A family member has a lot of problems with inflammation. Having seen many doctors at many institutions, all that's been learned is that the medical establishment doesn't really seem to have much of an idea about inflammatory disease, other than being able to apply labels. So far, any progress that has been made by this family member is down to following scientific method in their diet - doctors have been very unhelpful. This family member is part of support groups full of people with similar experiences.
This sounds like quackery, but given the incompetence in this area of the current medical establishment, we'll have to take a look at it.
Just because the medical establishment doesn't have answers doesn't mean that someone outside of the establishment does. It sucks, but sometimes no one has an answer, and it's better to accept that than to listen to whoever claims to know.
Why is giving up better? What’s the harm in being wrong about fixing your own issues?
All I can see is wasted time and effort, but as a person with a lifelong (supposedly) incurable illness, it’s time well spent. I’d rather struggle and fail than accept my fate.
To clarify, accepting that no answers might be available frees up our energy to focus on what we can do rather than trying out every dubious or fraudulent claim that could do us real harm.
This is coming from someone facing a life-threatening illness. I hear lots of shit advice all the time. I've chosen to separate myself from support groups that circulate dangerous ideas, and I think I'm better off.
I do hope you get better and advising against ignorant support groups spreading misinformation is good, but it’s also stupid as all hell to suggest to others that they give up. Accepting that there are no answers is the same as lying down to die. There is always an answer and even if you or I won’t find it, the group pursuit for truth is a positive thing
The alternative isn't giving up. It's doing what we can with what we actually know based on science-based medicine. That might include seeking a second, third, etc. credible opinion.
Unfortunately, there isn't always an answer. Countless people suffer from conditions that no one understands.
Best case it’s wasted time, effort and money which all can have an emotional/stress toll as things don’t work. Worst case is you try something that makes things even worse. Both can be pretty bad.
Queen sized static mat: Max $200 and 60 minutes for all review-reading. ordering, unboxing, installation. Possible outcome: healing, better sleep, reduced pain. Reward/risk ratio is great here.
Why would the establishment be the only people worth listening to?
Just because they don't have an answer doesn't mean no one has an answer.
We've received many helpful tips on things to try from others suffering with the same symptoms. We have brains, and an ability to use scientific method to investigate for ourselves what works for us. Someone may say, "try this diet change - it worked for me". You don't need to be a doctor to try that.
This grounding thing doesn't seem hard to try out, and there's no obvious hazard with trying it.
There are lots of dangerous ideas floating around out there (remember drinking bleach to cure COVID?), and lots of predators willing to separate the desperate from their money. Of course the medical establishment isn't the only source of answers, but looking for them outside requires even more caution than usual.
And again, maybe no one has answers. Answering why a condition exists might not even lead to a cure. In the end, it might be better to spend more energy managing symptoms than seeking answers. That sounds pessimistic but it's also pragmatic.
While the current medical establishment isn't perfect, and I have many anecdotes of them failing my family/friends and I, they are definitely better than those so called support groups.
I refuse to believe they are good for you. Just a bunch of people complaining and enabling hypochondria. Psychosomatic symptoms are a powerful thing. Hanging out with a bunch of people that complain about their symptoms and finding similarities with them isn't good.
By all means, expirement with diet or whatever else. But no good can come from those support groups. Or maybe I am just too cynical...
You’re only considering the impact of the negative potential and failing to regard the positive potentials of people’s value. Humans are social beings.
People in support groups can provide invaluable input. When you go to a doctor or surgeon, you are getting a professional's perspective. When you talk to a support group, you are hearing from people who have actually experienced the results of that.
For example, another family member had a major surgery. Prior to getting the surgery, they talked to specialists at some really good institutions about what they could offer. There were surgical and non-surgical options available. However, the questions that were asked came from being in contact with a support group. These were people who had had the various procedures, and who had had them at various institutions. Without that input, we would not have been able to ask good questions, or be very discerning about what these specialists were saying. Without the support group, we would have been lost in that process.
EDIT. I should also add that at the facility where the surgery was done, we met several people who had gone to very highly esteemed hospitals for the same kind of thing, but were having to have a 2nd go at it at the facility we chose. That could have been us. We learned that even well credentialed people at highly respected places will perform procedures they have little experience with.
You are too cynical. Don’t advise people do avoid something that might help them, even if only due to placebo.
You probably have something more precise to say that’s worth saying, like how many support groups are fixed mindset and result in complaining and excuses, crabs in a bucket. And how finding, or starting, a group focused explicitly on growth mindset, would be very beneficial.
Not sure I'd blame the entire 'establishment'. Inflammation is a hot topic, so lots of research, and also lot's of people selling books and cures. It does seem like there is a lot of evidence that diet is the most promising 'cure' or aid. Mediterranean or full vegan and gluten free.
The problem in US, when you start talking diet then suddenly it is a political or moral statement. Suggest being vegan or gluten free and suddenly you are labeled a 'liberal fruit cake woke crazy'. Ok, go eat another steak fried in butter cream and die young.
The science on diet has been pretty clear for 50+ years, it is only 'confusing' or 'obfuscated' because of the major lobbies using Tabaco tactics.
"Inclusion in an NLM database does not imply endorsement of, or agreement with, the contents by NLM or the National Institutes of Health." - good. I was wondering how the NIH got involved in this
I recommend considering not just this paper but the dozens of others by the authors. Pubmed shows over 100 papers on legit-looking studies on reasonable journals on this and other topics.
Very interesting. Eight healthy subjects used for testing. I am guessing that the effect is not limited to humans alone. Shouldn't it be easier to do a larger study on animals?
How to people sell these products? I could understand selling the product, but not making outlandish claims and letting people reap the placebo effect… to falsely claim actual success is a whole nother level of fraud.
I still regret that I had ethical issues and good morals or I'd be a millionaire along with my classmates. During the dotcom boom we had a ton of ideas, all of them ranging from sketchy to unethical. A good bunch of them was invented by someone else later on.
Notably, it appears the authors of this study are the owners of https://www.earthing.com, which sells products to help ground people. This is called out in the study. Given this massive conflict of interest, I can't put much stock into these findings until they're replicated by independent researchers. Absent that, I'll assume that this study is manufacturing a (possibly false) scientific basis for buying the grounding products.
Wow, the confident misassertions in some of those comments! Fortunately many of them were able to be attenuated.
Thx for the link. I see two key questions: 1. How does static electricity inside the body interact with the inside? 2. How to measure the current out of the mat? As pointed out on the prev discussion, it is non-trivial bc the voltage is large and the current is small.
Electric imbalance "may" theoretically interfere with your own body biological processes, so people thought being connected to ground to rebalance things a bit would be beneficial. I don't know anything about the reality of it, but, there's Michael Levin's research reviving bioelectricity as a very important layer in tissue level logic (morphogenesis).. so who knows how important it is to ensure a good electrical state.
Read the book by the dude who came up with it many years ago when I was in Australia. I walked everywhere for a while barefoot after that.
The conspiracy being that someone somewhere knew about this so they created footwear as insulators to disconnect us from the earth, maybe the devil invented shoes! Hide those hoofs ;)
There is good, scientific evidence that skin contact with bare soil (walking barefoot in natural surroundings, gardening without gloves) makes humans happier, and the mechanism is this: there exists a species of bacteria found everywhere on Earth (even Antarctica, apparently) that exudes a compound which, on contact with the skin, triggers the production of endorphins, making is feel happier.
I'm skeptical of the electrical-conductivity related claims in the article, but contact with the Earth being good for us is at least explained/explicable.
This sounds like quackery, but given the incompetence in this area of the current medical establishment, we'll have to take a look at it.