Bad Back issues & Bowen Treatment

Originally posted by bustinben You can know. A placebo controlled double blind trial does just that.  You take a large enough group of people, you randomise them into two groups, you subject half to the treatment, half to a pretence at the treatment.  You measure the outcomes and you apply the proper statistical methods to verify that your result didn't happen by chance. http://i-base.info/ttfa/8-clinical-trials-and-research/8-7-randomised-double-blind-placebo-controlled-trials/ Double blinding is not always possible depending on the treatment in question, but it's the standard that should be aspired to. I'm genuinely interested in how you know that what you feel in your own body is not placebo.  You'd be the first person in history to be able to do that.  The placebo effect is amazing, strange, and incredibly effective seeing as it is basically nothing.   Red pills are more effective than white ones, how much you pay changes the amount of pain relief you feel, placebo injections are more effective than placebo pills, but neither are as effective as placebo operations... All of these things have been measured properly in repeatable studies.

Apart from the fact that when the results of the "Gold Standard" placebo controlled trial are published the good and the great of the medical profession will not agree on the results and argue for and against the outcomes, should have been done this way, or that way, sample size not big enough, not in western europe, average age too high, why did they exclude group A, B etc and why did they include group C, D etc and on and on and on.....

I've seen it too many times to believe there is not doubt in every set of data, and to be honest most medics seem to rely on the experiences of their patients. Don't care what the data says, if it works for their patients they will continue to use it...

There are also widely publicized campaigns based on zero data. For example 5 portions of fruit and veg a day, I doubt there is a person in the UK who hasn't heard that and most probably believe it is backed by extensive data, fact is it's just a made up number to encourage us all to eat more fruit and veg.

Originally posted by iGRF It wasn't so long ago folk regarded Osteopathy in the same manner, personally I still do, the relief it brings for me is only temporary and the following day you end up feeling worse. This Bowen things is as much about the way it is delivered as what it is that is being delivered, so until you try it you'll never know. As for logic trolls, you are never going to convince them of anything other than that you have responded to the booming resonance of their self righteous disaproval. So tell them it's time to play a game of f**k off and they should go first..

It wasn't so long ago folk regarded Osteopathy in the same manner, personally I still do, the relief it brings for me is only temporary and the following day you end up feeling worse.

This Bowen things is as much about the way it is delivered as what it is that is being delivered, so until you try it you'll never know.

As for logic trolls, you are never going to convince them of anything other than that you have responded to the booming resonance of their self righteous disaproval.

So tell them it's time to play a game of f**k off and they should go first..

Edited by iGRF - 21 Dec 15 at 4:47pm

Originally posted by turnturtle Originally posted by bustinben   There's a name for alternative medicines that have gone through this process and have been proven to work...  medicine. if there's a antonym for Godwin's Law on the internet, then it's probably paraphrasing Tim Minchin.

Edited by bustinben - 21 Dec 15 at 4:33pm

Originally posted by turnturtle If it worked for him, and he's convinced, then it worked - albeit in an isolated case.