Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site brl-tgr.ARPA Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!allegra!mit-eddie!godot!harvard!seismo!brl-tgr!abc From: abc@brl-tgr.ARPA (Brint Cooper ) Newsgroups: net.med Subject: Re: medical *PROOF* ??? Message-ID: <8397@brl-tgr.ARPA> Date: Thu, 21-Feb-85 08:57:44 EST Article-I.D.: brl-tgr.8397 Posted: Thu Feb 21 08:57:44 1985 Date-Received: Tue, 26-Feb-85 05:18:50 EST References: <875@cbdkc1.UUCP> Reply-To: abc@brl-tgr.ARPA (Brint Cooper (CTAB) ) Distribution: net Organization: Ballistic Research Lab Lines: 67 In article <875@cbdkc1.UUCP> tjs@cbdkc1.UUCP ( Tom Stanions) writes: > Some of you say that Vitamin B17 is not a vitamin because there is no > *medical proof* that it is required by the body. I presume you mean Laetrile? Otherwise, you have a semantic nonargument. If that's what you mean, please cite a reference where Laetrile is shown to be a "vitamin." For that matter, what do YOU mean by "vitamin?" > Is there proof that the absence of Vitamin B17 does not cause a > disease? Is the absence of such proof sufficient in itself to recommend the use of this substance as a cancer treatment? > > Do doctors admit that they understand the complexity of the > human organism and can therefore say that B17 is not needed? Do you understand it well enough to know that "B17" is needed? > You say that "believers" have offered no *proof* that > appears in medical journals. I have had no trouble finding > people who will say that B17 helped them in non-medical > articles, do we discredit then because the Amer. Cancer > Assoc. didn't want to tell their story. You are equating those who publish in medical journals, on the one hand, with "people who say that B17 helped them." Who are these "people," and how do they know that the B17 helped them? The occurrence in time of event B after event A does not establish that event A caused event B. > Is there anyone who hasn't read about or know about someone who > was sent home to die because medical science couldn't help them > and is today telling others how "un-proven" methods saved their lives. Again. Just as it is very difficult to pinpoint what causes disease, it is equally difficult to identify what "cures" disease. > I don't need medical proof to take care of myself thank you. > If something works then that is proof enough for me. Of > course just because something worked for somebody else > dosen't mean that it is right for me. Therefore it is my > personnal (sic) responsibility to insure that I am in the highest > state of wellness that I can attain at all times, and to > seek out the form of help of my choise (sic) if my health is in > danger. Are you arguing that there should be no public policy to prevent dishonest people from marketing cure-all "snake oils?" > However when I got the > flu 2 weeks ago I took 1000mg of Vit C, 15 mg of zinc, 25000 > IU's of A and 1000 IU's of D every hour and I was only sick > for 3 days. Had you merely stayed home and stayed in bed, you might have attained a cure in the same time. What have you proved? When I was younger we used to say you could get rid of poison ivy in 2 weeks using various medicines. Or you could leave it alone and it would go away in 14 days. Brint