euthman's Comments (166)

“As a Physical Therapist who grew up in Minnesota and now live in Tennessee, I saw many more MS in the north than in the south. For some reason, MS thrives in temperate climates. What can Dr. Zamboni's finding have to to with climate?”

“As a pathologist, tell me what comes first, blood brain barrier leakage or myelin breakdown?”

“I agree, and made the same statement last week (but it was suspiciously moderated out. Hmmmm, very strange.)”

“Um. No. There's a great paper on anaesthetics and the quantum nature of consciousness. Basically, there aren't any good macro empirical models for why we can knock people out with certain drugs. In fact, it would seem that the effect is rather better explained by quantum theory. I have put the darned thing in a box, and cannot find it, but will search pub med at some point to see if I can't reference it, as the lingo is quite beyond my meagre ability.”

“This comment is spot on, the application of quantum mechanics to large biological systems is ridiculous, people who attempt to do so either have no understanding of either, are crazy or have an agenda. Since his resume presumes he understands biology, I will assume an agenda - or maybe crazy.

I can accept that Dr. Lanza is upset about his sister, but that doesn't justify labelling his wishful thinking of a quantum multiverse afterlife as "science". His education and critical thinking skills may have shown him the limitations of organized religion, but fanciful applications of non-relevant physical principles, are no better, and not worthy of coverage in science reporting.

Bodies and minds are fueled by chemical reactions. When we think or move we use the energy, and our bodies generate heat or motion or whatever, that is the energy being conserved. When the brain becomes unable to orchestrate the bodies functioning the chemical reactions cease, sometimes quickly and sometimes gradually and you die. No energy is left except the potential of energy - you become meat to be consumed.

If your body is cold worm, dog or people food, where does this mystical energy field live? Is it stored in air? In magical particles that vibrate invisibly - lucky we have never found them or we would be swamped by the ghosts of every living thing that has ever had a nervous system! Billions of dinosaur and trilobyte ghosts everywhere!

Too much wishful thinking and too many invisible sky wizards.”

“I understand you to say there is no correlation between some things and yet know better. Nothing is or can be disconnected from anything else in creation. Wake up Bro!”

“What would you know about it?”

“I wasn't planning on commenting, but when I read your sentiments about the author's reference on quantum mechanics, I just had to chime in with an agreement. I began reading this articule with sufficient interest and QUICKLY BECAME BORED AFTER THE FIRST 3 OR 4 PARAGRAPHS AND STOP READING!

Oh Well, next article!”

“"considered one of the leading scientists in the world" -- you gotta wonder, by whom? Deepak?Well, at least Huff puts them all together on one site, right? One stop shopping for all manner of woo.

Good advice, euthman!”

“Well, if his script involves a long, convoluted intellectual debate and the occasional assertion that women are crazy, you might be right. I think it's just a matter of people who want to work things out more than they want to be the "winner". But your way would work, too. Congrats to you and your wife.”

“AND MONOGAMOUS!”

“I've found that people can cross a lot of social differences like appearance, minor differences in financial worth and actual education as long as they are similar in emotional development and basic intellect.

While someone who isn't curious about the things life has to offer won't interest an intelligent person for long, someone who is incredibly intelligent and educated at all the "best" universities won't be attractive if they're emotionally immature.

It's always been my opinion that many intelligent, kind, responsible men are passed on by some otherwise smart women because they don't fit some romance novel paradigm of the perfect mate. (It's ok by me--their loss was my gain!)”

“Careful, your prejudices are showing. Do you think the whole world is as close-minded about chiropractic as you apparently are?”

“Detecting early breast tumour by finite element thermal analysis. Lin QY, Yang HQ, Xie SS, Wang YH, Ye Z, Chen SQ. J Med Eng Technol. 2009;33(4):274-80.

Thermography has been proved to be an effective technique for indicating breast disease abnormalities or risks. However, the abnormalities might not express clearly due to various factors, such as when a small tumour is located in a deep region, or environmental influences that make breast disease difficult to find. This study aims to solve these problems for early detection of breast tumour. A three-dimensional breast model is presented to investigate the relationship between an embedded tumour and the surface temperature distribution. Then a subtraction technique is used to enhance the thermal signature of breast tumour. The surface thermal characteristics of a small tumour even in a deep region could be found easily by this method. It was also found that the surface thermal characteristics of tumour obscured due to environmental cooling effect can be clearly displayed. The results are very useful for analysing breast thermograms.”

“Euthman is a long-time denier that anything alternative or natural could be effective. For all his touting of his medical credentials, he never looks at the evidence (and there is often plenty of it). He'd rather stick with the biased opinions he learned in medical school. His opinions aren't worth bothering about.”

“Well, thanks so much for saving us all the time to bother with pesky research and discussion. Which drug company do you work for?”

“Well, that settles that!!”

“Nowhere did I even suggest that thermography be substituted for mammography. In fact, I presented a fair and balanced list of references to show its strengths and weaknesses. On the other hand, your narrow characterization of the technology indicates a preconceived bias against new technology in a field in which you clearly have no background (digital IR imaging). Here is what those in the field have to say in the matter:

Use of digital infrared imaging in enhanced breast cancer detection and monitoring of the clinical response to treatment, Arena, F. Barone, C. DiCicco, T. , Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, 2003. Proceedings of the 25th Annual International Conference of the IEEE 2003

Infrared imaging of the breast has been primarily hampered by the many factors inherent in its technology. With the use of computer automated digital infrared technology, problems with subjectivity, reproducibility and spatial localization have been eliminated. The digital infrared imaging (DII) discussed herein has 99% detection sensitivity in a study of 109 tissue proven cases of breast cancer. Its sensitivity has been successfully demonstrated in lesions as small as 4 mm. Additionally, DII, can now be used in the clinical monitoring of localized breast cancer to access therapeutic response. In conjunction with mammography and ultrasound, DII can be utilized in the early detection of breast cancer.”

“Here are a few spoon-fed peer-reviewed studies. As I indicated in my previous post, use Google Scholar to search: breast thermography .

Head JF, Wang F, Elliott RL: Breast thermography is a noninvasive prognostic procedure that predicts tumor growth rate in breast cancer patients. Ann N Y Acad Sci 698:153-158,1993.

Sterns EE, Zee B, Sen Gupta J, and Saunders FW. Thermography: Its relation to pathologic characteristics, vascularity, proliferative rate and survival of patients with invasive ductal carcinoma of the breast. Cancer 77:1324-8, 1996.

Head JF, Elliott RL: Breast Thermography. Cancer 79:186-8,1995.

Anbar M: Breast Cancer. In: Quantitative Dynamic Telethermometry in Medical Diagnosis and Management. CRC Press, Ann Arbor, Mich, pp.84-94, 1994.

Keyserlingk JR, Ahlgren, PD, Yu E and Belliveau N: Infrared imaging of the breast: Initial reappraisal using high-resolution digital technology in 100 successive cases of Stage I and II breast cancer. The Breast Journal (4):245-251,1998.

Hobbins, W.: Abnormal Thermogram -- Significance in Breast Cancer. RIR 12: 337-343, 1987

Useki H: Evaluation of the thermographic diagnosis of breast disease: relation of thermographic findings and pathologic findings of cancer growth. Nippon Gan Chiryo Gakkai Shi 23: 2687-2695, 1988.

Nyirjesy, I., Ayme, Y., et al: Clinical Evaluation, Mammography, and Thermography in the Diagnosis of Breast Carcinoma. Thermology 1:170-173, 1986

Haberman J: An overview of breast thermography in the United States: In: Margaret Abernathy, Sumio Uematsu (Eds): Medical Thermography. American Academy of Thermology, Washington, pp.218-223, 1986.”

“Studies and citations were provided. Next!”

“Why is it when a person suggests that everyone evaluate vaccinations on an individual basis, they are labeled "anti-vax"? We need to gain a more mature perspective on vaccinations in this country, so that we might ask the questions that need to be asked, and make informed decisions.”

“Your point is very valid. There are different types of pathogens that vary in virulence. A healthy lifestyle, nutrition, good environment can make one less suseptible to pathogens that are opportunists. These pathogens cause disease in compromised hosts. There are pathogens that cause disease in healthy hosts. In these cases, the virulence depends on the morbidity/mortality rate. For instance. If you are bitten by a rabid animal and develop the disease, your chances of dying are greater than 99%. Only 6 people have ever been know to survive the disease. So, taking the post-exposure vaccination would be a very wise choice, even with the very low chance of developing Guillain-Barre syndrome (which can be treated and resolve). Many of the encephalitis viruses like West Nile Virus have a mortality rate of about 5%. Wedon't see routine vaccination for these two diseases, not because they are not serious but because of the manner in which they are spread. There are effective ways of preventing exposure. With rabies, we vaccinate our dogs and cats (sometimes horses) to prevent exposure. With WNV, we control exposure to mosquitoes. With highly contagious diseases with a significant mortality rate, such as influenza, we need to vaccinate the population to decrease the spread of the disease. The virus can cause disease in healthy people, but it is more severe in any person with compromised health. So vaccination is stratified to protect the young, and aged.”

“You are wrong-both in your statements and logic.

Many nutrients and diet modifications have been proven to control or prevent infectious diseases. Vitamins D and C are but two examples. D and C are very effective for preventing and stopping the flu.

Are they 100% effective? No, of course not, but...

Vaccines dont provide "invulnerability" either. And vaccines have many dangerous side effects that vitamins D and C do not.”

“And, to add to your point (which I agree with), we can only boost our immune systems against pathogens we've *been exposed to* (which is, incidentally, the WHOLE POINT of vaccines). Let's leave out for the moment the fact that many of the most dangerous viruses mutate far faster than our immune system can keep up (which is why we have a *seasonal* flu vaccine). Let's just consider that there is ONE virus to get immunity to, not a whole panoply of ever-mutating bad guys.

So, logically, the best way to "boost our immune system" against HIV -- if you buy Bill's "do it the natural way" argument -- would be to trade blood with an infected person. Who's going to volunteer for that? Anyone?

Me, I prefer that they just keep working on a vaccine. I much prefer a 0.0001% chance of a serious vaccine-related complication to a 0.5-1.0% chance of dying from the flu. To anyone with the ability to do basic math, the odds are much better in favor of vaccines.”

“What do you say to all those parents who say their kids were progressing normally up until they got a vaccine shot?

What do you have to say to my friend whose child was walking by 6 months, speaking 2 languages by 2, then after another round of vaccines couldn't walk and talk?”

“Don't look, don't find. They must have been looking up the wrong wazoo. Or as they say in Missouri, parents whose children regress after vaccines are up s**t creek without a paddle...

because there is no link...

so it is all coincidence or else delusion”

“And kids still die within 48 hours of receiving the multi-dose shots. What'll you believe, an 'expert' who conducts studies, or your own lying eyes?”

“Yeah, except for one problem. None of the current studies factor in the use of anti-pyretics, such as Tylenol.”

“One vaccine; one ingredient.

How many vaccines are there?”

“::chuckle::

Shame that most didn't your post and it's message.”

“Where did you get the idea that "no treatment" is safe? Is that the right way to treat Strep or Leukemia? How about bee venom allergies? I agree, however, that homeopathy is not treatment.”

“Born poor, with no health care, a dad & aunt who didn't even take aspirin, my dad an elite high diver, & myself a healthy athlete we didn't use drugs. My dad was still doing one anda halfswith me off a 40 foot bridge into a 20 mile current everyday at 65 years old.
We allgot deathly ill when drugs were introduced into our systems. I feel lucky to have been born poor so I seldom saw a doctor. Side effects have almost killed me and no one cares. There's no recourse. I also have experienced all and more of what they're calling myths. My mom's dead because of the lies.”

“And you have examined this profoundly and found it to be true!!!

Why do I not believe you?”

“and for kids with cancer......death! homeopathy only makes you think your doing better but in reality whatever medical issue you have only gets worse.”

“lol. Yeah, right!”

“The anti-vaccination motto. They should make T-shirts...or coffee mugs.”

“And my question as always is the following:

DO YOU HAVE A JOB?”

“Love your post, especially when you state, "I think the root problem is that they hold themselves to an impossible standard." You hit the nail on the head.”

“I am a huge Bill Maher fan and agree with him on many things. He was dead wrong here.

Just last week in his New Rules on climate change, Maher berated congressmen for not deferring to the PhD's and other assorted climate experts when it came to global warming. Now here he is doing exactly what he decried last week.

The experts (including my wife a PhD in virology and immunology) know better than Bill Maher. Get the shot.”