Read some research to-day
First a couple to be read for their appallingly biased approach. Know your enemy
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/series/badscience
http://www.medicinescomplete.com/journals/fact/current/index.htm
My inclusion of the second which is often regarded and included as a friend is not a mistake, as with much research it is mostly unread, if you read this publication I think any unbiased reader would quickly come to the conclusion that it is heavily biased against complementary medicine.
The usual argument put forward by this group is that there is little or no good research into complementary medicine and that complementary therapists don't do any quality research. There is excellent research into complementary medicine but most therapists don't read it and these people rely on that or expect that reading extracts like this from supposed friends we give up thinking there is no other. In some instances if you read the original research they have even altered the emphasis, a totally unscientific approach.
Please start reading research because we need to be able to refute these oft repeated untruths.
There is plenty of highly dubious research into all science let alone medicine so first of all sharpen up your critical skills.
In my own area there is a constant stream of enquiry into subjects like the most effective treatments for ‘low back pain’ and ‘frozen shoulder’ this is the equivalent of asking which is more economical a red or a black car. I don’t even read such stupidity any more either of these conditions have a multitude of causes and until you have isolated a cause, no treatment has any chance of being universally appropriate to your study group.
Another ‘study I have had quoted to me on three occasions is that which took as its starting point an identifiable group who’s sciatica all responded to a pain killing injection into the sacro/iliac joint. This seems great until it’s pointed out that there are no nerves within a joint so that for this to have worked the pain must have been caused by damaged bones [a choice of about six] or have escaped the joint capsule and been effecting the muscles [a choice of about fifteen] or have been combinations of these effects.
So first of all sharpen up your critical skills.
Depending on what you want to know about here are some starting points.
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/sections/complementary_medicine/
http://nccam.nih.gov/research/results/
http://journals.elsevierhealth.com/periodicals/ymmt
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=15207480&dopt=AbstractPlus
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/carpaltunnelsyndrome.html
Honestly there is so much research and from such unexpected quarters http://www.neurologyindia.com is a favourite because it often covers stuff that interests me.
Find the time and go read and lets help each other here by putting in really good links here.
Yours aye Mike
| Mike Colquhoun Mar 19 2008 3:48PM | Back again because I failed to point out that to copy a link you only need highlight the text and then press ctrl+c and to patse it ctrl+V saves hours of laborious copying out.
Have fun Mike |
| Angela Rawlins Aug 11 2008 4:41PM | Thanks Michael
I'll certainly have a look. Looked at your previous post!!!!!!!!! Sounds like he is in need of one himself! |