Science-Based Medicine

Feb 10 2012

AK: Nonsense on Full Automatic

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22 responses so far

22 Responses to “AK: Nonsense on Full Automatic”

1. # gfb1on 10 Feb 2012 at 7:01 am

   um… Marconi?

2. # Cowy1on 10 Feb 2012 at 8:54 am

   Whenever someone brings up quantum mechanics (that is, outside of physics) my eyes start to glass over and I start daydreaming.

3. # phayeson 10 Feb 2012 at 9:09 am

   Blimey! I think Dr. Colyer must’ve studied physics at the same institution as Dr. Charlene Werner. It’s bad enough that most normal physicists don’t get a good enough grounding in modern QM (foundations and interpretation) to realise, for example, that the H.U.P. isn’t actually the appropriate inequality to express complementarity on the measurement side¹. Worse still, those silly and antequated von Neumann-ish ideas about ‘wave function collapse’ and ‘conciousness’ haven’t completely gone away yet.

   Anyway…

   “Given the prior probability of zero that AK would be useful diagnostically or that therapies based on AK would have efficacy, I would be surprised if there were good clinical trials that demonstrated efficacy.”

   Of course the prior probability of AK isn’t really zero – but it may well be small enough to make the probability of a clinical trial demonstrating its efficacy zero.

   ¹ http://www.phys.tue.nl/ktn/Wim/qm12.htm#Martens

4. # windrivenon 10 Feb 2012 at 9:12 am

   “When I hear the word invent, I think of Edison or Macaroni. ”

   Wait … wasn’t Macaroni the angel that brought the tablets to Joseph Smith?

   —

   You know your day is off to a good start when you start laughing with the headline and keep laughing right to the end.

5. # Kimball Atwoodon 10 Feb 2012 at 9:51 am

   I sometimes think the blog should be called Reality Based Medicine.

   During the fall of ’07, when the original Fab Five* were planning this blog, I wanted it to be called “Knowledge-Based Medicine” in order to emphasize the part of science that really matters to most of our content, and to deflect inevitable anti-’science’ (in the complicated, nerdy, techy sense) reactions. But Steve prevailed, and I’ve long since realized that he was right.

   *Novella
   Gorski
   Hall
   Sampson
   Atwood

6. # LovleAnjelon 10 Feb 2012 at 11:52 am

   @phayes

   That link hurt my brain.

   A good standard to go by: If anyone says that they understand QM, they are totally full of crap.

7. # Janet Campon 10 Feb 2012 at 12:25 pm

   Congratulations on the loss of your, er…meridians! I hope you haven’t had to cut back too drastically on the wonderful assortment of ambrosias (beer) produced in Portland and its environs. Milwaukee is catching up (and getting back to its roots), but I still miss Portland.

   I wish I had a buck for every SCAM that was supposed to cure my asthma. The dreaded allergy shots have helped, but there doesn’t seem to be any way to measure this except for the perception of the patient–which I find a bit wooish even though I just love all the attention my allergist heaps on me every time I have to get an epi-pen after a bad shot-reaction.

   I am also enjoying a chapter a day from The Pus Whisperer–which I have been reading over a big bowl of Marconi and cheese while receiving the blessings of the angel Maroni. A pox upon auto-correct!

8. # Zeteticon 10 Feb 2012 at 12:29 pm

   windriven:

   “Wait … wasn’t Macaroni the angel that brought the tablets to Joseph Smith?”

   No… It think it was Moronic!

9. # cervanteson 10 Feb 2012 at 12:58 pm

   Why do they keep having to make up new quackery? What’s wrong with the old nonsense?

10. # windrivenon 10 Feb 2012 at 2:00 pm

    @cervantes

    “Why do they keep having to make up new quackery? What’s wrong with the old nonsense?”

    Because suckers never quit. When one tries, say, tincture of horse dung and find that it doesn’t work, their take-home isn’t that CAM is nonsense, it is that they simply haven’t tried the right CAM. Maybe placing the entrails of a mouse on the keyboard of their PC at moonrise will work better. Don’t laugh. How do you know it won’t work? You science types are so closed-minded.

11. # David Gorskion 10 Feb 2012 at 4:06 pm

    During the fall of ’07, when the original Fab Five* were planning this blog, I wanted it to be called “Knowledge-Based Medicine” in order to emphasize the part of science that really matters to most of our content, and to deflect inevitable anti-’science’ (in the complicated, nerdy, techy sense) reactions. But Steve prevailed, and I’ve long since realized that he was right.

    I don’t know. I might well join Mark Crislip in agitating to change the name of this blog to “Reality-Based Medicine.” After all, if there’s one principle that underlies the vast majority of CAM, it’s that wishing makes it so!

12. # Quillon 10 Feb 2012 at 4:56 pm

    I think I have discovered the cause of obesity: the last century has seen a marked increase in the number of pathways by which SCAM modalities function: all the meridians of the various forms of acupuncture, the connections of reflexology, of iridology, and now of AK, and more are crammed into one small volume of flesh and blood. Since a major aspect of SCAM the faux understanding that wishing it so makes it so, they are responsible for the proliferation of formerly imaginary pathways in the human body and they only way for all these pathways to fit is for the people to get larger. The way I lost weight was to quit believing in acupuncture, and when the meridians faded I lost 45 lbs.

    Mon dieu! This may rank as the most important pseudoscientific discovery of the post-modern Ozian Era. The use of too many SCAM modalities causes most health problems including obesity. Demeridianization, accomplished by de-wishing neural nets of all overlapping beliefs in non-reality-based medicine-like practices will not only make one slim and trim but also cure a host of other problems such as wallet shrinkage. In addition, the removal of this kind of information from the brain will, via quantum effects, cause a bowel wave collapse that will cure IBS, constipation, halitosis and all body odor.

13. # David Gorskion 10 Feb 2012 at 4:56 pm

    BTW, Mark, if you like AK, you’ll love Dietrich Klinghardt’s AK on steroids. He calls it…autonomic resonance testing (ART).

    Believe it or not, ART is even sillier than AK. I know, I know, it’s hard to believe anything could be sillier than AK, but ART really is.

14. # Mark Crislipon 10 Feb 2012 at 4:59 pm

    I never imagined I would see the phrase “bowel wave collapse”
    LOL

15. # Quillon 10 Feb 2012 at 5:13 pm

    

    I heard that bowel wave collapse, before it was fleshed & flushed out by Demeridianization and quantum effects, was John Harvey Kellog’s greatest achievement or his biggest fear.

16. # Jann Bellamyon 10 Feb 2012 at 5:49 pm

    From the Palmer Chiropractic College website:

    “Applied Kinesiology (AK) Club
    The Applied Kinesiology (AK) Club was founded to discuss the fundamental principles of applied kinesiology. The development of applied kinesiology was concentrated on correcting structural imbalances caused by muscles that were functioning poorly. It is based on muscle testing as a functional neurological evaluation. The club meets to discuss the history and the techniques involved in this principle.”

    http://www.palmer.edu/TechniqueClubs/

17. # lizditzon 10 Feb 2012 at 10:40 pm

    When you tweet a lot about autism, as I do, you get…autism $CAM.

    http://www.endfatigue.com/Treating-autism-with-naet.html

    Developed in 1983 by Devi S. Nambudripad, MD, PhD, L.Ac., DC, Nambudripad Allergy Elimination Technique, or “NAET,” is a non-invasive, drug-free, alternative therapy for allergy elimination that uses a combination of acupressure, allopathy, chiropractic methods, nutrition and kinesiology to identify specific allergens and desensitize patients to them. Dr. Nambudripad has trained over 10,000 licensed medical practitioners in the protocol.

    NAET theory holds that many illnesses are caused by undiagnosed allergies, and that many conditions can improve with allergy desensitization, including sinusitis, ADHD, eczema, fatigue, arthritis, autism, depression and asthma.

    New Study: Treating Autism with NAET

    A new research study titled “Improving Communication Skills in Children With Allergy-related Autism Using Nambudripad’s Allergy Elimination Techniques: A Pilot Study” was recently published in Integrative Medicine — A Clinician’s Journal. Funded by The Teitelbaum Family Foundation and involving 60 autistic children, the study shows the efficacy of NAET as a treatment for autism.

    Autism profiteers are disgusting.

18. # SkepticalHealthon 10 Feb 2012 at 10:49 pm

    Much love for @lizditz!

19. # PJLandison 10 Feb 2012 at 10:58 pm

    Is there a post anyone on here addressing the misuse of Quantum Mechanics in alternative and new agey thinking? It seems to be a common explanation for anything that doesn’t make sense. Then again, perhaps theoretical physics is not the forte of the standard writers here.

20. # papertrailon 11 Feb 2012 at 3:58 am

    “I don’t know. I might well join Mark Crislip in agitating to change the name of this blog …”

    Nooooo, I’ve been spreading the word about importance of “science-based medicine” for years now and the term is becoming synonymous with credible evidence, so please don’t change it. Reality based is good too but it won’t impact the SCAMmers who believe you create your own reality, and so their claims, they’d argue, are reality based too. Dr. Novella was a genius to come up with “science-based medicine”. SBM. Works for me.

21. # BillyJoeon 11 Feb 2012 at 6:24 am

    papertrail,

    “it won’t impact the SCAMmers who believe you create your own reality”

    You took the words right out of my mouth. Spot on.

22. # Kimball Atwoodon 12 Feb 2012 at 10:35 am

    Is there a post anyone on here addressing the misuse of Quantum Mechanics in alternative and new agey thinking?

    Several of us have mentioned this in one place or another, but I can’t remember a post that is entirely about it. You are also correct that theoretical physics is not the forte of the writers here. Nevertheless, most of us have read things by real physicists that address the topic, because such discussions are key parts of modern skeptical thinking. For example:

    http://www.csicop.org/si/show/quantum_quackery/