Joined: 3 Feb 2006 Age: 42 Gender: Female Posts: 10,775 Location: Ohio, USA
15 Mar 2009, 1:42 pm
Yeah, a lot of these alternative therapies seem to hinge on "toxins" or "deficiencies" of some sort or another. The stupid thing about it is that the body is really very good at maintaining homeostasis, and doesn't usually need any help.
Joined: 18 Mar 2008 Age: 42 Gender: Male Posts: 511
15 Mar 2009, 1:59 pm
I read an article about a study done with autistic children which indicated that it may be helpful. However, the researcher cautioned that more research needed to be done and that the effect may be transitory.
Joined: 3 Feb 2006 Age: 42 Gender: Female Posts: 10,775 Location: Ohio, USA
15 Mar 2009, 7:44 pm
The problem here is with the lack of a control group for comparison. They used people in normal rooms as their control group, and that doesn't give any kind of protection against placebo effect.
"Why not" is kind of a dangerous question with alternative medicine. Most alternative medicine therapies are quite harmless; it's the price you pay for them that isn't harmless.
Money, of course. There's only so much of that.
Time--and time you could be spending doing something effective, or increasing your overall mental/physical health.
The danger of convincing yourself that an ineffective treatment is effective, choosing it over proven methods, and ending up with a worsening problem that you aren't treating with effective methods.
The danger of convincing yourself that a problem exists where there wasn't one in the first place!
That's only for completely harmless things. When the alternative treatment is harmful, things get even worse.