Mr. Williams: When it comes to medical issues, there are at least a dozen general reasons that ANY OLD cockamamie "treatment" might seem to "work." An email in this forum is not the place to explain that statement, but I offer some links below that can be a start toward educating yourself on the importance of a skeptical (i.e., scientific) approach to such matters. I wish it were something that could be laid out in a few short paragraphs, but it's not. We humanoids do tend to see cause-and-effect connections where there are none . . . this is perhaps the main reason that Science has developed over the last 400 years-- to find a reliable way of discovering when there are such connections, and when not. Individuals (you and I included) are not smart enough to do it on our own. Personal testimonials may feel compelling but they are not to be trusted as proof-- not even your own. I think that your "open ears today" are more likely to be the result of an "Act of God" than of a useless and patently absurd process like "ear candling" (this from a devout atheist, mind you). Joseph Giandalone, RPT and Smart Aleck Conway, MA http://www.sram.org/ The Scientific Review of Alternative Medicine http://www.hcrc.org "Health Care Reality Check" (Georgia Council Against Health Fraud) http://www.csicop.org/ Home page of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry, formerly the "Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal"-- hence "CSICOP". They publish The Skeptical Inquirer, which is my favorite magazine. http://www.skeptic.com/ Home page of The Skeptics Society, publishers of Skeptic magazine. http://www.skepdic.com/ Online home of The Skeptic's Dictionary, a concise reference which you can also buy at a bookstore. http://www.quackwatch.com Probably the best online gateway to skeptical (that is, FAIR, SCIENTIFIC AND EVIDENCE-BASED) evaluation of so-called alternative, complementary (and downright wacko) medicine and medical practices. http://www.ncahf.org/ National Council Against Health Fraud http://www.snopes.com/snopes.asp "the definitive Internet reference source for urban legends, folklore, myths, rumors, and misinformation" http://www.cspinet.org/ Center for Science in the Public Interest (food, nutrition, dietary supplements-- and activism around food policy issues.) From: Paul T Williams <pwilliams4 at unlnotes.unl.edu> Reply-To: caut at ptg.org Date: Wed, 1 Dec 2010 11:45:22 -0600 To: caut at ptg.org Subject: Re: [CAUT] Ear wax No myth my friend. Doubters. How do you explain my open ears today, then? Act of God? Paul From: "David Love" <davidlovepianos at comcast.net> To: <caut at ptg.org> Date: 12/01/2010 11:24 AM Subject: Re: [CAUT] Ear wax Yet another urban health myth. Below is just one site debunking this sometimes dangerous and useless procedure. There are many more. http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/1103/how-do-ear-candles-work David Love www.davidlovepianos.com From: caut-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:caut-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf Of Zeno Wood Sent: Wednesday, December 01, 2010 8:55 AM To: caut at ptg.org Subject: Re: [CAUT] Ear wax Paul, This would be a good email for the PTG hearing list. -Zeno On Wed, Dec 1, 2010 at 11:53 AM, Paul T Williams <pwilliams4 at unlnotes.unl.edu> wrote: Hi All, Have any of you ever done an "ear candle" to remove ear wax? I did it last night with my wife's help, and it's amazing how much better my ears are working today! It really sucks out a lot of junk you can't get with a Q-tip. I had a cold a few weeks ago, and my ears have been bugging me ever since. Just plugged up. I can open them up ala SCUBA style to equalize pressure when diving, but they would just close back up a few minutes later. Tuning wasn't so much of a problem, but voicing was really difficult before I did this. I'm still working on the Sty D with the new Steinway hammer installation, and am in the final fine tuning of the voicing, and this morning, it was much easier to hear what was going on. Best, Paul -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/caut.php/attachments/20101203/3ad5777c/attachment.htm>
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