Copper Bracelet

[Buckhunter55]

Has anyone ever gotten any relief from arthritis using a copper bracelet?

 

[RS_Non-Res]

https://www.google.com/search?q=quackwatch+copper+bracelet

 

[long hunter]

Heard there’s abridge in N.Y. For sale-about the only thing your going to get from a copper bracelet is a green wrist.

 

[Marbles]

I'm sure someone has. Not because they work, but because pain is incredibly complex and very subject to the placebo effect. If you feel better with one, great, us it. KT tape does nothing to stabilize joints, but it makes the brain feel safe and as such will improve range of motion. Nothing wrong with using it, just don't want someone to believe they need it (think Dumbo and the feather). The nock on effect, is that movement and using the joint tends to be what is needed for improved function, so while the tape does nothing physical, it can improve physical outcomes.

 

[nm.otter]

I do love me a good placebo

 

[E.Shell]

I do love me a good placebo

Me too, except the side effects.

 

[RS_Non-Res]

A DO buddy had a patient come in who had been self-treating her skin cancer with "alternative health products" instead of just cutting them off. She had finally given up on the effectiveness of her feelings and decided that it was finally time to try the evil western medicine. Her skin cancer had already metastasized and she died within a few weeks. The most dangerous side effect of using alternative ineffective medicine: it doesn't work.

 

[Marbles]

A DO buddy had a patient come in who had been self-treating her skin cancer with "alternative health products" instead of just cutting them off. She had finally given up on the effectiveness of her feelings and decided that it was finally time to try the evil western medicine. Her skin cancer had already metastasized and she died within a few weeks. The most dangerous side effect of using alternative ineffective medicine: it doesn't work.

Very true. My first instinct is to say there is low risk in the copper bracelet scenario, but that depends. If dealing with osteoarthritis, then low risk. If dealing with rheumatoid arthritis or some other autoimmune arthritis, then failure to treat with DMARDS will lead to being severely crippled. Of course, DMARDS are not the most wonderful drugs, but I would personally put up with the down sides to avoid the long term outcome of untreated rheumatoid.

So, yeah, now I feel my reply was too blasé based on the available information.



The other side of this, is western medicine is still learning. Basing decisions on the best available evidence is all we can do, but we should not fool ourselves into thinking we have all the answers or know things with more certainty than we do. Being scientific means always being open to new information and being willing to abandon previously held positions if indicated. Interestingly, rather than seeing that as a sign of good science, many hold it up is an example of why science shouldn't be trusted. Of course, this is made worse when people try to tie science with belief, because then new information is not just a change in understanding of the physical world, but becomes an assault on the belief system.

Example 1: Aristotle is the authority on science, he says the sun revolves around the earth. The Bible is true, proof that it is true is that the Bible says God stopped the sun in the sky. So, saying the earth revolves around the sun is to say the Bible is not true.

Example 2: Everyone knows life evolved through a slow process, thus God is not real. So, rather than acknowledging the improbability of life's complexity spontaneously evolving, we will talk about monkeys writing Shakespeare, ignoring the mathematical improbability of this, for "scientific integrity" of course. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2773186324001014

Sorry, I will stop running down rabbit holes.

 

[ozyclint]

What do you call alternative medicine that works?


Medicine.

 

[nm.otter]

Everyone knows life evolved through a slow process

Well, not everyone, but I always chuckle when someone replies "But evolution is just a theory."

My latest answer "So are our understandings of gravity."

 

[RS_Non-Res]

The damage done to medicine's credibility over the past several years hurts, but clinically demonstratable ineffectiveness still ought to be pretty strong evidence.

 

[Marbles]

Well, not everyone, but I always chuckle when someone replies "But evolution is just a theory."

My answer "So is gravity."

Gravity is not a theory, it is an observation.

Now, on theories of gravity, do you ascribe to the theories expounded by Aristotle, Epicurus, Leonardo da Vinci, Kepler, or Newton; or perhaps you prefer five dimensional gravitation, general relativity, or quantum gravity (for an abbreviated listed of available theories).

I mean, do you believe in the space time curve or in virtual gravitons? Wait, that question doesn't make sense because people generally don't ascribe belief in that context.

The theories of gravity are explanations for what we observe, ones that should be tested based on each theories ability to predict and should be criticized where each fails to predict or breaks down in describing reality.

I should go punch myself in the face for taking this from copper bracelets to virtual gravitons. I think I really have lost my marbles.

 

[nm.otter]

Point taken, snark corrected.