View Single Post
Old 03-25-2008, 07:27 AM   #18 (permalink)
ratbastid
Darth Papa
 
ratbastid's Avatar
 
Location: Yonder
Except that the placebo effect DOES work (or at least CAN work). It has been tested and proven to work--enough so that there's concern among the medical community that not controlling for placebo effect in randomized double-blind placebo-controlled studies may be causing an under-reporting of the actual efficacy of tested medicines. It's hard for people to accept, because it doesn't work via any mechanism that medical science can currently explain. But dismissing snake-oil out of hand simply because it's snake-oil begs the question.

"Doc, when the will is invoked, the recuperative powers of the physical body are simply extraordinary. Just give me a couple of hours to get dressed."
--Agent Dale Cooper, Twin Peaks
ratbastid is offline  
 

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76