This also is rough for butterflies and bats.

i'm curious to know how rationality can be taken to the extreme.

I don't think Quack Watch would deny that birds fly because there is not a double blind test. People observe birds in flight every day so no such test is needed. Quack Watch and others have done numerous double blind studies on things like Homeopathy and all of those studes show that homeopathy does no good what-so-ever. The fact that people say they were helped by a homeopath is just anecdotal evidence that proves nothing. I think Quack Watch has done some very good public service by exposing those who prey on people who are sick. They have done a great job in exposing the charlatans who deny hiv/aids and those who do great harm by telling people to avoid effective treatement by telling us not to use the very medicines that can prolong life. I'll take scientific medicine over a "natural healer" any day.

Actually, aerodynamicists can model and predict how birds and bumblebees fly. It is
is only by some oversimplified elementary models that don't include some of the important physics where that
anomalous result is obtained.

( I used to work for NASA and Boeing in computational fluid dynamics)

The harm is one medicine that is made for one may not be the same for another. One may take this and be well another one may take it and they can be sick, and some times even end up dead. Just as the medical society looks at everyone as being equal which obviously we are not, the medicines that are given to everyone are given as we are equal which is causing many others to get sick or develop other conditions all from taking a medicine made the general people who ever they may be. I don't believe that medicine is the answer completely as there are too many out there and the doctors are being pushed to perscribe certain medicines all the time from the drug companies, their bosses etc. I know this to be fact! I've seen it, I've heared it.

Alternative medicines do work however just like medicines made by these companies what works for one my not work for another. If you have an illness and can't eat gluten then you know to look at ones diet. Medically they will take you off all food, leave you in the hospital for 2 weeks, giving you all kinds of med, and then starting you back on food with a bullion cube = gluten. Start the whole process over again and change things around. Your left with a large bill.

Alternative medicines if you go to a good practioner listens to what you say, can run test of there own with your body and be able to tell you what is going on. Then can help you as an individual not just as a normal adverage joe as the medical practice does. However one must understand I said a good practioner who listens for there are a lot out there who don't know what they are doing, just like with doctors. If you don't believe that try working at UNM and listen to what the doctors are saying and watch what they are doing. It's a miracle no one has a law suit on them, which for the life of me I can't still understand why in some cases. Oh well another story.

All I'm saying is that healing someone is not the same as giving them an asprin and telling them they will be better, that's not always true. For some giving them water will make them better all though you may tell them it is something ese. Doctors do this all the time. The medical field has never wanted to share their wealth with anyone. It took a long time for chiropractors to be utilized by doctors and yet still there are thousands of doctors who think that chiropractors are usless. So for one to call anyone who is helping others healing in the way that the one needs healing a fraud or other names. I think you need to stop and ask what are you doing to help them. Right nothing except putting them down for finding a way where they were able to get help, the type that they needed for them.

Fine so you don't believe in it, thats your choice, however millions do, and millions are being helped and even healed. Some to the point where doctors and others are studing what or how this happened. The medical feild is strarting to look and see Reiki, Massage, Chiropractors, Herbalist, etc. all as something to help the medical community and individuals who are sick.

I feel like once again all the world is doing is trying to split us all up. There is enough hate, judgement and other negative things keeping us all apart in the world. It's time we stop and start looking at what we are doing, and see what we are doing. To not only speak but to hear how you are speaking and listen to what you are saying. Many do not speak their truth they speak a truth they were taught most don't even know what there truth is. It's time we stop and grow, listen to what we are saying, living what we say for most don't either.

We need to come together in harmony, love, communication and supporting one another for who they are and for who we are if we are going to surive and be happy.

Unfortunately, Quack Watch is as guilty of spreading misinformation to the consumer as they are valid information. Alternative medicine often doesn't fit into the narrow boxes that the tests are designed for. It's a narrow way of thinking about health. Conventional medicine is in control, so they set up the parameters for the testing, which by its nature is designed to exclude anything that doesn't fit into its own box. Do you think they're all that concerned about the welfare of people who seek out alternatives? They're concerned about profit loss, because some of them ARE effective treatments. If the treatments didn't work, what would they have to fear? People would try them and when they failed, they'd come running back to conventional medicine. They protest too much, and it reveals their own fears.

Personally, I think there's a middle ground. If I truly needed surgery for something, I wouldn't take a homeopathic remedy instead. But when someone who recommends a homeopathic to someone can be sued for practising medicine without a licence, there's something wrong with the picture. It goes beyond informing the public and into controlling them... which, on so many levels, I think we've seen enough of.