The asylum known as the Vatican

85-year old Father Gabriele Amorth has been the Vatican's chief exorcist for the last 25 years. He's come across some 70,000 demonic possessions. Amorth says the sex abuse scandals that have rocked the Church lately is evidence that the Devil is within the Vatican itself.

Amorth also claims that a number of the possessed he's encountered "spat out nails or pieces of glass." "Anything can come out of their mouths – finger-length pieces of iron, but also rose petals," he says.
Well this is most interesting. If humans--whose mouths and guts are devoid of the said materials--actually can be shown to produce nails, cullet, bolts?, bullets?, lava?, flowers and what have you, then this would be a truly incredible phenomenon meriting study and investigation from a host of disciplines. Hell, this would mean that Hell might actually be real!

To kickstart the investigation I've got a suggestion. The next time Amorth rushes to exorcise a human Gatling gun, I urge him to bring along two conjurers/magicians. No need for scientists. They'll just be a hindrance. A couple of seasoned illusionists will do just fine. Let them stick around, poke around, and check out the (purportedly) possessed and the (supposed) projectiles shooting out of them. I bet you a thousand dollars they'll come back home yawning. While Amorth will continue to insist that demons and possession are as real as the brew of delusions his brain is marinated in.

When MDs fail us

You'd think that doctors have had years of training and continually attend conferences and seminars such that they know which treatments/medications out there in the market work and which don't. Unfortunately, reality doesn't bear that out. Case in point: My 72-year old mom had experienced excruciating pain in the knee for about a month. When the pain failed to diminish after three days, she went to see an orthopedist who quickly  diagnosed her as having osteoarthritis of the knee and made out just one prescription: 1500mg of powdered glucosamine sulfate to be mixed with a glass of water and taken once a day. My mom dutifully followed the doctor's instructions and began taking the medication in the hopes that her torment will end.

Unfortunately her doctor had prescribed something that simply wouldn't work. You see, glucosamine sulfate has already been clinically tested, and the best studies to date show it does nothing for osteoarthritis. Back in 2007 when his Snake Oil Science: The Truth About Complementary Medicine was published, R. Barker Bausell said that the definitive study on glucosamine was one published in the New England Journal of Medicine in 2006. That study tested glucosamine, chondroitin, glucosamine with chondroitin, and celecoxib (an already tested and proven pain medication). The results? Except for celecoxib, all the others performed no better than placebo. In other words, glucosamine et al. were all ineffective.

Since 2006 several other studies have been done.

One 2007 study showed that glucosamine sulfate was better than placebo for knee osteoarthritis.  Another 2007 study showed that glucosamine HCl and chondroitin, with or without exercise, were no better than placebo for knee osteoarthritis. Sources like the Natural Medicines Comprehensive Database believe the evidence favors glucosamine sulfate but not glucosamine hydrochloride. A new study was published 19 February 2008 in the prestigious Annals of Internal Medicine.  It is arguably the best study to date, and may shed some light on the controversy. Carried out in the Netherlands in a primary care setting, it studied 222 patients with hip osteoarthritis over a 2 year period. Half the patients took glucosamine sulfate 1500 mg a day; half took a placebo. They concluded that glucosamine sulfate was no better than placebo in reducing symptoms and progression of hip osteoarthritis.

Thus, to date, the best studies show glucosamine to be mere placebo for osteoarthritis of this and that part of the body.

When there are conflicting studies such as in the glucosamine controversy, the better studies (better means bigger trial size, better designed, more stringent controls, stricter blinding, multicenter vs single center, etc.) are of course given more weight. But supposing all the studies are of equal quality and that they're all good studies. Then the mere fact that some show that X works and some conclude that X is no better than placebo, almost certainly means that the latter conclusion is correct. Why? Because, if X actually works and works significantly better than placebo then any good study will almost surely find a statistically significant difference between X and a placebo. That some good studies find it effective and some equally good ones conclude it isn't implies that the difference between X and the control is probably small. Thus, even if all the studies for glucosamine thus far are equally good studies--they're not--then it is more likely that further studies--better ones--will show X to be no better than a lactose pill.

And here's something to think about. Glucosamine is already present in our bodies, the amount of which is far far more than the recommnded dose:

[Dr.] Wallace Sampson, one of the other authors of this blog, has pointed out that the amount of glucosamine in the typical supplement dose is on the order of 1/1000th or 1/10,000th of the available glucosamine in the body, most of which is produced by the body itself. He says, “Glucosamine is not an essential nutrient like a vitamin or an essential amino acid, for which small amounts make a large difference. How much difference could that small additional amount make? If glucosamine or chondroitin worked, this would be a medical first and worthy of a Nobel. It probably cannot work.”

Hence, my mom's orthopedist had prescribed expensive crap. If the good doctor knows this then he was intentionally prescribing a placebo--hoping the placebo effect would kick in, leading to a reduction in the unbearable pain that mom was experiencing, and/or perhaps hoping that the pain would naturally subside and that she would attribute this to glucosamine. On the other hand, if this doctor actually thought that glucosamine is effective, then he's one hell of an ignorant "expert."

The sad thing is that another doctor--a general physician--whom she consulted thereafter most confidently backed up the glucosamine prescription, and went a step further and suggested glucosamine with MSM, saying in effect it's even better. A simple check on Quackwatch reveals that MSM stands for methylsufonylmethane, and that there are few studies involving MSM, and practically no clinical trials showing MSM as efficacious against any human disease. And so this doctor's recommendation is perhaps even worse, given that efficacy and safety studies on humans at the suggested dosage levels have not been carried out.

About two weeks pass and mom's burning pain does not subside. There are days when it feels less painful and days when it's hell. But overall there has been no improvement. So off she goes to see another doctor. After examining the patient and looking at the xray he ordered, this orthopedist tells her she doesn't have osteoarthritis at all. In fact her knee joint is in excellent condition. Instead she has a nerve problem.* And he prescribes an anti-neuropathic drug as well as two anti-inflammatory medications. But before mom leaves the clinic, the good doctor advises her to also look for an acupuncturist. He says that while he can't explain how it works, acupuncture can do wonders. For instance, he's heard of performing an appendectomy using only acupuncture as the anesthetic! And acupuncture has been around for thousands of years so there must be something to it.

To say that this is disappointing to hear is an understatement. The best studies on acupuncture--those that employ the most credible sham acupuncture procedure and have the best single/double blinding--show that "needling" at the, so to speak, magical points on the body is no better than poking needles anywhere else nor is it better than pretend pricks. And of course the traditional explanation for how acupuncture works is utter nonsense (where oh where could those dang meridians be and what exactly is the nature of and what instrument can measure the qi energy that's supposedly coursing through our bodies?). Needless to say, the doctor's argumentum ad antiquitatem is an elementary error in logic. And the story of doctors using acupuncture as the sole anesthetic invites the question, How true is it? As with anecdotes of cures the story is suspect. The devil is in the details you know. Even acupuncturists in China don't have magic needles.

My mother has been to five doctors in the last two months for this pain of hers. The above three have actually prescribed CAM treatments whose efficacy has been, for all practical purposes, scientifically refuted. It seems quite clear that at least two of the above doctors don't know this.

In a recent interview, Dr. Harriet Hall, aka SkepDoc, confirms that many doctors are now prescribing/suggesting alternative remedies to their patients (pertinent quote at 27:40 min of the podcast). The truth is, just because they have "MD" trailing behind their names doesn't mean that what comes out of their mouths is biblical and true and right. Doctors are fallible. They may not be cognizant of which treatment modalities are science and evidence-based. They can enthusiastically give their patients belief-based treatments (as Dr. Hall rightly calls it). They can misdiagnose and/or mis-treat.

It's bad enough when quacks peddle snake oil and nostrums. There are enough gullible, nonskeptical, uncritical people who fall for them daily and are even prepared to defend them (self-proclaimed panacea guru Eli Edwin Casimero just keeps coming to mind). But it's much worse when licensed doctors become knowing or unwitting hucksters themselves. Since doctors are legitimate experts on disease and their treatment we seldom or rarely question their pronouncements and the scribbles they hand over to us. We take their word for it that we are going to get better if we follow their instruction and pop this and that pill three times a day.. Thus, when our physicians start prescribing nostrum, there is a good chance that we'll end up believing these "alternative" treatments to be in fact effective remedies. The onus is, of course, on them. It is their ethical responsibility to know and make sure the treatments they offer their patients have been tested safe and effective. On the other hand, it is our lives we are placing in the hands of another human being. We owe it ourselves to make sure that this person isn't putting us in danger or giving us worthless treatments. So, caveat emptor. Be a smart patient. Be critically-minded. Be scientific. Read up and check the body of evidence.


---

* This highlights yet another problem that I pointed out yesterday--that misdiagnosis is not a rarity at all. My mother went through 4 doctors before the cause of her pain was finally correctly identified. Two of those doctors had completely opposing diagnoses.

No, Marie, there is no Santo Papa's ghost

Sister Marie Simon-Pierre had been diagnosed with Parkinson's.

In 2007 Simon-Pierre could barely move her left side, could not write legibly, drive or move around easily and was in constant pain. Her disease worsened after [Pope John Paul 2's] death, and her order prayed for his intervention to ease her suffering. Then after writing his name on a paper one night, she woke up the next day apparently cured and returned to work as a maternity nurse with no traces of the disease.

Mirable dictu! Well, it was wonderful to relate and was of course held as a miracle ... until the nun's disease returned.

[O]ne of the doctors charged with scrutinising the nun's case believed she might have been suffering from a similar nervous disease, not Parkinson's, which could go into sudden remission. A report on the paper's website went further, saying that the 49-year-old nun had become sick again with the same illness.

Don't you just love these post hoc ergo propter hoc stories? Mr. G rubbed a crystal on his belly for a week. On the seventh day the abdominal pain was completely gone. Hallelujah! Crystals work wonders! This should be yet another cautionary tale for anyone who's into so-called complementary and alternative medicine (SCAM) including religion-based cures. Simon-Pierre's "miracle" reminds me of a Lourdes "confirmed" miraculous healing some half a century involving a woman who had Budd-Chiari disease. Turns out doctors back then didn't understand enough of the disease to know that it could go into natural remission. The woman eventually died of the same disease. And the part about the possibility of a misdiagnosis is a big deal. Doctors and diagnostics are not perfect. Misdiagnosis is a not an infrequent event! Everyone will be led astray if we think that the person has X which is incurable when in fact he's down with Y which can go into spontaneous remission. Anything he was doing at the time of the remission will be touted as a miracle cure.

Casimero's romance with Hulda Clark

I got around to checking some of Edwin Casimero's other health sites (including Fertility Help Network and Eczema Cure) and one cannot miss how he worships Hulda Clark and her zapper. In Dengue Cure, for example, he tells us that if his own children were to come down with dengue hemorrhagic fever, among the things he'd do is to use Clark's zapper which "destroys viruses via their positive electric pulsations." In Diabetes Cure Asia he plasters Clark's zany diabetes treatment which of course employs the zapper. Apparently, diabetes is caused by wood alcohol (methanol) in one's pancreas, the presence of which "attracts" the cattle fluke Eurytrema pancreaticum. As to how that parasite gets to humans and makes its home in the pancreas Casimero does not tells us.

I wouldn't be surprised if Casimero swears by Clark and her crackpot devices. Which of course makes you wonder how a computer techie like him (he's a web developer) can be duped by a patently zany quack and her bogus gizmos. Perhaps because he's not an electrical/electronics engineer? No. I think it's because he's had unfortunate experiences with doctors--the "western" ones--which made him decide to go over to the dark side (ostensibly checking his brain at the border). He is so sold on CAM and quackery that he practically doesn't ask such basic questions as, Is the principle upon which the zapper is said to work sensible and plausible? Can it really be that all cancers and most diseases have just one cause and of all the possible causes, it would be one species of parasite? Casimero has completely lost his faith in conventional medicine and now puts his trust in anything nonscientific, nonevidence-based, unconventional, and traditional. He's become not just skeptical of mainstream medicine, he's absolutely cynical. And because he and his family do need medical care from time to time, his cynicism has led him to completely embrace and promote CAM uncritically without a hint of skepticism whatsoever. Over time he's become so confident about his knowledge of disease and healing that two years ago he began offering face-to-face cancer cure consultations for PhP500.00. We can infer from this that "hubris" has not made it into this hobby healer's vocabulary. He also declares that "I am not responsible for your health unless you are my wife or my child." For someone who publicly dispenses his cure for all diseases and charges for consultations I wonder how he defines "responsible"?

Let's take a quick look at Hulda Clark and her claims. Clark earned her degree in naturopathy from Clayton College, a "correspondence school" in Alabama. Unfortunately,

naturopathy degree issued by Clayton College is not considered a valid credential by any state licensing naturopathic doctors. It is also not considered a sufficient credential to sit for the national naturopathic licensing examination (NPLX).

On the other hand, Joseph Pizzorno is the "top naturopath" in the USA. He is the founder and "president emeritus of Bastyr University, the first fully accredited, multidisciplinary university of natural medicine in the United States" and "senior editor of the Textbook of Natural Medicine, the most authoritative textbook on natural medicine currently available." So, in terms of professional prestige if not authoritativeness in the world of naturopathy, Pizzorno outdoes Clark.

In her books Clark claims that a single parasite, the fluke Fasciolopsis buski, is the cause of all cancers and a host of other diseases including AIDS, Alzheimer's, Crohn's, Kaposi's sarcoma, and endometriosis. It's strange enough that Clark would name one cause for a large number of different diseases. It's even more puzzling when it comes to light that F. buski is found only in East Asia. Pizzorno informs us:

There is no research documenting the association of F. buski with cancer or any disease other than fasciolopsiasis. Considering the well-documented level of infestation in these other [East Asian] countries, if the Clark theory was true we'd see an equally high level of cancer, which we don't.

As for the zapper Pizzorno says,

No research is presented demonstrating that the Zapper has any physiological effects, let alone ability to kill parasites or cure cancer. The claim that mild electrical shocks to the skin can eliminate intestinal parasites is, frankly, preposterous.

Even celebrity CAM meister Andrew Weil has in effect described her a crank: "No studies have backed up [Clark's] bizarre claims, and it’s unclear whether the cancer patients she’s supposedly cured ever had cancer to begin with." And the Swiss Study Group for Complementary and Alternative Methods in Cancer (SCAC) reports:

There is no scientific basis for Hulda Clark's hypotheses and recommendations, including her suggested treatments.

The parasite Fasciolopsis buskii does in fact exist, but only in Asian countries, so that an infection in our country is ruled out. Consequently, this parasite does not enter into consideration as a cause of the numerous cases of cancer in the Western countries; at most, it might be one of several causes of liver cancer (and only for this type of cancer) in the Asian countries.

As a whole, Clark's thesis cannot be comprehended, nor is it proven.

Which of course makes me wonder how Casimero could possibly have fallen for these utterly crackpot ideas. Casimero is a graduate of one of the top universities in the Philippines (University of the Philippines) which at the very least shows he has enough brains to have been accepted and make it through. So how does a person like that get taken in by a nutcase and fugitive like Clark?

Having been into both religion and various woo myself, Michael Shermer's explanation may hold a clue. Since there are not a few very intelligent people like Frank Tipler who believe in very goofy stuff, Shermer poses the question, Why do smart people believe in weird things? And his answer is,

Smart people believe weird things because they are skilled at defending beliefs they arrived at for non-smart reasons. [Shermer, p.283]

So I'm wondering whether UP-bred Edwin Casimero has been able to skillfully delude himself with rationales and explanations which he finds sensible and adequate but in reality hold no water. Then again, perhaps he has simply assumed that anything outside conventional medicine must be right. Maybe he's just still too starstruck that it has not occurred to him to question the plausibility of the claims of his gurus. Or maybe, and this is an uber remote possibility, he's just too scientifically illiterate.

On the other hand, what is most certainly the case--as I have discovered through his email to me--is that he does not have a grasp of what constitutes good evidence. For him anecdotes are enough. If he's tried it or on his family members and they seem to have gotten better, then the CAM remedy must be effective--a classic post hoc ergo propter hoc mistake as I told him in my email.

Will reason get through to Casimero? Will he see the light, so to speak? Cognitive dissonance theory predicts that people who've heavily invested their head and heart and made a commitment publicly and have had the belief system for a long time are not about to suddenly have a change of heart and mind. That's the exception. Instead they will redouble their efforts and resort to rationales and self-justifications to bring back consonance. Their press release will read: Mistakes were not made and certainly not by me!



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Michael Shermer, Why People Believe in Weird Things: Pseudoscience, Superstition, and Other Confusions of Our Time, Owl Books, 2002. An online excerpt is available.

Casimero's Cure Manual for All Diseases

Edwin Casimero maintains the website The Cure Manual whose tagline reads, "Banish Fear from ALL Diseases. All Diseases Curable." Just from that last claim you may already be rolling your eyes. His site provides cures for a variety of illnesses.

Is Casimero a doctor? A scientist perhaps? Apparently, he has no qualification whatsoever in medicine, biology, biochemistry, or anything related to human physiology, metabolism, and disease. Instead he describes himself as a "hobby healer," which simply means healing is a hobby of his.

Nothing wrong with sharing information and educating people about health matters. But only if the said advice and treatments are backed up by good objective evidence showing to some degree of confidence that they actually work and are safe.

Unfortunately that is hardly the case with this site. Casimero has guzzled the whole pitcher of Kool Aid. He's not just knee-deep in quackery. He pretty much eats, breathes, and lives it. He doesn't believe in "western doctors" anymore. He stopped vaccinating his children because he "found out that the whole vaccination theory and paradigm was completely false." He and his wife give chiropractic for heart ailments a thumbs up. He's been through colonics. He worships such sultans of nostrum as Hulda Clark, Andreas Moritz, and Bruce Fife. He avers that "'wholistic' healers are correct" while "pharmaceutical and surgical dominant medical superstition is absolutely false." In other words conventional medicine is bunk; it's the quacks with their snake oil who are the real doctors with real cures. (About Cure Manual, About Me)

Casimero makes the following statement:

They admit themselves that they have zero cures for all the diseases of civilization. They admit they only have treatments. They admit they have only symptom alleviation / masking / coverup drugs, radiation and surgical procedures.

Firstly, who's "they"? A list of names of those who made and make the claim would be helpful. Dr. Harriet Hall has an illuminating article explaining who's treating symptoms and who's actually ferreting out the real cause and treating it.

The wonderful thing about such sweeping claims as Casimero's is that we need only provide one disconfirming instance and the claim gets debunked. In logic the classic example is: All swans are white. If we find a swan of a different color, we instantly refute the claim. So does conventional medicine have zero cures for all diseases? When was the last time you had a bacterial infection that didn't go away or couldn't have gone away on its own? Were you prescribed antibiotics? Did the antibiotic just target the symptoms such as fever, diarrhea, etc. or did it rid you of the infection? Ever since the discovery of penicillin, millions of people have been routinely cured of a host of bacterial infections. They've proven so good in fact that we have forced artificial selection on pathogenic bacteria, thus leading to the problem of antibiotic-resistant strains flourishing. So there, Casimero's claim falsified.

But bacterial infection is hardly the only condition "western medicine" is able to address. There are a host of conditions that it can treat and cure. Herniated vertebral discs which cause nerves to be pinched leading to pain in the limbs are routinely surgically remedied. If doctors merely drowned the patient with NSAIDs and other pain relievers, that would be treating only the symptom. But if the pain is caused by a herniated disc then treating the spinal problem would be going right to the cause. Casimero's claim is dealt another blow.

And what about parasitic infestation such as ameobiasis and tapeworms? What do drugs such as metronidazole, paromomycin, and niclosamide do? They rid us of the parasites. Now is that treating the symptoms or the cause? Yet another machete strike. Do we have go on hacking and mincing this mythical horse?

Ok, just one last chop. Over five years ago my brother-in-law just suddenly collapsed in a mall. Tests revealed he had colon cancer. He underwent surgery. Part of his colon was removed. Annual check ups thus far show he's cancer-free.

Casimero continues:

A doctor who says your disease has no cure has no business serving you! A doctor who says your disease has no cure does not deserve to be paid.

Perhaps Casimero can enlighten us as to what the cause of death of various deceased alternative medicine practitioners have been. What can he say of those who succumbed to diseases? For instance, what, may we ask, did Hulda Clark die of? Clark whose books include The Cure For All Cancers and The Cure For All Diseases endured a series of ailments that even she could not address, thus leading her to (occasionally) turn to, gasp!, conventional medicine--pain relievers and hip replacement. "She suffered more than she should have because she wanted to solve her problems herself." Implied is that she couldn't and wasn't able to. The guru who had all the cures couldn't cure herself. In the end she apparently died from a form of cancer. Oh, the irony.

Here's Casimero's cure for all incurable diseases. I guess Hulda Clark failed to read Casimero. If only she had been on the "right diet," had not "polluted" herself, "cleansed" and detoxified her organs, "nurtured" herself, had taken nothing but raw foods and drank not water but coconut juice, used no toiletries of any sort, she never would have had any disease whatsoever and any disease she contracted would've left her in a zippy. So fear not malaria or dengue or hemophilia or sickle cell anemia or glaucoma or ... so long as you follow Casimero's recommendations. Remember, as with Clark he has written the definitive Cure Manual for All Diseases.


One of the things I've experienced with some religious sites and blogs is that they moderate comments. They probably want to screen out spam, ad hominems, crank messages, and the like. But I found to my chagrin that besides these obvious annoyances, some of these sites never allowed my comments to be posted. No, my remarks did not contain flames or insults or gratuitous derision. They were on-topic rational critiques. Which of course leads me to believe that these sites and blogs are afraid of analyses, facts and the truth. Perhaps because allowing dissenting views and informed criticism would open the door to questioning and disillusionment. They want their readers shrouded from reality, doubt, logic even. Thus, any views or facts for that matter that rock the boat will not be permitted to appear on their site.

Well I've had the same experience with Casimero. He too has blocked what I posted on his beam ray machine article. I've learned my lesson from sites that trash my comments so I now keep a copy on my computer, at least until the comment is posted. Here's what I wrote on Casimero's page:

1. The mechanism by which the beam ray is said to work has not been determined to be true. There is no good scientific evidence that various "frequencies" can detect/treat illnesses such as internal infections/infestation.

2. There are no impartial, randomized, double-blinded, controlled clinical trials that show beam ray machines can treat diseases. Thus, no good evidence exists that these devices actually work.

3. A good number of sellers of "beam ray" devices have been convicted of fraud and other felonies. Some beam ray devices have been linked to various deaths. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Rife#Modern_revival.2C_marketing.2C_and_health_fraud.

4. Hulda Clark's claim that all diseases are caused by parasites has no basis in reality. Her "zapper" machines are bogus. Clark has run afoul with both the US and Mexican government for issues related to her practice of medicine. She is not licensed to treat people. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hulda_Clark)

Instead of publishing the above, he emailed me. Seriously, I appreciate that he did. It shows he does in some way care about the matters I raised. In his missive (which I won't copy and paste, having no permission to do so), he acknowledges my "healthy skepticism" and provides a series of positive personal anecdotes which he uses to justify his belief in the beam ray machine he's been exposed to and Hulda Clark's zapper which he purports helped save his brother's life. In answer to my statement that no RCT has been conducted to evince the efficacy of beam ray machines, he told me to finance a study myself, adding that I'll need half a billion to a billion dollars for it. I'll presume he isn't ignorant and was merely in a hyperbolic mood since even the NCCAM gets only a billion to fund a whole range of CAM studies.

I replied informing Casimero of the post hoc ergo propter hoc fallacy and how factors such as the placebo effect, natural history of diseases, regression to mean can mess up causal inferences vis-a-vis treatments. I also asked him whether he allows rational critiques on his site and if not, why? That question must've been a show stopper since I have yet to hear from him. I'm afraid that as with the religious sites I allude to above, Casimero will not allow anyone to rock his boat, lest the truth be let out of the bag and infect the minds of his readers, and perhaps family members as well. Could it be that his cure-all regimen might prove ineffective against critical thinking? And maybe, just maybe, he harbors the fear that he could be terribly wrong about CAM.

Finally, just for entertainment, here's how Casimero's site rates on the Quackometer (click for the larger image):



A full 10 Canards! Congratulations! Woo hoo!

Medjugorje prophecy looking more and more bogus

A few days ago I said that I searched the Medjugorje messages from 1984-2010 for any reference to the Philippines being the global spiritual center and came up empty-handed. Since then I've received a response from the webmaster of medjugorje.ws to my inquiry on this. According to Marek over the last ten years he's read all the messages from 1981 onwards but has not come across any mention of the Philippines. Although this doesn't close the book on the claim, Marek's input heightens my confidence that the "prophecy" is just an urban legend. It could be an outright hoax, a pious fabrication, or some actual fact which after having being passed from one person to another has been embellished, edited, mangled, mistransmitted and thus mutated into what it is.

Let's just backtrack a bit and look at the claim. Bernardo Lopez, a journalist in an article in Business World over five years ago wrote:

It is reported that Our Lady of Medjugorje gave a message saying that the Philippines will one day be a global spiritual center. It is hard to imagine how a poor Third World nation, 70% of whose populace live below the poverty line, would be a spiritual mecca for an ailing world full of wars and chaos.... Is the healing ministry of Sister Raquel and the RVM sisters the first step towards fulfilling the Medjugorje message? Nobody knows.

Allison Lopez of the Philippine Daily Inquirer in December 2007 tells us, "In Medjugorje, Mary’s message was that the Philippines would one day become a global spiritual center. Was the message about Montemaria?" Bingo P. Dejaresco, in the now apparently defunct Bohol Chronicle website wrote, "A message from Our Lady of Medjugorge spoke of the Philippines to become the 'global spiritual center.' Will this become a reality soon?" And someone with the handle georgemortel13 states in his video, "After her appearances in Lourdes and Fatima, the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared last in Medjugorje - leaving one prophecy for the Philippines: that the nation will become the global spiritual healing center of the world."

Bernie Lopez is affiliated with the Mother Ignacia Ministry and runs a YouTube channel under the handle eastwind7. The channel features his videos of miraculous healings by Sister Raquel Reodica and Father Fernando Suarez. Given his religious zeal, I emailed him, telling him of my failure to find the Medjugorje message that contains the prophecy and asked for his source for the report. He replied within the day and admitted that his sources were second and third hand reports and were unreliable, that if I couldn't find the message then perhaps there is no such prophecy. I was kind of surprised by his candidness and honesty. Kudos to him for not resorting to self-justification maneuvers.

Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence. But of course if the prophecy doesn't exist then quite naturally there won't be any evidence for it. The day I contacted Marek I also emailed the exact same missive to medjugorje.org, asking for information on the 1981 to 1983 messages and stating that I am looking for the message that contains the Philippines-as-spiritual-center prophecy. I have yet to hear from the site.

I'm not holding my breath on this claim. My money is on the hypothesis that it's false.

Superman's wife

Former actress Elizabeth Oropesa has been practicing something called Tetada Kalimasada for the last seven years. According to her she has "X-ray eyes" which gives her the ability to see people's internal organs. Terrific! Forget MRI, CAT, PET, endoscopy, colonoscopy, angiograms, etc. Have St. Luke's Medical Center hire this human x-ray vision machine asap!

Well, not to boast, but I have a thirteenth sense which gives me the hands-down, spot-on ability to peer into people's brain even via cyberspace, without even having the person present, thus letting me know unequivocally that Oropesa is suffering from delusional disorder.

Visit the link above and read the entire article. More cranks therein talking about "energy centers" in the body. Pure gobbledygook. Test them if they even understand the string of words coming out of their mouths: Ask them to locate anatomically these energy centers and show their physiological mechanism. Ask them how they measure the so called energy and whether they use the physics unit Joules or some Never Never Land unit such as Tinkerbells. Chances are they'll duck and dodge and point to or pass the buck to even more poppycock like invisible, intangible, undetectable spiritual planes and energies.

The Suarez delusion: The continuing story

You may remember Fr. Fernando Suarez the healing priest who hit the front pages a couple of years ago. Back then plans were underway to build a large shrine including a statue of the Virgin Mary taller than the Statue of Liberty on a mountain in Montemaria, Batangas. It was said that Montemaria is a special place and would become a healing center, perhaps the global healing spiritual center purportedly prophesied in one of the Medjugorje messages*.

But even before any makeshift chapel had been put up, people began flocking to the site to gather stones. You see, a Fr. Nap Baltazar had earlier gone to the site, sensing that it was somehow sacred, and saw the grassy area littered with stones. He gathered about a dozen of these pebbles and brought them back home with him, believing they can be used for healing, given the import of the Montemaria. Some folks began using them and experienced healing of sorts. After the news of this spread, you had all these faith-heads going up to Montemaria gathering miraculous healing stones which I presume they shared with friends and family. Since then there have been various accounts, including video testimonials, of conditions such as diabetes and cancer being treated and cured with these stones simply by rubbing them on the body.

However, on February 16, 2010 Suarez's group officially announced that plans for the said Montemaria shrine have fallen through; negotiations for the 5-hectare land have completely bogged down. Instead, the shrine will now be built somewhere in Tagaytay**. Given the specialness of Montemaria and the fact that its stones have been "proved" miraculous, it behooves us to ask whether Montemaria and its stones had ever been supernaturally special. If Montemaria was never "fated" to be the site for the shrine and healing center, what do the faithful now say about the stones? Do they admit the stones were in fact ineffective and did not have supernatural healing powers? Do they say the stones were effective and therapeutic while the illusion about Montemaria lasted but are no longer anymore? Will some cling to the belief that the stones were and will forever be miraculously therapeutic? Or would they say, as not a few have stated even before, that it is not the stones that heal but people's faith in their deity? As to this latter claim, it is interesting to note that early on some have already been saying that people don't even need to attend Suarez's healing Masses, that they can get healed simply by either praying, or watching an online video of Suarez's healing sessions, or even via cell phone text messages.

Now that Montemaria is no longer the blessed site, will newly picked stones from that mountain possess any magical powers? Perhaps people will now find the stones or some tree or the water in the new location of the shrine as possessing special magical powers. This is not unlikely since there have been some who've fantasized about Montemaria as the next Lourdes and Fatima. So be not surprised if in the coming years people begin raving about the healing waters of Tagaytay Shrine, and the sick from all over the country and the world come flocking. When that happens the government of Tagaytay will be the first to shoot me down for exposing religious quackery.


As for the advertised miraculous cures, they have not been investigated by medical experts. Presuming these testimonials are true and ingenuous, it is most doubtless that these infirmed who had rubbed the stones on their bodies experienced massive doses of the placebo effect. Think about it. These people had serious diseases which they wanted to go away, were religious/superstitious, and truly believed the stones possessed some magical powers which would cure them of their ailment. These are exactly the conditions that elicit the placebo effect. Moreover, when did these folks provide their testimonials? Well, certainly not on those days they were in pain or bedridden. Rather they gave their stories of miraculous healing at the time when they were (relatively) painless and in good spirits. Their pronouncement or videos are a snapshot in time, a frame in a movie that's months and years long. And so we should ask, Can we please see more of the movie, say, a frame from each week till the present, beginning well before the stone rubbing? Patently, if we're only given one picture and one where the patient is smiling, we're being afforded only limited and biased information. If I let you view only the video of my mom walking pain-free after acupuncture, you'd most likely be misled into believing that the acupuncture worked for her. But if I let you watch the epic length recording showing how her pain kept cycling--abating for two days and coming back to torment her for the next couple of days only to wane once again and wax and wane and... regardless of acupuncture and drugs--you'd come to a very different conclusion, right? More importantly we are not told what treatment these people had been receiving in conjunction with the stones. If I take antibiotics for a kidney infection and rub a healing stone on my lower back three times a day for ten days, I will most certainly get well. But which of the two treatments actually licked the infection? The magical stone, right? Well, that's what the superstitious will tell you since they cherry pick which events in the timeline they share with us and which one they choose as the cause of their recovery. So the question that always needs to be asked when we're treated to anecdotes and testimonials is: What haven't we been told? What crucial information have been left out? What's the whole picture? What are the biases in the information and how do we address them?

Given our current body of robust understanding of reality, what is the probability that some stone--or boulder for that matter--or tree, or pond, or what have you, possesses some magical, supernatural power that can cure such life-threatening diseases as cancer? Exceedingly infinitesimal of course. Prior plausibility for magical healing is, for all practical purposes, zero. So why would people believe in something extremely implausible? For one thing, these religionists already have implausible, irrational beliefs--deities. Deities are supernatural. They are not constrained by any laws of nature. All things are possible with gods. They're Magicians. Neither material reality, physical laws, logic, nor ethics constrain them. They transcend any and all of these. Thus, those who believe in deities with such attributes cannot but have a worldview wherein nothing is impossible and where plausibility and probabilities have no impact if not no meaning.



----

* I searched the Medjugorje messages from 1984 to 2010. There is no mention of a healing center or the Philippines. Messages from 1981 to 1983 don't seem to be available online.

** One feature of the religious mindset is how they come up with ad hoc rationalizations to deal with disconfirming events. Suarez, his group, his followers, Baltazar and his followers all "knew" that Montemaria was special. They publicized these sentiments. The stones were magical because of Montemaria's sacredness/holiness. Now that Montemaria is history, the rationalizations are pouring in. Suarez's group, Blessed Mary Mother of the Poor, Inc., has this unverifiable/nonfalsifiable excuse:

There is much pain in this decision [to let go of Montemaria], Montemaria having been our beacon and common aspiration for the last three years. However, the preferential will of God seems clear, and we must allow the Holy Spirit to lead.

Yeah, right. The know-it-all, omniscient, omnipotent, perfect god of theirs changed its mind. Do "oxymoron" and "contradiction" exist in their vocabulary? Their deity misled Suarez, Baltazar, et al. He tricked them into believing Montemaria was going to be the holy land. Either that, or these religion-intoxicated people will have to admit their sensors were totally on the blink in picking up Montemaria as their god's choice. Or, these individuals can just accept the truth--that they were completely deluded and it's time to grow up and face reality and the hard cold fact that there is no daddy and cop in the sky.

Phitenizing your qi

A friend had to procure some fun run application forms over at R.O.X. in Bonifacio High Street, Global City. I tagged along and on our way out she stopped over at the display stand of Phiten products. First time to hear of Phiten and wasn't in the least bit interested in what they're offering. But a few seconds later a salesperson approached us and began explaining what Phiten was all about. Turns out they're necklaces which have titanium in them. What's so special about these thousand-buck necklaces is that the titanium alters the bio-electricity of our bodies and by wearing these necklaces the titanium is able to do something to this bioelectrical field of sorts and make us healthier.

Bio-electricity? Whoa! That must be a new scientific discovery, one that won or will win the Nobel Prize in Medicine. The moment the sales rep uttered "bio-electricity" I began chuckling. As he went through his spiel, I kept blurting, "Really?!" Fortunately for the guy my friend restrained me from grilling him.

A search turns up the following official explanation for what Phiten necklaces are:

Anyone can benefit from wearing our products to help aid in counteracting the stress and fatigue of everyday life.... Phiten products work with your body’s energy system, helping to regulate and balance the flow of energy throughout your body. Proper energy balance helps to alleviate discomfort, speed recovery, and counteract fatigue. Athletes find that they tire less easily and recover faster from intense physical activity. Further benefits of Phiten’s exclusive technology are more relaxed muscles leading to less stress and a greater range of motion that can be of great benefit to an athlete or anyone in any walk of life.

Regulate and balance the flow of energy in our bodies? If I didn't know better I'd say this line was lifted straight from Oriental medicine quackery, particularly acupuncture where qi is said to be an energy flowing through our bodies and must be in balance and must not be block, else disease sets in.

Phiten New Zealand has more details:

Phiten has developed the Phild processing technique, invented by a Japanese chiropractor and now a time honoured secret. The Phild processing technique aligns the bio-electricity within titanium, so that when in close proximity to the body, it assists in regulating bio-electric currents.

A chiropractor! Oh my. Chiropractic is a discredited profession that believes in what it calls subluxations--"misalignment[s] of the spine that allegedly interferes with nerve signals from the brain." Chiropractors claim that various diseases can be cured by realigning the spine. There is, of course, no evidence for this.

"The Phild processing technique aligns the bio-electricity within titanium...." Are they saying that the bioelectricity from our bodies is taken up by titanium and aligned within the metal or that titanium has some innate bio-electricity that the Phild process aligns? Whatever the case may be, it just gets curioser and curioser as we go deeper and deeper down the rabbit hole.

More from Phiten New Zealand:

The natural state of the body’s bioelectrical currents can be disrupted by everyday factors such as electrical equipment, cellular phones, stress, fatigue and injury. These interruptions cause bio-electricity within cells to become unstable and bio-electrical messages throughout the body to become confused. Phiten’s titanium combats the negative effects of instability by normalising the bio-electricity within each cell.

So low frequency 60-Hz electricity as well as high frequency microwaves from our cell phones can disrupt the bioelectrical currents of our bodies, which can cause bioelectrical messages to become garbled. Not to worry though. By simply wearing a Phiten the bioelectricity in each and every one of the phitzillion cells in our body gets normalized. Oh thank you, Phiten! You are our savior!

Folks, if we ask Phiten to produce evidence and measurements for this purported new found phenomenon they call bio-electricity, they won't be able to. (Or, in desperation when confronted, they might say it's another name for the electricity produced by our neurological system.) And they won't be able to produce any objective evidence whatsoever that their products can "align" or "balance" or "normalise" or phitenebulize or ... the bio-electricity in our cells. All this terminology and language is gobbledygook. The phenomenon and the mechanisms are all made up. Phiten is doing nothing but pulling the wool over our eyes.

Jeff Wagg, in his take-down of Phiten, tells us what all this is:

Star Trek fans will recognize this for exactly what it is: technobabble. Throw out some sciency sounding words, and people with a weak science education will be impressed.

Indeed. The ignorants among us will just nod our heads and the gullibles will fall for the Pied Piper and buy Phiten. And that's the point: To gyp people into turning over their money. Phiten is selling sh*t and apparently a few intellectually-challenged, unskeptical, uncritical athletes--see photos of Justin Morneau, Kara Goucher, Joba Chamberlain, Jennie Finch, Josh Beckett splashed on Phiten's site--have happily lapped it up. Yum! We love crap! Have some too.

And ROX? It could be another intellectually-challenged, unskeptical, uncritical client. Or it may actually be in the know as to how bogus Phiten necklaces are but can't help joining the Phiten bandwagon and come away with some of the duffel bags.

Doctors needs to be cured of this disease

Here are doctors who've implicitly took an oath to be superstitious and peddle the post hoc ergo propter hoc fallacy.

Needless to say the site is unabashedly blatantly biased. It publishes only those cases where there was prayer somewhere in the patient history after which the patient got better. So what may we ask about those who had the same condition and did have prayer (whatever kind and to whichever deity) but did not get well or even got worse? And what about those who had the same condition who didn't pray but whose condition improved? Moreover, what about the various medical treatments and procedures which the patients were undergoing at the time invisible genies somewhere in the universe or outside the universe were being dialed up? Would the patients have recovered without them? If prayer is a or the panacea and is effective against such a wide spectrum of diseases and medical conditions, why don't these God-intoxicated doctors just turn their cases over to Doc Jesus and have him snap his fingers and make them well? Just replace all doctors in their hospital or clinic with faith healers. If prayer is indeed efficacious then decommision the pharmaceutical industry and have MDs change careers. You don't even need diagnostics of any kind. Scrap all the equipment for X-ray, CAT scans, MRIs, PET scans, blood exams, etc. Just tell people to pray or head on over to the nearest healing priest/pastor/shaman the minute they feel something wrong. It's that simple if prayer really works. It doesn't work that way? Why? How do you know? What makes you think this (peri)omnipotent, (peri)omniscient deity of yours needs your help?

In Neil DeGrasse Tyson's Amazing Meeting 6 talk he declared that doctors are far from being smart. I thought that was a rather unfair blanket statement. Well, I apologize to Tyson. I'm beginning to think he may very well be right after all. Of course, there are doctors who can actually think critically (the skeptics community has a number of them--Steven Novella, Stephen Barret, Harriet Hall, David Gorski) but there really are lots of MDs who don't have their heads screwed on right at all and buy into cockamamie alternative medicine crap out there, including one of the most ridiculous--homeopathy.

Homeopathy is a disease of the mind

Earlier this week I said I found it alarming that a Heel affiliate was promoting what is probably a quack treatment for dengue. I did some googling and apparently there indeed are homeopathic remedies intended to address dengue. For instance Dr. Ana Teresa Doria Dreux, former president of the Instituto Hahnemanniano do Brasil (presumably named in honor of homeopathy's inventor Samuel Hahnemann) and currently its VP, prescribes nostrums for the prevention and treatment of dengue. Her concoction consists of 5CH and 12CH dilutions (equivalent to 10X and 24X). That's 1 part per ten billion and 1 part per trillion trillion of active ingredients respectively. The latter is simply too dilute to have any possible effect (therapeutic or adverse). She tells us that these remedies are her own creations. However, we are not told what clinical trials have been performed to test their efficacy. All she says is:

So far, with those patients who have used this formula as prevention, there have not been any cases of infection, at least not reported to me.

I distribute this formula every year to all the personnel at IHB during the periods of epidemics and since I began doing so, not one of the approximately 22 employees has contracted the disease, not even those who live in areas where it is endemic.

This of course is insufficient evidence for efficacy. When I read the above the image that pops in my head is that of Dreux tightly crossing her fingers behind her back praying her luck holds.

Despite belief in the efficacy of her anti-dengue nostrum, she cautions:

Of course homeopathy does not DO AWAY WITH or INTERFERE with the obligatory medical care in these cases, nor should we neglect to eradicate the vector (the Aedes aegypti mosquito) by eliminating its breeding sites.

Well, if "obligatory medical care" and eradication of the disease vector weren't and aren't done away with, couldn't these be the cause of the lack of incidence? Setting aside ethical issues for the moment, if Dreux actually performed a double-blind trial and subjected half of a community to her brew and half to pure sugar pills--withholding any other form of treatment including "obligatory medical care"--perhaps she could have a better idea of whether her "medicine" actually works or not. As it is, Dr. Dreux is infected with dilution delusion. And not even an hourly dose of 100,000X (ultra powerful stuff indeed!) whatnot will cure her.

Dreux and her water institute aside, what is truly disturbing is what the doctor reveals in passing--that Brazil's health department has a homeopathy division. When government legitimizes quackery and itself peddles snakeoil then it has betrayed the people. One can only hope that there are Brazilians who are making noise and who are trying to inject sanity into its department of health.

Close encounters with homeo and acupunc

Accompanied a friend to a trade exhibit last Saturday and encountered two companies promoting and selling woo.

1. Homeopathy and Homotoxicology by Biological Homeopathic Medical Corp (BHMC) / Ibarra Bio Med Int'l Trading Corp.

Let me begin with what may be a tragedy that's in the offing. After I started inquiring about their products alarms went off in my head when the representative at the booth boasted about their company having made a presentation before health officials for a preparation that addresses dengue. What these "medicines" actually are remains to be seen. I gather from the rep that they're alternative meds, perhaps homeopathic. In the recent past there have been homeopaths who prescribed homeopathic remedies for malaria. Such nostrums are completely ineffective against that disease. I'm betting that the treatment BHMC is purveying is just as bogus. These people are toying with lives. Dengue is a very serious condition. Homeopathy should be banned from peddling anything to treat/prevent such life threatening conditions. Hopefully the health department will not get duped. Lives--specially those of young children--are at stake.

Onto the reading materials I was provided. One of BHMC's flier lists the principles "proven and developed by Dr. Hans Heinrich Reckeweg":

1. Like cures like
2. The more the remedy is diluted, the greater its potency
3. An illness is specific to the individual

The first two principles were in fact laid down by the inventor of homeopathy, Samuel Hahnemann. And no they haven't been proven. The second principle doesn't even need testing. Given what we know about how chemicals work, it's implausible from the git go. It's the very opposite of what we know is true even intuitively--the more of a substance you administer the more pronounced its effect. The less of it you give/receive the less its effects--and that goes for what we commonly call poisons as well. Even cyanide poses no threat if you ingest but a microgram.

BHMC is affiliated with Heel, a company that has distributors in the US, Germany, Canada, Australia, among others. Dr. Stephen Barrett of Quackwatch tells us that Reckeweg founded BHI (later renamed Heel) back in the early 20th century. In the last few decades the company managed to earn the ire of the FDA which regarded it as the "most flagrant law violators among homeopathic marketers." Barrett issues this warning:

Heel-BHI has been marketing products with outrageous and illegal claims for more than 25 years. The vast majority are irrationally formulated and have not been scientifically tested. Using them instead of proven therapy is a waste of money and could lead to delay in getting appropriate treatment.

The BHMC pamphlet lists its services:

Electroacupuncture by Dr. Voll
Super MORA Therapy
Bio Oxidative Therapy
Ozone Therapy
Chelation Therapy
Neural Therapy
Bio-Puncture
Colonic Hydrotherapy
Traditional Chinese Acupuncture
Anti-Ageing Therapy
Natural, Nutritional and Biological Preventive Medicine

All of the above are unproved therapies. And the safety of some of them is questionable..

The other flier I was handed introduces their Detox Kit. It describes the contents of the kit as follows:

The Heel Detox Kit^® combines three homeopathic complex remedies for a comprehensive effect.

Lymphomyosot^® Oral Drops
activates the lymphatic system in order to detoxify the connective tissue and the mesenchyme

Nux vomica-Homaccord^® Oral Drops
stimulates the gastro-intestinal excretion pathway as well as the hepatic system (liver)

Berberis-Homaccord^® Oral Drops
activates the renal and the biliary systems (kidney, gall bladder)

I googled and found the composition of the Heel Detox Kit. The webpage lists all the active ingredients and even the amount of each per 100 milliliter bottle. With this data I created a spreadsheet which shows the actual amount each of the active ingredients taking into account their respective dilutions.

For the Nux vomica-Homaccord drops they list 22 substances:

Nux vomica D3
Nux vomica D10
Nux vomica D15
Nux vomica D30
Nux vomica D200
Nux vomica D1000

Bryonia alba D3
Bryonia alba D6
Bryonia alba D10
Bryonia alba D15
Bryonia alba D30
Bryonia alba D200
Bryonia alba D1000

Colocynthis D3
Colocynthis D10
Colocynthis D30
Colocynthis D200

Lycopodium clavatum D3
Lycopodium clavatum D10
Lycopodium clavatum D30
Lycopodium clavatum D200
Lycopodium clavatum D1000

You can't help but notice that in fact there are only 4 ingredients. They've merely used various dilutions of these four. If you look at the last column (% of total active ingredients) of the spreadsheet you'll see that the contributions of dilutions other than D3 are completely negligible.

You're probably wondering what this "Dx" rating is all about. In homeopathic terminology D stands for decimal. It's a scale to denote the degree of dilution. A D1 means there's one part of active to 10 parts inert ingredient. For a D2 it's one in a hundred. So it's a logarithmic scale similar to the Richter scale for earthquake intensity. Being logarithmic a D4 is ten times more dilute than a D3 preparation [10^(4-3)], a D6 is a thousand times more dilute than a D3 [10^(6-3)], and a D30 is a thousand trillion trillion times more dilute than a D3 [10^(30-3)].

In the Nux vomica oral drops some of the substances are watered down to D1000. How dilute is a D1000? If you had one drop of active ingredient and were to dilute it in one go you'd have to mix that single drop with 10¹⁰⁰⁰ (remember, that's "1" followed by a thousand zeros) drops of water or alcohol. How much is 10¹⁰⁰⁰ drops? That's equivalent to 6.5 × 10⁹⁹² cubic meters [see Note 1]. And just how large is that? Well, it's more than the size of our universe. In fact a lot bigger. If a bucket were the size of the universe you'd need 7.7 trillion buckets to end up with 6.5 × 10⁹⁹² m³ [see Note 2]. After mixing (if you can even imagine achieving that) you can scoop a volume as large as the Earth or the Sun or the Milky Way and the chances of finding a single molecule of the active ingredient would still be exceedingly infinitesimal.

Since it is impossible to make extremely dilute preparations in a single step, homeopaths perform a series of successive dilutions. For example to obtain a D1000 they may mix a drop of the active ingredient in 10⁵ drops of water--equivalent to 6.5 liters. This is now a D5 dilution. A drop from this is then added to another 6.5 liters of water to create a D10. And so on until it's been performed 200 times. Here's another way of looking at that. Let's say the entire Earth all the way to its inner core is made of water. You add a drop of the active ingredient and mix thoroughly. Take a drop of that and add it to another Earth-sized planet made of pure water. Remember to mix it real well. To end up with a D1000 you'd need to do this 45 times [see Note 3].

As we've seen homeopaths claim that the more diluted a preparation the more potent it is. Thus a D1000 is far more powerful than a D10 even if there's negligible chance of finding even a single molecule of the substance that's suppose to treat the condition. This is dilution delusion.

According to Heel the Detox regimen consists of "30 drops of each preparation in 0.7-1.5 liters of spring water to be drank during the course of the day." In the spreadsheet I've computed how much of the active ingredients one actually gets daily.

Nux vomica-Homaccord: 0.00030 drop (equivalent to 0.00020 ml)
Lymphomyosot (or Lyphosot): 0.0087 drop (equivalent to 0.00057ml)
Berberis-Homaccord: 0.084 mg.

These are very minuscule amounts indeed. Which means to say they probably have neither therapeutic nor adverse effects.

Just to get a perspective on how small those amounts are, let's compute for how many days it would take to ingest a drop or milligram of the active ingredients. To compute, just get the inverse of the above values. We obtain:

Nux vomica-Homaccord: 3,333 days / drop
Lymphomyosot (or Lyphosot): 115 days / drop
Berberis-Homaccord: 12 days / mg

Finally, is there anything to the notion of detoxification? None. It's bunk. It's crap. It's woo.


2. Shaolin Electronic Acupuncture Apparatus

The apparatus consists of an oval plastic device with a major diameter of around two and half inches, with "wings" on either side made of some pliable material under which are attached a black, sticky material they call the plaster or patch. Click the above link for photos. Here are a couple of infomercial videos I found on Youtube: the original is in Chinese but here's one in English.

The apparatus is manufactured by Zhengzhou HuiHao Technology Co.,Ltd in Zhengzhou, China. The device is powered by a coin battery and is said to incorporate a microprocessor. They probably mean microcontroller but then the terms are sometimes used interchangeably in reference to embedded systems.

The flier I got explains how it works:

A Microprocessor [sic] generates a low frequency magnetic field while [sic]controls a modulated pulse that provokes slight vibrations to simulate therapy by acupuncture. This function stimulates the channels and collateral in our body thru a patch helping to promote blood circulation to relieve pains; eliminates [sic] dampness to invigorate the kidneys; expel toxins to lose fat, etc. It also achieves [sic] and has very good healing effects on inflammations and aches of the neck, shoulders, waist, legs and joints.

The following are the diseases and conditions the device can purportedly "prevent and cure": Arthritis, diabetes, rheumatism, backache, sciatica, impotence, joint pain, Bell's palsy, kidney problems, stiff neck, vertigo, insomnia, constipation, gastroptosis, nausea, gastroenteritis, tennis elbow, hangover, hypertension, stroke, headache, gonarthritis, bone diseases, cervical spondylosis, scapulohumeral periarthritis, hip pain, inflammation of the lumbar discs, hemiplegia, carpal tunnel syndrome. It can also help rid (excess) fat, expel toxins, relieve pain, provide energy, free the "channels and collaterals", and promote blood circulation. I'm surprised they left out the big C--cancer.

According to the video the sticky patch contains a secret Shaolin concoction made from 13 herbs. These seep into the skin five times deeper than without the electronic apparatus. As to how deep the herbs penetrate without the device they don't say.

The exhibit representative urged me to try the apparatus for just ten minutes. Although reluctant at first I did give in and allowed myself to be a guinea pig just to see what the gizmo would do. Boy, was I in for a surprise. The lady strapped the device onto my forearm and pressed a button. Within seconds it started delivering electric shocks. Not very pleasant at all! My hand twitched violently with every shock as the device caused my arm muscles to contract. The pulse frequency was approximately one per second. But every half minute the frequency would change.

Given its shocking output I believe this gadget employs an inductor--a coil of (enameled) wire (probably with an iron core)--to produce a very short but high voltage output. Whenever current passes through a conductor a magnetic field is produced. When wire is formed into a coil the magnetic field around the entire length of that wire becomes concentrated--the inductance increases. When current stops flowing the magnetic field around the coil collapses. But that collapsing field now induces a voltage in the coil--a voltage that is many times that which was present when current was flowing. But while voltage is high there is very little current that flows--and it's the amount of current that can kill, not necessarily the voltage. Thus while static buildup in our body can easily reach a thousand volts, we don't feel more than a sting when we discharge the accumulated charge.

If the acupuncture gadget does employ an inductor then it works on the same principle as the ignition coil in a gasoline engine. But in this case you and I are the spark plug. Try the following (if you dare). With the engine off, pull the cable off one of the spark plugs. Hold the end of that cable--called the boot. Best if you hold a metal rod and stick it inside the boot so you can make contact with the metal shroud inside. Have that hand also touch the body of the car (ground). As a safety precaution put your other hand behind your back and avoid having any other part of your body in contact with the vehicle. Now let someone crank the engine. Unless your body is made of plastic, rubber, glass or some excellent insulator, you'll get a pulsing jolt. I've had my share of surprises when I was still tinkering with engines decades ago. So in case you want to experience electronic acupuncture, your automobile will gladly assist you.

A car's ignition coil delivers around 20,000 volts to the spark plug causing an arc to jump across the electrodes. It's this arc which ignites the gas-air mixture in the cylinder. Now think about that. What do you think will happen if you bring this acupuncture gizmo to the gas station and turn it on as you're filling up? Well most likely nothing (unless perhaps you put it right next to where you pump gas into car's gas tank). But put it inside a jar with a rich gasoline-air mix, set the gap between the electrodes to less than 5 millimeters, program the apparatus to maximum output, and maybe, just maybe, you'll have an early New Year's Eve celebration.

Instead of acupuncture the manufacturer should've called it The Portable Electro Shocker. Does it work? It certainly does! For those who have a masochistic streak in them, that is.




Notes:

1. One drop = 0.065 ml = 6.5 × 10^-8 m³
Cubic meter equivalent of 10¹⁰⁰⁰ drops:
10¹⁰⁰⁰ drops × 6.5 × 10^-8 m³/drop = 6.5 × 10⁹⁹² m³

2. Volume of the universe = 3 × 10⁸⁰ m³
number of universe-fuls of water (or alcohol) required to dilute one drop of active ingredient to D1000:
[6.5 × 10⁹⁹² m³] / [3 × 10⁸⁰ m³] = 7.7 × 10¹²

3. Volume of the Earth = 1.08 × 10¹⁵ m³
Let 10^x = volume of the Earth in drops
6.5 × 10^-8 m³/drop × 10^x drops = 1.08 × 10¹⁵ m³
10^x = [1.08 × 10¹⁵] / [6.5 × 10^-8]
10^x = 16.6 × 10²¹
x log10 = log (16.6 × 10²¹)
x = 22.2

number of Earth-sized successive dilutions to achieve D1000:
1000 / 22.2 = 45 Earths

Justice with Michael Sandel

Just learned of that lecture series on ethics. The first two episodes are already up for viewing. Succeeding ones will be uploaded once a week. While watching the preview/teaser, "Star Trek!" was the first thing that popped in my head. Ethical questions and dilemmas are what draws me to that sci fi series.

Prof. Sandel begins his first lecture with the (classic) trolley (or train) problem. It exposes how we humans basically are utilitarian when faced with no option but to choose between the lesser of two evils. (By the way, Sandel sounds like Command Data of Star Trek: The Next Generation)

In the movie The Wrath of Khan the dying Spock tells Kirk--having sacrificed himself to save the crew: "The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the one." That's utilitarian logic. And we all extol such such self sacrifice.

Seven years ago, after watching a Star Trek Voyager episode (you can watch it on Youtube) I wrote the following analysis of the ethical questions which it raised and tackled.

I. The Storyline

In the episode "Nothing Human" the crew of the starship Voyager comes to the rescue of an intelligent yet heretofore unknown alien species, one resembling a very large scorpion or lobster. Because its ship is badly damaged Captain Kathryn Janeway decides to beam the lone survivor to sick bay, knowing fully well that by bringing this 'stranger' on board her ship she is putting Voyager at risk.

Preliminary diagnosis indicates that the creature is ill or injured. Though at first docile this creature moments later pounces upon the ship's engineer B'Elanna Torres and attaches itself to her, pierces her neck, and starts injecting substances into her body and sending tendrils into her major organs. By so doing the creatures survives by parasitically siphoning her energy and nutrients (reminiscent of Dracula).

Unable to decipher its language consisting of shrills the crew has no way of understanding the motives of this creature. They don't know whether it has attached itself to Torres because it merely wants to survive or whether it has more long term malevolent intents.

Knowing nothing about this creature and its anatomy, Voyager's chief medical officer "The Doctor" (a hologram) decides he needs the assistance of a Cardassian medical expert on exobiology. The engineers toil to create a holographic representation of Dr. Crell Moset, a feat they manage to pull off. After the Doctor explains their predicament Moset proceeds to examine Torres and the alien creature. But because the equipment on board Voyager is inadequate he asks that his laboratory be recreated in order that he may have access to the specialized instruments he requires to further examine this creature.

While Doc and Moset try to learn about the creature and ultimately devise a method to remove it from Torres without killing her, one crew member, Ensign Tabor, by chance comes face to face with Moset. The Bajroan is aghast and is unable to contain his rage. He accuses Moset of having murdered his family by exposing them to all sorts of radiation and chemicals as part of his medical experiments. The Doctor cannot believe his ears. Surely there has been a mistake. The great Dr. Moset singlehandedly came up with a cure for a rare disease and saved thousands from the fatal epidemic. It must be a simple case of mistaken identity.

But alas, searching through the ship's database, the crew piece enough information that corroborates Tabor's allegations: the 'good' doctor indeed had performed horrible experiments on Bajorans directly causing the death of dozens if not hundreds of their people.

Captain Janeway calls for a meeting. Voyager is caught in a dilemma. How can they let Moset continue helping them when the very knowledge he's utilizing was gained from his murderous experiments? Given the fact that his expertise derives from many counts of heinous crimes, is it at all conscionable to use whatever Moset has to offer to save the life of Torres, notwithstanding that this Moset is merely a holographic representation? No, they say, not even if it's only a hologram since the representation relies on the actual Moset files found in Voyager's database. The debate among the officers heats up. Several want the Moset program terminated immediately. Even the Vulcan Tuvok agrees that it is logical for Torres to refuse help from Moset. However, a few believe that saving Torres is more important and that the chances of doing so drops to nill if Moset's expertise becomes unavailable. The captain must make a decision. And she is forthright and does not dally, giving us the impression she had already made up her mind even before she called for the meeting. For now she says Torres is more important to her than ethical issues and instructs the Doctor to continue working with Moset.

In Moset's recreated lab he and the Doctor successfully induce the creature to retract its tendrils and free Torres from its death grip, by applying a neurostatic shock to its nervous system. They move on to sickbay and try the method, for real this time. But while Moset wants to apply a large dose of electrical shock ensuring rapid retraction of the tendrils, Doc intervenes and takes over, and applies a less than lethal dose to the creature.

Meanwhile, the comrades of this alien creature have arrived and are pounding Voyager. Its energy shields are useless against the aliens' weapons. Voyager still does not understand the shrills even as the crew tries desperately to telll the aliens that they mean no harm. It is clear, however, the aliens want their comrade back.

Over in sickbay the Doctor manages to induce the creature to finally let go of Torres. With the separation complete engineers are finally able to lock onto the creature and beam it to its ship. With mission accomplished the alien ships depart without damaging Voyager. They even seem to say "thank you" on their way off.

In the aftermath Captain Janeway tells the Doctor that as the medical expert on board he must decide the fate of Dr. Moset. It will up to him whether to retain Moset or pull the plug on this most controversial hologram. The Doctor arrives at Moset's laboratory. The latter is stowing away his instruments while humming a tune he and the Doctor had sung during their most fruitful collaboration earlier.

The Doctor tells Moset that he has come to inform him of his decision. The Cardassian understands that the Doctor is still bothered by his shady past and so tries to persuade him that what is important are the results. That he was able to cure thousands during the war. Moreover, that the two of them were able to save both Torres and the parasitic alien creature should be considered a victory. The means by which they managed to do that is irrelevant. The eloquent Moset puts up a convincing argument. He even reminds the Doctor that humans had for decades used animals to test virtually everything that humans dare not try on themselves. But the Doctor has already made up his mind. No argument by Moset can possibly make him reconsider. He hails Voyager's voice-activated computer and commands it to delete the Crell Moset program and all files related to it. The laboratory and Dr. Moset, murderer and savior, disappear from the holodeck forever.

II. The Issues

A. Moset's Move

Was it right for Dr. Moset to conduct his medical experiments on Bajroans, to use them as guinea pigs and in the process maim, mutilate, and eventually kill them? No. I doubt any one of us would agree. Those who dare say yes should be ready to stand beside Moset and infect, irradiate, and eventually kill any number of people.

The end does not justify the means, certainly not in this case. But this is exactly the point around which Moset's argument revolves. The Cardassian doctor believes that the thousands who were saved did justify the (cruel) means he employed. Moset is a utilitarian, i.e., he believes that if a hundred thousand lives can be saved by sacrificing a hundred or a thousand then it is a good bargain and one must go for it unhesitatingly. Moset would further argue that with the knowledge gained from experimenting on Bajorans (or humans for that matter) medical science would be so served and advanced that the potential benefits may be even more than what is now apparent.

The utilitarian angle is an attractive argument and many throughout our history have so reasoned and rationalized their actions this way.Surely if I deny myself the several dozen books I would like to purchase right now and instead place that money in an investment that gives a return of a whopping 20% per month I'd be able to enjoy even more books next month. In this rather trivial case the small amount of pain that I suffer today from being deprived of much desired reading material indeed is more than offset by the greater amount of enjoyment I will experience in the near future. Delaying gratification, of course, if one of the signs of a mature person (very young children as we all know fail this test miserably). In this sense utilitarianism may be a good thing.

The English philosopher Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832) was the founder of utilitarianism and made it famous (or infamous) with his formula that we must strive for the greatest happiness of the greatest number. Doubtless our Cardassian doctor would gleefully assent. And to the sure delight of Bentham, Crell Moset is a utilitarian to the very end and in every circumstance. He is a doctor, but with a twist. He wants to save and cure people, yet he is ready to sacrifice a 'few' if that would ultimately enhance the life of more people. For Moset the injunction "Do no harm" is not absolute if in the end more will benefit.

On the other end of the scale is Ivan Karamazov of Fyodor Dostoevsky's novel The Brothers Karamazov. Ivan argues that if the salvation of the entire world were to be founded on the abominable suffering of but one little girl then it is not worth it at all. In fact it is unthinkable, so much so that Ivan would rather return his ticket to God. The price is simply too much to pay. Indeed who amongst us would agree to such a Faustian bargain—one tiny insignificant soul for the salvation of the entire world? Tempting sometimes, until you're handed the stick and asked to torture the child yourself.

B. Voyager's Move

The dilemma on board the Voyager is whether to allow Moset to continue counseling them, thereby directly benefiting from the murderous experiments he conducted, expert opinion which would probably save Torres; or whether to delete the Moset holographic program, thereby denouncing in no uncertain terms the crimes against humanity (or Bajorans) committed by Moset, a move which will almost surely lead to Torres' death.

Let us now tackle the argument by some of the crew members that it is absolutely wrong to reap any benefit from the work and expertise of Moset because they were gained through the most unethical means imaginable. Was it wrong for Captain Janeway to use Moset in saving Torres? Does her decision make her an accomplice to Moset's crimes?

My personal response is this: While it is incontrovertible that Moset's experiments were criminal in nature, that the harm he willfully inflicted upon the Bajorans cannot and should never be countenanced, the fact remains, today, that what happened had happened and that we now have in our possession the medical knowledge, the know-how which can and does allow Star Trek doctors everywhere to help cure and save lives, indispensable knowledge without which many will not be saved. I am of the opinion that we must not throw away that knowledge simply because it was derived unethically. If that knowledge is summarily discarded then the suffering of those who served as Moset's guinea pigs would have been in vain. Not only had they been tortured, but the only good that ever came out of their suffering and untimely death would be put to death as well.

We cannot change the past. History is like a moving hand that writes which, having writ, moves on (Rubaiyat of Omar Khayam). That Moset committed crimes against humanity is undeniable. That he was able to use the knowledge gained from those crimes to save not a few cannot be denied as well. That the same knowledge will benefit others in future (as in the case of Torres) must also be acknowledged. Call it some form of pragmatism but it is not conscionable to me to deny a starving family a loaf of bread just because that particular loaf had been stolen. If that stolen loaf is the only sustenance available that will keep that family from dying tonight in their sleep, I see an imperative for all to immediately offer them that loaf however it may have been acquired. There are priorities. And life is one of them, as Captain Janeway correctly recognized.

On the other hand, if the knowledge we had derived from the suffering of those Bajorans was how to kill more people more efficiently and effectively, then, yes, we most certainly must immediately efface, erase, expunge, and raze all the knowledge Moset had acquired.

III. An Experiment of Our Own

Let us imagine that we have been transported to the time when Crell Moset was just about to conduct these experiments. Further, let us suppose that conducting these experiments is the only way the for the doctor to find a cure for the hundreds of thousands who are dying. Moreover, let us also suppose that we have enough authority and power to stop Moset from continuing with his experiments. Let us also assume that we can see the future well enough to know of the alien creature that will attack Torres which would thus require the services of Moset, and that if we stop him from performing his experiments now the future Torres will surely die. The question for us who can grant Moset the thumbs up or down is: Should we allow Moset to proceed unimpeded? Given our perfect foreknowledge can we deny the hundreds of thousands, and Torres as well, the medical knowledge that will cure and save them? How would you answer or change your answer if one of those who will eventually be saved will be your 4-year old child? How will you answer or change your answer if all of those who will be saved are the people who invaded your country and massacred your people, leaving you widowed?

If we permit Moset to conduct his experiments then we become utilitarians ourselves just like Bentham and Moset. Morevoer, we would become accomplices to murder and all the crimes Moset will commit in the name of medical science.

Although the experiments will surely yield the answers we need to cure a whole generation there is no rationale that can permit us to decide the fate of a few in order to save the many. The end does not justify the means, however much more good there will be (as if we can, with ease, quantify goodness, happiness and utility) in the end than what we started with.

Therefore, while knowledge that already exists should not be discarded despite the means by which it was gained, consenting to create new knowledge through such means is not an option.

Rated X

Among the most important people in my life are my nephews--my sister's children. Over the past couple of years I've become some sort of a de facto tutor to her 5- and 4-year old sons. I'm a handyman and so I bring my toolbox(es) almost every time I visit my sis--not least because there's always something she needs fixed. Soon after I arrive the kids would come flocking to the toolbox and start the mayhem--littering the floor with pliers, screwdrivers, electrical tape, ... and trying to snatch my digital multimeter. Of course I have to be there to supervise and keep in check their insatiable curiosity lest they hurt themselves. I know I'm asking for disaster and their mother frowns upon the activity. Though real tools are not at all kid-friendly I'm happy to say that they've learned the names of all the basic tools and can even manage to fasten and unfasten real screws (on second thought that may not be all a good idea--I shudder at the thought of one of them grabbing a screwdriver behind their parents' back and jabbing themselves accidentally while taking their toys apart). But what I'm most proud of is the fact that I've been one of their English teachers so to speak, correcting their mistakes, expanding their vocabulary, reading them stories. We live in a trilingual community and I've set it as my goal to make English their first language. An uphill battle most certainly, but I wouldn't let anyone else have this dirty job.

Well, having said how much I am part of these children's lives and how I find it so fulfilling, my almost irrational reaction to what just happened last night to the eldest will be in context. I found out from my sister this morning that her husband was watching a TV program last night. Apparently, John was watching too. At one point he turned to his mom and asked why the man was bleeding. His mom replied that the blood isn't real and the man was just a statue--although a life-sized one. A couple of seconds later John burst into tears. His mom rushed over and hugged him, trying to console the frightened child. She told him not to be afraid, that it wasn't really blood, just red paint and that it's dripping because the artist hadn't finished his work yet. The scene so traumatized John that an hour after he was still in a state of unease, still asking about the blood. In fact it was so bad that even after bedtime he kept waking up. He was able to sleep soundly only past midnight.

So what exactly did my nephew see that rattled him the whole night? John saw a naked man impaled on a cross, complete with blood oozing out of his hands (and perhaps feet). The TV program was a mini documentary on the life and sainthood of that Catholic priest Padre Pio, a purported stigmatist.

We adults who've grown jaded and inured to seeing crosses can't imagine how frightening and nightmarish it must be for a young child to see it for the very first time particularly when they've already sustained previous injuries and understand pain. In John's case he's already experienced various cuts and even a fractured arm and knows blood and pain very very well.

So here's a human being, practically naked, hanging from pieces of timber--nailed! to it--and bleeding to death. How awfully disturbing that must be! I imagine in that child's mind, in some way, he was able to apprehend how he could or would share the same fate, that he would be subjected to the same pain and suffer the same tortuous death.

My sister knows very well that I'm an atheist. I told her that what happened to John has made me angrier than ever. Not at the parents of course. At religion. As others have already pointed out using other hypothetical examples, what if some religion had for its central symbol a depiction of how their holy teacher or god-man was racked, eviscerated and quartered, because that's how he gave his life to save humanity. How would Christians react to that? Would their pastors and priests see no psychological harm in exposing youngsters--particularly those whose parents belong to that disemboweled man's religion--to such pictures and "artistic" works? The cross with a lifelike depiction of a bloodied dying man is a gruesome image. To subject children to such violence is downright insane! It's so graphic that's it's porn. It should have an X rating. And yet weekly, we have children dragged to churches and treated to a giant cross behind the altar complete with naked, tortured Jesus on it. I think this qualifies as child abuse.

My sister now knows more than ever that she has to be careful what her kids watch on television. She's been pretty successful in keeping the tots from seeing violent programs (needless to say, toy guns and swords are absolutely banned in her home). I believe now she's also aware that she has to be on guard against religious insanities as well.

It's been half a day since the news but I'm still seething. My sister warned me not to ask John about the nightmarish scene he saw. He's suffered enough. We certainly don't want to resurrect the fearful feelings dread. I'm still so angry that John went through what he did.