H1N1 Vaccine - An American Perspective

[JLM]

quite often? How often? And where do I meet these guys?

Probably a good 90% of the time- just a rough guess, but I doubt if any of them feel any worse and probably very few feel exactly the same. Where do you meet these guys? Go to your local lottery centre in Edmonton at opening time Monday morning would be my guess. Let me know if it works........................:lol::lol::lol:

 

[countryboy]

Lots of times the "placebo effect" is what it is all about, it's known as "mind over matter". While some drugs may do a little enabling as far as a cure is concerned, it's actually the body itself that does most of the curing and attitude is of paramount importance. Quite often you have a situation where a guy is down with malaise and then finds he's won the lottery and then in no time is feeling perfectly Okay.

"...it's actually the body itself that does most of the curing..."

In other parts of the world, you might be crowned the "King of Common Sense!" Some of the mystical medicine techniques in the "Far East" are based on exactly that statement above. There is a reason why the body has an immune system, and the fact that we do a lot to weaken it (sh*tty diet, no exercise, etc.) isn't the body's fault. It comes from the thing that sits on our shoulders (head/brain) through some questionable decisions.

There is a whole set of healing practises generally referred to as "energy healing" which basically allow the body to heal itself. Reiki is one, but there are others. They all sound very weird to our society because we've been raised and educated in a different direction...we tend to go after the symptoms and not the cause.

We also tend to reject these "alternative" healing methods out of hand, sometimes rather emphatically. ;-) But, an open mind is always a healthy mind...

 

[Tonington]

No, that's completely wrong. We can prevent many diseases by vaccination--mumps, measles, chicken pox, smallpox, diphtheria, pertussis, viral meningitis, etc.--and it works regardless of what you believe.

One of those diseases was eradicated by vaccination. Small pox is in the history books now. As you say, our humoral immunity exists regardless of belief in it's existence.

 

[Dexter Sinister]

There is a whole set of healing practises generally referred to as "energy healing" which basically allow the body to heal itself. Reiki is one, but there are others.

And there's no evidence that they're anything but placebos. It has never been demonstrated that the body has an aura or an energy field that can be manipulated or even detected. It's all anecdote and hearsay, and when these techniques are tested with proper controls they fail, consistently and completely. They do not work as described by their practitioners.

 

[AnnaG]

And there's no evidence that they're anything but placebos. It has never been demonstrated that the body has an aura or an energy field that can be manipulated or even detected.

Actually there is a demonstration that shows auras, but it is based upon natural occurrences rather than mystical ones: Kirlian photography for instance. It is quite demonstrable, but it has been misrepresented by spectre groupies. Kirlian photography - The Skeptic's Dictionary - Skepdic.com

It's all anecdote and hearsay, and when these techniques are tested with proper controls they fail, consistently and completely. They do not work as described by their practitioners.

As I pointed out, not all fail but I agree they're definitely not accurately/truthfully described.

 

[karrie]

And there's no evidence that they're anything but placebos. It has never been demonstrated that the body has an aura or an energy field that can be manipulated or even detected. It's all anecdote and hearsay, and when these techniques are tested with proper controls they fail, consistently and completely. They do not work as described by their practitioners.

I know, I harp on this issue, but, people need to remove phrases like 'just a placebo', 'nothing but a placebo', etc., from their speech. The placebo effect is one of the most powerful healing tools we have.

 

[AnnaG]

I know, I harp on this issue, but, people need to remove phrases like 'just a placebo', 'nothing but a placebo', etc., from their speech. The placebo effect is one of the most powerful healing tools we have.

lol It "works like a charm" sometimes. (Sorry, I couldn't resist throwing that in)

 

[Tonington]

I know, I harp on this issue, but, people need to remove phrases like 'just a placebo', 'nothing but a placebo', etc., from their speech. The placebo effect is one of the most powerful healing tools we have.

But it's also a term that is misused, a lot. Not all illness can be fixed by psychosomatic sugar pills. Restoring kidney function for example, can't be done by believing you are being given a cure.

The placebo effect in testing drugs refers to the fact that there are many factors which are uncontrolled/unknown, that produce results. They're not significant, they're like an error term.

 

[VanIsle]

Everybody dies of something. The average Canadian lives for 80.4 years and average means that some live a bit longer and some don't live quite as long. With congestive heart problems, bypass surgery and diet can add a few years to your life that you wouldn't have had without the surgery and diet. A cure? Not really but you take what you can get..

I've mentioned some of this is some other thread. It used to be that women lived longer then men. I don't know if statistics say that is still true but I have to wonder. Out of the 125 - 135 people I work with, the first one sick a few months ago was a man. He has cancer but is taking treatment and hopefully will survive and be back to work. He's in his early 50's. The next is a woman in her early 50's - just had a major heart attack and a stint put in. She won't be back for awhile. She almost didn't make it. Next a younger woman in her mid 40's went in for a routine check-up. I guess she has a great doctor because today she is having not triple but (whatever word 5 is) quintuple? by-pass surgery and apparently last week another woman in her early 40's blacked out and hit her head on a filing cabinet and she's been off work since! I'm beginning to think the "average" is dropping or would be if not for modern day medicine and diagnotic tools.

 

[VanIsle]

Juan, you probably heard that just a few days ago, a 14 year old boy committed suicide due to bullying at school. Dover Bay I believe. My oldest grandson goes there next year.

 

[JLM]

I've mentioned some of this is some other thread. It used to be that women lived longer then men. I don't know if statistics say that is still true but I have to wonder. Out of the 125 - 135 people I work with, the first one sick a few months ago was a man. He has cancer but is taking treatment and hopefully will survive and be back to work. He's in his early 50's. The next is a woman in her early 50's - just had a major heart attack and a stint put in. She won't be back for awhile. She almost didn't make it. Next a younger woman in her mid 40's went in for a routine check-up. I guess she has a great doctor because today she is having not triple but (whatever word 5 is) quintuple? by-pass surgery and apparently last week another woman in her early 40's blacked out and hit her head on a filing cabinet and she's been off work since! I'm beginning to think the "average" is dropping or would be if not for modern day medicine and diagnotic tools.

This figure of 80.4 years is a statistic and means next to absolutely nothing. These figures are likely arrived at by plotting a line graph and extending it. For instance the latest year we have fairly reliable figures for is the birth year of 1910 - pretty well everyone born in that year is dead, so you can add them up and take the average and that figure is x. Next you go to 1900 and do the same thing and 1890 and do the same thing and 1880 and 1870 and so on. You plot those numbers and then extrapolate 10 years ahead to 1920 and that figure is likely quite accurate, but still out a tad, then you do 1930 and extrapolate to there it is in the ballpark but out a larger tad. 1940 might still be quite accurate, but 2010 - ABSOLUTE *#&@!(% BULLSH*T.

 

[JLM]

Juan, you probably heard that just a few days ago, a 14 year old boy committed suicide due to bullying at school. Dover Bay I believe. My oldest grandson goes there next year.

Very, very sad. Would that be a reflection of the school, the boy, the teachers, the neighbourhood residents? How best to fight it? Perhaps on two fronts, less tolerance for bullying and increasing kid's tolerance for adversity?

 

[Cliffy]

Juan, you probably heard that just a few days ago, a 14 year old boy committed suicide due to bullying at school. Dover Bay I believe. My oldest grandson goes there next year.

I would think that a 14 year old whot commits suicide because of bullying has already a case of low self esteem and the bullying was the straw.... There is usually more to a story like that than meets the eye.

 

[JLM]

I would think that a 14 year old whot commits suicide because of bullying has already a case of low self esteem and the bullying was the straw.... There is usually more to a story like that than meets the eye.

Well that's right, I was about 4' nuthin' and 75 lbs up until I was about 15, so got picked on more than my share and some of those kids were pretty formidable, and have to admit at times I was scared, but did learn to fight although it was against my nature - BUT SUICIDE!!!!!!!!!!!! I was probably 17 before I knew what the word meant. There is definitely something sinister in today's culture, but then that was all back prior to '59.