RedSonSuperDave

I think you answered your own question!

RvLeshrac

It seems that sometimes people take nutritional beliefs to heart like religious beliefs, and will defend them with the most wildly irrational fervour. I still can't quite understand why it has to get so emotional.

peggynature

I don't have a landline for anything other than this since I'm cellphone only. I couldn't care less what their security is to be honest...it's not my sensitive info that is being dealt with. And while some do, I don't work it full-time. But after a few months of being consistently decent on my calls (conversion, talk time, etc.) I make about $10-15 an hour for very easy work in my home, part-time when I want to and only when I want to. For extra cash -- it's perfect. No commute, I can work in my pj's before or after work or on weekends, and the pay is getting very good for me for all that.

Kifune

"Interesting ideas" what? You mean his paranoid delusions, or his delusions of grandeur?

RvLeshrac

From Wikipedia:

George Sr. has also had a religious awakening twice on the show, once becoming Jewish after a period of isolation and selling a video series "Caged Wisdom," and once becoming devoutly Christian after reading a pamphlet in a garbage bag while hiding in the attic.

Chris Walters

Charred

I agree. One of their requirements is that you have "Internet 6."

Indecision

avantartist

Make that an *additional* landline. After reading through that site... wow. I don't see any guaranteed call volumes, so there's no way to be certain that the number of calls you get will actually pay the phone bill every month.

I do work on the side and only have one phone line. That immediately disqualifies me.

In addition, they seem to have absolutely no understanding of security, with their stigma against VoIP calling and cellphone calls. I wouldn't dream of ever signing with a company that knows so little about modern phone systems that they would just throw out all digital calling. Given that the modern telephone system consists largely of digital switches, I can't understand why they would accept one digital switch and not another.

RvLeshrac

Sirened

somuch2

AddisonMavenue

Oh well, their weaknesses pad my bank account. And lately, I've been getting calls for so many other products -- I don't miss Kevin's crap at all.

Kifune

Parapraxis

Kifune

AD8BC

Doh, you beat me to it.

RvLeshrac

Therapies that use it should be banned.

kbarrett

Holistic medicine refers to alternative health practices that claim to treat "the whole person." To holistic practitioners, a person is not just a body with physical parts and systems, but is a spiritual being as well. The mind and the emotions are believed to be connected to this spirit, as well as to the body. Holistic practitioners are truly alternative in the sense that they often avoid surgery or drugs as treatments, though they are quite fond of meditation, prayer, herbs, vitamins, minerals and exotic diets as treatments for a variety of ailments. ([skepdic.com])

You note that you see a "holistic cardiologist". Based on the above holistic definition, your cardiologist is either: not a MD trained in cardiology, or is not a true holistic "doctor" who simply uses the holistic label to capture more business. Does he/she recommend you place a band-aid on your finger and pray that your defective aortic valve corrects itself before it fails?

stoopiddood

You're confused about the definition of Homeopathy. Vitamin and nutritional supplements are simply concentrated forms of various herbs and vitamins. While the effectiveness of herbal supplements is debatable, vitamin supplements are perfectly fine for those who are deficient in some area.

Homeopathy involves taking a substance and diluting it to nothing but water. I don't REALLY want to go into the math here, but even the most basic of homeopathic solutions virtually guarantees that you will never be able to ingest enough of the 'medicine' to encounter even a single molecule of the original substance. The maximum possible dilution, avogadro's number, is 6x10^23, while many homepathic solutions are 10^30 or greater.

Homeopathy also holds that the greater the dilution, the stronger the treatment. A homeopath believes that a dilution of 10^100 is far more powerful than a dilution of 1 (the original substance!).

By this, a typical vitamin supplement, a concentrated form of the vitamin, would be considered useless.

This does not deny that people might put a "homeopathic" label on (relatively) very small dilutions (10^2, 10^4), but these substances are not considered "homeopathic" by the homeopaths.

@lonelymaytagguy:

That's simply allopathic medicine coupled with holism. Holistic medicine is different, though it is a confusing distinction. Holism *is* valid, since it treats a system as a whole, but Holistic Medicine is a category including such things such as Qi Gong, Acupuncture, and HTT ('healing touch therapy,' where a 'trained' nurse simply waves her hands over the patient).

RvLeshrac

[www.youtube.com]

ironchef

Freedomboy

Yes, some people don't seem to know what Homeopathy is.

Homeopathy:

1) Take a substance that causes symptoms similar to the disease you want to cure, and dilute it in water or alcohol.

2) Take a small portion of the dilution, and dilute it even further. Continue doing so until the point where the best equipment available can no longer detect even a single molecule of the original substance.

3) Sell your purified distilled water/alcohol as a cure.

Wikipedia has a wonderful visualization of this as well (I've edited this heavily for length, but kept the meaning intact):

Samuel Hahnemann (who developed Homeopathy in the late 1700s) advocated 30C dilutions for most purposes. The chances of a single molecule of the original substance remaining in a 15C dilution would be roughly 1 in 2 million, and less than one in a billion billion billion billion for a 30C solution. For a perspective on these numbers, there are in the order of 10^32 molecules of water in an Olympic size swimming pool. If such a pool were filled with a 15C homeopathic remedy, to expect to get a single molecule from the original substance, one would need to swallow 1% of the volume of such a pool, or roughly 25 metric tons of water.

It's worth noting that, in Hahnemann's time, people were only just realizing that Phlogiston is not the substance responsible for fire.

Indecision

Holistic doctors believe besides treating the problem, they look at the whole person and perhaps, remove the cause, too.

If you go to a holistic cardiologist (I know one), you'll get heart drugs, stress tests, and surgery if you really need it, just like a non-holistic cardiologist. But, you'll also receive advice on diet, exercise, vitamins, relaxation, and everything else that goes into keeping your heart and everything else, healthy.

lonelymaytagguy

If the FTC would quit settling with him and force him out of the infomercial business altogether, maybe he would take his millions and go away.

BigNutty

Pfluffy

Maybe we are talking about different things. Most supplements are still categorized as natural or homeopathic even though they have some research to back them up and are seen as valid additions to standard medical care. If your talking about much of the new age mubmojumbo I agree with you.

There are things like Arnica that is technically marketed at homeopathic but it is well known to have the ability to speed the healing of bruises or sore muscles. I'm not sure what homeopathy uses it for.

Don't throw out something just because it gets dragged into some out there version of homeopathy.

bohemian

Serenefengshui

Snarkysnake

How does one get a job like that?

TheSeeker

her typical response is, "its just the government trying to suppress the truth"

i fear she is a lost cause and i will have to put her down shortly.

B1663R

lemur

SpdRacer

SpdRacer

stoopiddood

SpdRacer

Good answer!

RvLeshrac

It does work! I know a guy who took a sip of distilled water, and died from an overdose of everything!

Indecision

In other news, any story that makes mention of George Sr. wins in my book.

NO TOUCHING!

PhiCancri

No, homepathic medicines don't work. Ever. Period. End of story. Water does not have a 'memory,' and no amount of twitching and gyrating will grant it one.
As Dr. Harriet Hall wrote in the latest Skeptic, regarding 'Cures for the common cold':
"Homeopathy uses occilococcinum: start with duck liver, dilute the duck out of it, and hope the water remembers the duck. In my opinion, all that leaves is a quack."

Natural substances are good for certain conditions, yes. When we find a natural substance that is an effective treatment, we typically study it to determine how it is effective (and whether or not it really IS effective), then refine it into a medicinal form designed to speed its absorption into the human body.

'Holistic medicine' simply assumes that a substance or treatment is effective because someone once said it was, with no experimental validation or control.

RvLeshrac

Mayor McRib

badgerette

Papa Midnight

Anyone trying to sell you their secret formula or claiming they have the special cure for some chronic illness is a scam artist. Trudeau made money selling books to people desperate for a cure. Always beware of anyone who has money to gain off of convincing you to buy something.

bohemian

Kifune

stoopiddood

Spookyooky

lonelymaytagguy

stoopiddood

This clown's infomercial is always on tv.

Dead Wrestlers Society

kimsama

(Waiting for the obligatory 'But homeopathy works!' and 'I tried his cures and they worked for me!' posts)

RvLeshrac

Tigerman_McCool

In other news, any story that has George Sr. in it wins in my book.

NO TOUCHING!

PhiCancri

Charred

foghat81

Fujikopez