From: dyer@spdcc.com (Steve Dyer)
Newsgroups: sci.med
Subject: Re: Starting an alternative medicine newsgroup
Date: 10 Oct 92 01:13:23 GMT
Article-I.D.: spdcc.1992Oct10.011323.26946
Organization: S.P. Dyer Computer Consulting, Cambridge MA

In article <BvvJEL.IuA@wpg.com> russ@wpg.com (Russell Lawrence) writes:
>sd> What did my dear grandmother used to say?  "Butter would melt in 
>sd> his mouth." Disingenuous pleas for civility from one of the major 
>sd> sci.med ankle-biters when it comes to his favorite hotbuttons do 
>sd> not carry much moral weight with me.  It's dishonest and 
>sd> hypocritical.  But typical.  
>
>As an example, just a couple of weeks ago someone stated that the discovery
>of intrinsic factor had disproven the notion that B12 produced by 
>intestinal flora could be absorbed.  [not true]

Effectively correct from a clinical standpoint.  Intrinsic factor is
the primary mechanism by which B12 is absorbed thru the gut.  Diffusion
plays a minor part (even if you do selectively quote Herbert, who would
never agree with what you were trying to mislead people into thinking
he was saying.)  People with pernicious anemia become B12 deficient
precisely because they stop producing intrinsic factor.  B12 formed by
microorganisms, if at all, seems to appear so late in the gut that
absorption isn't an important factor in preventing deficiency.

>  When I asked why 
>this was the case, you told your readers that the binding of B12 
>to intrinsic factor in the stomach was a necessary first step in 
>B12 absorption.  [not true]

It's not not true at all.  The binding happens in the ileum.  Intrinsic
factor is produced in the stomach.  BFD.

>This seemed blatantly false to me, 

Oh, had your textbook open and read very very carefully, Russell?

>but our purposes were better served by asking you to clarify your 
>answers rather than making nasty comments about your 
>intelligence...  as you yourself would have done if someone else 
>had posted such a [dyer-mode on] incredibly stupid [dyer-mode 
>off] statement.  

But you see, Russell, that's not an incredibly stupid statement.
It wouldn't have been even if you or even Kingsley Morse had said it.
This is "ignorant" in the same way that Bonnie's doctors were "ignorant"
about NSAIDs and uric acid levels.  It's simply a casual statement
made in an informal forum which is more or less correct.  This isn't
an exam, and the buffoons who are ridiculed are not guilty of such
irrelevant imprecision.  These are individuals who have missed the mark.

>Comments like:	"Nonsense!", "What an idiot", and "Where do these
>stupid buffoons get their silly ideas" are singularly unenlightening.

Nonsense, etc..  Yet you seem to think that your petty arguments
over minutiae are valuable?  Your ankle-nipping noise-making with
Gordon every chance you get a chance to disagree with him is worth
reading?  Please.  If you're going to deceive yourself, at least be
consistent about it.

>What's worse, they often mask ignorance.

<Snort>

>Suit yourself.  I hope you won't mind if other readers point out
>from time to time that your insults are uninformative.

You can be sure that I always take the opinions of people I respect
quite seriously.

-- 
Steve Dyer
dyer@ursa-major.spdcc.com aka {ima,harvard,rayssd,linus,m2c}!spdcc!dyer