Pete,
      I don't think you should be so hard on Dean (deknow). The community
needs a few naysayers. While I don't agree with the "no treatment" approach
as a subject to be taught, I tend that way. I teach newbees the standard
approach. Those few corners of the world that keep bees without treatment
will have something to teach us. That some people can do it will not inform
those who move colonies by the hundreds but the commercial "treat before the
disease" option hasn't yielded much help either.
      What we take for granted as fact may not turn out to be fact. If you
google ear infections, something most parents deal with at some point... you
will find any number of studies showing the treatment involves antibiotics.
A recent legitimate study I came across showed that 80% got better with the
drug and something like 78% got better without it. 
http://medicalskeptic.wordpress.com/2010/05/10/antibiotics-for-a-child%E2%80
%99s-ear-infection/
I didn't take the time to find the original study but you get the idea. 
     Also on the subject, if something is shown to work because a study
proves it, it ain't necessarily so. 

http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2010/11/lies-damned-lies-and-med
ical-science/8269/
My background is in psychology. The most underused treatment is the placebo
effect.
     

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