My email address

It's funny, because when I made this email address, I was thinking of how a friend in college used the word "traddle." It was his own word, as far as I could tell, and it meant one of two things: either really jamming, musically, or getting wasted. It was his pronunciation of the word "travel." "NOW we're traddling!" he'd say.

I'm not sure why I was thinking of him when I signed up for the email address of letstraddle at gmail, but I was, so there you have it. (feel free to write me any time!)

The funny thing is that when I googled it, I found this definition on the Urban Dictionary:

"Blather about one's company's products, most often having a derogatory connotation and used at or in the context of discussions about industry trade shows.

The lame sales drone peppered me with meaningless traddle about their stupid Acme 9000 Ionizing Pillowcase Cleaner."

I had to laugh.

MSM - A Cure for Rheumatoid Arthritis?

I was reading an article that was posted on RAW's facebook page that particularly pissed me off this morning: Celebrities Inspire Natural Solutions for Rheumatoid Arthritis

Notice the topic of the article. "Celebrities Inspire Natural Solutions for Rheumatoid Arthritis." Now, notice the picture on the front of the article. That's Aida Turturro, who, as far as I can tell, has never, ever said that natural solutions are the answer to RA. She doesn't even mention alternative methods anywhere I can find on the net. She is an RA activist who recommends seeing a doctor, taking your meds, watching your diet and, if you can, exercising (though she does acknowledge that many people with RA are not able to exercise regularly).

I can also find no information about Kathleen Turner ever having used natural "medicines." Maybe she has. Maybe Turturro has too. I know that I sure have. When you are in the amount of pain we experience, we become desperate for relief.

That's where the problem is. Articles like this one, and companies that sell natural "remedies" know about this desperation, and are willing to take our money, whether or not those "remedies" help.

So, all we're left with is James Colburn claiming he'd been "cured" by MSM. I went on a google hunt for it. It's also called Methylsulfonylmethane, methyl sulfone, crystaline DMSO and dimethylsulfone (DMSO2). All of the studies I was able to find, which weren't many, mind you, were small, inconclusive, and/or a long time ago. You'd think that if it were a cure for RA, someone would be pretty famous for it by now, right? Right.

Enter Quackwatch, a very good site which details all sorts of quackery. Here is their article about MSM. Please read this at your leisure. I just wanted to quote two parts of it for this post:

"Herschler's patent documents claim that "the average diet is deficient in methylsulfonylmethane because it is readily lost during conventional food processing, such as frying, dehydrating, dilution with synthetic fillers and other poorly nutritional additives, cooking, radiation or pasteurizing, and long-term storage" [4]. This statement is absurd, because the amount of sulfur in protein foods is not affected by processing. Since Americans tend to consume more protein than they need, "sulfur deficiency" is very unlikely and would not occur without obvious evidence of severe malnutrition. If it could occur, the remedy would be to eat adequate protein, not to supplement with MSM."

"No published research studies link MSM to any of the health claims made by its marketers. Sulfur needed in human metabolism comes from dietary protein. MSM supplements probably make little or no contribution to the body's sulfur requirements. Thus there is no good reason to use MSM supplements."

That's pretty much the same thing I've found all over the internet. Karl Loren would like for everyone to believe that James Coburn was cured by his "medicine," nevermind that he has been warned several times by the FDA that his claims of the therapeutic properties of his products defined them as drugs, which of course were not approved by the FDA.

So what's wrong with this magical "cure?"

* False hope which could prevent someone from getting proper medical treatment, which could lead to a lot of damage that could affect someone for the rest of his or her life.

* Spending money which could be better used toward real medicines for the disease, or for research, or you know, just take yourself to a nice dinner, in which you'll get all the MSM you'll need.

* The annoyance of taking 10-40 capsules a day (yes!).

* Magical thinking, which is similar to false hope, but which places the blame of the "cure" not working on the patient.


hat tip to who is karl loren?

You can pray for me if you want.

I don't believe in prayer. I should qualify that. I don't believe prayer works. Wait, that's not true either.

I don't believe that there's a guy "up there" somewhere with whom we can have conversations, and who has control over everything that happens and thus grants us wishes like fairies. I don't believe that you can ask your higher power for a special favor for me and he'll grant it or not. That also means I can't imagine an omnipotent being "looking down" and saying, "No. I won't answer your prayer; that child will die." It's a good thing! :) And I know that some people will say that "No" is an answer, but, no, it isn't. The favor is asked and denied, so what was ever the point? But I promised myself I wouldn't digress, so I won't.

It's always seemed silly to me, praying. I remember as a child wondering who he would hear first. It was kind of like a sale at Christmas; who can grab the shirt and make it to the checkout counter first?

That said, that's pretty linear thinking on my part. I believe positive thinking is a positive thing. I don't think it's a cure for anything, but I think it helps. Our bodies and the world are betraying us, so what's wrong with a little positive thought, whether it's for ourselves or for someone else?

So I'm not one of those atheists who will get up in arms if you say you'll pray for me. I'll appreciate you for thinking of me in a positive light.

Best Explanation of Homeopathy, Ever.

People with Rheumatoid Arthritis are people with constant pain, so we are particularly susceptible to scams. It would be incredible to just slip on a magic copper bracelet and suddenly become able to dance again, for example.

But this post is about Homeopathy, which if you read, say, its Wikipedia article, you'd see a bunch of big words and some history about it and how it's supposed to work. Later in the article, it explains where it's legal and what sorts of degrees and certificates you can get in order to use this method of treatment, but I like James Randi's explanation much better. Laughter is the best medicine, right? Here it is:





That video is cut short; I speculate that Randi probably went on to talk about the dangers of this type of "medicine." But here are a few or them:

* False hope which could prevent someone from getting proper medical treatment, which could lead to a lot of damage that could affect someone for the rest of his or her life.

* Making patients think that big words that mean nothing are acceptable in medicine. Patients need to ask questions and learn about their disease, rather than believe anything that's thrown at them. Yes, even by their real medical doctors.

* My first google hit rendered a site that could sell homeopathic cures to me for $390 a year. I'd rather donate that to research than flush it down the toilet (literally).

* And finally, Homeopathy kills.

These are the most common dangers of ignoring actual medical treatment by well-educated doctors in favor of illogical treatments that I can think of. Add others if you can. This isn't a game to us.

Inspirations

I'm not even sure what this looks like yet, since there were glitches starting the blog, but maybe I'll be able to make it look nice as we go.

First of all, I'd like to say that this blog was inspired by two sources: The Rheumatoid Arthritis Warrior and The James Randi Educational Foundation

RAWarrior is a blog about Rheumatoid Arthritis, and is the most helpful RA blog on the internet.  She questions everything from the differences in patient symptoms to criteria for diagnosis to RA awareness to...well, you get the idea.  She covers most everything about RA in her blog.  I especially like the section in which she addresses people who do not have Rheumatoid Arthritis.

JREF (randi.org) is a global skeptical community that I've kept an eye on since it came online.  I am a skeptic myself and find the discussions on their site refreshing, informational, and sometimes hilarious.

I suggested that Kelly at RAW write an article about pseudo-medicine, and how it can be harmful to Rheumatoid Arthritis patients, and offered to help, but the more I look around the web, the more information and mis-information I see, so I decided that this topic needed its own blog.

Also, I decided I wanted a personal blog for myself because, though I am a hopeful person, I am not a person who believes in any religion.  I am not an atheist either, but I'll talk more about that later.

So here is my first post.  I'll now see if I can add some links and make the blog look half-way decent.  Thanks for reading.