Re: the Zapno (tm) anti-static device and dishonesty

[Hugh Haskell <hhaskell@MINDSPRING.COM>]

At 14:25 -0700 7/31/02, Bernard Cleyet wrote:
> P.s. Some (BW) mentioned arthroscopic knee surgery as an example of
> quackery .  I don't know about that surgery, but I was scheduled for
> thoracic surgery (fusion of three vertebrae) because of severe back
> pain.  Fortunately, just before, an article on lumbar surgery in the
> "New Yorker"  suggested the result might be worse. Further, a long
> time Psychiatrist friend said he wouldn't let a surgeon near his
> neck 'till he tried everything else, and recommended a book by Sarno
> and a Yoga teacher colleague.  My back pain is now minor and
> infrequent. Laudate Deum!
Personally, I find a psychiatrist accusing another specialty of
quackery rather ironic.

The problem with all of these techniques are that they have had
minimal scientific studies done of their efficacy. I don't know how
one would do a double-blind study of arthroscopic surgery, but
perhaps by having a third party examine a bunch of people without
knowing whether they had had it and seeing if the condition that was
claimed to have been present is still there, or something like that.

I'll chime in on my experience with arthroscopic surgery of my knee,
done last February for torn cartilage. Recovery time was about 2
months and included about a month of post-op physical therapy. As of
today, I have no pain in the knee and as full a range of motion as I
had before the injury. The injury wasn't so severe as to incapacitate
me, but it left me with pain in the knee and reduced mobility, and it
wasn't getting better, even with the usual medications. So for me, it
worked. YMMV.

It may be highly dependent on the skill of the practitioner. I think
my guy was pretty good.

My wife had lumbar surgery to fuse a couple of vertebrae some years
ago. In her case, she was incapacitated (bed-ridden) and the surgery
solved that. She still has to be carful of her back but has had no
major problems since and only very minor and occasional pain.

Hugh
--

Hugh Haskell
<mailto:haskell@ncssm.edu>
<mailto:hhaskell@mindspring.com>

(919) 467-7610

Let's face it. People use a Mac because they want to, Windows because they
have to..
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