Sad tale, Steve, and good points. Vito might have had a herx reaction, too. <sigh>
Still, if you add up enough anecdotal evidence across a large enough population and long enough period of time, it starts to become reasonable to draw some tentative conclusions. For instance, how many folks report going for years at a time without getting sick after starting to take CS... after a lifetime of getting colds, flu, or whatever, on a regular basis along with everyone else? Hear that tale often enough and you'll start to think maybe CS is contributing to that. Even in mainstream science and medicine, there's a vehicle for developing research directions on the basis of clinical experience. If a doctor sees something interesting happening in his or her patients, they can publish this, usually in the form of a survey of the literature and a case report, which seeks to interest researchers in pursuing further studies based on those anecdotal reports. Of course, we're not doctors, there are no "official" journals ready to publish our reports, and no bevy of institutions looking for ways to spend grant money developing our ideas. And ideas that are too radical or "crackpot" sounding are unlikely to get picked up, even when it *is* a doctor making the report. Some would also suggest there needs to be some profit in the idea for somebody. So for things like CS we're limited to watching the literature, accumulating anecdotes, and doing as much testing as we can afford to do as individuals and small groups. We can wish for more, but there's still good that's come of what we've been able to do. Mike D. > I'm always reluctant to accept anecdotal evidence at face value. I > recognize that sometimes it really does suggest a compelling connection > a la cause and effect, but at other times it does not, but people will > believe crazy stuff due to coincidence. > > Here is a true story involving CS. > > One of our pet rats, Vito recently lost most interest in eating and > began acting lethargic and depressed. My wife, who tends to our small > furry friends faithfully, asked me if CS might help. I said it might. > > So she started mixing it 50/50 with regular water. Vito lapped it up > greedily resting every now and then because he was weak. She did this > for a couple days. Then the other night, Vito passed away. > > The gist of the story - Our sick rat drank CS and died. > > Now to some people, this would represent the proof they needed to show > that CS is toxic. > > To others, it just would mean that poor Vito was too far gone for the CS > to help, assuming that it could. > > In my mind, Vito was on his last legs and his hours were numbered. > There is no way I believe that the CS hurt him, despite his ultimate > demise. > > This is the problem with anecdotal evidence. It can be extremely > convincing, yet it is NOT scientific and not proof of anything. Some > things are right, even though there is not good proof. And some things > are wrong, despite evidence which appears compelling on the surface. > > Cheers. > > > > [Mike Devour, Citizen, Patriot, Libertarian] [[email protected] ] [Speaking only for myself... ] -- The Silver List is a moderated forum for discussing Colloidal Silver. Instructions for unsubscribing are posted at: http://silverlist.org To post, address your message to: [email protected] Address Off-Topic messages to: [email protected] The Silver List and Off Topic List archives are currently down... List maintainer: Mike Devour <[email protected]>
