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from the better-living-through-solopsism dept.
Papas Fritas writes:
Michael Schulson writes that if you want to write about spiritually-motivated pseudoscience in America, you can drive hundreds of miles to the Creation Museum in Kentucky but that America's greatest shrine to pseudoscience, the Whole Foods Market, is only a 15-minute trip away from most American urbanites. For example the homeopathy section at Whole Foods has plenty of Latin words and mathematical terms, but many of its remedies are so diluted that, statistically speaking, they may not contain a single molecule of the substance they purport to deliver.
"You can buy chocolate with "a meld of rich goji berries and ashwagandha root to strengthen your immune system," and bottles of ChlorOxygen chlorophyll concentrate, which "builds better blood." There's cereal with the kind of ingredients that are "made in a kitchen-not in a lab," and tea designed to heal the human heart," writes Schulson. "Nearby are eight full shelves of probiotics-live bacteria intended to improve general health. I invited a biologist friend who studies human gut bacteria to come take a look with me. She read the healing claims printed on a handful of bottles and frowned. "This is bullshit," she said, and went off to buy some vegetables."
According to Schulson the total lack of outrage over Whole Foods' existence, and by the total saturation of outrage over the Creation Museum, makes it clear that strict scientific accuracy in the public sphere isn't quite as important to many of us as we might believe. "The moral is not that we should all boycott Whole Foods. It's that whenever we talk about science and society, it helps to keep two rather humbling premises in mind: very few of us are anywhere near rational. And pretty much all of us are hypocrites."
(Score: 2, Insightful) by pe1rxq on Thursday March 13 2014, @11:38AM
Homeopathy has been around for a good 200 years. Billions have been spend on it by gullible folk.
They could have done those trials a long time ago.
In fact, they did, and everytime someone tried they got the same result: IT DOES NOT WORK!
Pretty much anything we learned about biology, physics and chemistry along those 200 years would have to be invalidated before it could work.
Btw next time take another example than smoking. Even during the 1950s most doctors would have told you it is probably not very good for your health.
Tobaco companies actually used a lot of the same tactics as the quacks to keep the public away from actual real science.
(Score: 2) by bucc5062 on Thursday March 13 2014, @03:12PM
natural medicines have been around for more then a "good 200 years". Homeopathy just took that use to a different path. The use of natural medicines is not a cure all, but then the miracle of modern science is not as well. From an article on the nih.goc site:
These days, drug companies are not focused on finding curatives, they are interested in finding drugs that keep us hooked on their product. I cannot give my absolute belief in modern drugs when the basis of their existence is to increase their profit. At times I have used natural medicines to help in the occasional, daily issues that arise in life and find them to be at least as beneficial. When I need mainstream medical intervention i would certainly be thankful for what modern medical science has wrought, but it is not the do all and end all of what is out there to help the human body.
The more things change, the more they look the same
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 13 2014, @05:02PM
There is a difference between natural remidies like camomile and bach flowers and pure bullshit like homeopathy. It is disgusting how homeopathy tries to wedge itself into the same niche and it's sad that the two are mixed up a lot but there is a clear difference.
If you're referring to homeopathy as "natural medicine" you should be ashamed. That's highly deceptive and completely false.
(Score: 2) by bucc5062 on Thursday March 13 2014, @05:22PM
After I made my posts I had a chance to read up on homeopathy and I realized I had confused natural elements used in health conditions and homeopathy medicine. Since then I have posted my mae culpa (like this one) for I do not want the impression that I support unproven techniques.
As one who has used such items as Bach flowers, willow bark, and other type of natural elements in dealing with minor issues, for both me and my horses, I found them to be a viable alternative to standard medicines. For example, I have an elder horse that benefits from daily pain medication. I cannot use NSAIDs every day for it would tear out her gut (and cost me some $$$), so I am using something with natural ingredients (including Willow Bark) with good success. These are not super diluted supplements, but supplements that show the proportion of items. If it did not work I would see that effect and when something stronger is needed, I have no issue using an NSAID.
I was confused, I now see the difference and I am NOT claiming homeopathy as natural medicine.
The more things change, the more they look the same