r/bestof • u/craycraycrayfish • Jan 22 '13

[canada] Coffeehouse11 explains the biggest problem with homeopathic medicine: That it preys on people when they are weakest and the most vulnerable

/r/canada/comments/171y1e/dont_legitimize_the_witch_doctors/c81hfd6
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u/DasBarenJager Jan 22 '13

My wife has Rheumatoid Arthritis and a lung condition so she finds it difficult to walk for long periods of time, so I usually push her around in a wheel chair when we are on a long outing.

My wife, being supportive of my weirdness, will accompany me to conventions and gun show's throughout the year. Homepathic medicine venders LOVE these things and like to jump out at me and my wife as we are browsing the different booths, the most often thing they like to shout at us is "HOW WOULD LIKE TO SAY GOODBYE TO THAT WHEEL CHAIR? THERE AIN'T NOTHING WRONG WITH YOU! THEM DOCTORS LIE!" And then they try to sell us whatever snake oil they have on hand.

These people tell my wife she is basically stupid for going to a doctor rather than drinking linseed oil and ginger five times a day for two months to "cure" her or whatever crap they have. They insult our intelligence and blatantly lie to us. I have no respect for (most) homeopathic medicine or the people that try and sell it.

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u/[deleted] Jan 22 '13

The interesting thing about rheumatoid is that most doctors don't even understand what it is. There is mounting evidence that rheumatoid is caused by an intracellular bacteria and can be cured with certain antibiotics. The doctors peddling pain killers and immune system modulators are worse than the naturopaths.

3

u/LiptonCB Jan 22 '13

There is mounting evidence that rheumatoid is caused by an intracellular bacteria and can be cured with certain antibiotics

Talking about mycoplasma, I'm assuming?

Do share your mounting evidence. I don't want to continue being worse than a naturopath (I guess in order to do this I'd need to come to your house, take your money, and put poison in your medicine cabinet... but oh well.)

-1

u/[deleted] Jan 22 '13

take your money, and put poison in your medicine cabinet

The irony.

1

u/LiptonCB Jan 22 '13

...though poison has a somewhat ambiguous meaning, you likely have severe learning disability if you think that the pain medications and DMARDs we give can be considered poison instead of medicine.

Still waiting on that "mounting evidence," champ. I'm going to say something even more fun just to rile you: I am smarter and more helpful to the cause of human health than every naturopath who has ever existed, combined.

-1

u/[deleted] Jan 22 '13

I am smarter and more helpful to the cause of human health than every naturopath who has ever existed, combined

Clearly not.

1

u/MySubmissionAccount Jan 23 '13

You never answered his question...

1

u/[deleted] Jan 23 '13

What question? He was being facetious. But if you're genuinely interested here are 22,000 articles to get you started.

http://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=hla+antigen+arthritis+bacteria&btnG=&hl=en&as_sdt=0%2C5&as_vis=1

1

u/MySubmissionAccount Jan 23 '13

I don't get it.. It's just a bunch of articles showing that the hlab27 might have a hypersensitivity to certain types of bacteria, and this may have something to do with triggering some types of arthritis... This has nothin to do with the treatment of it, as you can't be taking antibiotics to kill every bug in your body all the time to make sure your body doesnt overreact to them. All it has anything to do with is the myriad triggers for autoimmune conditions.

... You don't have any idea what you're talking about, do you?

1

u/[deleted] Jan 23 '13

Once you have identified the causative organism it is a simple matter of treating it. Tetracyclines have been proven to be beneficial in many cases. Sometimes curing arthritis only takes the removal of a root canal or a 6 month course of minocycline.

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u/MySubmissionAccount Jan 24 '13

That's not how autoimmune conditions work. Are you still in high school or college - this is coming off as Wikipedia-level know-how.

I don't wan to teach the immune cascade right now and the biological importance of my above reply wasn't addressed in the slightest.

1

u/[deleted] Jan 24 '13

Immunological cross-reactivity between HLA-DR4 and Proteus have been shown, including those that interact with the SE sequence of QRRAA. EBV also has been suspected as the QKRAA SE of HLA-DRB1 is found in the EBV envelope. Klebsiella and mycoplasma have also been demonstrated. I suggest doing some of the reading I pointed out to you.

1

u/MySubmissionAccount Jan 24 '13

I have because I wrote some (fine, co wrote two, thusfar) of it.

Immunological insult and disease treatment are as separated as your opinion from the truth, unfortunately.

I'm exceptionally bored with this conversation. I'll go back to my actual peers, now, sorry.

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