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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) by bucc5062 on Thursday March 13 2014, @02:26PM
First, before commenting on your specific point, why is this troll article? Every article in one way or another is a troll article because it invites comments; it "trolls" for a response. Bad, ugly, stupid comments may deserve the moniker of troll, but let us not just label an article a Troll just because we may not like the topic. As it is, I think this one could have generated some good discussion on the topic of modern drugs to homeopathic drugs. To that point....
Your wording seems to indicate you feel homeopathy or homeopathic therapy is quack medicine ('let the buyer beware'). In doing some quick loooking around I found that WebMD [webmd.com] had a well measured statement:
Every year we hear about drug companies that put out medicines that have horrible side-effects, can kill, and when under regulated, do little to help yet we continue to bow at the great Drug Gods for healing. Certainly there are charlatans in homeopathic manufacturing, but that should not dismiss the practice out right. Before Pfizer came out with its magic pill I'll bet there was some natural element that made the foundation of the drug.
Only extremists would think that homeopathy is a complete cure all. Most see it for what it is, a more natural way to help deal with the general issues that afflict us in our daily lives. You have a typical western view of medicine which closes you off to so many other possibilities in health.
The more things change, the more they look the same
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 13 2014, @03:20PM
(Score: 2) by bucc5062 on Thursday March 13 2014, @03:43PM
Man, I deserve this...sigh...Okay, I had a mis-understanding about homeopathy. I confused the use of natural elements (something which I do believe in and has been scientifically proven in studies) with the practice of homeopathic medicine. After reading upon it (which is why I love SN, Google, and curiosity) I learned more and found that i also have doubts about its specific practice.
So there is my mae culpa. I am a man of science, but I also believe that there is more we don't know then we do and we should not discount, out of hand, those things which are not developments from "modern science". Because I believe in Science and the scientific method, any claims of "magic" should be held to critical thought, examination, and review. This goes beyond just medicine to energy, engineering, and other areas of the human experience.
I got egg on my face, but with some natural herbs and spices, it not only tastes good, it is good for me. /grin
The more things change, the more they look the same
(Score: 2) by JeanCroix on Thursday March 13 2014, @05:50PM