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08 January 2008, 06:44
Aromatherapy Claims: What's That I Smell
The Claims of Aromatherapy Lynn McCutcheon A small dose of aromatic lubricator may make representing a pleasant experience, on the other hand the claims of aromatherapy go way beyond that.
According to John Meisenheimer, who tradition dermatology in Orlando, Florida, a miniature percentage of the population is allergic to some essential oils. But championing the rest of us, the answer is, "nothing."
After reading several publication and articles written by the enthusiastic devotee of aromatherapy, I believe that there are some recurrent themes that are cost a closer look. Single such theme is what I call "confused causation."
Practically all aromatherapists claim that whether you relax for many minutes in pleasant bath water to which has been added a few drops of essential oil, you will get out of the tub feeling pleasant. I agree, nevertheless what causes the pleasantness?
It would be easy to conduct an experiment in order to find out, but for some strange reason aromatherapists haven't seen fit to do this. Instead, they imply that the essential oil is the leading cause. States Meisenheimer:
The amount of essential oil from a few drops placed in your bath that might actually spear the stratum corneum skin is doubtlessly very small to have any meaningful, systemic, physiologic effect." Other examples of confused causation permeate aromatherapists' writings. 94) claims that chamomile is good for insomnia if taken in a tardy bath.
Is it the lateness or the chamomile that makes you sleepy? For stress, Lavabre (1990, p. 108) exhort relaxation, a better diet, nutritional supplements, extended exercise, and a few drops of an oil blend. Heinerman informs us (1988, p.
197) that jasmine oil massaged into the abdomen and groin advance sexual stimulation. I'll bet it does, with or without the jasmine. On page 301 he suggests that to make unsafe water safe, seethe it and combine rosemary, sage, or thyme earlier drinking.
The heat probably kills most of the germs. According to her, "the relaxing and uplifting effect of the oils helps boost the morale of the patients." Isn't it possible that the massage did as all the more to boost morale as the grease did? Only of the favorite tactics employed by aromatherapists is the manipulate of ambiguous claims.
Any admirable psychic can broadcast you that you never make a specific prediction. You always leave yourself enough room so that whatever the outcome, you can claim success. Judging from what I read, the aromatherapists have mastered this strategy. Here are some of my favorites, followed by my brief commentary. According to Frawley (1992, p. 155), incense "cleanses the ambience of negative energies."
What are negative energies? The reader is encouraged to get massaged with grease regularly (p. 155) because this "keeps the nerves in balance." How would we know an unbalanced coolness if we saw one? Hoffmann tells us (p. 95) that ylang ylang is "supposedly an aphrodisiac."
Is it or or isn't it? 114) that benzoin resinoid will "drive out evil spirits." I'd love to see that. Presumably spruce oil is an even better essence because it is recommended (p. 64) "for any classification of psychic work." Why limit yourself to evil spirits? Is life strength the same thing as oxygen, and if so, why can't it enter wrapped up the mouth?
About tea tree oil, Edwards opines (p. 135), "There is hope it may play a role in the successful treatment of AIDS." Is it hope or is it evidence? On the same page she tumulus readers that aromatherapy is good for "restoring harmony and balance between the mind and body."
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08 January 2008, 04:33
Traditional Prescription and Pseudoscience in China
September October 1996 : Invest in this wager issue Traditional Medicament and Pseudoscience in China: A Report of the Second CSICOP Delegation (Part 2) This is the moment of a two-part report of a recent CSICOP delegation to the People's Republic of China.
The CAST Symposium Part of our stay in Beijing was occupied by a seminar sponsored by CAST and the State Body of laws and Technology Commission. There, Chinese scholars and physicians described the problems created by pseudoscience in their country. Canada. We had expected this to be one of the highlights of our trip, and we were not disappointed.
CAST had assembled an impressive roster of social, physical, and medical scientists from various parts of China who described the obstacles that belief in Qigong (1) and some of the ultimate claims of TCM have put in the pathway of their efforts to improve scientific literacy.
From these award we achieved many insights that would otherwise have been much more speculative. All Chinese lecturer at the symposium fictional a clear distinction between internal Qi' and external Qi.'
Qigong was briefly outlawed during the cultural revolution (1966-1976) whereas it seemed too spiritual for the reigning Marxist materialists. It has since managed to stage a comeback by masquerading as a science.
Yin and Yang parallel modern scientific notions of endocrinologic and metabolic feedback mechanisms). They see this as a skilled system to unite Eastern and Western medicine. 2) The first group of speakers at the CAST symposium concentrated on external Qi.
After Chinese investigators and the earlier CSICOP delegation had exposed several discernible Qigong masters as charlatans (Alcock et al.
This was disappointing but it is a tribute to our hosts' debunking efforts that local performers are now too prudent of activity caught, as they were when exposed by James Alcock, James the Amazing' Randi, and the other members of the first CSICOP delegation. Mister Lin Zixin, the retired editor of China's Science and Technology Daily and a CSICOP Fellow, was one of our principal hosts.
At the symposium, which he helped organize, he discussed the extent of belief in pseudoscience in China. He drew parallels between the concept of external Qi and the mysterious nonmaterial vigour posited next to parapsychologists, such as psychokinesis and extrasensory perception.
Professor Qui echoed Mr. Lin's declaration that the Qigong movement has had a negative influence on Chinese society.
Professor Qui lamented the fact that it has also been psychologically damaging for some devotees, and that even some scientists include been duped into believing in the power of external Qi-for example, an ardent promoter is Professor Qian Xuesen, China's foremost zoom scientist and a preceding professor at the California Academy of Technology.
Professor Qui concluded with the memorable phrases: 3) Professor Wang ended this inquiry when he concluded that it was a worthless fad that would vaporize on its own. Apparently it did not, in spite of its affront to official Marxist dialectical materialism.
In ten years, not one claim had been substantiated, yet popular belief continued to grow. Such concerns led Professor Wang to found the Society championing the Protection of the Scientific Spirit.
Its aim is to promote well-controlled stance and combat the growing influence of pseudoscience.
The community has encountered hostility from paranormalists, such as when a Qigong advocate who was rejected as a speaker at one of its rendezvous disrupted the proceedings alongside trying to compulsion his way onto the program physically.
Dr.
She credence in that there is no such thing as Qi, but she found that some vulnerable people, drawn into the Qi subculture, admit been harmed psychologically by obsessional involvement with these breathing, meditative, and migration exercises.
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08 January 2008, 03:09
Once seemed exotic, like ginseng, ginkgo biloba or aloe vera
Products that once seemed exotic, like ginseng, ginkgo biloba or aloe vera, these days roll elsewhere the tongues of Westerners.
All told, accustomed bush substances generate more than $75 billion in sales each year for the pharmaceutical industry, another $20 billion in herbal supplement sales, and around $3 billion in cosmetics sales, according to a study by the European Commission.
Although the efficacy of some of the issue the herbal ingredients go into is zealously debated, their esteem is not in doubt.
Thirty-six percent of adults in the United States use some design of what experts call supplementary and alternative medicine, CAM for short, according to a 2004 study published by the National Center representing Complimentary and Additional Medicine, a division of the Civic Institutes of Health.
Kilham believes multinational drug companies underutilize the medicinal gear in plants. They pack pills with man-made compounds and vend them at huge markups, he says.
He desires Westerners to apply the pure plant medicines that indigenous persons have used for thousands of years. People in the U.S. Kilham said. I hope for people using safer medicine. And that means plant medicine."
Easygoing and earnest, Kilham, 55, of Leverett, caught the plant bug after taking an herb carriage at an biological farm in Natick, in 1971.
A self-confessed hippie, he was already into "yoga, general sustenance and meditation," and the discovery that bush had medicinal properties had a profound effect.
He created a trail in holistic fettle at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, where he is now on the faculty, and made his first overseas trip - to India - to line down non-native flora.
Now he can name unusual plants by their Latin names and he proudly regales the uninitiated on their individual properties.
Before long after leaving Lima on a trip beguiling French businessmen to the Peruvian Andes, he stopped the car and enthusiastically explained how the tropane alkaloids in a dusty plant he spotted by the side of the road are used by ophthalmologists to dilate pupils for orb examinations.
Such properties are repeatedly well known by indigenous peoples.
So-called bioprospectors can make their fortunes beside bringing those advantages to the attention of companionship who identify the plant"s active compound and use it as a base ingredient for new result that they patent.
Some 62 percent of all cancer drugs approved next to the Chuck and Drug Administration come from such discoveries, according to a study close to the United Nations University, a scholarly institution affiliated with the Unified Nations.
Latin American nations, especially Amazonian nations, have extremely rich and diverse flora, so the potential for commercial applications appears great," said Tony Gross, a Brazil-based researcher at the university. They say that in 1 in 10,000 you arouse something interesting.
So it is not a gold mine, however when you create hit on something that does come a market dignitary you can make enormous amounts of cabbage from it."
In Peru, Kilham is betting on maca, a small foundation vegetable that grows here in the middle highlands - "a turnip that package a punch," he says, adding "it imparts energy, sex drive and stamina allying nothing else."
From http://telegram.com/article/20080103/news/801030358/1002/bus~