To whoever wrote:

"- Dr. Amen may be greedy, and using various means to get wealthy from people worried about conditions he claims he can help with, but greed is the norm in our society. Remember that we have a medical industry that is far more expensive than any other in the world, yet the USA ranks below virtually all other industrialized nations and some poorer nations in most indicators of health."

Yes- this much is true- but is this the fault of the medical "establishment" eschewing so-called "alternative" treatments, or a wildly out-of-control insurance system and pharmaceutical companies who are a little too cozy with gov't regulators?

"- The Medical Establishment has a long record of trying to prevent development of treatments that do not have a high potential for profit for elements of the industry"

Hmm- sounds like the typical bullshit propaganda spouted by chiropractors and other snake-oil salesmen of dubious repute.

it is documented...

(sure it is... at countless silly "alternative" websites, vanity publications, and 'health" expos )

...that conventional medical treatment is a major cause of fatalities in the USA plus countless other damage to people's lives.

Oh please. Cut the crap already. Major cause? Somehow, I don't think you'd be quite as sanguine if you were dying of sepsis from a burst appendix. Grapefruit seed oil and olive leaf ain't gonna get you out of THAT jam, buddy.

Conventional medicine is hardly perfect, but do you seriously expect me to believe that the number of people harmed is not vastly out-weighed by the number helped? All (useful) therapy entails risk. Life itself entails risk. You pays your nickle and you takes your chances. Eat your granola, take your vitamins, run 3 miles a day, die anyway.

"That something isn't approved by the Medical Establishment is not an indication that it isn't valid."

I'd rather take any therapy that is required to submit to testing and oversight, however imperfect, than some crack-pot nostrum that isn't tested or regulated AT ALL.

"- Alternative medicine does offer promising treatments for many things, but the Medical Establishment often makes it next to impossible to do the kind of studies on them that would provide conclusive evidence of validity."

There you go with your conspiracy theories again.

"Most of what Dr. Amen is promoting has indications of having potential."

According to whom? I think it's clear that there is no evidence of consensus, and Dr. Amens Carnival Barker schtick and promises of certainty make him immediately suspect.

Makes me wanna holler!

Those of you who have read my previous screeds know that I have little patience for alternative quackery and useless supplements, but I recently came across this journal:

http://www.oxfordjournals.org/our_journals/ecam/about.html

This is really all I wanted. If something is worthwhile, subject it to some standard scientific inquiry. If the results are not reproducible or extant, it's a crock.

Don't forget, folks- extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof. Keep the burden of proof on the providers of alleged cures, which is where it belongs.

Peace!

I'm sorry to hear that. However, that condition is nothing a sturdy tin-foil hat, or a few sessions with a competant therapist, can't cure.

Good luck

"A woman with only sheets surrounding her is super sexy and classy. It shows a confidant woman who no longer takes her cues from the silly girls around her but has foudn her internal sexual compass. She is confident and she knows her body and what she wants.

But keep kneecapping your girls and teaching them the opposite, ladies."

OK, so lemme get this straight...

Someone is teaching girls that they SHOULD take their cues from the silly girls around them, that confidence is not a virtue, and that she need not know her body and what she wants.

That may be so, but which LADIES are to blame for this, and who is doing the kneecapping here? (What exactly do you mean by that, anyway?)

I sure see an awful lot of creepy entertainment marketing types doing this, however. Are they ladies?

Care to explain?

Maybe it's just me, but a letter writer who shows such a remarkable level of insight and erudition should also have the ability to figure this out on their own.

Could this letter be a fake?

If you happened to have found this link one night during a Cheeto-iduced stupor, it would explain a lot.

http://www.butterfliesandwheels.com/rhetoric.php

(Hint, it wasn't meant to be taken literally)

...For awhile, you could see the silent helpless suffering of the brain behind the eyes, then finally the brain must have died, because the eyes went out, and there was no more feeling in them than a crab's eye on the end of a stalk."