CFI Forums

Therapeutic Massage?

2008-06-29T21:43:24-05:00

I love to join in on the debunking of some alternative medicine practices. But I never thought twice about getting therapeutic massage. It’s worked wonders for my tense back, and feels oh so amazing.

I never wondered until now, is massage alternative medicine, or a valid therapy? Is it actually doing something beneficial for my back muscles, or do I just like relaxing and being pet like a cat for a while?

(My definition of massage being the sports-therapy type, of course, not the lady at my hairdresser’s who charges people to place crystals all over their back while she chants and rubs oil on them. I know, she sounds much more exciting.)

Any thoughts?

Chiropractors?

2007-08-11T12:41:17-05:00

A friend of a friend reccently got into a car accident and did something strange to her leg. She doesn’t know what yet, but either way, she’s going to see a chinese chiropractor because apparently it’s cheaper since she doesn’t have medical insurance.

I know that chiropractors are frowned upon by most scientists, but I don’t quite exactly know what a chiropractor is. What is their philosophy? What is it that they do?

Magnetic Therapy

2007-09-15T21:25:21-05:00

There is “alternative medicine” that not only works, but often works better than any other form of medicine, yet mainstream medicine never acknowledges it because the medical schools don’t teach it. Once medical professionals graduate, they don’t question whether they’ve been taught about the latest and best medicine that is available. If magnetic therapy were in this category, they surely would have learned about it. Right? You would think so, but that’s not how it works.

If you want proof that magnetic therapy works, you don’t need to look any further than the Albert Roy Davis Research Lab. Davis discovered that the two poles of a magnet each have a different effect. The North pole is the healing energy. It reduces inflammation, fights infections, decreases pain etc. The South pole has the opposite effect. It will worsen most conditions.

In the book, The Magnetic Blueprint of Life, by Albert Roy Davis and Walter C. Rawls, the authors explain how they offered, at their own expense, to show proof that magnetism can be used effectively against cancer. “From 1970 to 1973, our research laboratory revived its attempts to bring our work to the public. We initiated a program of again contacting agencies, research organizations, and other important persons, anyone who might give assistance to the verification of our work for public use. The year 1974 saw the publication of our book Magnetism and Its Effects on the Living System (Exposition Press, Hicksville, New York). Since this publication we have heard from thousands of researchers duplicating parts of our work. Several hundred, including those in university departments in the United States and other countries, have verified our initial findings that negative magnetic energy can arrest cancer.”

Here is a quote in the book of a letter written by Dr. Eng. Stefan N. Naydenov, Sofia, Bulgaria O. R. Institute, sent to Bengt Gustafsson, Professor, M. D., Secretary of the Nobel Committee for Physiology or Medicine, Karolinska Institutet, S-10401 Stockholm 60. “I would like to pay attention to several facts namely Albert Roy Davis is the first scientist in the world who has made several great discoveries about magnetism and its effects of the living system. He is the first one who speaks about the electromagnetic theory of cancer, and the effects of magnetic fields on cancers (counterclockwise spin). His laboratory findings explain unexplained till now functions in the living system. He discovers the secrecy of the cell on the atomic and electron level. I’m sure that all these materials which I’m sending to you would be used for an open discussion in the scientific community which discussion will tell its last and decisive word.” He and Rawls were nominated for a Nobel Prize, but did not win. That would give them far too much publicity.

Some of their cancer discoveries were verified in the September, 1990 issue of the Journal of the National Medical Association, Volume 82, Number 9, in an article titled, “Evolving Perspectives on the Exposure Risks from Magnetic Fields.” It has never been published in a major newspaper or been mentioned on a TV news program. If you want to understand the reasons why, you just might read the book, Racketeering in Medicine: The Suppression of Alternatives, by James P. Carter, M.D., Dr. P.H. There is, and has been a conspiracy to suppress alternative medicine for many, many years. That’s the motive for “regulation” of alternative medicine. It’s not for our protection, they want total control over it because its popularity continues to grow, and will eventually lead to the dirty truth finally coming out.

Pharmaceuticals & Our Culture

2008-05-12T09:43:56-05:00

I’ve noticed that many people on here will immediatly look for “conspiracy”, false evidence. etc when dealing with a proposed alternative medicine. That’s fine, but what about pharmaceuticals? There are many corruptions in the industry, and some of the drugs administered are downright nasty.

Take Adderall, for instance, often prescribed to children as young as elementary school level for ADHD. I have seen cases where a child who is bored by sitting in a classroom all day doing menial tasks is diagnosed with ADHD and prescribed to a damaging pill just because they’d rather be outside. Children these days are not given enough exercise (gym class is once a week now in elementary schools), their food is very processed and artificial, and their parents tend to surround them with mind-numbing electronics instead of actually taking the time to do things with them. American culture is very excessive and fast-paced. When I babysit, I groan in disgust at the lack of time parents spend with children. Sure, they’re busy with work and it’s understandable, but many are lazy about it to the point I feel sick. No wonder children have so many behavioral problems. No wonder kids who are active and engaging are numbed down by the liquid speed of Ritalin.

Take away the “meth” from methampthetamine: boom, you get Adderall & Ritalin. Lovely for a growing child. Students buy them for it’s coke-like effects in order to cram for exams.

I feel we live in a time where “popping a pill” is the end-all, cure-all for many. I see people hyped up on multiple prescriptions; 5000 mg a day is not at all uncommon.

Think: what is this doing to our bodies? How is treating the symptoms instead of the source damaging? Of course prescription drugs are very beneficial, but there are gaping holes in the industry (including the horrendous cost). No wonder so many turn to alternative practices.

Risperdal-induced Non-stop Persistent Eyelid-twitching - My Experience of Eventually Get It Totally Cured By Acupuncture

2008-01-20T20:29:04-05:00

Risperdal-induced Non-stop Persistent Eyelid-twitching - My Experience of Eventually Get It Totally Cured By Acupuncture

Note : The following article is only meant as a reference material to the intended recipients and advices should be sought from the medical experts to establish the authenticity of its contents. For your information, I get this non-stop persistent eyelid twitching sickness which is diagnosed as one of the symptoms of Tardive Dyskinesia, while living abroad indirectly from depression (Schizophrenia) through subsequent allergy and overdosage of the related-medications (Risperdal)and I hope that the information given below will be useful to the intended readers.

Non-stop Eyelid twitching, which is lately referred to as Blepharospasm or Myokymia is actually a symptom of involuntary and uncontrollable movements in the muscles around a person’s eyes which in turn make them appear like ‘blinking non-stop’ to other people.

Generally, the movements of one’s muscle is controlled by the nerves around them that in turn receive signals from the brains which ultimately dictate the variety of ‘ways’ in which such desired movements are to be conducted based on a person’s will.

The causes of such eyelid-twitching symptom in most common cases may just due to short-term stress, over-tiredness, over-straining of one’s eyes, occasional anxiety, temporary panic fits and nervousness which in turn can be easily relieved and recover naturally by a good rest, more relaxation and trying to calm oneself down to stop getting anxious, panic and worried and stressful over certain things. In this regard, such phenomena tend to be quite common among certain students and other professionals.

However, in the cases of a persistent uncontrollable twitchings of the eyelids which only get aggravated rather than improved over time and last for months and even years, it may just probably imply that the nerves around the eyes organ are simply not ‘properly functionable’ enough to bring about the desired movements of the muscles based on the mental instructions from the brains of a person.

Except for any brain and other eye muscle damages/eye muscle disorders caused by permanent lack of certain nutrients and minerals etc or other irritations to that organ like dry eyes, sore eyes, bacteria infections etc, such a chronic eyelid-twitching sickness may likely be caused by certain disturbances and disorders that affect or weaken the functionality of the nerves around the eyes to bring about the desired movements of this organ based on the person’s will.

In this regard, the possible reasons of such chronic eyelid-twitching sickness may probably due to the causes as mentioned above which is experienced by a person over a considerably long period of time rather than just temporarily. Apart from that, other likely causes maybe be certain traumas, especially the emotional ones, allergy to or overdosage of certain medications that carry such side effects as muscle spasms, particularly photophobia in the case of eyelid-twitching symptom.

In fact, I myself have also been suffering from such a sickness due to allergy and overdosage to such medications like Risperdal and other similar drugs (of which I have stopped taking and replaced with something else so as not to further worsen the eyelid-twitching problem and to prevent a relapse of that sickness after I get healed). As such, I would very much like to share my own genuine personal experience with you over the course of my treatment of such a sickness and I hope that it will somehow be helpful to a certain extent especially to those who have been having the similar experience as mine and I would to emphasize that it again only is meant as a reference material to anyone reading it.

For your information, I have been suffering from this sickness in the past few years whereby my eyelids also tend to twitch both continuously and uncontrollably without me being able to do anything to control the twitchings at all. As a result, my eyes would seem like blinking all the while to anyone who looks at me and I totally could not drive, look directly and persistently at the pc or tv screens and most of the times, I simply can’t read any books or newspaper properly.

And I have sought lots of medical treatments and advices as well as apply various kinds of eyedrops, taking various types of vitamins, mineral pills as well as many types of anti-muscle spasm medications from lots of eye specialists, neurosurgeons and psychiatrists (who explain the medical theories mentioned above to me), ENT specialists and other general practitioners, and even have the MRI examinations taken to get my eyes cured , but these efforts turn out to be in vain as they fail to yield any positive results and my eyes still keep on blinking non-stop.

Luckily, just about a year after I suffer from such a sickness, I come across an acupuncture expert who studied and observed closely about my problems and then administer a therapy needle on the part of the flesh at the back of the palm which is about 1.5 cm (applicable to the average grown adults only) vertically from the point of intersection between my thumb and my forefinger of my right hand (as per thumbnail attached below) to strengthen the weakened and sensitive nerves around my eyes. After that, he just ask me to press (using just mild force) onto the surface of that acupuncture point using such objects like toothpick /normal writing pen or anything with a blunt-pointed end for at least 2 hours a day and then consistently for about 2 months. Having done that persistently based on his order, my eyelid-twitching that makes my eyes blinking all the while just totally recover in time and I can drive, work with the pc screens, watch tv, movies and read as well as work like any other normal persons.

For your further information, I have also come across quite a couple of people in my real life annoyed by such an non-stop eyelid-twitching problem of different causes and degrees of severity, and accordingly, I just recommend the method as mentioned above to them and within weeks, they just experience significant improvements to their conditions after applying this therapy, and after a few months , they just recover totally from this sickness. . And I hope that by contributing this piece of article to you, it will somehow help you to in at least getting a clue about this sickness.

Lastly, I sincerely wish that the ones troubled by such an annoying eyelid-twitching sickness can recover finally from their illness. Thank you.

vaccinations/immunization

2007-02-14T07:42:41-05:00

My wife is pregnant and it’s the first time for both of us. I’ve done a little bit of research so far, but haven’t found any real reason to avoid any particular vaccinations for the baby. I’m keeping an open mind and want to do what’s best.

Is all this anti-vaccination stuff just media and internet hype? :?: I just started researching via Wikipedia, etc., but so far nothing convincing me one way or the other. I know this forum is full of critical thinkers and would appreciate any insight.

On a side note… we don’t know the sex yet, but I recently looked into the whole circumcision thing… That’s something we will definitely will not do be doing. After coming to that conclusion, I coincedentally found the thread here about it too. My palms could’ve ended up much harrier had I been left uncut.

Thanks,
A-Bomb

"Detoxifying Foot Pads" on 20/20 (4/11/08)

2008-04-10T10:34:00-05:00

John Stossel will test these pieces of quackery on Friday’s (4/11/08) 20/20.

Knowing Mr. Stossel’s reasoned approach to such things, I think these will be shown for what they really are. But I doubt it will affect the sales for these things one bit. Sadly, the sales of them might actually increase. Damned if you do, damned if you don’t.

Alternative Medicine & Penis Enlargement

2006-11-16T04:26:08-05:00

You can search any alternative medicine combined with the words penis enlargement and get plenty of results. Seems to obvious, wishful thinking.

Meet the Cult that claims to teach you how to cure yourself of virtually any illness

2008-05-16T12:04:37-05:00

“57,673 cures and counting"--welcome to Curedrive.org, otherwise known as Immunics or WHUM, formerly Nexus and further back in time as Direct Centering, the 30+ year old cult that now claims to teach you how to cure yourself of virtually any illness, including all the biggies.

I thought it would be appropriate to post about them here in the Alternative Medicine forum because of their explicit medically-related claims. The leader claims that he has cured himself completely of herpes, and others who have been graced by his “teachings” have cured themselves of stuff ranging from Acne to Cancers to Heart Failure to HIV to Lupus to MS, etc. as displayed on the upper left of their homepage: http://www.immunics.org/

I’m wondering if anyone here has encountered them. I posted about them on the JREF forum http://forums.randi.org/showthread.php?t=112659 and it sounds like this group is still flying under the radar of the skeptical community. I was involved with them when I was young and credulous for several years—the cult leader had a very different “teaching” back then which was an amalgam of influences including Meher Baba, est, Scientology, primal therapy, Zen, Mind Freedom (now known as the Sedona Method), but focused on a subject that is now very trendy thanks to Oprah and “The Secret"-- manifesting. Given my current status as a skeptic, atheist, and ex-New Age cult member, I can see the potential hazards for any person struggling with illness to fall under the influence of this group. Hopefully they are still obscure enough that they haven’t crossed over from being benign to genuinely dangerous, but it could be that people who have been screwed by them haven’t been putting their stories up on the web. I’ve Googled many times to see what I could find out about their current reputation, but at this point most of the criticisms of them I can find are the ones I’ve posted elsewhere (JREF, Rick Ross’s Cult Education Forum).

Reflexology

2008-05-12T09:31:52-05:00

As an atheist and critical thinker, I’m a naturally skeptical person with a sharp mind. I can see the fallacies of many types of alternative healing, yet there are some practices that I feel work. First of all, I’ve noticed that many freethinkers tend to enact a knee-jerk response as mentioned in another thread to anything not administered by pharmacuticals. It is frusterating, because I am both a critical and open-minded person, and being in a community of freethinkers is most likely to mean being in a community of alternative medicine bashers, so to speak.

Reflexology is the practice of stimulating nerves on the feet and hands to temporarily aide a “blockage” or problem. I have been practicing it since I was young, and no I am not “brainwashed” by it, it actually works.

How much does it “cure”? I don’t know. But to say that the effects are “placebo”? Ignorance.

It makes sense: all of the nerves in our body connect at the feet, the most sensitive part of the body. If we press a nerve, it will react. If we have a health problem, is is generally do to a part of our body that is out of wack. Pressing a point causes a response, thus the feeling of relief.

When I had a terrible cold, I performed reflexology by pushing my toes on one foot (holding and pulsing with the other) against a slightly sharp edge of a table. The pulsing caused different feelings throughout my body: discomfort in the form of a slight “shock”, a warm tingling sensation, followed by a feeling of “wetness”. These nervous responses are hard to explain. As I pulsed my sinus spot, my sinuses cleared. After the treatment on the whole foot, I felt deep relaxation and calm. Reflexology also teaches that spots on the toes that appear puffy may connect to a problem area. After treatment, my puffiness goes away. When I am sick, my toes get very red. My foot doctor simply told me toes “just do that’, but relfexology points to an issue. After treating red toes, the puffiness goes away and I feel better. I have countless success stories based on reflexology, including a time when I had the flu and for awhile felt normal.

It works, I feel the effects, and honestly...even if I don’t have “scientific evidence”, I feel great relief and good feelings, so thanks but I’ll continue. I’m not proposing we should substitute it for any kind of medicine, and I notice the effects are temporary, but sometimes temporarily giving your big toe a massage instead of popping a liver-damaging Advil is for the best.

If you want to outright call reflexology bullshit, fine. That is your right. But sometimes I notice that many people bash it before they try it. Of course we should study this in detail, but we should also keep in mind that sometimes the most simple approaches are the most effective, and not every discovery that “works” is made in a labratory.