Woo-Gasm

Happy Sunday Evening!

Last night, as an alternative to joining all of you at CB and Potts, I attended a BBQ at a friend's ranch. This was all fun and whatnot... until the bombardment began...

One of my fellow guests regaled me with stories of her terrible allergies, (anyone who knows me knows that i am two sneezes away from being John Travolta ). As the conversation was quickly turning into a metaphorical pissing contest she began explaining how she had heard that tapeworms (or some other variety of parasitic worms) are starting to be used for treatment of allergies. I guess the mechanism of action is somewhat based on the idea that allergies are an autoimmune response and that giving the immune system something to actually focus on, allergies will abate. She asked me if I would ever consider taking worms therapeutically, and my only response was that I would have to see the data before willfully infesting myself with parasites.

After a brief Googling on the topic I came upon a couple of websites that were leaning in the direction of Alt-Med and one even brought up Hulda Clark. So I searched Science Based Medicine ...nothing so I searched ScienceDaily and came up with a couple of articles...notably This one. please feel free to read it yourself but the basic conclusion is that there is data that was collected in Vietnam on children with hookworm infections and after being treated for the worms, they were found to have a higher likelyhood of allergies to dust mites. As a result there is a call to study the possible methods by which the worms suppress the inflammation reaction.

So we shall see if anything comes of it...until then I will make do with my cocktail of antihistamines and other medications.

Further several of the other guests began talking about massage therapy (my friend has had success for her chronic migranes) and the conversation began to deteriorate into "magical benefits of massage until one of them mentioned some reiki practitioner in town. Now I have to admit, I was taken a little off guard and was only vaguely familiar with reiki as being some Woo concept but no details. (Now here boys and girls, is what I should have said..."How do you suppose that works?" ) and then she went on to explain meridians and energy (Both words that should send up anyone's alarm bells). Now as my wife was in attendance, and I cherish NOT having to sleep on the couch, I decided that this was a convenient time for me to excuse myself and retire into the kitchen for a glass of water. I am inherantly not a very confrontational being so I know I should have gone and both taken the opportunity to learn what she thought about Reiki, as well as to encourage the thinking required to come to the conclusion "how DOES that work?" and "that doesn't seem too plausible". The best and most ironic point is that the vast majority of the guests have some background in the sciences (mostly Biology) and the Gal in question works in a necropsy (aka animal autopsy) lab determining cause of death for the division of wildlife. I would have found interesting to ask her if she had ever dissected a route of transit for these meridians that the Ki is supposed to travel through...

And to add insult to injury, the owners of the horse ranch are among the nicest people that I think I have met. And it pains me to see people like them get taken advantage of. I have been trying for months to figure out the best way to broach the subject of the Horse Psychic that they call at the slightest whim if any horse is acting odd in any way. Now does the psychic rush to the ranch to read the horse's mind...not a chance...She's so powerful that she can do it over the phone (probably from the bathtub or whatever). And does she divulge the information free of charge as a service to both humanity and equine kind...OF COURSE...NOT! So as I said... it pains me to see these people that are so nice, be taken for a ride.

Next week...See you at Potts for some enlightening conversation.