However, there is a difference, I think, between letting placebo-effect things be and putting up with bad/dangerous psuedo-science. IIRC, homeopathy "doctors" advise against vaccinations, etc. And the problem with psuedo-science is that the public is often fooled into thinking it is real science.
Plus there is the matter of the cost involved. I'm all for *cheap* placebo effects. But the benefit cannot hope to match the cost for some of these things.
Quoting DrAlex from 21:03, 8th Nov 2007Quoting Frank from 16:26, 8th Nov 2007
I know my next door neighbour is quite convinced of the efficacy of acupuncture, and my mother swears by homeopathy, but I can't see for the life of me how any of them are any more practically useful than a massage or similar 'soothing' "therapy".
Regarding acupuncture, there's a characteristic of the nervous system called the fast/slow gate pain response. Basically, some impulses are transmitted faster to the brain than others (ever pulled your hand away from a hot water tap only to realise that it wasn't that hot?). Next time you have a headache, pinch yourself sharply for a few seconds. You won't notice your head. This system has been suggested as a possible mechanism for reported relief felt from acupuncture.
Regarding the placebo effect gained from alternative medicines, if the placebo effect gives very real relief to people suffering, why do (some of) you feel the need to pull the rug out from under them?
"Oooh this homoeopathic treatment really makes me feel better with these chemo side effects."
"You tool, it's all placebo effect, lolz. Stop feeling better. Your treatment's bad and you should feel bad."
There's something kind of mean spirited about that.
[hr]
The Sinner: Where no one ever learned "if you haven't got any thing nice to say, don't say anything at all."
[hr]
Neither the storms of crisis, nor the breezes of ambition could ever divert him, either by hope or by fear, from the course that he had chosen
