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From: geb@cadre.ARPA (Gordon E. Banks)
Newsgroups: net.med
Subject: Re: Scientific Study proposed
Message-ID: <506@cadre.ARPA>
Date: Wed, 28-Aug-85 22:50:43 EDT
Article-I.D.: cadre.506
Posted: Wed Aug 28 22:50:43 1985
Date-Received: Sat, 31-Aug-85 03:36:27 EDT
References: <269@uvm-gen.UUCP>
Reply-To: geb@cadre.ARPA (Gordon E. Banks)
Organization: Decision Systems Lab., University of Pittsburgh
Lines: 37

A proper scientific study as you propose cannot simply be
done by following Walt's diet and then seeing how you feel.

Why not?  Because skeptics would tend to feel the same, or
worse, and believers would feel great.  That is why we
do scientific studies DOUBLE BLIND.  Neither the adminstrator
or the subject must know which subjects are on Walt's diet
and which are on some equally palatable (or more likely,
unpalatable) diet.  After the questionaires are returned
and analyzed by someone who is also blinded, then we could
see what was what.  

Such a study wouldn't be cheap or easy.  So
there is no way that skeptics are going to run
such a study (too much time and effort that could be devoted
to more plausible theories).  

It is up to the proponents of theories to prove them
scientifically.  It is a valid point that if the proponents
are inadequately schooled in science, and unable to, then they may not
be taken seriously even if what they say is true, yet on its face
implausible.  But given the cost of scientific research, them's
the breaks.

Incidentally, you are quite mistaken about acupuncture.  It
has been thoroughly investigated by scientific anesthesiologists,
including theories as to why it works.
This work occurred back in the early 70's, when physicians
visited China and became interested in the methods of
Chinese folk medicine, a traditional school that puts Walt's and
Tom's primitive herbalism in the shade for erudition.

Incidentally it is curious to me to see so many people using the fruits of
western science (the computer) to decry it.  This applies
to all the creationists on net.origins as well as
the herbalists.  Perhaps they would also like to return to 
the era of semaphore signalling.