In article <80651@cup.portal.com>, mmm@cup.portal.com (Mark Robert Thorson) writes: >> Not everything that goes in comes out, and personaly I don't mind giving >> my body a hand once in a while. >>  >> Just my experience, >>  >> George Paap >  > I've got a very nice collection of historical books on medical quackery, > and on the topic of massage this is a recurring theme.  Ordinary massage > is intended to make a person feel better, especially if they have muscular > or joint problems.  But -- like chiropracty -- there are some practitioners > who take the technique to a far extreme, invoking what seems to me to be > quack science to justify their technique. >  > In the case of massage, there is a technique called "deep abdominal massage" > in which the masseur is literally attempting to massage the intestines! > The notion is that undigested food adheres to the inner surface of the > intestines and putrifies, releasing poisons which cause various disease > syndromes.  By this vigorous and painful procedure, it is alleged that > these deposits can be loosened up and passed out. >  > I just can't believe this idea has any truth behind it!  The human intestine > is not a New York City sewer pipe!  And even if it were, you eat half of > a small box of Triscuits, and there ain't gonna be nothin' sticking to the > inner surface of your intestine  :-)  Mark, this is the most reasonable post that I've seen in Sci. Med. on the  topic of Colonic Flushing.  I'm in a profession that uses manipulation(a  very refined form of massage) to treat various human diseases.  Proving  that manipulation works has been extremely difficult(as the MD's delight in  pointing out).  The Osteopathic Profession seems to be making better  progress than the chiropractors in proving(scientifically) that their  techingues work.  The JAOA recently had a study on the use of manipulation  to relieve mensrual cramps in women with results that were as good or  better than drug treatment(using physiological measurements, and not just  the woman's preception of improvement).  This study was hailed by the JAOA  editors as the turning point in the profession's long struggle to prove  itself to the medical community.  I'm currently trying to get the AOA(American Osteopathic Association) which  has supported most of the Osteopathic research in the U.S. to also support  nutrition education and research.  I've pointed out, in a grant proposal,  that the founder of Osteopathic Medicine(A.T. Still) embraced both diet and  manipulation to set himself apart from the MD's of his time who were pushing  only drugs(Still was himself an MD who got real dissillusioned with drugs  during his service in the Civil War).  He decided that there had to be a  better way to treat human disease since he saw the cure(drugs) as being  worse than the disease.  Through his many years of study of the human body,  he developed his manipulation techniques that he then taught to his  students in the U.S's first Osteopathic Medical school.  We now have 17. Still used manipulation to treat(and also diagnose) human disease but he  used diet to prevent human disease.  I'm trying to get the Osteopathic  Profession to return to it's roots and beat the MD's to the punch(so to  speak).  Both DO's and MD's in current medical practice have very little  understanding of how diet affects human health.  This has to change.  Martin Banschbach, Ph.D. Professor of Biochemistry and Chairman Department of Biochemistry and Microbiology OSU COllege of Osteopathic Medicine