# Copper-it does work for chronic pain! I am living proof! **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [July 17, 2012, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/copper-it-does-work-for-chronic-pain-i-am-living-proof/628526 "2012-07-17T15:15:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2012, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/copper-it-does-work-for-chronic-pain-i-am-living-proof/628526/41 "2012-07-17T19:29:49Z")
> [@Morgenstern](#): > > And the forum name is what again, oh yeah, In My Humble Opinion. So we have to check our brains at the door? That explains the OP. ---
**Author:** ![Drunky\_Smurf](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drunky_smurf/32/449_2.png) [@Drunky\_Smurf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drunky_Smurf)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2012, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/copper-it-does-work-for-chronic-pain-i-am-living-proof/628526/42 "2012-07-17T19:43:42Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > If you scroll up to the top of the page you’ll see a large blue banner that reads “THE STRAIGHT DOPE”. Underneath that is a slimmer red banner that reads "FIGHTING IGNORANCE SINCE 1973(IT’S TAKING LONGER THAN WE THOUGHT). > Three guesses as to why it’s taking longer. Hmmm. Someone once said: “This ain’t no ivory tower bastion of truth anyway. Most people wouldn’t be able to post here if it was and to act as if it is, that’s silly.” - TubaDiva ---
**Author:** ![Morgenstern](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Morgenstern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morgenstern)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2012, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/copper-it-does-work-for-chronic-pain-i-am-living-proof/628526/43 "2012-07-17T19:48:13Z")
> [@Musicat](#): > > So we have to check our brains at the door? That explains the OP. No. Here’s an example. I hate raw tomatoes. If I eat one, I get nauseated. Really nauseated. I have no cite that eating a raw tomato makes one nauseated, in fact, all the cites probably point to how great and tasty tomatoes are. But when I eat one, I get nauseated. So my statement that tomatoes cause nausea for me is pseudo-scientific woo? ---
**Author:** ![Sicks\_Ate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/258eb7/32.png) [@Sicks\_Ate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sicks_Ate)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2012, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/copper-it-does-work-for-chronic-pain-i-am-living-proof/628526/44 "2012-07-17T19:50:06Z")
> [@Morgenstern](#): > > No. Here’s an example. I hate raw tomatoes. If I eat one, I get nauseated. Really nauseated. I have no cite that eating a raw tomato makes one nauseated, in fact, all the cites probably point to how great and tasty tomatoes are. But when I eat one, I get nauseated. So my statement that tomatoes cause nausea for me is pseudo-scientific woo? No more woo than OP’s assertion that copper will turn your skin green. Two different things. ---
**Author:** ![Ellen\_Cherry](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellen_cherry/32/3600_2.png) [@Ellen\_Cherry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ellen_Cherry)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2012, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/copper-it-does-work-for-chronic-pain-i-am-living-proof/628526/45 "2012-07-17T19:53:28Z")
Everyone is free to disagree with the OP and the effectiveness/ineffectiveness of the treatment espoused by the OP. You are not allowed to tell each other what to do. That’s what I’m for. 😃 Seriously, if you take issue with another poster’s behavior, report the post or Pit the person. Otherwise, argue the merits/bullshit of whatever the topic is … not each other. Thank you. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2012, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/copper-it-does-work-for-chronic-pain-i-am-living-proof/628526/46 "2012-07-17T19:56:06Z")
> [@Drunky\_Smurf](#): > > Hmmm. Someone once said: > > “This ain’t no ivory tower bastion of truth anyway. Most people wouldn’t be able to post here if it was and to act as if it is, that’s silly.” - TubaDiva I read the _whole_ post. She was commenting on singling out one poster for examination to the exclusion of many others that seem to be equally full of it. It doesn’t pertain to what I’m doing here-I would have responded as I did no matter who the OP was. ---
**Author:** ![kanicbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5f8ce5/32.png) [@kanicbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kanicbird)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2012, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/copper-it-does-work-for-chronic-pain-i-am-living-proof/628526/47 "2012-07-17T20:10:19Z")
It works for this person regardless of the ability of science to understand how or to prove the effectiveness. A person is qualified in my book to determine if pain is gone for them regardless of if the method is proven. ---
**Author:** ![Deegeea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Deegeea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Deegeea)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2012, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/copper-it-does-work-for-chronic-pain-i-am-living-proof/628526/48 "2012-07-17T20:17:17Z")
The pain relief might be caused, not by it being copper, but by it being around the leg that was twitching and jumping. Possibly something about having a band around it makes it twitch and jump less. Twitching and jumping less could make it hurt less. That would be my made up theory as to why it worked rather than the copper absorption through the skin thing. I’d also further guess that the cause is entirely psychological. In her sleep, she can feel the soothing metal band and it makes her relax more and therefore twitch less. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2012, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/copper-it-does-work-for-chronic-pain-i-am-living-proof/628526/49 "2012-07-17T20:18:26Z")
[Another link.](http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19942103) At best, a placebo. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2012, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/copper-it-does-work-for-chronic-pain-i-am-living-proof/628526/50 "2012-07-17T20:21:42Z")
> [@kanicbird](#): > > It works for this person regardless of the ability of science to understand how or to prove the effectiveness. A person is qualified in my book to determine if pain is gone for them regardless of if the method is proven. Science is under no obligation to understand and/or explain how something works _if it has been shown not to work in the first place._ ---
**Author:** ![Smeghead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f1d935/32.png) [@Smeghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeghead)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2012, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/copper-it-does-work-for-chronic-pain-i-am-living-proof/628526/51 "2012-07-17T20:38:48Z")
> [@Morgenstern](#): > > No. Here’s an example. I hate raw tomatoes. If I eat one, I get nauseated. Really nauseated. I have no cite that eating a raw tomato makes one nauseated, in fact, all the cites probably point to how great and tasty tomatoes are. But when I eat one, I get nauseated. So my statement that tomatoes cause nausea for me is pseudo-scientific woo? I would have no objection to your statement that raw tomatoes make you sick. If, however, you opened a thread titled “Raw tomatoes are the cause of nausea!! I am living proof!!”, I would raise similar objections to those I have raised here. ---
**Author:** ![kanicbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5f8ce5/32.png) [@kanicbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kanicbird)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2012, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/copper-it-does-work-for-chronic-pain-i-am-living-proof/628526/52 "2012-07-17T21:53:39Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > Science is under no obligation to understand and/or explain how something works _if it has been shown not to work in the first place._ And a person has no obligation to believe in science when science tells you something doesn’t work that you experience does work. And hence we get into the issue of who is fighting ignorance and who is promoting it. Did science do a double blind study on the effect of that copper band on that particular person? Or perhaps there is proof that they have found that there is no person in existence that can be ever effected by a copper band? Are people so alike that it is really one size fits all when it comes to medicine? Is it possible that there may be a simple cure for a condition of a individual that will not work on anyone else? If so how could science find and cure that person - as the cure does exist? As I understand the current double blind study methodology it becomes nearly impossible to come up with treatments for the individual, only treatments for the masses, even though a individual treatment may be more effective. ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2012, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/copper-it-does-work-for-chronic-pain-i-am-living-proof/628526/53 "2012-07-17T22:03:23Z")
> [@Morgenstern](#): > > No. Here’s an example. I hate raw tomatoes. If I eat one, I get nauseated. Really nauseated. I have no cite that eating a raw tomato makes one nauseated, in fact, all the cites probably point to how great and tasty tomatoes are. But when I eat one, I get nauseated. So my statement that tomatoes cause nausea for me is pseudo-scientific woo? It certainly is if you claim that tomatoes cause nausea and your experience is proof. ---
**Author:** ![Simple\_Linctus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Simple\_Linctus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simple_Linctus)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2012, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/copper-it-does-work-for-chronic-pain-i-am-living-proof/628526/54 "2012-07-17T22:05:22Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > Considering this: I’d say she got off pretty easy. She has either been taken in by pseudoscience that her training should guarded against, or she is just claiming to be an RN to support her claims. Unless you know other wise I very much doubt the training for an RN guards against pseudoscience (in the generality, anyway). I suspect it doesn’t even for doctors actually. They will be taught about the importance about evidence based medicine of course but probably not about the deeper reasons behind it (and if they are it’s probably something they don’t all pay attention to). I don’t know the above for sure, but it is my suspicions based on knowing lots of medical types. Including an optician and an optomotrist for parents who have some odd ideas, and currently a nurse I see every fortnight or so who tries to push acupuncture on me (funded by the NHS!) ---
**Author:** ![Morgenstern](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Morgenstern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morgenstern)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2012, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/copper-it-does-work-for-chronic-pain-i-am-living-proof/628526/55 "2012-07-17T22:25:12Z")
> [@Musicat](#): > > It certainly is if you claim that tomatoes cause nausea and your experience is proof. That would be my humble opinion based on personal experience. ---
**Author:** ![LadyMadonna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/eb8c5e/32.png) [@LadyMadonna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LadyMadonna)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2012, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/copper-it-does-work-for-chronic-pain-i-am-living-proof/628526/56 "2012-07-17T22:26:29Z")
I’m so sorry. It’s your very first post and so many people are giving you such a hard time. Please don’t let it discourage you from participating on this site in the future. I am very glad that you found pain relief. I’m a firm believer that different things work for different people. There are millions of stories out there from people who have found relief from many different ailments, using only non-conventional methods that don’t involve western medicine. Thanks for sharing your experience! ---
**Author:** ![Inner\_Stickler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inner_stickler/32/318_2.png) [@Inner\_Stickler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inner_Stickler)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2012, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/copper-it-does-work-for-chronic-pain-i-am-living-proof/628526/57 "2012-07-17T22:30:15Z")
Didja ever notice how no one ever uses nonconventional methods for things like broken arms? Odd, that. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2012, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/copper-it-does-work-for-chronic-pain-i-am-living-proof/628526/58 "2012-07-17T23:36:49Z")
> [@Inner\_Stickler](#): > > Didja ever notice how no one ever uses nonconventional methods for things like broken arms? Odd, that. What does an Eastern Medicine leg cast look like? Where can I pick up a non-conventional neck brace? Where are the homeopathetic leg pins? ---
**Author:** ![Cheshire\_Human](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/5f8ce5/32.png) [@Cheshire\_Human](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cheshire_Human)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2012, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/copper-it-does-work-for-chronic-pain-i-am-living-proof/628526/59 "2012-07-17T23:39:05Z")
Medicine used to not be based in science, but rather, in anecdote, just like the OP. As medicine became more and more science-based, doctors started doing actual studies on the treatments they were using, discarding the ones that didn’t work (and especially the ones that actively _killed_ people), keeping and improving the ones that did, and developing new ones that _actually_ worked, to replace the ones discarded, because they didn’t. That’s where aspirin came from, actually. An old treatment, chewing willow bark, turned out to actually _work_ in studies. Further studies discovered that salicylin, a chemical in the bark, was the effective constituent. Still further studies discovered that chemically converting salicylin into salicylic acid made it work better. Even more studies determined that further conversion into acetylsalicylic acid made it work even better, still. Thus was [Aspirin](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aspirin) born… Copper bracelets and such are an old treatment from the pre-scientific days of medicine. Someone upthread mentioned ancient Egypt. That’s how old it seems to be. It was tested during the ‘transition to science’ era. It was found useless. It was discarded. Wooists rediscovered it in old pre-science medical lore, tried it, and rediscovered the power of anecdote and the placebo effect, which they don’t (and generally refuse to) understand, and so called that ‘evidence’. And now, here we are, with copper bracelets being pushed as ‘cures’, and people insisting ‘anecdote and the placebo effect’ constitute evidence, or we should at least not disparage what ‘works for them’. Yeah, right… It’s the fucking [_placebo effect_](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Placebo), sheeple! Their anecdotal evidence _isn’t evidence at all!_ It doesn’t work. Copper was tested many decades ago. It keeps getting tested every time Wooists rediscover it. It _keeps_ getting rejected, because it’s useless bullshit. ‘Anecdote’ does _not_ equal ‘evidence’. Please, stop pestering us with this shit. It gets tedious, refuting it all the time. Present evidence, or fuck off. ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2012, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/copper-it-does-work-for-chronic-pain-i-am-living-proof/628526/60 "2012-07-17T23:41:21Z")
> [@Cheshire\_Human](#): > > Present evidence, or fuck off. Since the OP hasn’t returned yet, maybe she has already fucked off. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/copper-it-does-work-for-chronic-pain-i-am-living-proof/628526.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/copper-it-does-work-for-chronic-pain-i-am-living-proof/628526.md?page=4)