On 2/5/2013 2:01 PM, Stephen wrote:
> On 05/02/2013 8:09 PM, Orchid Win7 v1 wrote:
>>  but that doesn't make it
>> actually /do/ anything different to what a normal block of lard does...
>
> Au contraire.
> If you believe it does you good then sometimes it can. The mind is a
> very strange thing. You have heard of the placebo effect, I presume.
>
There was a suggestion made a while back to deal with this BS in the 
medical community. Define medicines as:

1. Medicine - The stuff that actually works, we know works, and we 
bloody know why.

2. Unproven - Some percentage of people think it does, may be, some sort 
of mechanism involved, but we really don't know what the F is going on, 
or even if anything at all is going on, in many cases, save where the 
effects are purely category #3

3. Comfort measures - Everything from fluffing their pillow, to 
acupuncture. We know how, and why it works. Its purely a mental process, 
but it bloody well doesn't involved unknown mechanisms, untested 
theories, etc., nor does it actually 'treat' a condition, save via the 
mental state of the individual.

I would add, just to be an ass:

4. Semi-medical. This would be everything from energy drinks to 
multivitamins, such as the one I linked to. It has a benefit, to people 
that need it, as in real, known effects. Those effects may **not be** 
beneficial to everyone, and, more to the point can actually be hazardous 
for some people. Yet some people are making #2 type claims for them, or 
even #3 types.

Energy drinks are a good example of this mixed nonsense. Yes, the main 
ingredient in Red Bull does have some "small" effect of muscle 
efficiency, so.. it might be helpful, for some people, though.. in the 
doses allowed in the drink... maybe not. Yes, the niacin in most of 
these gives a bit of an energy boost, by forcing the body to divorce 
itself of some amount of its cholesterol, but the effect is no where 
near the same as "medical" doses of niacin, such as you might take if 
you couldn't take normal medication for high cholesterol. You probably 
get the same from those not actually very useful multivitamins. Yeah, 
some of them have some of those very same vitamins in them. If you don't 
need more, taking more won't help, and might hurt, if you get too much, 
except that there is not likely enough in there to take too much, unless 
its all you drink all day, in gallons. And then there is the long list 
of, "unproven" stuff, with everything from plausible, to implausible, 
mechanisms, like guarana (however it its spelled), or what ever the heck 
all the other gibberish random fruits and things are in there.

The only reason its a 4th category is that it basically the equivalent 
of putting up a chart on the wall, of every ingredient you can find from 
categories 1 and 2, and maybe some of 3, then firing a shot gun at it, 
to decide which "miracle" substances to put into the resulting drink. lol

The only ones "known" to have a significant effect are the caffeine and 
sugar, and, laughably, many of them now have "sugar free" versions.

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