Alt med and research. We often read about hundreds of hours of research,...

[JimDiGriz]

...but where was it done? I'm doing about 600 hours of research *per year* in order to get a higher degree and it's likely to take 6 or 7 years before I'm deemed worthy.

Where do these alt medders do their research? I've spent hours and hours following stuff from one kook website to another and never managing to track down source documents, is that all they do - cite each other? Often when original sources are tracked down they state the opposite of what the alt med 'researchers' claim.

So:

Where do these alt medders do their research?
Why does it so often disagree with what the source papers claim?
Why do they not cite their sources?

ETA

1 year write-up of my research 65 pages - now I'm "resting"
"they do it under supervision of drug companies and medical doctors, of course."

Thank you for your insight. I'm not sure you're right though. Anyway, interesting answer.
Not bad Rhianna 65 pages in the end all for a 2000 word report. I hate academic writing! Had a belated birthday dinner at the weekend and slept most of it. Now catching up on work I should have been doing while I was stoned on caffeine

[JLI]

Research also has an alternative meaning in their world. We had an altie visit on the anaximperator blog some time ago who admitted this: http://anaximperator.wordpress.com/2008/11/09/simoncini-scam-murderer/#comment-364

And here are a few examples of misinterpretation of science by an altie: http://www.123hjemmeside.dk/cancer_is_not_a_fungus/21160737 I think you are right, that the studies they site don't always show what they claim.

ETA:
[1.Natural News and CureZone, etc] Yes - The altie in my first example is a CureZone moderator, who bans everyone trying to add some factual information into his forum.

ETA 2:
[JLI: SkepDoc and I got kicked off quackzone..er...curezone a couple of years ago for challenging some of the absurd claims made on there. Wow, that site is nuts, there's just about every crackpot conspiracy you can think of there too as well as some really obnoxious verbose kooks. Check out Tony I (copypaste) and his sanctimonious girlfriend.]

Then you might like to see what we did to him on anax :-D http://anaximperator.wordpress.com/2009/11/06/cancer-metastasis-according-to-the-gospel-of-curezone/
He never had a chance when he commented on the post. We haven't heard from him since. If I remember correctly his girlfriend's name is Luella. I found it a bit worrying when she was admitted to a hospital, and had access to real patients, but at the same time ironic that she would accept conventional treatment for herself.

[Psychobenzaprine]

1) Their research is performed in a coat closet somewhere.

2) It disagrees with source papers because they either misinterpreted the results or figured nobody would bother to verify said claims.

3) They don't cite sources because they have none! It's all a bunch of made-up nonsense that just keeps getting repeated over and over.

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