"...high colonics are unwarranted. so why then has asian medical practices, which predate western medicine by thousands of years, include mechanical cleaning of the colon - hydrotherapy?"

Interesting- What is your position on another celebrated ancient Asian remedy- that of treating impotence using powdered Rhinocerous horn?

On the other hand, ED drugs work. There is scientific proof of it's efficacy backed up by reams of data.

"...western medicine does not have the answers."

True- it doesn't have ALL the answers, but whatever answers it has so far are generally backed up with well-designed scientific study, with conclusions backed up by evidence. Some of the answers have been bad, but properly designed science is transparent, repeatable, and self-correcting.

"If people really understood how their body functions under optimal conditions, western medicine and the pharmaceutical industry would be out of business..."

I wonder if you'd be as sanguine if your 2 year old child was just diagnosed with leukemia.

"...let's remember that our med schools are underwritten by pharamacology, teaching 'docs' how to 'heal' with chemicals."

Can you produce any evidence supporting that last statement? I'd like to know the extent to which this is the case.

"...we as a human species survived thousands of years without western medicine because we turned to nature for health and healing..."

You left out pure superstition and ignorance, which have deep roots in human history, as well.

"...our bodies are NOT built to process chemicals - in food in meds iin water, etc."

Excuse me? EVERYTHING in the universe is a chemical or a compound. Chemistry is the study of matter. Substances with scary-sounding, unpronounceable names are not the only things classifiable as chemicals, just to make that clear. Have you heard of the hazards associated with Dihydrogen Oxide, for example?

"...Ask heath ledger."

Now that's just stupid. At the very least, the man clearly was not following dosage instructions, and abuse issues of illicit drugs may have contribued to his tragic demise. Even if that was not the case, there are countless "Natural" substances out there that can be dangerous, and even lethal if misused, and anything potentially beneficial, "natural" or not, entails a certain amount of risk. If the risk-benefit ratio is favorably established, then the substance in question may have some value.

"when will salon stop including ignorant 'doctors' in their articles? does a disservice to your readers."

When will charlatans, bozos, con-men, quacks and ignoramuses STOP bamboozling/hurting/peddling false hope to /and ripping off the unsuspecting?

-- akrolfer

I should have known. Rolfing. Perhaps you make a tidy living at it, but the paucity of evidence proving it's efficacy tells me it's a crock. But so very fashionable... and lucrative.

By the way, I am not a doctor, pharmacist, or anyone who derives any remuneration whatsoever from dispensing any kind of health care. I am just an educated person who knows what Science is, what it's for, and how it works.

Ol' Foggie said it much better than I.

http://www.nonstick.com/sounds/Foghorn_Leghorn/ltfl_050.wav

Please!

Yes, ol' FZ, who was struggling in the LA (as opposed to the SF music scene) in the 60's did not suffer fools nor hippies gladly. His work of that period roundly skewers the oh-so-fashionable hippy poseurs in his inimitable style. My favorite example appears below:

(Much of the text below is spoken over the music in a satirical "far-out, man!" hippy stoner voice)

"Who Needs the Peace Corps"

from We're Only in it for the Money

Released Sept, 1968

What's there to live for?

Who needs the peace corps?

Think I'll just DROP OUT

I'll go to Frisco

Buy a wig & sleep

On Owsley's floor

Walked past the wig store

Danced at the Fillmore

I'm completely stoned

I'm hippy & I'm trippy

I'm a gypsy on my own

I'll stay a week & get the crabs &

Take a bus back home

I'm really just a phony

But forgive me

'Cause I'm stoned

Every town must have a place

Where phony hippies meet

Psychedelic dungeons

Popping up on every street

GO TO SAN FRANCISCO . . .

How I love ya, How I love ya

How I love ya, How I love ya Frisco!

How I love ya, How I love ya

How I love ya, How I love ya

Oh, my hair is getting good in the back!

Every town must have a place

Where phony hippies meet

Psychedelic dungeons

Popping up on every street

GO TO SAN FRANCISCO . . .

Hotcha!

First I'll buy some beads

And then perhaps a leather band

To go around my head

Some feathers and bells

And a book of Indian lore

I will ask the Chamber Of Commerce

How to get to Haight Street

And smoke an awful lot of dope

I will wander around barefoot

I will have a psychedelic gleam in my eye at all times

I will love everyone

I will love the police as they kick the shit out of me on the street

I will sleep . . .

I will, I will go to a house

That's, that's what I will do

I will go to a house

Where there's a rock & roll band

'Cause the groups all live together

And I will join a rock & roll band

I will be their road manager

And I will stay there with them

And I will get the crabs

But I won't care

>>stems and seeds

There's definitely a hippie culture right now in the US, finding its incarnation in small rural college towns, white dreads, organic supermarkets, the reggae concert circuit, the VW microbus and, of course, pot.

As to what it "means", well, who knows.

---------

LOL!! You have just described (my home) downtown Johnson City, TN!!

Q: "...But Mr. Natural... What does it all MEAN??"

A: "Don't mean shit!"