Letters to the Editor
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@clamshell
The text on your "bottle" is from a Chinese dating website. Admittedly, that might well be the best medicine...
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Television is outdated
When I started to use all the benefits of the internet 15 years ago I didn´t think of the massive impact this new medium would have on the television companies. Now 15 years later I truely understand that the internet is unbeatable because it´s structure ,ie. leaving users to communicate with each other at ease. When we look in to statistics we see that young people tend to use more and more time on internet and mobilphones and less hours on watching television. People today are not satisfied having to take a passive role - they want to be part of the game. And we have only seen the beginning of this trend.
http://www.debatcode.com
Best
Søren
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now he's prescribing combinations of herbs!
How can you recommend certain combinations of herbs if you don't have the first foggy idea who anyone reading is or what they need?
Serai, sorry gal, but they did a study on acidophilus and found that not only does it NOT cure yeast infections, it tends to worsen them (as compared to, gasp, a control group). Cranberry juice they found did actually help. But the truth is you got over your yeast infection on your own and then attributed the results to an herbal treatment which had nothing to do with your recovery. That's what happens when people try to generalize a single event to a pattern.
And it's not true that herbs are cheaper. I've stood in line behind far too many sickly people paying hundreds of dollars for pricey extracts which do nothing and may not even be what they say on the label.
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What BlueAmberol doesn't say...
...is that as a direct result of every health food store in the country writing to Congress, anything this side of rat poison can now be considered a "dietary supplement" and is virtually untouchable by the government.
A case in point: stevia, an alternative to sugar. Banned in several countries, and currently not approved in the US as a food additive (because the rules on additives are much more stringent), stevia is available for sale as a dietary supplement though recent animal tests have shown mixed results in terms of toxicology and adverse effects of stevia extract, with some tests finding steviol to be a weak mutagen while newer studies find no safety issues.
So you herb-munchers keep on smugly gnawing away at tree bark, with little or no oversight to make sure that the dosage is consistent, the ingredients won't kill you, or even assurance that the same plant is used all the time (let alone if it's been cut with the aforementioned rat poison). Just because it's "natural" doesn't mean it's safe.
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mattwa33186. okay I say 'D' for dumb speller and stuff.
I was just spoofing. The comments are as fun as Opus and Garfield taking a walk with Mark Trail in a terrifying jungle stealing squirrel acorns.
It's fun to eat sassafras root too. Boil acorns.
Two cup of acorn tea? People be less cranky.
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Hey Electro Robot
who said: 'I get all my medical advice From total stranger random potheads on Salon.'
I suggest you treat that headache (or any future malady) with 20 valium & 1/2 bottle of a good Reisling. It's a killer cure! (Garth told me).
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I get all my medical advice
From corporate shills on happy pills who are paid by the Main Stream Media.
Then I invert the data and information to get the truth..
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More silliness from two-bit gangsters and their shills pushing unproven nostrums to hypochondriacs
So much to share here,
First, @ BlueAmberol, who wrote:
"There's big money in those prescription drugs advertised on TV. Patient comes in and there is a lot of pressure on the doctor to prescribe the stuff."
I actually agree with that point. I personally don't think it's ethical to advertise drugs on TV. It creates a demand (mostly among hypochondriacs or those too lazy to make intelligent lifestyle changes) where none existed before.
Also, all the megabucks spent on advertising and marketing has to come from somewhere, right? Namely, the patient's pocket!
But then, unfortunately, the train starts to go off the rails...
"If one takes the time to become knowledgeable of herbal things, one won't go chasing this junk."
Walter-map is another one:
"...People become doctors because they're egoistic and/or want to get rich, not because they're selfless and want to 'help' people, which is what every one of them put down on their medical school application in a 1000-word essay..."
I agree 100%. Take, for example, Gary Null. Not an egotistic bone in his body. Absolutely!
Medical industry: "Pay up or die."
Cute. There is a nugget of truth here, however, but the doctors are not to blame, nor is (most) of the Pharma industries. The biggest factor driving up the cost of health care is the insurance industry, both in terms of malpractice for doctors, and so-called "health-care (mis) manageament, which is nothing more than an enterprise designed to siphon-off money that should otherwise be going to practitioners, and not to shareholders. Taking hebal nostrums will not fix that problem.
Allie gets it, tho:
"Herbal medicines, are you kidding me? I've seen folks in the herbal essences aisle of Wild Oats behave EXACTLY like the pair in this comic. It's the intellectual-who-reads-Salon version of jumping on the Big Pharma bandwagon. How about NOT trying to get other people around you to be part of your herd?"
Indeed. TV ads are nothing. If you REALLY want to find out how sick you are, try visiting your local chiropractor with a vague complaint, tuning in to "alternative" health shows, or reading the plethora of "Alternative" health rags (heavily supported by flashy over-the-top advertising) or better still, go to the next "Alternativem Health" expo in your town.
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OK- let's look at this a little more closely. How exactly does one become knowledgable about herbal things? By visiting so-called "alternative" health web-sites? By reading books and listening to radio and TV shows by self-annointed health gurus? Try as I may, there is a paucity of real scientific data that comes from impartial sources or is published in peer-reviewed journals. What little there is is vastly out of proportion to that staggering range of treatments currently being offered.
The message of the most accessible "alternative" sources is largely the same (repeat after me):
1. The FDA (often renamed the Federal Death Agency- how droll!) SUCKS, and is beholden to big pharma, and wants to kill you to make money.
2. Drugs are *chemicals*, and are therefore, BAAAAAAAAAD, while herbs and so-called "supplements" are Natural(tm) and therefore GOOD for you.
3. Western Medicine is only 150 years old, and is therefore a mere infant, and far too inexperienced to do anything worthwhile. Do you realize how many people die in hospitals, through doctor error/ getting the wrong drugs, blah blah blah. Be AFRAID!! Be VERY AFRAID!! and DONT go to doctors...
...On the other hand, the ancient wisdom (usually ancient eastern wisdom) has brought us remedies for thousands and thousands of years, and is therefore GOOD.
(The cause of over-population in China is therefore crystal-clear- must be all the powdered Rhinocerous horn all those formerly impotent men have been choking down by the bucketfull for millenia)
4. Testing? who needs testing? I can show you thousands of testimonials from suckers, er, customers- who were helped by (insert name of natural-sounding herbal nostrum here) that I *just happen* to be hawking on my website. All these people say it works, so there must be something to it, right?
When I was a child, my neighbor friend used to tease me by claiming that eating salad will make your hair turn red. Of course, I asked him how he knew that. "Well, my cousin eats salad every day, and his hair is as red as can be!" was his reply. (true story).
5. Oh yeah- well, if the FDA made us test our stuff like drugs are tested, the rules are so onerous that only big corporations can afford to do it. I'm just a little guy trying to help people- Why can't I get my product on the market? It's NOT FAIR!!!
6. But wait- our products aren't drugs. They only "support" the body's ability to heal itself. Don't ask how- or you'll be waiting a long time for an answer.
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(to be continued...)