Hey Christine - sorry about that. I did get the names mucked up. Sorted.
Dizzyizzy - excellent post. Thanks for that. I’m in complete agreement with everything you said. You’re right that there are many mainstream treatments that lack robust evidence. For example, there’s only weak evidence supporting the use of SSRIs for migraine relief and no RCTs yet on MAV and SSRIs (though I am told Tusa’s lab is running an RCT now on this with paroxetine). For the latter we have been basing it on “expert opinion” from Dr Baloh, Tusa, and Newman, and results from people here on this forum and others. The difference is that there’s at least plausibility in this sort of treatment: 1) there’s a mechanism as in serotonin modulation which we know plays a role in migraine and 2) that it’s supported by someone like Baloh who thoroughly understands the science (and genetics) of migraine and the limitations of current treatment options and 3) the data is still being collected. Baloh will tell you that if you can reduce the frequency and intensity of migraine by 50%, you’ve hit gold. You’d never hear him claiming a migraine cure or a 97% success rate because it doesn’t exist (yet).
Now, then we have the likes of Dr Chiropractor promoting his treatment that has been rigourously tested over and over again for decades now. Been there done that and the results are in. It is either not effective at all, no better than placebo, or has some effect for lower back pain just like physiotherapy. And so Simon Singh called their bluff in the UK as you pointed out publishing his article “Beware the spinal trap” when they made some quack claims across the UK about treating children with colic, sleeping and feeding problems, frequent ear infections, asthma and prolonged crying. But no, the Straights and Mixers will keep on spinning their chiropractic woo (e.g. NUCCA) and will continue to do so for another hundred years with all kinds of intricate explanations that sound compelling. You’d think by now they would have lots of evidence to draw on but it isn’t there of course beyond anecdote. It always amuses me that when you ask these guys from which hole they pulled their numbers, they always go silent like a winter snow fall. Still waiting for those research references to show that his research affected the Merck manual … Pubmed was a blank page when I searched out his name.
Best … Scott