Or we could just start selling placebo tablets and make a fortune. I have some clay in my garden that should be easy enough to shape into pill shapes. We could even paint a few of them red and sell those as extra strong.
Um Clay would have an effect. Use powdered sugar and simply compress them into a pill. This is literally one way they do already make placebos in pill form. You can buy a pill press on amazon
E coli, anthrax, Lead, mercury, oil, piss, shit, fungus, spores, mold, fucking anything really. You have no idea what’s gone into the ground or what it contains. Even if it’s “probably” safe why not use a much easier already approved product that has 0 risk associated with it
Unless you are running it through some spectrum analyzer or whatever and have a process to then purify it, it’s a bad idea to just ingest something you dug up. And why bother not starting with already human grade ingestible material that you also probably have in your kitchen.
Harmful substances are many orders of magnitude smaller than the tiniest pill.
We are only ‘pretty sure’ of the mechanism of how Tylenol works biochemically as of 2025.
You can test for effectiveness and dangers and everything else you need to prescribe something to get a good idea of whether its actually doing something or not.
‘Alternative medicine’ is largely, “I felt better after a bit”.
It’s known to potentially have an effect , even if the actual treatment administered was known(by third parties) to be inert and the effect wasnt the one originally planned.
Thats not the same as not working at all.
This is a core part of blind tests, the whole reason you test using a placebo is to isolate the effects that can’t be attributed to the actual medicine.
I’m not sure why you are repeating what I said as if I didn’t already say that.
Yes, it’s known to have an effect. But the placebo itself literally does nothing. It’s not a placebo unless it is guaranteed to do nothing or it wouldn’t have any value to science with how they use it. Any effect is psychosomatic and NOT an effect of the placebo. Hence the term “placebo effect” this is incredibly important when testing to gather useful data.
I’m guessing you just misunderstood what I was saying since you seem to be repeating me, other than the distinction between placebo and placebo effect
You recited the placebo effect to me like i didn’t just mention it directly.
I recited it back with extra detail , to make clear that i know what it means.
You recited it again, with additional detail, and asked me if i misunderstood your reply containing the definition of the thing i was asking about, by name ?
Yeah I know which is why Im confused why you seem to be disagreeinf with me when we are saying the same thing. So I’m repeating myself with different words to try to find where we are having a problem.
I was literally guessing that that might be where the disconnect was. I’m not a great communicator so apologies If I’m just too dumb to figure out whats happening at this point
The difference between medicine and “alternative medicine” is proof of effectiveness. If something provably works it’s medicine.
That’s certainly a definition.
(As a genuine question) How dos that definition account for the placebo effect ?
edit: re-read this and realised it sounded significantly more confrontational than i intended, so i added bracket context.
“Proof of effectiveness” means a placebo controlled trial. Preferably multiple, with sample sizes substantial enough for sufficient statistical power.
Or we could just start selling placebo tablets and make a fortune. I have some clay in my garden that should be easy enough to shape into pill shapes. We could even paint a few of them red and sell those as extra strong.
Not hurting anyone…
Why waste valuable clay when you can just sell homeopathic remedies?
Um Clay would have an effect. Use powdered sugar and simply compress them into a pill. This is literally one way they do already make placebos in pill form. You can buy a pill press on amazon
Sugar isn’t great for diabetics. Wouldn’t clay just pass through as it has no nutritional value.
Well sure but you could use other household ingredient that aren’t contaminated with whatever might be in your soil.
It was intentional that i said it’s one way they already make placebos in pill form.
It entirely is only important if you care about hurting people and not just stealing from them.
Which you seem to since you are arguing over diabetes
People eat clay sometimes. IIRC its a famine thing used to bulk out actual food to make it feel slightly more filling.
Pills are tiny. Wtf do you think the soil is contaminated with?
I’m sure they do but not without problems
E coli, anthrax, Lead, mercury, oil, piss, shit, fungus, spores, mold, fucking anything really. You have no idea what’s gone into the ground or what it contains. Even if it’s “probably” safe why not use a much easier already approved product that has 0 risk associated with it
Unless you are running it through some spectrum analyzer or whatever and have a process to then purify it, it’s a bad idea to just ingest something you dug up. And why bother not starting with already human grade ingestible material that you also probably have in your kitchen.
Harmful substances are many orders of magnitude smaller than the tiniest pill.
And no shovels required
ah, that makes sense.
Does that still apply if the underlying mechanism isn’t understood?
I know examples of this exist already , I’m wondering if “proof of effectiveness” really means just the effectiveness in this context.
Effectiveness is independent of mechanism. As an example, to my knowledge SSRIs don’t really make sense but mostly outperform placebo.
Agreed,
Pretty sure anesthesia is similar, (in the not fully understanding the underlying mechanism)
We are only ‘pretty sure’ of the mechanism of how Tylenol works biochemically as of 2025.
You can test for effectiveness and dangers and everything else you need to prescribe something to get a good idea of whether its actually doing something or not.
‘Alternative medicine’ is largely, “I felt better after a bit”.
We didn’t know how alcohol worked but it was still an effective medicine for battlefield surgeons through history.
I would say how doesn’t it?
A placebo is known to NOT work. That medicine has defined, understands and even utilizes the placebo effect is exactly in that definition.
It’s known to potentially have an effect , even if the actual treatment administered was known(by third parties) to be inert and the effect wasnt the one originally planned.
Thats not the same as not working at all.
This is a core part of blind tests, the whole reason you test using a placebo is to isolate the effects that can’t be attributed to the actual medicine.
I’m not sure why you are repeating what I said as if I didn’t already say that.
Yes, it’s known to have an effect. But the placebo itself literally does nothing. It’s not a placebo unless it is guaranteed to do nothing or it wouldn’t have any value to science with how they use it. Any effect is psychosomatic and NOT an effect of the placebo. Hence the term “placebo effect” this is incredibly important when testing to gather useful data.
I’m guessing you just misunderstood what I was saying since you seem to be repeating me, other than the distinction between placebo and placebo effect
Yeah I know which is why Im confused why you seem to be disagreeinf with me when we are saying the same thing. So I’m repeating myself with different words to try to find where we are having a problem.
I was literally guessing that that might be where the disconnect was. I’m not a great communicator so apologies If I’m just too dumb to figure out whats happening at this point
i think the miscommunication was mutual, but started with me, apologies.
Hugs friend all good