Thanks Mary Ann
By the way, the VR Bob, is short for Very Respectfully, Bob
John is right, but I think there is more to it than waiting for all the right
hoops to be gone through. This is an expeciallly important consideration for
those we see who are in their last days. They cannot wait for the system to
run its course. They are desperate and vulnerable to those charletons who
would prey on the hopeless.
It is primarily for those who do not have an immediate avenue that I suggest a
consolidated effort to weed out the crap and find ways to incorporate multipal
alternative procedures/approaches to these calamities.
Let's say there are three or four attractive though not scientifically proven
herbs, three attractive chemo approaches, five nutritional combinations of
interest. Well, it will take years for all these to go through proper trials.
But, those desperate folks who are not in the front row for advanced clinical
trials would probably love to try two or three approaches simultaneously,
since they have been written off anyway. For these, we could provide a
service if we can systematically root out the scumbags who are bleeding the
unfortunates with wild promises and false hopes. Stay within the realm of the
reasonable approaches.
By setting up combinations of promising (albiet long shot) approaches, we
would strive for improvements as the basis of the work. Many trials are set
up with control groups, placebo groups and the real items. Well, this would
be an attempt to apply multiple approaches simultaneously to hope to improve
the patients' lot.
>From the results, we could fairly deduce that some of the items are useless
and that others are suspicious in their theraputic values. So, we then cull
out the loosers and focus on those ingredients which showed some improvements.
And so, there would be no control groups at first, only participants who are
all given the real McCoys and no placebos.
Because it is extremely unlikely that such an approach will win out over the
scientific investigations ongoing, we would discourage folks like Ron from
trying this approach. Seems that Ron has a malady that does respond well to
some series of chemicals and so in his case, he is not on the desperate track.
If something like this is worth doing, I am not educated sufficiently to do
this on my own. The conversations in this forem are very good and more than
interesting and serve to provide much of what I am speaking of. But there is
that element of the unprovable that haunts us.
Again, there may not be a silver bullet, but then again .... maybe there is.
So, in a less than rigorous set of trials, could we narrow the available
proposed approaches into a set of practicable suites of approaches to be
examined by those more educated in these fields than myself. Thereby, could
we do a bootleg analysis of the touted claims while taking special care not to
raise false hopes. But, those on the slipery slope would at least know that
they are trying something, and that does in itself have some value.
First, a sorting would have to be done to eliminate things which could do
harm. Certain herbs and nutritional approaches are already reasonable
candidates from this standpoint. Marty has mentioned several areas over the
past 3 weeks.
Second, we try to identify those considerations that suggest a scientific
basis on which we can lean. For example, the angio-genesis arresting factors
of shark cartilage passes the "so what" tests. What about the
accupuncturists, accupressurists, sooth-sayers, palmists and horescope
oriented advocates? I personally do not believe in any of these. That
doesn't mean I exclude these, just a personal conviction. These are some of
the areas in which the semi educated students could save us a lot of time and
mistakes.
But I start to ramble. Sufficient to say that certain things are patently
false and those in the community who need hope can be duped. I do not have
the approach nor final picture in mind yet, but think there is something here
that we can work on together.
Seems that folks like John and Marty are already several parsecs ahead of me,
so I shall gladly listen to their reasoning and this is not an attempt to
circumvent reasoning. But, waiting for the final analysis to be completed by
the approaches that are being evaluated is not soon enough for many.
Help me think this through. I could be burning calories better applied to
some other approach. Or, there may be something here.
And to all a good night.
VR Bob
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