werner@aecom.UUCP (Craig Werner) (08/30/85)
I've had some side mail with Walt Stoll, and the following is something that can be tested quickly, without spending a month on a diet. The following was contained in some literature sent to me from him. SHOW ME ! The science of kinesiology has developed a very simple way to test the effects of stress [Ed: for this excerpt, stress == Refined Carbohydrates] on our internal functions. It is so simple anyone can learn to apply it in seconds! The easiest test is to measure the strength of ONE muscle before and after the body has been exposed to the stress. Have the person being tested hold his or her arm out straight from the shoulder, level with the ground (arn to side, elbow straight) Measure how much resistance there is to pushing the arm down. Now relax the arm and put one grain of sugar on the tongue. All that is needed is a taste. Test the strength again immediately -- exactly the same way. Ninety-five percent will lose 30-98% of their strength in 0-10 sec. ^^^^^^^^^^^ ^^^^^^^ ^^^^ ^^^^ ^^^^^^ ^^ ^^^^^ ^^^^^^^^ ^^ ^^^^^^^^^ ^There you have the testable hypothesis. One caution -- the person should not have eaten refined CHO within an hour or two prior to the test. One grain of sugar will weaken the body for about 15 minutes. (OK, there you have it!) (I tried the above on 10 medical students, myself included -- with one modification. Instead of pressing down the arm, we suspending weights, acutally Medical texts over the outstretched wrist to be more objective. We also used about a half teaspoon of sugar. In order not to bias the net, I won't say what our results were.) In order not to bias the results -- Craig Werner !philabs!aecom!werner "The world is just a straight man for you sometimes"
sdyer@bbncc5.UUCP (Steve Dyer) (08/31/85)
I have to mention that this "science" of kinesiology was used
in exactly the same way by a Dr. Diamond at an Audio Engineering
Society meeting to describe why "digital audio" is bad for you.
Golden ears, but weak muscles, that's me.
Surely Craig is having quite a laugh here, since he knows that
this is an uncontrolled experiment: all the participants know
the hypothesis, and when they receive the "active" (or inactive)
agent. This is isn't even single-blind, let alone double-blind.
A less useless experiment would be as follows:
weights are used (good show, Craig) to standardize the pressure.
an "inactive" crystalline substance would also be administered
to the tongue, and if the experimental procedure allowed
it, administering nothing would also be interesting.
Some way of hiding the crystal (or lack of same) before
dropping it on the tongue so that neither subject nor
experimenter could know beforehand.
true double-blind testing, with randomized order of administration
of all of the substances.
Barring this, the experiment is about as useful for increasing our
knowledge about sugar as a typical posting by WS or TS.
--
/Steve Dyer
{harvard,seismo}!bbnccv!bbncc5!sdyer
sdyer@bbncc5.ARPApeter@graffiti.UUCP (Peter da Silva) (09/03/85)
Two problems: (1) No control group. (2) Doesn't rule out fatigue.
cjh@petsd.UUCP (Chris Henrich) (09/04/85)
[]
In article <1880@aecom.UUCP> werner@aecom.UUCP (Craig Werner)
describes an experiment to test whether there is a general
physiological reaction to sugar. The experimental procedure,
summarized, is as follows:
1. The subject extends one arm, horizontally.
2. The strength of the arm in this position is measured by
finding how much weight it can hold.
3. With the arm relaxed, the subject eats a small amount of
sugar.
4. The strength of the subject's arm is measured, again, in
the same way.
To see how much was due to the sugar in step 3, I suggest the
following "control" experiment. Step 3 is replaced by
3'. With the arm relaxed, the subject rests as long as it
would take to eat a small amount of sugar.
My reasoning is that Step 2 has already fatigued the muscle
whose strength is being tested.
Regards,
Chris
--
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