never heard of DNA activation healing….

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123024234651134037.html

Feeling a tad listless? Perhaps your DNA is insufficiently activated. You may want to consult the healers at Oughten House Foundation, specializing in “tools and techniques for self-empowerment . . . through DNA Activations.” Oughten House recommends regular therapy as part of its DNA Activation Healing Project, at $125 per hour-long session.

The foundation isn’t as far from the mainstream as you might think. A survey of 32,000 Americans by the National Center for Health Statistics, released earlier this month, suggests that 38% of adults use some form of “complementary and alternative medicine,” or CAM —now aggressively promoted for everything from Attention Deficit Disorder to the Zoster virus. The survey polled consumers on 10 provider-based therapies—for example, acupuncture—and 26 home remedies, such as herbal supplements.

The largest well-documented study of CAM’s financial footprint, a decade ago in the Journal of the American Medical Association, estimated that Americans spent $36 billion to $47 billion on CAM in 1997, depending on how one defined the category. Since then, at least 40 states have begun licensing CAM practitioners. Major hospital systems, notably Baltimore’s Johns Hopkins and New York’s Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, incorporate CAM-based programs like aromatherapy and therapeutic touch, often bracketed as “integrative medicine.”

See the 12/26/2008 blog at http://www.shambook.blogspot.com/

Certainly a shame it’s as popular as it is, but as I mentioned elsewhere, the 38% is bogus.

Sadly, this study is quite misleading. To get the reported 40%, they included a list of 36 “alternative medical practices” which included diets (such as vegetarian diet, Atkins, Pritikin, Zone, and so on), deep breathing, meditation, massage, and “non vitamin non mineral natural products” which included things like flax and soy. This conveys a false impression of nearly half of Americans using CAM by broadening the definition to near meaninglessness. Only 1.4% reported using acupuncture, 8.6% “chiropractic or osteopathic manipulation,“ 1.8% homeopathy, and so on. Only by including the 12.7% who practice “deep breathing,“ the 9.4% who meditate, the 8.3% who’ve gotten a massage, and so on did they create the impression that people are turning to CAM in droves. Beleive me, no one is more disturbed by the popularity of CAM than I am, but it’s a whole lot less widespread than the media reports of this study suggest. Heck, I’m a vegetarian, I meditate sometimes, I breathe deeply, and I probably eat flax or soy in my breakfast cereals sometimes, so I guess I’m a CAM patient after all.

FULL STUDY

mckenzievmd - 26 December 2008 01:36 PM

Certainly a shame it’s as popular as it is, but as I mentioned elsewhere, the 38% is bogus.

Sadly, this study is quite misleading. To get the reported 40%, they included a list of 36 “alternative medical practices” which included diets (such as vegetarian diet, Atkins, Pritikin, Zone, and so on), deep breathing, meditation, massage, and “non vitamin non mineral natural products” which included things like flax and soy. This conveys a false impression of nearly half of Americans using CAM by broadening the definition to near meaninglessness. Only 1.4% reported using acupuncture, 8.6% “chiropractic or osteopathic manipulation,“ 1.8% homeopathy, and so on. Only by including the 12.7% who practice “deep breathing,“ the 9.4% who meditate, the 8.3% who’ve gotten a massage, and so on did they create the impression that people are turning to CAM in droves. Beleive me, no one is more disturbed by the popularity of CAM than I am, but it’s a whole lot less widespread than the media reports of this study suggest. Heck, I’m a vegetarian, I meditate sometimes, I breathe deeply, and I probably eat flax or soy in my breakfast cereals sometimes, so I guess I’m a CAM patient after all.

FULL STUDY

I don’t usually post or read stuff in alternative medicine. thanks for the extra link.

There’s a new shoe store in my Brooklyn neighborhood.  It’s called DNA Footwear.  Let’s sic CSICOP on ‘em.

Jackson, I was thrown by the study mentioned at first - I thought the numbers were high, but the original article I read did not cite the full study. McKenzie found the full study and posted it afterward. That is how we found out that the definitions were so broad. By their definition, anyone who drinks soy milk because cow’s milk gives them gas is participating in “alternative medicine.”

As for this “DNA Activation” nonsense, it boggles my mind. Even if we were to assume this was true for some silly reason, with all the defective genes that COULD be “activated” by mucking with them, would a person really want to try? Many people carry defective genes that are or are not set off for reasons not entirely known. For example, many identical twins carry defective genes, but only one twin will develop or express the genetic disease or condition. (Some suspected factors are smoking, diet, exercise and/or environmental influences.)

I remember watching a silly show on champion dog breeders and the ridiculous things some of them do to improve their dogs. In addition to silly pampering that the dogs didn’t see happy about (putting hair dye on their fur and nail polish on their claws?) several owners were shown taking their dogs to acupuncturists, chiropractors, faith healers and psychics.

One owner who appeared clearly mentally unbalanced (and whose poor husband appeared defeated and likely to consume large amounts of alcohol) took her dog to a “psychic genetic healer” who seemed just as mentally unbalanced as the owner. The “psychic genetic healer” pet the dog and went into a fake trance chanting and counting on her fingers “agctacgttgcaactg” and explained after her little show that she “psychically rewriting the dog’s DNA” so it would reconfigure as a genetically superior champion of some sort. Funny how she was “psychically” pairing nucleotides that can’t pair together in nature. Perhaps she was creating an alien super-dog? At the end of her idiotic chant, the wife paid hundreds of dollars. The husband looked ready to kill himself and said something to the effect of “whatever the wife wants, there’s no use fighting over it, I’m done fighting.”

I’m telling you, I’m in the wrong business. Perhaps now with the sad state of commercial real estate sales and financing, it would be a good time for me to become a fake dog psychic. Why not? My sister pays some woman $100 an hour to talk to her cat. I told her “Look, your cat wants tuna. There. Give me $100 I read its mind.” I could tell people what they want to hear, for hundreds of dollars. Damn, these…ethics…they keep getting in my damn way!!! Must…fight…them… if I want to make easy money!

Anyhow, the “DNA Activation Therapy” reminded me so much of that dog show owner trying to have a psychic rewrite her dog’s DNA to make it a champion. It is so laughable!

Now as far as REAL MEDICINE manipulating DNA to help those with genetic disease… that would be amazing. With all the new advances up and coming, and with stem cell treatments, there are going to be so many amazing treatments available in the future.

josh_karpf - 26 December 2008 02:25 PM

There’s a new shoe store in my Brooklyn neighborhood.  It’s called DNA Footwear.  Let’s sic CSICOP on ‘em.

Ha ha - do they have you stand on the screen to scan your feet and analyze them? I forgot which store was doing that, Athlete’s Foot or Footlocker, one of those…

Jules - 26 December 2008 02:34 PM

Jackson, I was thrown by the study mentioned at first - I thought the numbers were high, but the original article I read did not cite the full study. McKenzie found the full study and posted it afterward.
...

Aha I see it was the most recent thread below - I’ll change the title of this thread…..

aromatherapy and therapeutic touch, often bracketed as “integrative medicine.“
I don’t want to read the full study if I can help it…