Speaking as one who is in real need of hip replacements, bending over is just startlingly painful. Something like those silly foot things would be helpful to someone who's worse off than I in that regard. I can attend to my feet but I have to be sitting to get at them really thoroughly.

A stupid product for those who can bend at the waist, a not bad idea for those in pain.

I saw the commercial for this the other day... can you imagine the bacteria and fungi it could collect and grow?

So sorry to hear that, Blogdog.

The Elizabeth Hurley looking model on their website looks like she can bend over just fine.

I have a autoimmune disease that is calcifying my bones. Putting on shoes and socks has become increasingly difficult and sometimes my kids have to help me. I'm only 43. Sometimes these products aren't just for the obese but for people with arthritis and other illnesses.

I have done a lot of research into auto immune diseases lately as I had one that was supposedly incurable.

Convention thinking till recently was it was caused by an "overactive" immune system. The last ten years though, European studies have shown great results using a combination of probiotics and immunostimulants to boost the immune system.

This has caused a shift in thinking that auto immune disorders are really a defective, not over-active, immune system, and supporting it is the approach more and more Doctors are taking.

I tried that approach (probiotics and immunostimulants), and combined some anti-inflammatory herbs and an oral detox for heavy metals (most Americans have some level of heavy metal toxicity and heavy metal contribute to both cancer and auto immune disorders).

My auto immune disease has been gone for a year and I'm off both drugs I was taking. This has worked also for three other people I know with Arthritis, Lupus and MS.

Use Google and do some research.

Sue, I'm not on any medications. Most that can help have too many nasty side effects. I'm not sure if you mean that your autoimmune is gone or if it is in remission. Those are two very different things. Some people have positive results from glucosamine and chondroitin, but so far, I haven't felt much difference. I also have a neuromuscular disease so sometimes its hard to isolate my symptoms enough to know which disease is affecting me at different times. I gained a lot of weight after being on steroids and hormones but am back to a no carb lifestyle. All of my doctors have said carbs are killers for joints and heart and I have to admit that cutting carbs was hard at first, but I've lost weight and feel better than I have in a long time. Until there is a cure, I'll stick with trying to take care of myself and getting my medical information from medical sources.

When I said research I meant research based on scientific studies whose results were published on the Internet.

You could easily find them yourself instead of asking snide questions. Yes I do have a medical background as well.

For instance, a Swiss and an Italian study used Probiotics and immuno-stimulants on patents with CF (Cystic Fibrosis). The CF group taking the treatment had about a 50% reduction in symptoms and infections over the control group.

CF is classified as an auto-immune disease.

As for "remission" versus "cured," how do you define the difference?

My particular issue (hives) is pretty much a "you are getting them or not" kind of thing. With Lupus you have blood markers that show up and two people I know that took a similar approach to mine have no markers in their blood anymore.

Do their Doctors say they are "cured?" With cancer it takes five years of clean bloodwork before they consider you cured, even if you die in year six from recurring cancer or chemotherapy side effects.

As for the "shift in thinking," yes, this is why there have been so many more Doctors prescribing probiotics for things like Lupus. Admittedly, American Doctors, as a group, tend to be a bit slower to react to new evidence and studies as many are too busy trying to collect fees from insurance companies, and make enough money, to keep their doors open to find time to read them.

That is why it is so important to be proactive about your health. Find studies and print them out and TAKE them to your Doctor. Twice I've done this with my Mothers Doctors and both times they adjusted treatment based on what I had showed them.

By the way, in Europe it's mandatory/customary to prescribe probiotics after a round of antibiotics. Here in US a lot of Doctors still don't prescribe, or even mention them.

It's not surprising that, as a nation, we are so unhealthy... Most people are probably very deficient in good gut flora. One indicator is that food allergies have more than doubled in the last twenty years (allergies are autoimmune), not surprisingly the same period of time we started pumping our farm animals (food) full of antibiotics. Did you know that approximately 80% of tha antibiotics produced go into animals we eat?

Sue, let me apologize because after reading my comment again, I could see how you took it as me being snide. I certainly didn't mean it that way. The reason I ask whether its cured or in remission is because what I have is always in my body but lies dormant for long periods of time and then something will trigger different problems. While the main problem is the calcifying of my spine, I will get repeated yeast infections after years of never even having one. I will get eye problems or skin problems. I will have periods of lethargy so bad that I'd swear someone was drugging me. I went from never being sick a day in my life to having constant little annoying kind of illnesses all related to the autoimmune. Another was edema so bad that I was unable to wear anything other than flip flops for almost a year. Try that during a NY winter.

And that is just the autoimmune. With the neuromuscular, I have muscle stiffness that at times I feel like my muscles are so tight that I'm going to fall down. It exacerbates the arthritic stuff because stiffness obviously is a part of arthritis. Many of the doctors I initially saw had never heard of either one of my diseases. A standard comment was, "I had a colleage who treated someone with this once." Not exactly comforting words to hear from a treating physician. Another specialist actually said, "Wow! Look at this! Wow! Hold on I have to go show my partner," before running out of the exam room with my x-rays. So its been a very long road finding people who know what they're doing.
That is why I am proactive when it comes to my medical care. I google to see what other patients are talking about as far as things that helped them whether it is glucosamine or warm baths, massage, etc. My doctors were very on board with probiotics and in fact, my daughter's pediatrician put her on one for stomach problems. As much as I'm open to alternative things if proven to work, I don't want to be a guinea pig so I bring anything I may hear about to my doctors. My neurologist is Indian and seems more open to certain things and I trust him when he tells me to try something or that something isn't worth it.

I guess my point is that I put a lot of research into who my medical team will be and while I don't have blind trust, I go to them because I know that their knowledge base is very large and that they are not stuck in what. They are always looking to learn more.

Kristin...

I apologize. I should have been clearer... the "snide" comment was directed at Amy, the self proclaimed arbiter of what is rude. It was not directed at you. Your comments were reasoned and utterly polite.

When it comes to "alternative" or "natural" treatments... they all stay in that category until enough studies have been done, or until enough time has passed, that they are considered "real medicine."

The problem with "natural" remedies is that it is very, very costly to do those types of studies and, if you can't get a patent for the product you create, you will likely never recoup that investment (you can't patent an herb - only a "formulation"). This is perhaps why only about 1/3 of supplements have scientifically controlled studies to prove their efficacy. Many DO have years (sometimes thousands of years) of actual usage and "anecdotal" evidence (testimonials) by those who have used them.

Take Aspirin. If someone today discovered that willow bark helped their pain... the "science based medicine" people would scoff, make snide comments and say things like ..."why would you take this unproven treatment recommended by a 'witch doctor' when conventional drugs and surgery have been proven to work so well?"

Fast forward and Aspirin is a widely accepted therapeutic treatment and an accepted drug/cure for pain, as well as having other side-benefits.

Is "anecdotal" evidence less trustworthy? Of course it is. The placebo effect, for instance, has been proven to be an issue. The mind can make the body seem to be healed, when it may not be. Also, sometimes a condition might go away for another, unrelated, reason, or be naturally cyclical.

However when there have been years and years of consistent "anecdotal" evidence, then one can logically conclude that, most of the time anyway, "where there is smoke, there is fire." A lot of "Chinese Medicine" is based on thousands of years of consistent use of botanicals and herbs. Some have been studied by Universities and it has been discovered why they work. In some of those cases, Pharmaceutical companies have then come along and extracted and synthesized the active chemicals and turned them into drugs. This is part of the good that Pharmaceutical companies do.

Japan has the highest rated overall health of any country. They use a lot of "Chinese Medicine" there and they eat lots of fish (omega 3's) and exercise more (lots more walking). Why doesn't China have the best overall health? Maybe the repressive government has something to do with that. Stress is very debilitating for ones health.

"Scientific" research is always ongoing. Probiotics are being studied a lot right now and studies are showing varied results... some very very good, some negligible (there are lots of different strains of "good" bacteria, so it's natural that results would be varied. After all, with dozens, maybe hundreds of potentially good strains to study, and lots of different conditions, you are bound to get wide range of results. Look outside the US though for many of them, as we are not the arbiter of what is "real science," as much as we would like to think so.

Here is one of several Italian studies on probiotics and CF:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15379842

My Philosophy is this... When it comes to my health I'm not willing to wait around 20-30 years for something to be accepted as proven or mainstream (I'd be dead then anyway).

So I'm willing to be a bit of a guinea pig and see if something works for me.

My criteria is this...

If I read compelling evidence that something might work.
If I can see that it can't HURT me.
And if it's not too expensive.

I'm willing to try it. Why not? Because I'm worried someone will call me a "ding-dong?"

Most "natural" things (because they are not near as strong as drugs), take longer to work (if they do work at all). In general I give them 3 months. For me, the combination approach I used took just 8 days to work. Since it did, I kept on using it.

Keeping in mind that the "placebo effect" is generally thought to last no more than 6 months, I feel that my course of action for my auto-immune is not a placebo effect, but the real thing. I've been doing it for over a year now.

As a "side effect" I also have not gotten a cold, or flu, since being on it. That might very well be coincidence, however when that bad cold came around that my friends had for weeks at a time, I had some mild symptoms, but never the full blown cold/flu.

Additionally (perhaps because of my age and previous injuries) I also had a lot of edema in my feet and ankles whenever I stood on my feet - even just for an hour. However, in the last year I've had no edema... even when standing for 8 to 10 hours. I'm also not had any problems with my feet/legs "falling asleep" (a problem I've had since childhood), in the last year either.

Because inflammation and poor circulation is very bad for the body in general the anti-inflammatory nature of what I'm doing is a good benefit in general.

Not sure you want to use asprin as your proof of the wonders of 'natural' medicine

I've seen a whole host of articles linking GI infections and ulcers to the improper use of asprin. If asprins avalibity hadnt pre dated the FDA by a few centuries its doubful you'd be able to buy it withourt a precription these days

Are you talking about the web site "Science Based Medicine?" The one with all the spelling and grammatical errors?

Because, while it has some good info, more often than not there are no attributions for statements made, which makes it more of a blog, or opinion, site.

I agree that you have to look at a body of work, but as I stated above, I'd rather not wait till a consensus is reached. I'm happy to jump in with an open mind and try something. Worst case scenario... I waste some money. I can think of worse ways to waste money than trying to improve ones health.

As far as Aspirin, please point out which drugs have absolutely no risk factors or side effects. Drug interactions kill more people in this country than automobile accidents. Those are people taking drugs as their Doctors instructed them to do.

This is a good example of why arguments based on "generalizations" are a waste of time. Generalizations are like stereotypes (and why racism is illogical), in any "group" there are always more differences within the group than commonalities.

I would like to respond on behalf of those people who do not have pain or trouble reaching their feet, although still a bit overweight, I love the idea of this product. I sit getting a pedicure and it normally takes a good half and hour to hour of scrubbing and filing to keep my feet soft on a weekly basis. I don't have money to pay someone, and it's a lot harder to contort your body to get all over my foot to make it smooth. I'm sure my husband would appreciate it if I did, but I'm not ready to commit that kind of time on a weekly basis.