4 ms·

"Do you know what they call alternative medicine that works? Medicine." If only I knew where I heard this. Edit: I'm fairly certain it came from House or Pe

by daeken 16y ago

"Do you know what they call alternative medicine that works? Medicine." If only I knew where I heard this. Edit: I'm fairly certain it came from House or Penn and Teller's Bullshit. Can anyone say one way or another?

davebert 16y ago
Tim Minchin's 10 minute beat poem "Storm" has this line in it.
- daeken 16y ago
  Hmm, very interesting. I've never read this, but it's entirely possible that the source I heard it from got it from there.
DaveChild 16y ago
It's from Tim Minchin, in his poem "Storm". It's on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ujUQn0HhGEk http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ujUQn0HhGEk
RK 16y ago
I've always seen terms like alternative, complementary, or integrative medicine as akin to the terms creation science and intelligent design. Basically, designed to present a false dichotomy of equals with the legitimate paradigms.
dkimball 16y ago
On the other hand, it can take a long time for ideas to be accepted. Even Pasteur was a radical in his day; and I can't find him on Wikipedia, but there was a French doctor who introduced the idea of washing one's hands -- I think in carbolic acid? -- before delivering a child. This worked very well; but the doctors thought it was a nuisance and produced no benefit, and kicked him out. I'm not defending homeopathy, which I'm pretty deeply suspicious of; it _might_ merit further investigation, but homeopathic medicines certainly shouldn't be sold as medicines until they start performing a whole lot better than they have so far. I just want to point out that the medical field, and most scientific fields, are resistant to adopting new ideas even when those ideas do work. Another example of that slowness: post-traumatic stress disorder, which was only accepted by the APA in DSM-IV (1980) after a long struggle.

4 ms·

"Do you know what they call alternative medicine that works? Medicine." If only I knew where I heard this. Edit: I'm fairly certain it came from House or Pe

by daeken 16y ago

davebert 16y ago
Tim Minchin's 10 minute beat poem "Storm" has this line in it.
- daeken 16y ago
  Hmm, very interesting. I've never read this, but it's entirely possible that the source I heard it from got it from there.
DaveChild 16y ago
It's from Tim Minchin, in his poem "Storm". It's on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ujUQn0HhGEk http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ujUQn0HhGEk
RK 16y ago
I've always seen terms like alternative, complementary, or integrative medicine as akin to the terms creation science and intelligent design. Basically, designed to present a false dichotomy of equals with the legitimate paradigms.
dkimball 16y ago
On the other hand, it can take a long time for ideas to be accepted. Even Pasteur was a radical in his day; and I can't find him on Wikipedia, but there was a French doctor who introduced the idea of washing one's hands -- I think in carbolic acid? -- before delivering a child. This worked very well; but the doctors thought it was a nuisance and produced no benefit, and kicked him out. I'm not defending homeopathy, which I'm pretty deeply suspicious of; it _might_ merit further investigation, but homeopathic medicines certainly shouldn't be sold as medicines until they start performing a whole lot better than they have so far. I just want to point out that the medical field, and most scientific fields, are resistant to adopting new ideas even when those ideas do work. Another example of that slowness: post-traumatic stress disorder, which was only accepted by the APA in DSM-IV (1980) after a long struggle.