don't know squat about the effectiveness of homeopathic treatments
You mean the ones that are watered down until they have nothing but water in them? They... work like placebos?
It's herbal, not homeopathic - the study is with it in gel form at 50% concentration.
2: It was in the Homeopathic Treatments section at Whole Paychecks. Does that count for anything?
But the NHS will pay for placebos apparently.
The diluted bullshit kind that is.
The diluted bullshit kind that is.
I have meta-hate on this. Mega-diluted homeopathic treatments - what I learned 'homeopathic' meant - are silly and worthy of a flavor of scorn. The fact that random herbal crap - more likely than diluted things to be actively bad for you! - is also now labeled as 'homeopathic' makes me nuts. Don't the purveyors of crap style #1 have some turf to defend here?
8: what? Really? That's horrendous and assy. Horrendassy.
I find that homeopathic remedies do an excellent job of cleaning out toxins.
7 s/b "Actually, I rather like placebos."
10: Because that's what drinking water does?
As long as I'm ranting, unspecified discussion of 'toxins' is also worthy of some hate, and a good sign of modern-day snake oil.
13: No way, man, too many toxins will bollox up your chi.
application of topical arnica had no better effect than a placebo in the treatment of laser-induced bruising.
The tragic scourge of laser bruising persists unchecked.
Although I understand that a one-part-per-trillion dilution of mandrake root makes an excellent remedy for bolloxed chi.
Someday, my ex will bust me for failing to give the herbal remedy (Echidnea, I think it's called) that I purportedly must give the kid. Until then, no placebos for you!
I just learned about this herbal remedy.
Maybe echinacea? Echidnas are weird porcupine-anteater hybrids.
I was sure there'd be more Arne Duncan jokes in these comments.
Echidnas are way more interesting than Arne Duncan.
Someone should start a band called Homoepathic Platypus.
My mom swears by arnica cream, and whenever she's searching for the name of it, I supply "annikin" because I'm a jerk.
Arnica skywalker is the one that uses the Force.
Echidnas are way more interesting than Arne Duncan.
Though I've heard that Duncan also has a four-headed penis and no nipples.
I like to think that apo can describe the shape of any animal's penis without even having to google anything.
I'll bet Sigurður Hjartarson can do that.
32: Oh man, that place sounds awesome.
Next Christmas I'm getting homeopathic gifts for all my friends. They'll just be empty boxes, but I figure they'll be grateful when I explain that they're just really diluted versions of one actual gift, and therefore better.
Here... its one quadrillionth of a Ferrari!
At his next gig the author of this post could announce a new work 'Homeopathy', then just sit there for, say, four and a half minutes.
Where did I just read about the phallic museum? I assumed, of course, that it was here. It was a story that someone is writing a novel called "The Last Member" about the museum and the search for specimens to complete the collection.
That's odd- when I try to google it (iceland penis museum "the last member" novel) the search terms are automatically expanded to include results containing "Dick" in addition to "penis." Has google ever publicized that search engine behavior?
I'm too old to think about tumblrs.
That's ok essear, teo was just alluding to xkcd.
I like to think that apo can describe the shape of any animal's penis without even having to google anything.
I was extremely pleased earlier in the week, last week, or perhaps over the weekend to learn of the (plant) genus Amorphophallus.
That's ok essear, teo was just alluding to xkcd.
I noticed someone else doing it in a recent thread (though I now forget who or any of the details), so I figured it was okay.
I would like to note for the record that the fact that neb recognized the allusion implies that he reads xkcd even when I don't link to it.
Anyway, here's a comic that's actually relevant to the thread.
Maybe echinacea? Echidnas are weird porcupine-anteater hybrids.
...That lay eggs! Echidnas are amazing.
2: It's sold in homeopathic "doses" as well.
I've used the gel on bruises to help them heal faster and even prevent them from developing fully.
If it comes as a pill in a blue bottle, it's homeopathic. They have creams gels, and oils with actual arnica in them, but apparently some of the gels are homeopathic. I don't know whether 1x8% just means that it's 8% by volume or weight (boericke and tafel's product). But then there's Boiron's Arnicare which says that it's "Arnica montana 1X HPUS-7%". Apparently HPUS means that it's officially included in the Homeopathic Pharmacopeia of the United States.
This one actually has stuff in it.
IIRC, there are double-blind studies of echinacea, and it does work, slightly and for short periods. The EMA approved it for colds. Taking it for longer periods of time doesn't work, though.
When my son has a cold, I just give him coca leave to chew on. Perks him right up!
I've use Arnica Montana for neck pain and found it provided relief but only for about an hour. Anecdata!
I've used arnica gels for kickboxing bruises. I can't really say if it worked or not as I was never consistent about using it. Anecdotally, I think probably not.
I wonder how they do placebo controlled trials on herbal pills, since they tend to have odors that are somewhat distinctive. If you put echinacea gel caps and regular sugar pills next to eachother, you could tell which was which. You'd need, I think, to make special placebo pills.
...That lay eggs! Echidnas are amazing.
You can see where this is heading - first birds turn out to be dinosaurs, next porcupines turn out to be birds, and hence dinosaurs, pretty soon we're dinosaurs! Dogs and cats living together! Anarchy! Don't let Big Cladistics overturn millenia of tradition!
I was just having a conversation with somebody about herbal remedies (since I am prone to taking echinacea supplements when I feel a cold coming on, and like adding essential oils to my bath).
My position is, basically, is that there's a specturm and that for some herbal/natural treatments I have no doubt that they do something (which might or might be better than the alternatives, but at least is active) -- for example, I have no doubt that Tea Tree, Lemon, or Oregano oils are antiseptic. Putting Tea Tree and Lemon oil on a cut will make it less likely to get infected. I have no doubt that eating large amounts of ginger or turmeric has mild but noticeable anti-inflammatory effects, etc . . .
But for the majority of treatments I wouldn't be shocked to find out that they didn't do anything. I use arnica on sore muscles, and I think it helps, but I couldn't promise that it does. I think that some echinacea supplements seem to help and others don't seem to do anything which could mean that they're all useless and I'm just getting a placebo affect from the ones that I think work, or it could mean that certain preparations are more affective that others. I couldn't tell you.
But I do believe that, as a category, "herbal remedies" do have some value.
"Herbals, better than nothing, sometimes." Compelling stuff.
We tried to visit the phallic museum several years ago. Found the address, but no sign of the institution. But then, it was awfully cold out, so perhaps that was to be expected.
Before we came to tea,
I took a natural remedy
Derived from the bark of a willow tree
A painkiller that's virtually side-effect free
It's got a weird name,
Darling, what was it again?
Masprin?
Basprin?
Asprin!
Which I paid about a buck for
Down at my local drugstore.
"Herbals, better than nothing, sometimes." Compelling stuff.
Sure, I guess my advice is that if you dislike them, if you dislike the smells or the feel or the general weirdness of them, than feel free to not bother. If you like messing around with random herbal applications than the odds are you will find some that work for you and provide benefit (and I don't believe that benefit is imaginary).
Huh, there was an article that I read (I think in the Atlantic) years ago, which used to be online and I can't find currently. It was by the author of Eve's Herbs talking about why he started researching the history of herbal birth control.
He said that his wife had [at least one] miscarriage and that at some point he was listening to the radio and heard the Nirvana song, "Pennyroyal Tea" which included the lyric "I sit and drink Pennyroyal Tea / Still the life that's inside of me." And suddenly wondered whether the fact that his wife liked Pennyroyal tea, for the taste, and drank it regularly had any connection to her miscarriage.
So, as an example of the effectiveness of herbal remedies, I wouldn't encourage anybody to rely on them as a method of birth control, but they do work, and are not just placebos, and there is long history of their use.
Seriously? I don't know anything about herbs and I know what pennyroyal's supposed to do. That's largely what gives me the creeps about herbal remedies -- either they're ineffective, or they're effective and being used without proper information.
I was under the impression that pennyroyal wasn't merely an abortifacient but a straight-up poison (to the adult drinker, that is). Maybe it's just a question of dosage, though. To wikipedia!
Pennyroyal essential oil is extremely concentrated. It should never be taken internally because it is highly toxic; even in small doses, consumption of the oil can result in death.
There you have it, folks.
Silphium was sufficiently prized as an abortifacient in the ancient world that it was driven to extinction. I assume it wasn't just a placebo.
Silphium was sufficiently prized as an abortifacient in the ancient world that it was driven to extinction. I assume it wasn't just a placebo.
That sounds speculative - Wikipedia says the main theories are overgrazing and overharvesting. If the preamble to Roe v. Wade didn't steer me wrong, the ancients were not exactly pro-lifers.
Silphium was sufficiently prized as an abortifacient in the ancient world that it was driven to extinction. I assume it wasn't just a placebo.
That sounds speculative - Wikipedia says the main theories are overgrazing and overharvesting. If the preamble to Roe v. Wade didn't steer me wrong, the ancients were not exactly pro-lifers.
I think the idea is that it was driven to extinction by overharvesting by people who wanted to use it, not by people opposed to its use, if you see what I mean.
65 is correct, I think. As is 64.last.
Pennyroyal essential oil is extremely concentrated. It should never be taken internally because it is highly toxic;
There's a big difference between essential oil and tea. The tea is a well known abortifacient. We don't want to lose this knowledge--looks like ladies are going to need it.
68: sure, I can see how there'd be a big difference in potency. I was just trying to establish whether my memory that it is/could also be fatally toxic to adults was correct. (For all I know, something could be an abortifacient without really being dangers to the abortion-haver at all, even in higher concentrations/other forms.)
Pennyroyal is also an insect repellent. I learned that from The Country of the Pointed Firs.
For all I know, something could be an abortifacient without really being dangers to the abortion-haver at all
As far as I know, all the herbal versions are pretty dangerous, and the other home remedies are things like throwing yourself downstairs. So no good alternatives.
As far as I know, all the herbal versions are pretty dangerous
From what I could tell from some research I did a few years ago, it seems like less danger corresponds to less effectiveness. Drinking extreme quantities of concentrated tea made from parsley is traditional for "bringing on your period" and isn't particularly dangerous, but it's also not super effective.
72 for things you ingest, anyway. Throwing yourself down the stairs is pretty dangerous, but not that likely to cause miscarriage, at least not in the first trimester.
Throwing yourself down the stairs is extremely difficult to do, unless you have the proper baronial resources.
74: If done with sufficient force, it will.
But it still has a poor danger:effectiveness ratio.
If by falling down the stairs you manage to do yourself direct and severe abdominal injury. So bellyflopping down the stairs, maybe?
Drinking extreme quantities of concentrated tea made from parsley is traditional for "bringing on your period" and isn't particularly dangerous, but it's also not super effective.
Tea made from European pennyroyal is traditional east of the pond. It works, too, as several friends can attest. However extreme care not to overdose is recommended.
Lord Castock's presents will only be homeopathic if the emptiness found inside represents a vast dilution of whatever the opposite of a gift is. If you're curing rash homeopathically, you ultradilute something that gives you the rash.
The guy who invented it disapproved of allopathic medicine, which meant dosing you up on various big-effect potions that pushed your symptoms in what doctors of the day considered a different and therefore surely healthy direction. He thought allopathic medicine just added poisoning to illness: it wasn't curative at all. As it was the late 18th century, he was probably not entirely wrong about the poisoning aspect; water (and no doctors) really would have been better for some patients at that date.
We don't want to lose this knowledge
79: My God, you're right. What's the opposite of a gift? I'll have to give everybody really tiny fragments of Yanni: Live at the Acropolis.
I am sad about this thread. Is there nothing -- nothing -- to be said for herbal remedies of any kind at all? Any time? The kombucha green tea I've just taken up again for breakfast does wonders.
I admit that homeopathy makes me laugh; but I don't have much acquaintance with it. A friend was once ingesting tiny diluted flakes of some dead guy's skin to treat her psoriasis homeopathically. Well, okay then! I, uh, find that interesting, and can say nothing further.
I would be surprised if it were easy to come up with a criterion for herbness (that wasn't just a test for membership in a set) that excluded green tea.
Is there nothing -- nothing -- to be said for herbal remedies of any kind at all?
Wait . . . what? I think this mis-characterizes my position (or, in other words, "what am I, chopped liver garlic?").
I would be surprised if it were easy to come up with a criterion for herbness (that wasn't just a test for membership in a set) that excluded green tea.
While true, the term "herbal tea" is often used to denote blends of herbs which do not contain caffeine.
Anyway, in response to 82, it seems as if one thing to be said for herbal remedies, said in this very thread, is that they can be abortifacients.
I turn up my nose at the term "herbal tea", because, of course, tea is made of tea. I admit that the many use the phrase "herbal tea" to refer to tisanes.
But the idea that Blume might have been denying the herbality of green tea in the colloquial sense of "herbal tea" honestly had not occurred to me at all.
I thoguht herbal tea in the colloquial sense meant that no camellia sinensis was to be found.
Blume says: "when people talk about tea they talk about black tea, green tea and herbal tea".
90: Maybe I beat you, only speaking less clearly. We shouldn't forget about white tea!
They also talk about white tea and sometimes about red tea, but (as I said) I thought Blume was denying that green tea is herbal in the sense of "herbal" in which it appears in "herbal remedies", not the sense of "herbal" in which it appears in "herbal tea".
There's also Mormon tea, Labrador tea, Navajo tea, etc., none of which are "tea" in the narrow sense.
"Mormon tea" is just tea that you've discreetly added some booze to, I assume.
What's the opposite of a gift?
A tax.
Also, "iced" tea.
[That's just an excuse for me to make the marginally relevant comment that I seem to have a great deal of trouble ordering iced tea around here. The last two times I tried it, I was 1) told they didn't serve it, at which point I asked for a regular black tea and was given a latte a few minutes later and 2) given iced "passion" tea, which I didn't even know existed, after ordering iced black tea. And no, neither of those were other people's orders.]
What's the opposite of a gift?
An antidote.
81: I was thinking, you go steal a miniscule amount of stuff from the "recipient" and give them a card saying that is what you've done.
There's also Enmi Tea, which one serves to guests one wishes to usher out.
It's really hard to find good enh mi in restaurants.
Comsometimes about red tea
Aka commie-tea.
Of course, as an anarchist, I only drink herbal tea. (Made with 99.999% pure dihydrogen monoxide.)
Mormon tea is actually ephedra, which the Mormons took to drinking instead of tea because Mormonism forbids caffeine but not ephedrine.
I used to think I was unique for choosing to drink tea only from the Banali region, but it turns out practically everyone drinks it.
This topic really provides Stanley with a lot of material, doesn't it?
The tea I was served last weekend definitively confirmed that Maryland is a southern state.
82: There are lots of herbal remedies that aren't homeopathy. Their attested, and actually tested, effectiveness varies widely, and in some cases it's hard to say what is or isn't placebo effect. I personally would attest that echinacea has worked for me, repeatedly, as a preventative cold remedy in a way that I couldn't say of anything else except heavy dosing with vitamin C (which actually isn't advisable to do more than very occasionally).
107: They had slaves. That's gotta count for something.
heavy dosing with vitamin C (which actually isn't advisable to do more than very occasionally).
Why not? Don't you just piss out all the extra?
104: oddly, Mormon meth is Jolt Cola.
Fall tea towers above the rest.
98: "Remember when I trapped you into a ten-minute conversation about the merits of Steve Albini's approach to music production? That's roughly a four-millionth of your expected lifespan, gone forever. You're welcome."
110: The story I've heard is that persistently consuming vitamin C supplements in large quantities can lead to kidney stones, but the Google Fairy informs me that this wisdom may be out of date. It looks like the worst thing currently believed people is nausea and diarrhea; not as bad as kidney stones, but I'm not a fan of either of those either.
111: I was just thinking after I posted that that the obvious implication is that meth is in fact permissible for Mormons.
"currently believed people" s/b "currently believed possible"
115: Many people in the radical scene are in thrall to that Emergen-C stuff, but it indeed gives me very unfortunate gastrointestinal side effects.
118: There's a brunch place here that does Emergin-C drinks. The regular stuff plus gin. It sounds toxic.
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Dullest NCAA tournament of all time? Too bad I missed the Syracuse-Wisconsin game.
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It's really hard to find good enh mi in restaurants.
YOU STILL GO TO RESTAQURABTS?> IN A WORLD WITH A TASTY, ECONOMICALLY FAR MORE EFFICIENT FOOD TRUCK ON EVERY CORNER? HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
Snake Oil, from the folks at Information is Beautiful.
122 is pretty awesome, though looking at it may itself produce anxiety.
Aka commie-tea.
Aka Chai-Com.a
"Remember when I trapped you into a ten-minute conversation about the merits of Steve Albini's approach to music production? That's roughly a four-millionth of your expected lifespan, gone forever. You're welcome."
If only all those dudes in college had the cards, I would have been more clued in to the great gifts they were giving me!
This thread's dead, but it's nominally medical, so I'll ask this here. Does anyone know any good techniques for improving performance under pressure and avoiding choking? I'm speaking of sports and competitive games here. And this is for a friend. No really, it is. Shut up.