Klarinet Archive - Posting 000940.txt from 1999/02

From: Neil Leupold <nleupold@-----.edu>
Subj: RE: RE: [kl] Cold Sores
Date: Thu, 25 Feb 1999 09:34:24 -0500

On Thu, 25 Feb 1999, Steven J Goldman, MD wrote:

> With all due respect, you do not know my view of alternative medicine. The
> fact is I think that it can sometimes be very effective and MD's are making
> a mistake when they trash it outright. Standard and alternative medicine
> both have very effective treatments and useless procedures. Never the less,
> the suggestions given here are useless. Most have been studied and been
> found to be worthless.

"Worthless" perhaps from a clinically provable standpoint, but even
conventional medicine will concede to the powers of the human mind
in its ability to affect the status of the body's immune response.
This effect is not consistent or reliable, but studies have shown
that the body does change and respond to psychological alterations.
Thus, if a person takes something that a doctor considers a placebo,
the "placebo effect" is not to be trivialized. If a person believes
that vitamin C or Lysine or pickle juice will help the sores go away,
this might prompt them to unconsciously relax, thereby reducing the
level of inherent stress on their immune system. The sores might
recede or disappear, and they reasonably attribute that to the
remedy they were using. Whether or not it was directly respon-
sible forthe disappearance of the sore, the placebo was part of
the cure.

Neil

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