Dear Bruce
I really enjoyed your last answer. Few things have made me smile so broadly
in the last month; a great start to the day.
To say you have no strong feelings for MT or electro, you have some pretty
negative language regarding US. 'Money grabbing quacks', and these poor
useless physios holding on to the scientifically dubious, 'money dependent'
technologies, well it sounds to me that you do have a strong feeling on this
one. Two questions.
Name a therapy you use that has been scientifically validated. Yes this is
the nebulous type of phrase which is used on the list all the time as if
some therapies have a great validation and some do not. Physio, EBM and life
are grey and when I referred previously to a childlike attitude (not in
yourself, generally) I meant in the ability to only see things in black and
white. So I look forward to your answer as most of us know, philosophically
it is easier to disprove than prove, hence how these debates rumble on and
on.
Second question why is it that you do not rate US because of its lack of
scientific validity, but will not abandone MT until someone proves to you it
doesn't work?. This appears to me to be a major shifting of the goal posts.
I look forward to your response.
Warm Regards Kevin Reese PT UK
----- Original Message -----
From: Bruce- Australia <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Saturday, August 25, 2001 4:37 AM
Subject: Re: Ultrasound and Electro discussions
> Hi Kevin and Rege
>
> I am not pro manual therapy or necessarily anti electrotherapy. I am just
> interested in what is truth, and recognise man's propensity to delude
> themselves and prefer the comfort of status quo to the disturbance of
> change in holding onto entrenched paradigms, and forms of earning an
income.
>
> What I am against is embracing the mystical (electricity and invisible
> forces like ultrasound) and marketing it under the pretense of something
> scientific to a public who expect science. If physiotherapists don't stick
> to scientific proofs, then nothing separates us from some of the more
> dubious claims of chiropractors, naturopaths, & fortune tellers who use
> kirlian photography, crystal therapy, aura reading, tarot cards, palmistry
> etc etc. You could go and find a whole lot of people who believe these
> things help them, and keep these occupations going.
>
> As for the defence that medicine is only 15% scientifically based, well so
> what. How does that justify using something such as ultrasound that has
> evidence to say it is of dubious benefit. On the whole, when medicine
finds
> a consensus of negative evidence, they change their practises, sometimes
> slowly.
>
> Electrotherapy has a long history dating back to the early 19th century of
> use firstly by well meaning experimental physcians, then perpetuated by
> money grubbing quacks, to treat all sorts of things. There are several
> references on the net.
>
> I am concerned that in the face of evidence showing ultrasound is of
> dubious therapeutic benefit that physiotherapists hold onto it as if their
> income depended on it (maybe it does for many of you). It is my view that
> it is a convenient cost effective "high tech" thing for private
> practitioners to impress patients with, and that it has a high placebo
> effect with certain personality types.
>
> For every physiotherapist using ultrasound and claiming great results,
> there are just as many physios not using it who get just as good a result.
> And we should all remember that a lot of the acute conditions we treat get
> better in time with no intervention.
>
> As for manual therapy and the use of heat and ice, there is no consensus
of
> evidence saying these things are of dubious benefit. When that evidence
> comes about, I will change my perspective about such treatment.
>
> Ciao
> Bruce
>
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