• Welcome to Phoenix Rising!

    Created in 2008, Phoenix Rising is the largest and oldest forum dedicated to furthering the understanding of and finding treatments for complex chronic illnesses such as chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS), fibromyalgia (FM), long COVID, postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS), mast cell activation syndrome (MCAS), and allied diseases.

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Search results

  1. I

    should i pay $90,000 for stem cells?

    You may disagree with their conclusions, but SBM doesn’t pull this stuff out of their hats.
  2. I

    Beware homepathy

    Some veterinarians treat the creature with the wallet, not the patient. If my vet did that, I’d find a new one.
  3. I

    Predators and scammers

    Really. Every batch of pharmaceuticals has a number, and it can be tracked not only to factory, but to day and probably time and line number. Just look at a prescription bottle.
  4. I

    Predators and scammers

    About 10-11 years ago I had access to some natural products databases, and I was very disappointed in the quality of the research. It changed my mind about herbal medicine. The NIH has an entire institute devoted to the subject: The National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health...
  5. I

    Belgian newspaper Nieusblad has reported that De Meirleir is being prosecuted

    Not only do many European countries seem to have very rigid practice guidelines, such as no use of drugs off-label, but they are also committed to BPS treatment. It's very top-down and must be highly bureaucratic. I wonder how many physicians are employed, and therefore controlled by, the...
  6. I

    Beware homepathy

    What gets me is that homeopathy runs counter to not only common sense, but direct observation. If I dilute my alcoholic drink by half, I get only half as drunk. If I dilute it by 1:100, I won’t notice anything at all. Or else I’ll have to drink 100 shots.
  7. I

    Beware homepathy

    Well, shooting the messenger never did anyone any harm. Right?
  8. I

    Beware homepathy

    The people who need to pay attention to this won't. Sad.
  9. I

    Why We Find And Expose Bad Science (food science)

    I sense more than meets the eye with W. and C. They are not just being asswipes because god made them that way. The likeliest explanation is money. The others are marriage to one's ideas and a feeling of superiority. Anyway, mindlessly slagging them is just flogging a dead horse, as well as...
  10. I

    Predators and scammers

    Ok, you’ve told me what I wanted to know. There's a reason we use digitalis and not foxglove.
  11. I

    Defining and measuring recovery from ME & chronic fatigue syndrome: the physician perspective

    I have done extremely well on psych meds. I would say I’m recovered, in the commonly accepted sense of no longer having symptoms. But it just goes to show how ineffective psychiatrists think their treatments are.
  12. I

    Predators and scammers

    Can you point me to scientific papers showing that herbalism is effective and useful?
  13. I

    Very Sad

    Hey! You're here!
  14. I

    Very Sad

    @TiredSam ? oh noes!
  15. I

    Mrs Sowester's Magic Beans

    I use only homeopathic beans.
  16. I

    A brilliant new cure guys ;) Thrive programme

    NorCal Kaiser has some serious problems with mental health parity and other things. I'm glad I'm not a member, altho I might have to resort to it and pay out of pocket for actual medical care. Currently we have a plan thru Covered California because my husband is self-employed. We have a...
  17. I

    Fleas- How do you pet owners deal with this?

    That reminds me of a cat we used to have. She would cracklewhen you stroked her in winter, from the static electricity.
  18. I

    Sunblock factor 50 available in UK -anyone found one that works on very sensitive skin?

    I have occasionally gotten a rash or hives (yuck) from the sun. I'm not sure what, exactly, triggers it. I heard from another person that sunscreen did not help, but that was years ago and sunscreens have improved. Some substances, in combination with light, can trigger rashes in sensitive...
  19. I

    Fleas- How do you pet owners deal with this?

    @Strawberry It wouldn't have been possible to bathe them without two people. The cats were fairly docile and we kept their claws clipped because they were indoors-only. We wouldn't have done it if there had been better flea control products at the time. One of the cats was allergic to flea...
  20. I

    Sunblock factor 50 available in UK -anyone found one that works on very sensitive skin?

    I did a little reading about Heliocare. It seems to work but not incredibly well, maybe about SPF 3. Using a sunscreen that include antioxidants might work just as well. It's marketed as a supplement (in the US), so it doesn't need to prove that it actually works.
  21. I

    Sunblock factor 50 available in UK -anyone found one that works on very sensitive skin?

    Most sunscreens contain fragrance, even those for children. Many fragrances can sensitize skin. Natural fragrances are sometimes the worst. There's something in many sunscreens that's irritating to my skin, and I have no idea what it is. When I find something that works I stick with it.
  22. I

    Phil Parker On Wikipedia trying top get SMILE added

    I realize it would be hard to test for the existence of water without a lot of expense, but dowsers should be able to agree whether the signal is spread out or not. The twitches should be consistent for each dowser.
  23. I

    Phil Parker On Wikipedia trying top get SMILE added

    Testing dowsing in a natural landscape makes a lot more sense than testing plastic pipes set 1m apart. One way to test it would be to have several individual dowsers individually walk the same piece of land and see if they agree where the water is.
  24. I

    A brilliant new cure guys ;) Thrive programme

    When I was diagnosed I was severely depressed. Later I developed anxiety on top of that. I finally found an effective antidepressant. Relief of my mental illness had no effect on my physical symptoms.
  25. I

    Phil Parker On Wikipedia trying top get SMILE added

    Wait. Does dowsing work with any body of water or just with water in a metal pipe? If the dowser is actually getting a response to the metal in the pipe, then the process would be like using a stud finder before you hammer something into your wall. The traditional dowsers I've read about use...
  26. I

    Brain Stimulation Partly Awakens Patient after 15 Years in Vegetative State

    I thought the results were underwhelming but worth pursuing. The article didn't really touch on the issue of physical damage to the brain, not only the from initial injury but possible continuing deterioration while in a vegetative state. Terry Schiavo (famous right-to-die case) suffered...
  27. I

    Tickplex a new test for Lyme and Co-infection

    I sent the paper to my daughter, who researches tick-borne diseases in wildlife, but she said she can't really evaluate immunological tests because she does PCR, which looks at DNA. Sorry.
  28. I

    The treatment of fatigue by non-invasive brain stimulation

    I can see how NIBS might help mental fatigue, but I don't see how it would help conditions where there's been tissue damage, such as Parkinson's or MS.
  29. I

    Articles on quackery and placebo effet

    Even though I react badly to opioids, I think they're excellent for short-term pain. They are very effective and safer than other painkillers. The vast majority of people who take them have few problems. The causes of the opioid epidemic are complex, and it has resulted in the demonization of...
  30. I

    Fleas- How do you pet owners deal with this?

    Before topicals came on the market we had an entire ritual we performed once a month. First we'd give the cats a bath with insecticidal soap. (The fleas would skedaddle up to their faces, where we could see them.) We put something they could grab onto with their claws at the bottom of the...