> EPE has also publish Quack items like Hulla Clarkes 'Zapper' and TENS
units.

I am of the opinion that TENS appears to work for many people (not all) and
that there are reasonable mechanisms postulated for it to do so.

You have to be careful not to throw the baby out with the bathwater.
I agree wholeheartedly about people like RIFE - some may be sincere but
still incorrect.

TENS (transcutanaceous electrical neural stimulation?) basically delivers a
lowish level electric shock with varying voltage, mark space ratio and
frequency to body locations to attempt to block pain.

As I simplistically understand it, the application of a by no means low
level
masking signal causes nerve pain information to be hidden from the brain.
This can be dressed up in much finer language. It is my long personal
experience that various sensation signals can indeed be masked by other
different sensation input. It is POSSIBLE that TENS is entirely Placebo in
affect but I don't believe this is probably the case. A TENS unit can
produce enough output to make you painfuly aware of its presence - they are
usually operated somewhat below this level.

FYI - for one magazine (possibly EPE) their TENS project was the most
popular one they have ever done. Lots of desperate hurting people I guess.

>Most pseudoscientific theories fall away; but some like chiropractic live
>on and actually thrive despite having zero evidence in support.

I am uncomfortable with MUCH of Chiropractic. As a teenager I was compelled
(essentially) to attend a Chiropractor and he was definitely a quack. I
suspect however, not having done the research required to upgrade this to "I
think", that some elements of Chiropractic have merit. I am unaware of
whether there have been any blind studies done (hard to do true double blind
crossover in the normal sense due to the rigorous nature of the
intervention). The course of study here is extremely rigorous and the
practitioners are definitely convinced of the merit of the method. While
this can be said of much else suspect it seems that these people's intimate
knowledge of the lumbar system and ailments alone would make it highly
probable that they had some understanding of what may help.

Even such extreme systems such as Iridology should not be rejected out of
hand without the most careful consideration of the possible mechanisms for
some of their claims to be true.

If all this makes me sound like a headlong alternative medicine advocate,
I'm not. I am an extremely sceptical (= US skeptical :-) ) person in most
areas BUT my scepticism includes not toeing the party line unthinkingly as
well.

For a superb insight into how "received truth" in science can be absolutely
wrong and the battling maverick who takes 40 years to convince the world can
be right, look up the history of the "theory" of Plate Tectonics. The
"discoverer" was hounded and abused by his detractors for some 40 years
until they saw what is now seen as being entirely obvious by anyone who
looks at a world globe. They too may be wrong :-).

>  The bottom
> line seems to be that pseudoscience which treats the 'worried-well'
doesn't
> do much harm.  But that discussion is for another newsgroup, not this one.

Always a worry - or an opportunity ? :-)



        Russell McMahon

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