[Vautrin]

Weiser makes an extremely valid point, as ONH is not a degenerative affliction, time is on your side. With increased scientific knowledge, chances are that future cures will be far more efficient than now, assuming for the sake of argument that the cure on offer now is legitimate.

I'd say your scepticism, sadly, seems to be warranted.

The website of Rylea does not look promising. The National Inquirer? I wish I could certainly say it is a typo, but this is one, noone associated with the NE would make. And the issue for September 2008? Seeing as the website is maintained regularly ...

The first website you posted was from the company itself. That is as reliable as the statements on a website of a tobacco firm (before they finally caved in) on lung cancer.

Aside from the ill-effects (which could take decades to establish), I see little evidence to support the claims that the treatment is actually beneficial. A claim is easy to make, but as long as it is not properly and scientifically scrutinised to the n-th degree, it is uncertain what the effects of such a treatment are. As much as I hate to say it, in the past treatments, that were considered promising at the time, were offered that have subsequently proven to be a liability.

Speaking on the field of psychology (in which I was trained), which has its affinities with physiology as well. These effects mainly pertain to "older" people, but the people who underwent the surgery may have been affected by them.

Placebo-effects can be very strong, because of a lot of complicated interactions and mediations. Bottom line is: you are more likely to notice an effect if you are a strong believer in the cure; likewise many people who claim improvement, had more or less internalized their dysfunction. Thus, part of the improvement is because they change their mindset about their situation.

I am not saying that that is exactly what is happening in all the trials, but we can't rule these mechanisms out. Sometimes we so desperately want things to be true, that we actually convince ourselves that they are true.
Even "objective" tests can fail, because they have to be interpreted by someone knowledgeable, who may be strongly in favour or opposed to Dr. Huang's practices.

I'd be even more concerned for the possible ill-effects of such a treatment on the SOD.