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Toucan
New Member
3 Posts |
 Posted - 08/02/2002 : 16:43:54
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I just visited my brother last week and found out he is spending tons of his hard earned money on a quack doctor scam. He is buying herbs, bottles of liquid goop, etc, etc to get his body in sync. He claims he got rid of 215 gall stones with some liquid flush. How he came up with that number is beyond me. Anyway, the "doctor" has him hold his arm out at shoulder length and puts his hand on the wrist. He then holds sugar, bannanas or any food in his other hand and puts it near his stomach and asks him "does your body like this" and puts downward force on the arm. If the arm stays up thats a yes, if the arm comes down thats a no. Its so freakin unbelieveable to me that he is burning tons of money on quackery. Please point me to a web site or somewhere I can get info about this nonsense so I can educate this degreed engineer.. Thank you.... Sad Brother
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Lars_H
SFN Regular
Germany
630 Posts |
Posted - 08/02/2002 : 17:26:31 [Permalink]
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The gall stone thing sound like an old trick using snake-oil or oilve-oil and ignorance of basic chemistry to get people to count chips of soap in their own shit and pay out a lot of money.
Try the Quackwatch homepage for more information about Quackery. You are bound to find some info on the stuff you have described there, too.
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Gorgo
SFN Die Hard
USA
5311 Posts |
Posted - 08/02/2002 : 19:01:15 [Permalink]
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Yeah, do a search for Hulda Clark at Quackwatch. Be sure to get on the Quackwatch mailing list. Archives at http://www.ssr.com
Be sure to check out http://www.skepdic.com as well. The arm thing is called "Applied Kinesiology." http://www.quackwatch.com/01QuackeryRelatedTopics/Tests/ak.html
quote:
I just visited my brother last week and found out he is spending tons of his hard earned money on a quack doctor scam. He is buying herbs, bottles of liquid goop, etc, etc to get his body in sync.
"Not one human life should be expended in this reckless violence called a war against terrorism." - Howard Zinn |
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Toucan
New Member
3 Posts |
Posted - 08/05/2002 : 08:49:13 [Permalink]
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Thank you very much for the assistance. I plan on getting to the bottom of this BS and giving him an education.
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Gorgo
SFN Die Hard
USA
5311 Posts |
Posted - 08/05/2002 : 08:52:22 [Permalink]
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Good luck. Most folks don't want to hear it, but he may be one that hears what you say. My friends have spent thousands of dollars on this kind of crap.
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Thank you very much for the assistance. I plan on getting to the bottom of this BS and giving him an education.
"Not one human life should be expended in this reckless violence called a war against terrorism." - Howard Zinn |
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Gorgo
SFN Die Hard
USA
5311 Posts |
Posted - 08/05/2002 : 08:53:56 [Permalink]
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Take the liver flush stuff, put it in a bowl and leave it a day, and they tell me it looks the same as the "stones" that people find in their poop when they drink this stuff.
"Not one human life should be expended in this reckless violence called a war against terrorism." - Howard Zinn |
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Snake
SFN Addict
USA
2511 Posts |
Posted - 08/05/2002 : 15:24:03 [Permalink]
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quote:
I just visited my brother last week and found out he is spending tons of his hard earned money on a quack doctor scam. He is buying herbs, bottles of liquid goop, etc, etc to get his body in sync. He claims he got rid of 215 gall stones with some liquid flush. How he came up with that number is beyond me. Anyway, the "doctor" has him hold his arm out at shoulder length and puts his hand on the wrist. He then holds sugar, bannanas or any food in his other hand and puts it near his stomach and asks him "does your body like this" and puts downward force on the arm. If the arm stays up thats a yes, if the arm comes down thats a no. Its so freakin unbelieveable to me that he is burning tons of money on quackery. Please point me to a web site or somewhere I can get info about this nonsense so I can educate this degreed engineer.. Thank you.... Sad Brother
Dr. Dean Edell at http://www.healthcentral.com, the man is a genus, IMO besides being a non believer (I think he's an atheist but don't want to go that far to assume it). He has a nation wide radio show from San Francisco. He debunks those kinds of medical scams.
BTW, you are serious, aren't you? You aren't joking are you? No intelligent person really thinks what your brother is doing is sound medical procedure, do they? Unless we aren't being told all the facts, it sounds strange.
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*Carabao forever
*SAN FERNANDO VALLEY SECESSION - YES
*All lives are movie settings, it's what channel you're on that counts. Zatikia
*Just because I don't care, doesn't mean I don't understand.
Homer Jaye S. |
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Gorgo
SFN Die Hard
USA
5311 Posts |
Posted - 08/05/2002 : 16:50:38 [Permalink]
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Can't speak for this person, but I'll guarantee you that millions are made on this kind of scam and worse.
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Unless we aren't being told all the facts, it sounds strange.
"Not one human life should be expended in this reckless violence called a war against terrorism." - Howard Zinn |
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Toucan
New Member
3 Posts |
Posted - 08/05/2002 : 17:26:05 [Permalink]
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No, I'm not joking and playing games here, I've already spent 10 hours doing web research. I'm putting together some information that will hopefully help him. Now I know what this stuff is called thanks to Gorgo. All replies here are helpful, Thank you.
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Garrette
SFN Regular
USA
562 Posts |
Posted - 08/06/2002 : 05:30:26 [Permalink]
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Conduct a test of the same foods that the quack tested him one and check for different results.
Blind it, if you can.
Have your brother list the foods that "his body likes" and those that it doesn't like. (Sheesh)
Put those foods in separate paper bags. Hand them in a random order to a third party who holds the bags against your brother's stomach and pushes on his arm.
Record the results and then compare to the doctor's results.
Throw in some ringers, too, like plastic bananas.
My kids still love me. |
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Gorgo
SFN Die Hard
USA
5311 Posts |
Posted - 08/06/2002 : 05:42:30 [Permalink]
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I went to a weekend seminar where they taught this kind of thing. I told the instructor, in front of the class that this was just suggestion, and that he obviously pushed harder sometimes. He said that was true, and that suggestion was a method to use in healing, like the placebo effect. The crowd loved his double-talk and bought it and we went on with the seminar.
My point here is that it's important to work against this kind of superstition, but like a lot of things, don't beat your head against the wall because logic doesn't matter to most people. They want their illusions.
I have friends that have spent thousands and thousands of dollars on different sized containers of colored water and one of them bought a new alchemaic name from their guru. Now they're onto something else. If it's not accepted by the mainstream, it must be right.
Don't get me wrong. Do the tests if your brother is willing. Show him what you can. Then understand that he will probably keep buying crap.
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Conduct a test of the same foods that the quack tested him one and check for different results.
"Not one human life should be expended in this reckless violence called a war against terrorism." - Howard Zinn |
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Dr Shari
Skeptic Friend
135 Posts |
Posted - 08/14/2002 : 00:09:13 [Permalink]
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As an MD I get questioed all the time about these scams. Gall stones do not go away. My reply to most people who ask me about such things is " Doctors and their families all suffer from these diseases and die every year. If they worked don't you think we would be using them too?" They then say something like then we would be out of business if we went along with it and I say no we wouldn't because we would just charge people to come to us for these treatments.
As far as drug companies not wanting to lose the profit the companies that sell quack cures often trade and sell right along with the vitamin and all natural cures on the stock exchange. Plus it says on the bottle that they are just suppliments and if they really worked they would stand behind their product and face being sued as the drug companies and the doctors.
Death: The High Cost of Living
It is easier to get forgiveness then to get permission! |
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