On Sunday, June 11, 2000 2:19 PM, Reef Fish wrote:

> >On Thu, 8 Jun 2000, David Strike wrote:
(snip)
> >> One of
> >> the ancient remedies, however, was the use of ginger; ginger-beer;
ginger
> >> biscuits; neat ginger root, etc.  Apparently recent clinical studies
> suggest
> >> that this is so, and that ginger has a superior action in the treatment
> of
> >> motion sickness when compared with synthetic drugs.

> Strike!  Remember this Feeesh Rule of Thumb <a serious one>:

> Unless you have reason to believe a "medical/clinical" study was DESIGNED,
> PERFORMED, and ANALYZED properly, pay no heed.  MOST of such studies are
> motivated by "academic money grubbing in the name of 'research'", and
> the "researchers", M.D.s and the like are generally not very well versed
> in the design and analysis of such "studies", and their conclusions are
> NOT supported by the studies at least 97% of the time!

I was very mindful of your words - and Rule of Thumb - from a previous
discussion - but I was in a quandary! :-)

The Company that manufactures these particular ginger tablets here in Oz
enjoys a good reputation.  They actually state, categorically, on the packet
that, "Recent clinical studies suggest that ginger..."etc.  Nevertheless,  I
did remember our previous discussion on the validity (or lack of!), of
comments like these!

However, any scepticism on my part might have destroyed the personal faith
that I have in ginger tablets as a preventative against sea-sickness!
Selfishness got the better of me so I chose the soft option and prefaced the
claim with, "Apparently".

Recognising that I've painted myself into a corner, the best that I can come
up with is that it was a case of temporary insanity on my part!  :-)

Strike