doesn't say what the cures are," Bates said. Instead, Bates said, on page after page the book urges readers to head to Trudeau's Web site, NaturalCures.com. Consumers must pay $10 a month to use the site. And for those calling the toll free number to purchase the book, operators work hard to tack on a Web site subscription. "Something should be done to pull that ad off TV."

Agency calls book a 'fraud'

That's a step being considered by the New York State Consumer Protection Board, which issued a scathing press release about the book Aug. 5, calling the infomercial "misleading" and the book a "fraud." Agency Chairperson Teresa A. Santiago said she might call on cable channels to drop the ads.

But Trudeau has filed a pre-emptive strike in federal court to keep his ads on the air. Last week, his lawyers filed a complaint in the Northern District of New York asking a judge to bar the state agency from making any requests to dump Trudeau's ads.

It's a question of First Amendment rights, Trudeau's lawyer, David J. Bradford, said. Government agencies can't limit a person's right to sell a book, he said.

"We are not aware of a government agency trying to interfere with advertisement or sale of a book. It's unprecedented from that standpoint," Bradford said. "You just can't interfere with somebody's expression of opinion."

Opinion is one thing, says Santiago, but misleading advertising is another. "This is not a matter of ‘free speech’ as Mr. Trudeau claims. If you advertise the contents of a book, it had better contain what has been promised," Santiago said. "When you are doing an infomercial and you say you have the cure for diabetes and you go to the book and there's no cure for diabetes, that's an issue."

FTC has reviewed infomercials

Trudeau is no stranger to the courtroom. He's a convicted felon. In 1991 he pled guilty to credit card fraud — and has a long past of legal run-ins with federal regulators. In fact, he's barred from selling products on television now, as part of a 2004 settlement with the Federal Trade Commission over allegations involving misleading statements surrounding health care products. Trudeau admitted no wrongdoing but agreed to stop selling health care products.

But the agreement doesn't prevent him from selling books.

In Trudeau's complaint against the New York Consumer Board, his lawyers say that both the book and the infomercials have been "reviewed" by the Federal Trade Commission for compliance with the 2004 settlement terms.

"(The FTC) has not objected to the dissemination of either the book or the infomercials," the complaint says.

FTC attorney Heather Hippsley said the agency reviewed the book and early versions of the infomercials hawking the book and found them in compliance with the settlement. But she said Trudeau has multiple versions of the ad, and the agency has not reviewed them all.

Bradford maintained that all five versions of the infomercial have been sent to the FTC.

Meanwhile, Trudeau has sued the FTC, alleging that the agency defamed him when it issued a press release that he says incorrectly characterized his 2004 settlement with the agency.

Hippsley said she couldn't comment on the book, other than to say the agency was "monitoring" to make sure Trudeau complied with the settlement.

Despite Trudeau's history of run-ins with the agency, she said it could not ban him from producing infomercials for his book.

"To ban advertising for fully protected speech would be quite extraordinary and not something you'd want your government to be doing," she said.

Still, Delois Scurry, a 48-year-old Rochester, N.Y.-area resident, said she wished someone had banned the ad before she saw it. Scurry suffers from high blood pressure and diabetes, so she ordered the book a few months ago hoping it contained information that would help reduce her reliance on blood pressure medication.

"There was nothing in it that he had talked about from the infomercial. He said there were cures. There was nothing like that in there ... it was just money down the drain," she said. "It is a big rip-off for him to go on national TV and come out and say there's a cure for cancer."

'Endorsement' from dead FDA official

The New York state board published a litany of similar complaints about the book in its press release. But agency officials agree Trudeau has the right to write whatever he wants in a book. Legally, the agency is attacking what it calls unfair advertising.

But for each complaint, Trudeau's lawyers offer an answer.

For example, the agency cites what it calls a book jacket endorsement from Dr. Herbert Ley, a former commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. But, the agency notes, Ley could not have endorsed or even read Trudeau’s book because he died in 2001 — about three years before the book's release.

Bradford said the quote on the back of the book jacket was not meant to indicate Ley endorsed the book. "I don't think it's fair to say that's an endorsement of the book," he said. "There's no suggestion that this individual read the book or endorsed the book."

In one of the infomercials, Trudeau tells Tammy Faye Bakker Messner — former wife of televangelist Jim Bakker — that the book includes the method Trudeau used to quit smoking. But in the book, argues the Consumer Protection Board, Trudeau simply points people to the Web site: “If you want to know the exact method that I used to quit smoking, go to www.naturalcures.com and become a private member."

Bradford said the book contains general comments about cures for addictions, which would include smoking addictions.

But are there cures in the book?

But the agency's chief complaint is that the book contains no cures for conditions like diabetes, as promised by the infomercial.

Bradford sternly objects to that claim. In a letter sent to the New York state board Aug. 8, Bradford argues that a diabetes cure is included in the text, referencing mention of a combination of herbs that treat diabetes recommended by Dr. Yung Su Kim, "a Korean living in Canada."

Internet discussion boards attempting to find Dr. Yung Su Kim's herbal combination point viewers to a Web page called TheTruthAboutDiabetes.info, where readers learn about a "traditional Chinese formula" called Six Flavor Tea, recommended by a Dr. Youngsoo Kim.

Bradford said he was confused by the assertion that the book contained no cures.

"This is a very misleading issue for them to raise," Bradford said. "The book has a whole chapter, chapter 6, devoted to identifying cures. There's a chart in it that identifies 50 diseases and gives a natural cure for each of them. To say it doesn't have information about cures indicates somebody hasn't read the book."

Government unnerved by book, Trudeau's lawyer says

More fundamentally, Bradford argues that Trudeau doesn't promise to provide a "magic pill" for disease in the book.

"It is important to know that people who are looking for a specific cure for a specific disease are missing the point of this book. A disease is simply a label put on a series of symptoms ... this is one of the things that medical science does not want you to know or understand," he said. He goes on to say that such labels help the pharmaceutical industry earn billions. "That topic has obviously struck a chord with millions of people."

The board's complaints arise because government agencies are irritated by the book's accusations that they are cooperating with pharmaceutical companies to ensure big profits, Bradford said.

"I don't really understand why there's this critical focus on the book when there are very few consumers who are complaining about the book," Bradford said. "(The book) really does challenge a paradigm. People who are picking on this line out of the book, or that line, are really ignoring why this book is so successful and the real message."

But Bates, the dissatisfied consumer, said he thinks Trudeau's message is not only useless, but it could be risky for some.

"It's not truthful and it's dangerous to some people," he said. "People might read it and quit taking their medications."

And Scurry thinks Trudeau is simply taking advantage of people who are desperate to find some light at the end of their unhealthy tunnels.

"He's preying on people's feelings and hopes that there is something that's out there that can cure a certain disease or sickness," she said. "And there isn't."

A New York federal court is expected to hear the Trudeau case Aug. 30.

© 2005 MSNBC Interactive

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Study says homeopathic medicines don’t work

Study says homeopathic medicines don’t work
Evidence suggests remedies offer placebo effect, but no real benefits

Updated: 12:14 p.m. ET Aug. 26, 2005
LONDON - The world may be beating a path to the doors of homeopathic practitioners as an alternative to conventional medicines, but according to a new study they may just as well be taking nothing.

The study, published in Friday’s edition of the respected Lancet medical journal, is likely to anger the growing numbers of devoted practitioners of and adherents to alternative therapies that include homeopathy.

“There was weak evidence for a specific effect of homeopathic remedies, but strong evidence for specific effects of conventional interventions,” the study concluded.

“This finding is compatible with the notion that the clinical effects of homeopathy are placebo effects,” it added after examining findings from 110 homeopathy trials and an equal number of conventional medical trials.

In an editorial, the Lancet urged doctors to tell their patients they were wasting their time taking homeopathic medicines -- but also to make more time to connect with the patients rather than just prescribing and forgetting.

“Now doctors need to be bold and honest with their patients about homeopathy’s lack of benefits, and with themselves about the failings of modern medicine to address patients’ needs for personalized care,” the journal said.

Entitled “The end of homeopathy”, the editorial queried how homeopathy was growing in popularity by leaps and bounds when for the past 150 years trials had found it ineffective.

“It is the attitudes of patients and providers that engender alternative-therapy seeking behaviors which create a greater threat to conventional care -- and patients’ welfare -- than do spurious arguments of putative benefits from absurd dilutions,” it said.

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Echinacea and the cold

By Jonathan M. Gitlin
Sunday, July 31, 2005


Echinacea and the cold

July just isn’t good for alternative therapies. At the beginning of the month I reported that, contrary to the opinions of both my mother and Nobel Laureate Linus Pauling, vitamin C (which I erroneously claimed was an amino acid) did nothing to ward off the common cold. Now, at the tail end of July, comes a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine, regarding the second line in cold defense in the Gitlin household, echinacea.

A herbal remedy made from a purple flower native to North America, supporters claim it can treat colds and other infections by boosting the immune system. As a result, sneezing at home often resulted in being handed a little capsule of echinacea and a glass of orange juice as a panacea. Unlike the vitamin C report, this was an actual clinical study, where volunteers were taken to a hotel and treated with echinacea extracts or placebos, then exposed to rhinovirus type 39 for several days. Unfortunately for the proponents of this purple (derived) pill,

There were no statistically significant effects of the three echinacea extracts on rates of infection or severity of symptoms. Similarly, there were no significant effects of treatment on the volume of nasal secretions, on polymorphonuclear leukocyte or interleukin-8 concentrations in nasal-lavage specimens, or on quantitative-virus titer.

Going back to the scoreboard, alternative medicine is now 0-2 against the rhinovirus. It seems if you have the sniffles, fluids, decongestants and analgesics are still the best remedy.

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Vitamin C and the common cold

By Jonathan M. Gitlin
Sunday, July 03, 2005


Vitamin C and the common cold

If your mother is anything like mine, the slightest sniffle or sneeze is enough to bring on exhortations to take plenty of vitamin C. Vitamin C, also known as ascorbate, is an essential amino acid commonly found in citrus fruits, fresh vegetables and other healthy and delicious forms. Lack of vitamin C brings on the disease scurvy, and the Royal Navy’s use of limes onboard long journeys to prevent the disease is the root of the word Limey as a nickname for the British from its former colonies.

The therapeutic powers of vitamin C beyond the prevention of scurvy were championed by Linus Pauling, the double Nobel Prize winner, who, in common with many other Nobel Laureates, seemed to lose the plot ever so slightly in the latter stages of his career. Pauling believed massive doses of vitamin C could protect against cancer, and also the common cold.

That’s where we come in. A new study published in the current PLoS Medicine, an open source journal from the same people that brought us PLoS Biology, has conducted a meta-analysis of existing trials to determine if there really is any truth to the claims made by Pauling (and my mother). And as it turns out, there aren’t:

...the lack of effect of prophylactic vitamin C supplementation on the incidence of common cold in normal populations throws doubt on the utility of this wide practice.

So there you have it: Rhinovirus 1, Vitamin C 0

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More junk science debunked

More junk science debunked
By Jonathan M. Gitlin
Saturday, August 27, 2005

They're falling like flies. First to go was the one about vitamin C and the common cold. Next was the power of Echinacea to do not much. Now, much to the chagrin of Prince Charles and alternative medicine practitioners, comes news that homeopathy is also bunk.

In case you are unfamiliar with the concept of homeopathy, it goes thus; like should be treated with like, so homeopathic treatments for hay fever involve treating it with pollen. But not actual pollen. Once solutions are prepared, they are then diluted again and again, past the point where the solution would contain any molecules of the solute. Or, as we in the lab like to say, "it's just water!" Jacques Benveniste, a renowned French scientist, and discoverer of platelet activating factor, ruined his reputation for proposing a mechanism for how homeopathy could possibly work. His theory was that water had a memory—that even though the solute could not possible be left after so many dilutions, somehow the water molecules remained arranged around a phantom structure. Needless to say, this theory was not well taken in the scientific community, and Dr. Benveniste died last year, still estranged from his peers.

Now a study from a team in Switzerland and the UK has conducted a meta-analysis of 110 existing clinical trials of homeopathic medicine and concludes that the treatments offer no benefit over placebo. I can’t say that surprises me, as I can’t see any difference between a homeopathic solution and plain old H2O. This news comes at the same time as an announcement that Prince Charles has commissioned a study to investigate the possible savings to the NHS if they were to use homeopathy. I think I can save the modern-architecture-hating Royal some time. It would probably be a great money saver, and solve the overcrowding problem too, as patients were denied life-saving therapy and instead offered sugar pills.

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Homoeopathy 'does not work'

Homoeopathy 'does not work'
26/08/2005 23:10 - (SA)

Paris - Homoeopathic treatment is no more effective than a placebo, the dummy substance used in medical trials, according to a study appearing in Saturday's issue of The Lancet, the British medical weekly.

That is the conclusion of a team of doctors in Britain and Switzerland, who reviewed a mountain of published evidence.

They compared 110 trials of homoeopathic remedies against a placebo with 110 trials of conventional medicines, which were also tested against placebos.

The ailments being treated in these trials included respiratory-tract infections, pollen allergies and asthma, gynaecological and obstetric problems, muscle and joint ache and intestinal upsets.

The researchers found that in small trials which they deemed to be of poor quality, both homoeopathic and conventional medicines appeared to fare better against placebos.

But, in larger trials that were of high quality, there was no credible evidence that the homoeopathic treatment worked any better than the placebo.

But conventional drugs clearly outperformed the dummy lookalike.

"Our study powerfully illustrates the interplay and cumulative effect of different sources of bias," says the new study, lead-authored by Aijing Shang and Matthias Egger at the University of Berne.

Staged a comeback

Homoeopathy originated in Germany in the early 19th century.

The idea behind it is "Like Cures Like" - in other words, a disease can be cured by a medicine capable of producing symptoms similar to those experienced by the patient in a healthy person.

A homoeopath typically conducts a long interview with the patient to determine the symptoms and then draws up a remedy.

This is usually a single substance derived from a plant, mineral or animal. It is then subjected to a lengthy process of high dilution and shaking aimed at bringing out its desired ingredient.

Homoeopathy was greatly in vogue in Europe in the 19th century, when as many as one in seven of medical practitioners were homoeopaths.

It went into decline in the 20th century with the rise of antibiotics and other modern medicines, but in the past decade has staged a comeback, igniting a controversy at the same time.

Many doctors are dismissive of homoeopathy, and some do not hesitate to call it quackery.

Even so, homoeopathy has a fervent vocal lobby of supporters, and health insurance schemes in Europe are under increasing pressure to include it in their coverage.

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Lancet research labelled biased

Of course the true believers have gone into total denial.....;-)

The true-believer syndrome merits study by science. What is it that compels a person, past all reason, to believe the unbelievable. How can an otherwise sane individual become so enamored of a fantasy, an imposture, that even after it's exposed in the bright light of day he still clings to it--indeed, clings to it all the harder? --M. Lamar Keene

Lancet research labelled biased

27/08/2005 15:03:02

The Homeopathic Society of New Zealand is dismissing as biased, new British research that suggests homeopathic treatment is ineffective.

The study carried out for the medical journal "The Lancet" shows the effects of homeopathy are similar to those of a placebo, or "dummy" pill.

The survey reviewed more than 100 trials comparing homeopathic remedies with traditional medicine.

Homeopathic Society President Bruce Barwell says the researchers used a very small sample, probably too small to base a sound judgement on, and there was also bias in the selection of homeopathic remedies they researched.

Listen Live

*************


Now compare that last sentence with the facts:

Homoeopathy 'does not work'
26/08/2005 23:10 - (SA)

Paris - Homoeopathic treatment is no more effective than a placebo, the dummy substance used in medical trials, according to a study appearing in Saturday's issue of The Lancet, the British medical weekly.

That is the conclusion of a team of doctors in Britain and Switzerland, who reviewed a mountain of published evidence.

They compared 110 trials of homoeopathic remedies against a placebo with 110 trials of conventional medicines, which were also tested against placebos.

**

Homeopathy no better than placebo

The authors of the new Lancet study were Matthias Egger and colleagues from the University of Berne in Switzerland. They looked at 110 trials using homeopathic remedies and 110 using conventional medicine in matching conditions. They looked for an effect in both the smaller, low quality trials and in larger, higher quality trials. Homeopathic remedies were more likely to have had a positive effect in the small, low quality trials. In the better trials, they say, homeopathy was no better than placebo. "Our study powerfully illustrates the interplay and cumulative effect of different sources of bias," Egger said. "We acknowledge that to prove a negative is impossible, but we have shown that the effects seen in placebo-controlled trials of homeopathy are compatible with the placebo-hypothesis."

******


Not only does Bruce Barwell speak for the Homeopathic Society of New Zealand as its President, he doesn't hesitate to misrepresent the facts (dare I say "lie"?). I'll let readers make their own decision. Denial is a personal attitude, where one lies to oneself, but he goes further.....hmmph!

As far as the accusation of bias is concerned, bias is not totally synonymous with prejudice. In fact, a healthy bias is positive and necessary.

From the introduction to my website:

The fact that this website focuses on one side of the coin, is an acknowledgement that there is another side which has been investigated. This website has a definite and conscious bias, which isn't the same thing as a negative "prejudice", which is defined as "an opinion or leaning adverse to anything without just grounds or before sufficient knowledge."

I see an informed and conscious bias as something positive & desirable, in contrast to prejudice. If one doesn't have a bias, one doesn't have an opinion worth defending. I see it as the result of an analysis of the issues, resulting in the taking of a standpoint more in favor of one side than of the other side. In other words, I am biased for objective evidence, and biased against a lack of such evidence. This naturally results in a bias for Evidence-Based Medicine (EBM) and modern medicine, and a bias against so-Called "Alternative" Medicine sCAM). I'm not interested in anything that is just "so-called". I don't want to base my clinical decisions and my consumer protection efforts on something that is anecdotal, tenuous, unproven, speculative, and often deceptive.

Homeopaths also have a bias, and it happens to be against very strong evidence to the contrary.

We're not talking about a lack of evidence because of lack of good research. Far from it! To continue to believe in homeopathy, in the face of the mountains of evidence against it, is the height of folly.

For more information about homeopathy, the ultimate fake:

HomeoLinks

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Homeopathy no better than placebo

Homeopathy no better than placebo

THE GUARDIAN , LONDON
Saturday, Aug 27, 2005,Page 6

Homeopathy, favored medical remedy of the royal family for generations and hugely popular in the UK, has an effect but only in the mind, according to a major study published in a leading medical journal on Thursday.

The conclusions of the Lancet analysis are a body blow for proponents of homeopathy, which has been around for 250 years and has attained cult-like status among its aficionados.

Swiss scientists compared the results of more than 100 trials of homeopathic medicines with the same number of trials of conventional medicines in a whole range of medical conditions, from respiratory infections to surgery. They found that homeopathy had no more than a placebo effect.

An editorial in the Lancet, entitled "The end of homeopathy," demands that doctors recognize the absence of real curative powers in homeopathic medicine. Around 42 percent of GPs in England will refer patients to a homeopath. In Scotland, where homeopathy has taken off to an even greater extent, 86 percent are said to be in favor of it.

It is hardly surprising that homeopathy does badly compared with conventional medicine, it says -- it is more surprising that the debate continues after 150 years of unfavorable findings. "The more dilute the evidence for homeopathy becomes, the greater seems its popularity."

Some patients, unhappy with their treatment within the impersonal and hurried British health service (NHS), may well see in homeopathy "a holistic alternative to a disease-focussed, technology-driven medical model," it says. But they could be endangering their health.

"Now doctors need to be bold and honest with their patients about homeopathy's lack of benefit, and with themselves about the failings of modern medicine to address patients' needs for personalized care."

Homeopathy was developed in Germany by Samuel Hahnemann in the late 1700s. Hahnemann, a doctor and a chemist, believed that disease showed the body was out of balance, and that this could be put right by the "similia principle" -- otherwise known as "like cures like." The theory is that a tiny dose of whatever is the source of the problem, diluted in many parts water, will stimulate the body into combating it.

Homeopathic remedies are tailored to the individual, which is part of their appeal. A homeopath will assess not just the physical cause of the illness but also the emotional state of the patient and their personality and temperament, before deciding what remedy to use.

The argument that many doctors and scientists have had with homeopathy is that the remedies are so dilute that it is unlikely they can have any effect on the body at all. Some do not contain even one molecule of the original herb. Homeopaths argue that the water retains the memory of the herb or mineral's "vital essence."

The authors of the new Lancet study were Matthias Egger and colleagues from the University of Berne in Switzerland. They looked at 110 trials using homeopathic remedies and 110 using conventional medicine in matching conditions. They looked for an effect in both the smaller, low quality trials and in larger, higher quality trials. Homeopathic remedies were more likely to have had a positive effect in the small, low quality trials. In the better trials, they say, homeopathy was no better than placebo. "Our study powerfully illustrates the interplay and cumulative effect of different sources of bias," Egger said. "We acknowledge that to prove a negative is impossible, but we have shown that the effects seen in placebo-controlled trials of homeopathy are compatible with the placebo-hypothesis."

Some would argue that the remedies at least cannot cause harm. Edzard Ernst, professor of complementary medicine at Exeter University, expects the remedy to provoke a worsening of the disease before it effects a cure.

"According to homeopathic thinking, if I find the optimal remedy for you, I would expect an aggravation which could be very hefty and put you into hospital for several days with your symptoms," he said. "From the homeopathic point of view, the safety isn't there. They say it is necessary on the way to recovery."

He has known people who have had to be admitted into intensive care with what a homeopath would argue is a worsening of the symptoms prior to recovery, but which conventional medical opinion would say is simply a worsening of an untreated disease.

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Homeopathy ineffective, study finds

Homeopathy ineffective, study finds

People who take homeopathic medicines may as well be taking a sugar pill, according to the latest review that finds this form of complementary therapy acts no better than a placebo.

The review was published in yesterday's issue of the Lancet journal.

"There was weak evidence for a specific effect of homeopathic remedies but strong evidence for specific effects of conventional interventions," the review concludes.

"This finding is compatible with the notion that the clinical effects of homeopathy are placebo effects."

Practitioners of homeopathic medicine, invented in the late 1700s by German physician Samuel Hahnemann, believe that the weaker the solution, the more effective the medicine.

Homeopathy is also based on curing "like with like", namely that a condition can be cured by a substance that produces the same signs and symptoms in a healthy person.

But the reviewers, led by Swiss researcher Professor Matthias Egger from the University of Berne, found there was no evidence for the effectiveness of homeopathy.

They drew their conclusions after reviewing 110 homeopathy trials and an equal number of conventional medical trials. Drugs in the studies included those for respiratory infections, gut problems, musculoskeletal disorders, and for surgery.

In an editorial, the Lancet urged doctors to tell their patients they were wasting their time taking homeopathic medicines but also to make more time to connect with the patients rather than just prescribing and forgetting.

"Now doctors need to be bold and honest with their patients about homeopathy's lack of benefits, and with themselves about the failings of modern medicine to address patients' needs for personalised care," the journal says.

Growing popularity

Entitled "The end of homeopathy", the editorial queries how homeopathy has been growing in popularity when for the past 150 years trials had found it ineffective.

"It is the attitudes of patients and providers that engender alternative therapy-seeking behaviours which create a greater threat to conventional care, and patients' welfare, than do spurious arguments of putative benefits from absurd dilutions," it says.

Egger says that once data from small, less rigorous trials was extracted and evident biases in both taken into account, the conclusions were inescapable.

"We acknowledge that to prove a negative is impossible, but we have shown that the effects seen in placebo-controlled trials of homeopathy are compatible with the placebo-hypothesis," he writes.

But the British Homeopathic Association, which says it has 1,000 doctors on its books, strongly disagrees.

"The report should be treated with extreme caution. It is being heavily spun," said Peter Fisher, clinical director at the Royal London Homeopathic Hospital and a spokesman for the association.

"For a prestigious medical journal it is a strange bit of reporting. It is a small sample and they don't even tell you what they are basing this on. Yet they come to these very sweeping conclusions and write this very strongly worded editorial," he said.

"Homeopathy has been suffering these types of attacks for 200 years but it goes from strength to strength because people want it and many studies prove it works."

- Reuters/ABC Science Online

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Study Casts Doubt on Homeopathic Cures

Study Casts Doubt on Homeopathic Cures

August 26, 2005

Alternative medicine is big business, but thus far, the scientific establishment is not impressed. A study at Switzerland's University of Berne, published in The Lancet, says it finds homeopathic remedies no more effective than a placebo.

The study authors say they conducted tests, comparing over 100 randomized placebo-controlled trials of homeopathy with a similar number of conventional-medicine trials, covering a full range of ailments. They concluded “there was no convincing evidence that homeopathy was superior to placebo.” Conventional medicines and treatments, on the other hand, did provide improvements.

Is the study likely to sway passionate believers in homeopathic medicine? Probably not, and researcher Matthias Egger, of the Berne University's Department of Social and Preventive Medicine, says that may be the point. Egger and his colleagues say their findings suggest that homeopathic remedies have the best results on patients who firmly believe they will work.

"Our study powerfully illustrates the interplay and cumulative effect of different sources of bias," he said.

Homeopathic remedies most often are promoted for treatment of chronic conditions, such as allergies, asthma, learning disorders, emotional disorders, arthritis, and the problematic symptoms of menopause. But they are also used to tackle more acute diseases and conditions, including cancer.

But homeopathic medicine is not without its detractors.

Dr. Stephen Barrett, in a posting on Quackwatch.com, charges homeopathic remedies “are the only category of quack products legally marketable as drugs.” He faults the Food and Drug Administration for not holding homeopathic products to the same standards as other drugs.

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Lancet study says homeopathic medicines don't work

Lancet study says homeopathic medicines don't work

25 Aug 2005 23:01:43 GMT

Source: Reuters

By Jeremy Lovell

LONDON, Aug 26 (Reuters) - The world may be beating a path to the doors of homeopathic practitioners as an alternative to conventional medicines, but according to a new study they may just as well be taking nothing.

The study, published in Friday's edition of the respected Lancet medical journal, is likely to anger the growing numbers of devoted practitioners of and adherents to alternative therapies that include homeopathy.

"There was weak evidence for a specific effect of homeopathic remedies, but strong evidence for specific effects of conventional interventions," the study concluded.

"This finding is compatible with the notion that the clinical effects of homeopathy are placebo effects," it added after examining findings from 110 homeopathy trials and an equal number of conventional medical trials.

In an editorial, the Lancet urged doctors to tell their patients they were wasting their time taking homeopathic medicines -- but also to make more time to connect with the patients rather than just prescribing and forgetting.

"Now doctors need to be bold and honest with their patients about homeopathy's lack of benefits, and with themselves about the failings of modern medicine to address patients' needs for personalised care," the journal said.

Entitled "The end of homeopathy", the editorial queried how homeopathy was growing in popularity by leaps and bounds when for the past 150 years trials had found it ineffective.

"It is the attitudes of patients and providers that engender alternative-therapy seeking behaviours which create a greater threat to conventional care -- and patients' welfare -- than do spurious arguments of putative benefits from absurd dilutions," it said.

BOOMING SALES

Practitioners of homeopathic medicine, invented in the late 1700s by German physician Samuel Hahnemann, believe that the weaker the solution, the more effective the medicine.

In Britain alone, sales of homeopathic medicines have grown by a third in the past five years to 32 million pounds in 2004.

The study's lead author and statistical analyst Matthias Egger of Switzerland's University of Berne, said once data from small, less rigorous trials was extracted and evident bias in both taken into account, the conclusions were inescapable.

"We acknowledge that to prove a negative is impossible, but we have shown that the effects seen in placebo-controlled trials of homeopathy are compatible with the placebo-hypothesis," he wrote.

But the British Homeopathic Association (BHA), which says it has 1,000 doctors on its books, strongly disagreed.

"The report should be treated with extreme caution. It is being heavily spun," Peter Fisher, clinical director at the Royal London Homeopathic Hospital, said on behalf of the BHA.

"For a prestigious medical journal it is a strange bit of reporting. It is a small sample and they don't even tell you what they are basing this on. Yet they come to these very sweeping conclusions and write this very strongly worded editorial," he told Reuters.

"Homeopathy has been suffering these types of attacks for 200 years but it goes from strength to strength because people want it and many studies prove it works."

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Christopher Cain: Spinal claims have no backbone

The Advertiser
26aug05

Christopher Cain: Spinal claims have no backbone

THERE are a lot of myths and misconceptions about what makes good treatment for backs, as there is about many other ailments. Sorting the facts from the fiction is not easy for the public.

The medical profession does not have all the answers, but what we do know, and what the community rightly expects, is that there is evidence to support particular forms of treatment before they are embraced for general use. Doctors are trained to practise good medicine and good medicine needs an evidence base.

This brings me to the claims of some chiropractic groups around town. The Australian Medical Association of South Australia has been concerned about some of the claims that are made that spinal manipulation has a role to play in the treatment of conditions like asthma and ear infections ñ claims that are not supported by scientific evidence.

Our clear advice is to consult your family doctor rather than your chiropractor about these medical conditions. On the topic of things chiropractic, you may have heard the term "subluxation" used fairly widely in the media and in our community.

While not the true medical meaning of the term, in this context it is used to refer to joints that are apparently "out of place" and which can be "clicked back" by manipulation.

This clicking noise is created by the separation of the joint surfaces and the creation of a vacuum effect, just like when a suction cup is removed from a smooth surface.

I am sure most of you will have "cracked" your knuckles or heard a "crack" in your knee or back when you bend or twist in certain directions. This is caused by the rapid separation of the joint surface and not true "subluxation", which implies a significant injury to the ligaments and soft tissue around the joint.

Your fingers, knee or back were probably working fine before you heard the "crack", and will have continued to do so afterwards. Chiropractic is a well-accepted therapeutic treatment used in the community, and it certainly has a role to play in the management of a range of musculoskeletal complaints.

A deep-seated massage will no doubt make you feel better for a while, but be aware there is no evidence to support other therapeutic benefits of this treatment, despite a considerable amount of research done over a long period of time to try to validate this.

Any treatment, chiropractic, physiotherapy or medical, should provide a benefit within a relatively short period of time (two or three weeks) if it is going to be effective in the longer term. If this is not the case, or if the treatment actually aggravates your symptoms, there is no point persisting.

Dr Christopher Cain is state president of the Australian Medical Association.

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Silly Nigerian Scam Letters: 2

Silly Nigerian Scam Letters: 2


Dearest In The Lord,

On behalf of the trustees and executor of the estate of Late Sir. Dennis Thatcher, I wish to notify you that late Sir. Dennis Thatcher, made you a beneficiary to his WILL. He left the sum of Nine Hundred and Fifty Thousand Pounds Sterling (£950,000.00) to you in the codicil and last testament to his WILL. This may sound strange and unbelievable to you, but it is real and true.

Being a widely travelled man, he must have been in contact with you in the past or simply you were nominated to him by one of his numerous friends abroad that wished you good. Sir. Dennis Thatcher passed away peacefully in the Lister Hospital London, after a short illness at the age of 88 years. He was businessman and husband to Margaret Thatcher, the former British Prime Minister. He was Born May 10th 1915; died June 26th 2003, and his WILL is now ready for execution.

Sir. Dennis Thatcher, until his death was a very dedicated Christian who loved to give out. His great philanthropy earned him numerous awards during his lifetime. In a tribute to him at a News Conference with Russian President Vladimir Putin, British Prime Minister Mr. Tony Blair said:

..."Sir Dennis was a kind and generous-hearted man, a real gentleman who had many friends here and abroad".

According to him, this money is to support your activities and to help the poor and the needy in your country. Please If I reach you as I am hopeful, endeavor to get back to me as soon as possible.

Yours In His Service,

Rev. Fr. Luke David
Email : revlukedavid@box.az
--
Dr. K. Tracy Reynolds
Institute of Evolutionary Biology
School of Biological Sciences
University of Edinburgh
West Mains Road
Edinburgh EH9 3JT
Scotland UK

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