Comments on: Diagnosis by Applied Kinesiology

By: bthomas001

bthomas001 — Sat, 30 Jun 2012 10:25:24 +0000

Sara:

While I agree that noticeable symptom improvement after a single day of antidepressant therapy is unlikely, you may be interested to know that the “conventional wisdom” regarding delayed onset of action is far from certain. At least with respect to SSRI therapy, several reviews of 100+ (previously published) double-blind, placebo controlled studies have concluded that objective measures of depressive symptoms show statistically significant improvement within the first week of therapy, followed by up to five weeks of improvement that diminishes in magnitude. The 4-6 week figure may just be an artifact of the lack of statistical power individual studies possess, such that improvements do not reach the level of statistical significance in small groups of patients until well into treatment.

Further, a delay on the timescale of weeks, if it were present, would suggest changes in gene expression as a prime candidate for the mechanism leading to that delay. It is conceivable that even those drugs that do not produce clinically significant symptom improvement would still induce similar changes in gene expression. It seems to me that prior exposure to the same class of drug might “prime” a brain, thereby truncating any delay when an effective alternative is finally introduced. Pure speculation on my part, but perhaps some food for thought.

By: expblast

expblast — Wed, 27 Jun 2012 23:40:23 +0000

Sara.. awesome. Marry me. Its a new age boondoggle just like all of the others. *** Off topic..Has any one else noticed that a lot of vitamins have an improper dosage on the label? I have a few friends that have their PHD in various fields, and they have told me that a majority of the nutrients that our body needs come from our food – the western diet. Yet I’m holding a bottle of vitamins that claims that I should take two a day. All of the vitamins in this pill are anywhere from 60% to 800* of the daily recommended value. Where to they get two a day? Are vitamins regulated by the FDA, or are they “not intended to diagnose, treat, or cure any disease etc?” I know they are not medicine per se.

By: linda65

linda65 — Wed, 27 Jun 2012 15:29:19 +0000

I have a question about Brain Balance. I attended a conference session on sensory sensitivity and Brain Balance was mentioned. I would like to know if there is recent research on this and if the centers are legitimate sources of help for these children.
Linda65

By: Kawarthajon

Kawarthajon — Tue, 26 Jun 2012 00:28:47 +0000

I just want to say that, in my humble opinion as a former resident of Ottawa, the Ottawa Sun is not a credible source of information about anything. It is commonly referred to as a “rag” because it is just about as useful for news as a greasy rag. Journalistic standards mean nothing for the writers in the paper and they base their business on sensationalism and conservative anti-establishment stories. I can’t stand the paper, so I don’t recommend trusting anything you read in it.

By: daijiyobu

daijiyobu — Mon, 25 Jun 2012 19:50:24 +0000

Per: “the idea is that the body is all connected in some vague way by magical life energy (the kind of vitalistic force that traditional chiropractors believe in) [...which is] unscientific (the existence of vital force or its alleged influence on muscle strength), and the technique has been shown to be ineffective when tested scientifically”

and being that AK is so science-exterior, you can find naturopaths also using this and wrongly-labeling it as within their ‘science-based’ category.

E.g.: National University of Health SCIENCES, which has the triple threat of acupuncture, chiropractic and naturopathy degree programs, has a quite active AK club

http://nuhs-ak-club.tripod.com/id1.html .

The word “diagnose” is on that page three times.

Fascinating.

-r.c.

By: jre

jre — Mon, 25 Jun 2012 19:48:07 +0000

Western medicine is unable to find the root cause of conditions such as Mr. Bertrand’s, and confesses itself baffled. But fear not — Dr. Boli can help!

http://drboli.wordpress.com/2011/03/05/advertisement-594/

By: locutusbrg

locutusbrg — Mon, 25 Jun 2012 18:04:43 +0000

So many of my patients “give way” when I examine them. True neurological or muscular weakness has a certain characteristic to that clearly distinguishes it from lack of effort. Most “I hope” are not trying to fool me, rather are trying to convince me of the severity of their condition. It may also be unconscious. I have seen many many cases where a patient has chronic lower back pain and has been asked so many times if the have radicular pain (commonly known as sciatica) that they begin to answer yes. This is despite the fact that after further history I realize that they so not even know what sciatica is. Neither do they describe sciatic pain. Rather they point to their lower back and say that is where I have sciatica. Given that this is anecdotal eval I would review specifically what sciatica means and what it is limited to. Then they would recant that diagnosis in their history. I began to realize that they had been asked the question so much they began to think that saying yes would lead to other treatments. They were desperate for anything. Sound familiar.

By: SARA

SARA — Mon, 25 Jun 2012 16:12:29 +0000

Karl Withakay

I had not thought before about about 3rd person placebo effects for those unable to communicate. And it’s rather disturbing to think about choices being made for the helpless based on tricks being played by our brain.

By: Karl Withakay

Karl Withakay — Mon, 25 Jun 2012 15:30:07 +0000

SARA,

That’s a good story to use when someone tries to claim that babies and animals aren’t subject to placebo effects/responses.

Every observation has two components: the observed and the observer. Placebo effects/responses are not confined to the observed.

Actually, one could argue that placebo effects/responses are ALWAYS the due to the observer; it’ just that often the observer is observing themselves.

By: DevoutCatalyst

DevoutCatalyst — Mon, 25 Jun 2012 14:57:36 +0000

My guess is that most applied kinesiologists couldn’t get hired on the carnival midway, yet can get a gig as a fake doctor. I think this is because people expect to be
considered potential “marks” when at the carnival, and when in a
trusting situation with alt-med types pretending to
themselves to be doctors people instead will relax their guard. It is an
important role to call out these mal practices and practitioners, after
all, CAM purveyors stack the deck constantly by planting seeds of doubt
regarding real medicine, we had better be better and more thorough at
this than they are.

I have had applied kinesiology, um, applied to myself. Although I wasn’t
a skeptic at that time, it felt rather cornball. I also used to feel
embarrassed for being so stupid as to have sought out alternative
medicine in the first place. Then I read recently that Michael Shermer had colonics back in
the day! Hah, imagine if you will his cherubic countenance with a pipe
stuck up his butt, and then realize the potential of critical thinking
to empower a turnaround in a person’s life, sometimes
surprisingly so. Applied skepticism is the key to a better world for
every citizen. Applied kinesiology can do no such thing.