I... ummm... didn't really see the content of the video, as I couldn't take my attention off the hot therapist. Thumbs up!

Man... I wish she would put error bars on these things. I have no idea what variability in a GAS looks like. Worse, it's very hard for me to assess what clinician bias can do to these data. For example, what the person discussing "side effects" of a placebo might insinuate could have a relatively substantial impact on these data. Interpreting data of these sort is always a challenge.

I'm honestly more impressed with her anecdata. "Most of us know." "Anyone working with patients can see." That sort of stuff. Clearly she's worked with people, and has been a successful "healer." I'm just not yet convinced chemicals have as much to do with it as relationships with therapists and patient compliance. The data just don't seem to speak to that. In fact, little things like the lag in the efficacy she mentioned provide evidence against our understanding of how these chemicals work.

i agree with everything you just said, but i think you might be over estimating how much of it is science.
it's a great deal business. at least in the US. where medicine is mostly for profit. for huge huge profits.
medical RESEARCH is in fact, science. and i have faith in it. the dispensing of medicine is however, a business.

i'm saying this as someone who has degrees in health science fields. spent 8 years as a health care professional. spent 1/3 of that time doing administrative work. and now owns a business as a CAM practitioner.... which btw, is also a good bit business.

i'd also like to stick up for alternative medicine here.
a good deal of it is bullshit. any results are simply the placebo effect. but i don't think we should discount the placebo effect. it's an amazing mechanism. if you feel less depressed because someone hit you with a tuning fork and you didn't have to take any pills or go to a counselor, then okay. that's awesome. i still think you probably need counseling, but whatever. i also think you should take a good hard look at your diet and how much exercise you're doing. but how much does it cost in the US to go to a counselor, go to a doctor, get your anti-depressants and have a nutritionist and a phsyical trainer help you learn how to excercise and eat right? it's probably cheaper to pay someone $80 to hit you with that tuning fork and convince yourself it's going to work.

I make a decent living practicing complementary health care. but i don't tell anyone they need to be hit with a tuning fork or have someone throw energy beams out of their hands at them. i tell people they need to stretch, and i teach them how. i tell people they need to sleep properly, and i help them do it. i tell people they need to find an effective way to deal with stress, and i give them that. i tell people they need to find a form of exercise that's right for their bodies and lifestyles, and i help them find it. a lot of people just need someone to trust and someone to talk to. and that's why they call me a "therapist". i never tell people to go against their doctor's orders. i never tell anyone to stop taking their medicine or not to be vaccinated. and that's why what i do is COMPLEMENTARY.

we're too quick to dismiss a different approach when it comes to health care.
the same people are also very quick to be able to recognize the problems with our for profit health care systems when it comes to political discussions. the profit motive hasn't just tainted medicine in terms of disparity. it's tainted it in terms of effectiveness. this is where a holistic approach is good. it's not effect to only treat the symptom. if someone is overweight, has high blood pressure, their stress is out of control and they have diabetes. prescribing them pills, while necessary in the short term, is not at all where the "care" should end. i know doctors will also tell their patients to eat right and exercise but they do not teach them how to do it. because for profit health care doesn't think that is profitable. a for profit system does not want you healthy.

soooo... the market has opened up. if the way we practice medicine and viewed health in this country was working, people wouldn't pay to get hit with tuning forks. oh and half of this is a problem with our education system.
>> ^dag:

^Yes, how dare anyone question the all-knowing oracles of medical knowledge.
I think the reason that many geeky type people always toe the main-stream medical line is because they conflate medicine with science (which we all love). Yes, it's almost the same, but if I had to draw it as a venn diagram, there would be a crescent of over-hang. Medicine to me is 80% science and then the rest is filled in with dogma, patriarchy and business ($$).
That crescent of non-science is the part that makes me squirm. I don't think it's that wrong to question medical programs like vaccinations- with the idea that it may be being pushed non-scientifically by the medical industrial complex. (big pharma).
Bill Maher is not a kook.

>> ^bmacs27:

If it isn't fake, the diagnosis is probably wrong because it is likely a central not peripheral nervous issue. I was just watching the video with a professional speech therapist. She pointed out that not only does he have the temporomandibular joint issue, but he also seems to be having tongue and mouth shape ataxia. His facial symmetry is good, which suggests it isn't lateralized nerve damage (like you might expect from a tooth pull). Further, it is difficult to conceive of a mechanism by which pharmacology could have that sort of effect on "damaged wires" so to speak. It's possible he's simply the victim of a misdiagnosis, in which case I feel bad him.


I agree it seems strange that nerve damage from pulling a tooth would create such symmetrical symptoms. The deterioration of the symptoms seem to suggest whatever happened is still happening. Or maybe it is simply that the spasticity is becoming worse, just as it does in cerebral palsy?

The sad part is that he is lucky to have medication which can actually help him at all.

>> ^spoco2:
Wow, seriously, you don't get the issue here? You really are going to suck if you never see the larger picture.
"Garry, we've done it! This pill makes people be able to speak for a couple of hours at a time!"
"Awesome, what are the side effects?"
"Pffft, like I give a shit, it works man."
"Um, you aren't concerned at all about long term effects?"
"Nope, I made someone talk... I'm a fucking GOD man"
"Ok, good luck with that."


No, I don't think you get the issue. The guy is downright lucky an existing drug "solves" his problem. It isn't as though he's part of a large group of post tooth pull TMD sufferers. This isn't the sort of thing you can convince anyone to spend any money to research. Simply saying something like "look ambien works" doesn't really mean somebody can just run to their garage and whip up a new drug that only targets the specific parts he wanted it to target, or some stem cell therapy that could repair damage.

Part of my snarky undercurrent, and I hesitate to say this, is that I think this might be fake. If it is fake, it isn't funny because people do suffer from these sorts of disorders. If it isn't fake, the diagnosis is probably wrong because it is likely a central not peripheral nervous issue. I was just watching the video with a professional speech therapist. She pointed out that not only does he have the temporomandibular joint issue, but he also seems to be having tongue and mouth shape ataxia. His facial symmetry is good, which suggests it isn't lateralized nerve damage (like you might expect from a tooth pull). Further, it is difficult to conceive of a mechanism by which pharmacology could have that sort of effect on "damaged wires" so to speak. It's possible he's simply the victim of a misdiagnosis, in which case I feel bad him. However, given that he is a voice actor, I fear this might be a publicity stunt in horribly poor taste. That's not even mentioning the fact that he looks remarkably cogent for a guy on ambien (you know, all those side effects you were talking about).

First off Anis, yes, anyone who is not completely enthrawled by your every thought is a troll, dont believe them, everything you are is special and important and the world needs to know about it.

secondly, watching any large mammal excerise the cognative prowess of play is fantastic! Serving to remind one and all of our common cellular ancestry ~ how beautiful it is to contemplate the relativity of all life on earth!

lastly, the sift is a fantastic venue for media that inspires imaginative intellectual thinking. This is largely due to its great agregation of interrested and coherent posters (the capn must exclude himself). If you feel as though i have suffered you some trollin, your defensiveness is a sign that this message weighs upon you. PLZ DONT INSIDE JOKE YOURSELF OUTLOUD, k thanks buy

>> ^Stu:

He's not trolling. We really don't give a shit.
>> ^A10anis:
>> ^CaptainPlanet:
This isn't your therapist's office, we aren't going to ask you why. We'll just make a note in our little book of 'people we wish were on youtube instead'
>> ^A10anis:
Hate isn't too strong a word to describe my feelings toward zoos.


So, because i commented negatively, regarding zoos, i should be on you tube? Your comment is a non-sequitur, please troll someone else, i ain't biting.

I kind of care.

>> ^Stu:

He's not trolling. We really don't give a shit.
>> ^A10anis:
>> ^CaptainPlanet:
This isn't your therapist's office, we aren't going to ask you why. We'll just make a note in our little book of 'people we wish were on youtube instead'
>> ^A10anis:
Hate isn't too strong a word to describe my feelings toward zoos.


So, because i commented negatively, regarding zoos, i should be on you tube? Your comment is a non-sequitur, please troll someone else, i ain't biting.

He's not trolling. We really don't give a shit.
>> ^A10anis:

>> ^CaptainPlanet:
This isn't your therapist's office, we aren't going to ask you why. We'll just make a note in our little book of 'people we wish were on youtube instead'
>> ^A10anis:
Hate isn't too strong a word to describe my feelings toward zoos.


So, because i commented negatively, regarding zoos, i should be on you tube? Your comment is a non-sequitur, please troll someone else, i ain't biting.

>> ^CaptainPlanet:

This isn't your therapist's office, we aren't going to ask you why. We'll just make a note in our little book of 'people we wish were on youtube instead'
>> ^A10anis:
Hate isn't too strong a word to describe my feelings toward zoos.


So, because i commented negatively, regarding zoos, i should be on you tube? Your comment is a non-sequitur, please troll someone else, i ain't biting.

This isn't your therapist's office, we aren't going to ask you why. We'll just make a note in our little book of 'people we wish were on youtube instead'

>> ^A10anis:

Hate isn't too strong a word to describe my feelings toward zoos.

You sound like Glen Close in Fatal Attraction. Enough of this clingy shit. I'm not your therapist. Go write a sonnet or free a butterfly from a net. Call an old friend and say hi. Send a handwritten note to a sick relative. Give your wife a good long kiss. Smoke some pot and take a nap. Every little thing gonna be alright.

In reply to this comment by blankfist:
Your terms again. Got it. That's twice now in one conversation. Holding others to higher standards. Again.

In reply to this comment by dystopianfuturetoday:
What are we talking about? You said the only reason you re-friended me was because I showed up to see your movie; I only re-accepted to not hurt your feelings. Why in the holy fuck are we still talking? Go do something productive.

In reply to this comment by blankfist:
It's facebook. Whether you "initiate" comments or not, people can see them. You've never had issues before recently with stirring the pot; why all of a sudden? It's disingenuous to all of a sudden take the high ground out of the blue. But you're good at that.

Also, no need to copy your comment twice (once on my profile, once on yours). It's not that important.

In reply to this comment by dystopianfuturetoday:
When I have initiated politics, your comments have always been welcomed, but to let that bleed over to personal photos that are viewable to family, employers and professional colleagues is completely unacceptable - not to say very hypocritical from a guy who so vocally supports privacy rights. I would never go into your personal photos and try to initiate a political argument. That would be unacceptable behavior by my own personal standards.

In reply to this comment by blankfist:
I think I did too. The only reason I kept the friendship kindling was because you came to the Sunset 5. Now it's official. Good.

But are you so sure you've never brought up politics on FB before? I think you hold others to a higher standard than you hold yourself.

In reply to this comment by dystopianfuturetoday:
My FB photos are no place for your politics, so I'm cutting you loose. I think you had the right idea a few months ago. No hard feelings. We can still be VS frenemies.

>> ^blankfist:

Here's one more:
http: //videosift.com/video/where-I-was-in-September


My first thought upon seeing this thread was also to suggest that video.

I think that seals it... I've got to make an appointment with the therapist soon.

Wow, God makes a very believable reparative therapist!


As social satire, this probably belongs in the *parody, *humor and *religion (what is being satirised) channels.

I imagine that being British in this part of this century means living in the country that has Stephen Fry in it (happily he spends time with us in the US, also).

"A pool in Beverley Hills complete with a string of therapists and pseudo-religions." Laugh Out Loud.

>> ^westy:

If my therapist ( if i had one) brought god in to a sessoin i would tell her to fuck off and ask for her to be sacked. like if you went to a therapist and thay started bringing postman pat into something.


If they're asking you how you feel about God or religion then they're doing their job. These are things that will probably have a major effect on how the therapist approaches your treatment.

If they tell you that you need God, especially after you've indicated that you're a nonbeliever, then walk out the door.