I'm presuming that the placebo effect seldom
includes huge massive life-threatening issues,

In most cases, I'd presume similarly... However, if the clinical trial takes you off your regular medication in order to test the new one, it might not be an allergic reaction but your body not getting what it needs...

In which case the risk is the same as with
any other replacement medication.

Pretty much.... I'm reminded now, though, that the placebo may not be
totally inert... One study I was on, the placebo was the drop (all the ingredients otherwise) except for the medication itself... one could
have a life-threatening reaction to the medium potentially...

That too goes for other formulations - there
is filler in almost all pills, and somebody is
sensitive to all of them, whether they be
lactose, carnauba wax, talc, or something more
obscure and insidious.

That usually is the expressed plan of action, along with the means of finding out for that individual which is being administered to them. Not doing that would be reprehensible, I'd say...

And the drug companies never, ever do anything
reprehensible. Right?

One wishes... ;)

Banks and insurance companies, too.

Science is better than no science, but most of
it is not airtight or totally unbiased.

Indeed.

Which is why the national institutes and
academic laboratories (back before corporate
sponsored research) were so valuable.

Yup... Probably too late to put the genie back in the bottle, but it
would be nice to go back to such...

Not that science is ever pure pure, but it
certainly was more so than it can hope to
be now.

starting with crickets and scorpions, then going
on to spiders (all the above at least edible),
and drawing the line at millipedes, of which he
took one bite and declared that it tasted like
rotten pate. More entertaining even than Zimmern.

Give him credit for trying a bite... (G) I've had grasshoppers... ;)

Such critters aren't too bad fried.

I remember them chocolate-covered... but fried would be nice too... :)

Chocolate-covered anything. I used to chuckle
at the Monty Python sketch that included the
memorable "cockroach cluster" from the Whizzo
Chocolate Company; I reflected that that might
not be inedible.

I mean getting drawn into the dares etc... had plenty of nutso
friends...

I'd roll my eyes at most such shenanigans.
Remember back when that was an actual
physical gesture?

I've been known to practice it still... ;)

There's a recent clip of a reporter at a Chinese
government news conference who did the most
exaggerated rolleyes at a particularly stupid
official pronouncement. She lost her job, of course.

And today on our walk my friend Bonnie bought
me two scoops of Christina's ice cream - malted
vanilla and chocolate -, but I'd forgotten my
pills. The only ill effects were a few not too
malodorous poots, and then nothing. A pretty
red-letter day.

Quite amazing... I'm sure you could easily get used to that sort of
thing... :)

And I'll get plumper again, at this point
not such a bad idea.

COCOA MACAROONS
categories: sweet, coconut
yield: 1 batch

2 c white sugar
1/2 c cocoa
1/2 c milk
1/2 c margarine
1 c sweet shredded coconut
3 c rolled oats

Combine first 4 ingredients and bring to a
boil. Take off heat and add coconut and oats.

Drop teaspoons of mixture onto waxed paper.
The macaroons will harden as they cool.

Dufferin Presbyterian Church
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