Posts by giovanni tiso
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If you didn't need drugs, what were the homeopathic remedies doing?
Doubting (not knowing, really) whether they have any actual properties or not, I've always considered them a form of mental discipline, a little rite of getting better. Belladonna and Mercury at alternate hours when I had a the flu as a wee boy. Worked a treat. Did I heal any faster? Couldn't say. I know I took antibiotics a grand total of once between the ages of 0 and 18. Now my children barely get through the door of all the GPs we've been to see in New Zealand (that is to say, quite a few) and it's amoxycillin a go-go.
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In the first case, why are home births "alternative medicine?"
You haven't been following the debate concerning midwifery much, have you? Lots of people seem to regard it as alternative. At any rate, it's what was there before doctors and obstetricians started to intervene in births, so it's most definitely traditional.
In the second, I have to say, well blimey, I guess a doctor would know when they can get away with prescribing distilled water, sure...
Define "get away with". My GP had absolutely nothing to gain by prescribing homeopathic remedies. He was also acknowledged when he died as having been one of the great diagnosticians that the city had had. He was a brilliant man, a brilliant scientist. My oncologist friend who takes homeopathic remedies works for Pfizer as a head of research. She doesn't "get away with" nothing either.
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I find the idea that it's a case of modern, scientific medicine vs. traditional, alternative medicine quite limiting and stupid. In some cases the two work together rather beautifully, in fact.
Take home births. My Mum was telling me last week about the fear that women had where she grew up of giving birth in hospital, because it led to so many of them dying of puerperal fever - the docs hadn't worked out that they needed to wash their hands in between patients. When they did, hospital births became the safe option. Nowadays, home births are making a comeback and for pretty sound reasons: there's less intervention and the outcomes are statistically better (although the statistic is skewed by the fact that women at greater risk of complication will give birth in hospital). It's also much cheaper for the public purse and some women prefer it. But it's a comeback that is made possible by the fact that you can still medicalise the birth if it needs to be.
Or take homeopathy: I've had a pretty awful experience of it in New Zealand, but back home I had a GP who practiced it (now that he's gone, an oncologist friend) and it always worked great for us, if only because it reduced our use of drugs we didn't need. I'm not sure I'd trust somebody who's not an MD to prescribe them for me though.
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And Giovanni, please don't tell me you're a Leafs fan. A year living in TO taught me they're too crap to support.
I told you the Sharks are going to tank and that I wish Chara well - you ought to be able to divine the team I support!
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You guys are aware that old Iggy, in skinny topless glory of course, is all over the place here in the UK selling . . . Car Insurance . . .
Aren't you?
There is currently a spot a couple of inches below my left shoulderblade that doesn't hurt. Would you like me to get somebody to punch me there on your behalf?
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Oh well in that case: Original 6 final this year? Bruins/Hawks?
A supporter of a team in my division! I'd like nothing better than for Zdeno Chara to use the Stanley Cup as a spittoon, but it's not going to happen this year.
Oh, and the Sharks are going to tank.
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My chances of understanding what happens at the breakdown wouldn't be significantly diminished if the commentary ended up being in te reo.
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no, you're not senile.
Relief.
And it also moved Brian Easton to send me the link to this amazing poem.
That made me a little teary. Okay, scratch "a little".
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And just to raise the tone ...
Hang on, how did I miss this? Am I going blind and/or senile? Thank you, Russell! I might just put it on my cards: Giovanni Tiso, tone raiser.
(Seriously, though: thanks.)
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Disingenuous seems at the polite end of the scale, if anything.