This will be my only reply on this thread. Any more would just be feeding the trolls.
The reason that all medical treatments have to be approved before they can be advertised and sold is that the majority of the unapproved treatments are snake oil. They may be harmless, but they do not do what they are claimed to do and they may also be dangerous.
The problem with personal anecdotes as to the efficacy of a treatment is that there is no real proof that the treatment actually provided the relief that the person felt. The idea that it did is: "I did A and then B happened". This is a logical fallacy known as "Post hoc ergo propter hoc" which means, "After this, therefore because of this". The only way to show that the treatment actually works is to do a large study in which the treatment is given to many patients to see what the actual response is. The study should be a double blind experiment. That is there are 2 groups of patients. One group is given the real treatment, the other is given a placebo. However, neither they nor the doctor giving them the treatment knows which is which. That is why it is "double blind", both the patient and the administering researcher are blind as to what is being given. When the results are evaluated it is possible to see that X% of patients given the treatment improved, and Y% of the patients given the placebo improved. Then you can get a real idea of whether the treatment is successful.
And to some extent even that can be misleading. Remember Thalidomide. It was tested in Europe and was widely accepted for a number of different uses, including as a really good sleeping pill that helped pregnant women with morning sickness. In some of them it also helped them have seriously deformed babies. It was never approved in the United States the head of the FDA refused to approve it while under pressure to do so. He said he thought it needed more study.
Based on the history of thalidomide and the fact the the treatments in the videos have not faced the extensive testing now required for approval of drugs/treatments I think that the ban on advertising unapproved medical treatments is a good thing.
Bill Gill
