To think that if your FB status is "There are so many myths and lies around- challenge what you hear, step out and be you" then it's probably best if you....

[curlew]

......a Reiki Master and an enthusiastic promoter of Juice +......

Good post ThePerfectFather

Acupuncture is funded in the states - by insurance companies, so really as far away from woo merchants as you can get - as a complementary therapy to IVF. It increases the success rate of IVF by something like 40% - and as I said, as it's funded by insurers I'm pretty sure they won't pay for stuff that doesn't get results. It's too hot to google, but it does work.

My friend's dog had acupuncture for years and it made a massive difference to its health (joint pain). He would literally skip out of his acupuncture sessions. I don't think dogs have heard of the placebo effect. Although he was a very smart dog.

But here you can get Acupuncture at age 37 in Dorset but NOT IVF and that makes me cross.

Completely understand that Latara but it doesn't mean that acupuncture doesn't have benefits in assisted conception. It won't work on its own though...

"Completely understand that Latara but it doesn't mean that acupuncture doesn't have benefits in assisted conception. It won't work on its own though..."

But it doesn't!!

OhTiger are you a Tim Minchin fan? :)

is a link to Mr. Minchin's tirade about alternative medicine for everyone else. He makes very good points...(He is also very hot, but that is probably irrelevant)

Hands off Tim- he is mine!

I really enjoyed Mr Minchin's poem.

Somewhat longer, but just as engrossing is John Diamond's "Snake Oil", in which he comprehensively tears the woo crap into teeny tiny pieces.

So all those American healthcare insurers fund acupuncture with IVF because they love to spend money on stuff that doesn't work? Ok then

if I was a dog and some fucking hippy had been shoving needles into me I'd sprint out of the surgery pretty nifty too. arthritis or no arthritis.

Don't think the vet was a hippy... Mind you I never met them.

a right fucking shyster of a vet then. At least hippies believe the half baked cack they come out with.

mrswolowitz I didn't say that anti depressants are placebos, I said that in many studies they have been shown to be no better than placebos. When you consider the increased suicide risk associated with many SSRIs then many people might consider it crazy to take them. I can't link as on phone but will link later. Antidepressant might work fantastically for you, but alternative therapies work well for lots of others.

hardboiled anti depressants are only a suicide risk because they lift a person 'up' out of the depressed stage where they may feel suicidal but can't be bothered to do anything about it; into a state where they are still suicidal but CAN be bothered to do something about it.

The next stage after that is to make someone feel better and less suicidal but it takes about 12 weeks to get to the 'better' stage - many people don't give ADs that long enough to work.

I would say that they have saved my life but during that 12 weeks I did go through the hell of side effects and still having depression.

Once they work after that 12 weeks it's great.

And Tim Minchin is great too.

Dog acupuncture was also insurance-funded. Didn't think insurance was a natural fit with with hippiedom, but I guess it must be so...

Tim Minchin is ace.

reiki by phone

now how could that not work?

but what is this juice+?

If you pay the right premium, insurers will pay for anything. And what with it not actually working, accupuncture might be a good bet for an insurance company, because no chance of further claims for side effects.

And insurers love a cheap option!

I've been thinking about all this - and my conclusion is this. I don't think you can categorically state that something does not work or is woo bullshit or snake oil or whatever until it has NOT worked for you. Otherwise, really, how can you say definitively? You can't - it can only be opinion. I don't believe in this chakra stuff but who am I to say for absolute sure that my SIL's chakras are not now beautifully lined up. They might be.

But surely th cheap option is to a) not pay for anything in the case of the dog and b) pay for IVF only in the case of the fertility treatment?

I can't comment on the policies people have in the states, but in the case of the dog it was a bog-standard, off the shelf, pet policy.

cardibach I would bang Tim seven ways til Tuesday

if I was a dog and some fucking hippy had been shoving needles into me I'd sprint out of the surgery pretty nifty too. arthritis or no arthritis. made me howl

Mercibucket- juice+ is a pyramid selling scheme pretending to be a wonderful healthy supplement business. I won't link- people might get tempted. But it's easy to find. Nasty.

Also, anti depressants are not bloody placebo!

And reiki by phone. Well. Hahahahaha.