On Aug 8, 2007, at 10:00 AM, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
message: 4
date: Wed, 8 Aug 2007 10:58:48 -0400
from: Carlisle Landel <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
subject: Re: [Hornlist] Ear Problems
At the risk of taking this discussion even farther afield from the
horn world, I'll bite. I'm a professional research biologist.
Here are some hypotheses that could be tested:
1. Any warm liquid will provide relief.
2. Any warm oil will provide relief.
3. A warm liquid with the same physical properties of warm onion
juice (pH {acidity}, viscosity {"ability to flow}, mixture of oil +
water, osmolarity {salt concentration}, etc.) will provide relief.
4. There is some specific ingredient in onions (or garlic) that
provides relief.
Here's how you do the experiment. When you have an ear infection
(ideally in both ears so that you have a control), have a friend make
two preparations: one of, say warm saline (dissolve about 1/4 tsp
table salt in a half-cup of water, or for our metric friends, about 1
gm salt into 100 ml water), and another of warm onion juice. Without
them telling you which is which (this is important!), have them apply
a different solution to each ear. Which ear feels better? Then you
can ask them which solution went into each ear.
You can do the same with, say, garlic oil and some other control
solution, for example, some other type of oil.
The reason you shouldn't know which solution goes into each of your
ears is due to the placebo effect, which is that if you tell somebody
that a substance will have a specific effect, then for a very large
percentage of the population, that person will experience that effect.
If it turns out that it is all about onions or garlic, then you would
try dividing the solution into it its constituent components to
figure out the active ingredient.
It is all about doing the correct experiment!
Until somebody shows me the data from a proper, controlled
experiments, I view all claims for therapeutic value with great
skepticism, though of course I'm always willing to do the experiment.
Anyway, if anybody wants to continue this discussion, I suggest that
we do so off-list. (I'm happy to, and would be *really* intrigued
if some of you with chronic ear infections were to do some
experiments.)
Carlisle
Well, I used to have an herb and vitamin business and took some
excellent training about nutrition and herbal remedies. As a result I
changed my life for the positive by being more careful of what I took
into my body, which is much better than abusing it with fast food and
other junk and then looking for a pill 30 years later to cure all
your ills. Drug companies love the fact that we are such bad eaters.
They make billions off it every year. I have taken antibiotics once
in 25 years- for an infected spider bite.
Garlic has known antibiotic and blood thinning properties to name a
couple of things. It really is a "miracle" food. I would say that
garlic oil in the ear is best, onion oil next and then a saline
solution, which also has curative effects. I'm not willing to buy
that warm motor oil or plain water would have similar effects,
although it wouldn't surprise me.
Placebos are actually a very important part of natural medicine.
After all, wouldn't you rather get relief from something that has no
side effects than something that does? Many drugs just mask symptoms
anyway. They don't actually cure anything. The placebo effect is a
good thing. The next time you go to the doctor for antibiotics for a
cold, get a placebo instead. If you want to get a good scare, read a
Physicians Desk Reference and check out the side effects of all our
popular drugs. What is pathetic and shameful is that drug companies
constantly try to clamp down on herbs and vitamins if they can find
any little thing that might be construed as a bad reaction or side
effect. In fact, over the thousands of years that herbal remedies
have been used there have been less accountable problems than about
one week of drug use- a lot less. In my lifetime only one herb,
Lobelia, was pulled from the market in its pure form, and this was a
crock. Tryptophane, an amino acid, was also pulled because of a bad
batch from Japan and general abuse because it was sold over the
counter in health food stores and people, used to the idea that if
you take a little of something (the pill mentality) a lot more will
be better, took huge doses to help themselves sleep better.
Another mistake made by drug companies is the idea that you should
isolate the "active ingredient" in order to produce a viable drug. In
nature, where most drugs have originated, there are natural balancers
that preclude the problems of side effects and promote ingestion by
the body without hurting the liver or kidneys. Of course the
synthetic version is more "powerful," but the side effects are scary.
There are several poisons in a potato, which has over 100 elements in
it. How many people die from eating potatoes?
OK, this could go on forever. My point is that scientific experiments
are great, but not all the answers will be found with such
experiments as listed. The work in many of these areas has already
been done- some by man and some by nature. You just won't see it
advertised on TV.
Sincerely,
Wendell Rider
For information about my book, "Real World Horn Playing", the DVD and
Regular and Internet Horn Lessons go to my website: http://
www.wendellworld.com
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