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PruplePanther
Skeptic Friend
USA
79 Posts |
 Posted - 11/21/2003 : 14:41:58
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Was poking around in wifey-poo's magazine site and found this article by a University of Arizona professor of Medicine http://www.prevention.com/cda/feature2002/0,4780,s1-6158,00.html.
He pushes mushrooms for good health, and sweet potatoes too.
Out in cool clean Washington there's even a place where u can buy innoculation things to make your stumps and logs grow great organic 'shrooms of many kinds. http://www.fungiperfecti.com/index.html
Dunno. But like 'shrooms  and love sweet potatoes. 
edited to add in new and beautifull sig. 
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Edited by - PruplePanther on 12/12/2003 14:12:17
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Kil
Evil Skeptic
USA
13476 Posts |
 Posted - 11/21/2003 : 18:08:11 [Permalink]
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quote:
PurplePanther:
Was poking around in wifey-poo's magazine site and found this article by a University of Arizona professor of Medicine http://www.prevention.com/cda/feature2002/0,4780,s1-6158,00.html.
He pushes mushrooms for good health, and sweet potatoes too.
This Arizona professor of Medicine is none other than Andrew Weil, MD. He is the big daddy of the alternative medicine movement. He is a new age god. He almost literally wrote the book, or books, on "naturopathic" medicine and "holistic" medicine. Andrew Weil was able to give credibility to such medical practices as homeopathics and magnetic therapies because he has an MD after his name. Plus he is a great salesman.
I really couldn't say what the New Age would look like today without Andrew Weils, ummmm, contributions to the movement. But it wouldn't be the same without him.
There is a long article about him at the Quackwatch site. It is well worth a read. Here are a few tid bits from that article.
quote:
Weil's writings are ambiguous about the conflict between science and alternative medicine, as they are about many other issues in alternative medicine. Yes, he thinks that all healing methods ought to be tested; and yes, modern science can make useful contributions to our understanding of health and disease. Yet the scientific method is not, for Weil, the only way, or even the best way, to learn about nature and the human body. Many important truths are intuitively evident and do not need scientific support, even when they seem to contradict logic. Conventional science-based medicine has its uses, but they are limited. Like so many of the other gurus of alternative medicine, Weil is not bothered by logical contradictions in his argument, or encumbered by a need to search for objective evidence.
quote:
According to Weil, many of his basic insights about the causes of disease and the nature of healing come from what he calls "stoned thinking," that is, thoughts experienced while under the influence of psychedelic agents or during other states of "altered consciousness" induced by trances, ritual magic, hypnosis, meditation, and the like. He cites some of the characteristics of "stoned thinking" that give it advantages over "straight" thinking; these include a greater reliance on "intuition" and an "acceptance of the ambivalent nature of things," by which he means a tolerance for "the coexistence of opposites that appear to be mutually antagonistic." In Weil's view, intellect, logic, and inductive reasoning from observed fact are the limited instruments of "straight" thinking, and should be subservient to guidance by the intuitive insights that are gained during states of altered consciousness and "stoned" thinking.
And:
quote:
Consider Weil's strange discussion in this book of sickness and health. "Sickness is the manifestation of evil in the body," he proclaims, "just as health is the manifestation of holiness. Sickness and health are not simply physical states.... They are rooted in the deepest and most mysterious strata of Being." He introduces these ideas in the context of his views on the connection between religion, magic, and medicine. "In our society," he observes, "the commonality of religion, magic, and medicine is obscured. Our medical doctors have narrowed their view to pay attention only to the physical body and the material aspects of illness. As a result ... they do not see or integrate the nonphysical forces that animate and direct the physical body," and they do not realize that "health and illness are particular manifestations of good and evil, requiring all the help of religion and philosophy to understand and all the techniques of magic to manipulate. Science and intellect can show us mechanisms and details of physical reality -- and that knowledge is surely of value -- but they cannot unveil the deep mysteries. You cannot restore health in yourself or in others until you know in your heart what health is."
And:quote:
Weil would seem at first to be ideally suited to be a leader of the alternative medicine movement at this juncture. He is articulate, self-assured, intellectually nimble -- and wonderfully ambiguous. Ambiguity, after all, should be helpful to those who would defend systems of healing that are based on irrational or non-existent theories and are supported by no credible empirical evidence. But Weil wants to do more than to defend and to advocate the use of alternative healing. He wants to reform the medical establishment. His goal, he says, is to change the "paradigm" of medicine by integrating alternative methods and modes of thought into the teachings and practice of mainstream medicine. That is his declared mission at the University of Arizona College of Medicine.
There is so much more. You can find the complete text at:
http://www.quackwatch.org/11Ind/weil.html
I like mushrooms too, by the way. Somehow, it doesn't surprise me that Dr. Weil is high on the benefits of 'shrooms...
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Dave W.
Info Junkie
USA
26021 Posts |
Posted - 11/21/2003 : 18:29:48 [Permalink]
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PruplePanther wrote:quote:
Was poking around in wifey-poo's magazine site and found this article by a University of Arizona professor of Medicine http://www.prevention.com/cda/feature2002/0,4780,s1-6158,00.html.
Dr. Weil is not a "professor of medicine." He is, according to the University, "clinical professor" of "public health" for the "Program in Integrative Medicine" (PIM), which he also directs. While the PIM is run under the university's Department of Medicine, that doesn't make Dr. Weil a professor of medicine.
Dr. Weil says,quote:
Cordyceps (Cordyceps sinensis) increases the number of T-helper cells, which help fight off disease-causing pathogens; increases the activity of natural killer (NK) cells; and enhances immunity via the production of lymphocytes. NK cells and lymphocytes incapacitate viruses, bacteria, and other invaders.
What a load. Cordyceps is used traditionally as an anti-inflammatory. In other words, it suppresses the immune system. Overuse of anti-inflammatories can lead to increased risk of infection, since inflammation is one of the body's ways to "muster the troops" of the immune system.
This is just one example of Dr. Weil's nonsense. Since I couldn't find confirmation of the other two mushroom claims, they're also suspect. And the sweet potato article is chock full of hyperbole, since being a food which one could survive on during a famine doesn't make it a "perfect" food.
Most of these sorts of articles are wishful thinking, in that it would be wonderful if eating more mushrooms or sweet potatoes could make us healthier in general. Given that most of the country has horrible eating habits, it probably could do some good, if a sweet potato dish replaced, say, a Big Mac in everyone's diet. But that's just general health, and not this "enhances the immune system" crappola.
In general, people would much rather avoid a truly proper diet and exercise regimen, eat sweet potatoes and mushrooms, and fool themselves into thinking they're doing "healthy" things for themselves; offering advice which implies as much is nothing but pandering to base desires.
Here, by the way, is part of what James Randi has to say about Dr. Weil:quote:
Dr. Andrew Weil, MD, is a major figure in the Guru business. He preaches a pop- medicine, rosy-hued, attitude-is-everything, brand of "wellness" that adheres strictly to the highest standards of medieval thinking and technology.
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walt fristoe
SFN Regular
USA
505 Posts |
Posted - 11/22/2003 : 11:06:39 [Permalink]
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Well,duh! I love mushrooms as well, they're almost as good as (or maybe even better than) "windowpane" or "orange sunshine"!
Oh, you mean the kind that goes in salads? I guess they'll do... |
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PruplePanther
Skeptic Friend
USA
79 Posts |
Posted - 11/23/2003 : 14:55:41 [Permalink]
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Library closes in 15 min. Can't say much. I notice dave that wiel's program does exist http://integrativemedicine.arizona.edu and seems to be funded by u. arizona. barns&nobel have 112 titles listed under dr. weil. Wow!
Brite side is that weil's 'shrooms seen to be oriental where they HAVE studied such things at at roughly the scientific level as we westerners have. Different scientific methods maybe but lots longer.
Randi writes "He's brought in the silly "multiple realities" nonsense that should have vanished" Ugh.
Can see why Weil may have "gone to the Dark Side" as Randi says. After so much nay-saying and getting beaten up you just sort of give up arguing. 112 titles! Not much time for skeptics. But "great salesman" i have to agree with!
Hey, Da-Vi-Oh. What about Vitiman C? It also is an anti-inflamitory. It's got a nobel prizer behind its bennifits. I thinks on the shrooms i'd like to hear what the old japaneese medicos said about their use.
Double-battered french-fried sweet potatoes? And only 2 grams of fat per fry! Finger licking good!
o-o. library gestapo approaches. Buh-bye!
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Dave W.
Info Junkie
USA
26021 Posts |
Posted - 11/23/2003 : 17:28:11 [Permalink]
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PruplePanther wrote:quote:
I notice dave that wiel's program does exist http://integrativemedicine.arizona.edu and seems to be funded by u. arizona.
Yes. What part of "While the PIM is run under the university's Department of Medicine, that doesn't make Dr. Weil a professor of medicine" did you not understand. Where did I ever claim that the PIM doesn't exist?quote:
barns&nobel have 112 titles listed under dr. weil. Wow!
Yeah, and the Harry Potter books are really popular, too. That must mean that a school at which kids learn magic really exists.quote:
Brite side is that weil's 'shrooms seen to be oriental where they HAVE studied such things at at roughly the scientific level as we westerners have. Different scientific methods maybe but lots longer.
Oh, come on! I told you that, at least for the one mushroom, Weil's advice contradicts the traditional Chinese use of it, which has been studied and found useful (to some extent) by today's science. Dr. Weil disagrees with the traditional use, by claiming it is an "immune enhancer." By Chinese standards, Dr. Weil is spouting nonsense.quote:
Randi writes "He's brought in the silly "multiple realities" nonsense that should have vanished" Ugh.
What's wrong with that? Are you saying that objective reality is an illusion? If so, scientists both Eastern and Western should just pack it in and go find jobs pumping gas or bagging groceries. One of the underlying principles of all science is that there is an objective reality which can be studied, and no matter who does an experiment, the results will be more-or-less the same. Dr. Weil disagrees with that basic tenet of science.quote:
Can see why Weil may have "gone to the Dark Side" as Randi says. After so much nay-saying and getting beaten up you just sort of give up arguing.
Not if your science is correct, you don't. There are plenty of stories about people who got "beat up," but turned out to be correct. They didn't give up, since they had the data to support their ideas. Dr. Weil has no such data, since he's busy "intuiting" his ideas instead of testing them.quote:
112 titles! Not much time for skeptics. But "great salesman" i have to agree with!
Popularity doesn't mean he's correct. It only means the book publishers (who aren't interested in science) see Dr. Weil as a money-maker, which he undoubtedly is.quote:
Hey, Da-Vi-Oh. What about Vitiman C? It also is an anti-inflamitory. It's got a nobel prizer behind its bennifits.
Linus Pauling is the best example of a scientist who worked outside his field of expertise, and became a quack for it. He won a Nobel Prize for chemistry, and then for some reason or other, decided he was also an expert biologist and doctor. His ideas about vitamin C and many diseases (including cancers) have been soundly refuted through experiment. His Nobel wasn't in Medicine, and he should have stayed out of the field.quote:
I thinks on the shrooms i'd like to hear what the old japaneese medicos said about their use.
Chinese. Would you like me to link you to some information on what the Chinese have to say about them, which Dr. Weil disregarded when he wrote that article? |
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PruplePanther
Skeptic Friend
USA
79 Posts |
Posted - 11/29/2003 : 08:11:53 [Permalink]
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quote:
Originally posted by Dave W.
Would you like me to link you to some information on what the Chinese have to say about them, which Dr. Weil disregarded when he wrote that article?
Yes. Very much.
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On the BRITE brite side, I don't read Wifey-poo's health 'zine. Oddly she doesn't either. |
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Dave W.
Info Junkie
USA
26021 Posts |
Posted - 12/01/2003 : 13:55:15 [Permalink]
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Contrary to what you've said over here, PruplePanther, mushrooms did not "come under fire" from either Kil or me. It was Dr. Weil who was vilified, for being a quack. Whether or not mushrooms will help with any particular problem has nothing to do with Dr. Weil, since while he might be crusading for them, he certainly doesn't appear to be doing research into their effects himself.
Why is it that this happens so often? Here's a digest of this thread, along with your new comment about it:
PP: Dr. Weil says mushrooms are really good for you.
DW: Dr. Weil is a quack, and the Chinese use for those mushrooms is different from what Dr. Weil says it is.
PP: But Dr. Weil is really popular.
DW: So is J.P. Rowling, but I wouldn't go to her for medical advice.
PP: Dave W. attacked the idea of mushrooms for health.
Of course, I did no such thing. What mushrooms can do for your health is the question I was answering, not whether they can do anything at all. For the purposes of this discussion, I've been willing to grant that mushrooms can be therapeutic, and then I used that as a basis to show that while Dr. Weil claims to be talking about the Chinese uses of these fungi, such claims appear to contradict what I find amongst the online medical literature. For examples:
- Cordyceps might be useful in autoimmune disease because it triggers cells which have been 'activated' by immune-enhancing chemicals to kill themselves: Yang, et al, 2003
- "Cordyceps sinensis (C. sinensis) is one of the well known fungi used in traditional Chinese medicine for treatment asthma and bronchial and lung inflammation": Kuo, et al, 2001
Treating inflammatory conditions, autoimmune disease, and killing off immune-activated cells are hardly "enhancements" to the immune system, but in my quick trip through the literature this time, I found hints that there might be more to this whole story. I'll try to look at this in more detail, if time permits.
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Dave W.
Info Junkie
USA
26021 Posts |
Posted - 12/02/2003 : 12:19:09 [Permalink]
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By the way, Cordyceps, when used traditionally as medicine, is grown in caterpillar larvae, and then prepared with the 'worm' included (since it appears that fungal mycelia invade the entire larvae over time, and kill them before producing "fruiting bodies," or mushrooms, on the larvae).
Doesn't sound like innoculating a log in your backyard would work. Especially since in the wild, Cordyceps is only found at altitudes above 4,000 meters.
According to this, the traditional method of preparing Cordyceps is to stuff a duck with the caterpillars (with or without visible mushrooms growing from their bodies), boil it, and then one would drink the resultant liquid.
Sounds yummy. 
Apparently, however, some manufacturers think it's okay to grow the fungus on organic brown rice, and then use water or alcohol (or both) to make an extract from the mushrooms themselves. Whether or not that would have identical health effects as the traditionally-grown and prepared Cordyceps, I couldn't say. Seems like you could very well miss important ingredients if you don't use the caterpillars and a duck. |
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PruplePanther
Skeptic Friend
USA
79 Posts |
Posted - 12/03/2003 : 12:39:09 [Permalink]
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quote:
Originally posted by Dave W.
PruplePanther wrote:<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana,Arial,Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">I notice dave that wiel's program does exist http://integrativemedicine.arizona.edu and seems to be funded by u. arizona.
Yes. What part of "While the PIM is run under the university's Department of Medicine, that doesn't make Dr. Weil a professor of medicine" did you not understand. Where did I ever claim that the PIM doesn't exist?<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana,Arial,Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">barns&nobel have 112 titles listed under dr. weil. Wow![/quote]Yeah, and the Harry Potter books are really popular, too. That must mean that a school at which kids learn magic really exists.<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana,Arial,Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Brite side is that weil's 'shrooms seen to be oriental where they HAVE studied such things at at roughly the scientific level as we westerners have. Different scientific methods maybe but lots longer.[/quote]Oh, come on! I told you that, at least for the one mushroom, Weil's advice contradicts the traditional Chinese use of it, which has been studied and found useful (to some extent) by today's science. Dr. Weil disagrees with the traditional use, by claiming it is an "immune enhancer." By Chinese standards, Dr. Weil is spouting nonsense.<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana,Arial,Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Randi writes "He's brought in the silly "multiple realities" nonsense that should have vanished" Ugh.[/quote]What's wrong with that? Are you saying that objective reality is an illusion? If so, scientists both Eastern and Western should just pack it in and go find jobs pumping gas or bagging groceries. One of the underlying principles of all science is that there is an objective reality which can be studied, and no matter who does an experiment, the results will be more-or-less the same. Dr. Weil disagrees with that basic tenet of science.<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana,Arial,Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Can see why Weil may have "gone to the Dark Side" as Randi says. After so much nay-saying and getting beaten up you just sort of give up arguing.[/quote]Not if your science is correct, you don't. There are plenty of stories about people who got "beat up," but turned out to be correct. They didn't give up, since they had the data to support their ideas. Dr. Weil has no such data, since he's busy "intuiting" his ideas instead of testing them.<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana,Arial,Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">112 titles! Not much time for skeptics. But "great salesman" i have to agree with![/quote]Popularity doesn't mean he's correct. It only means the book publishers (who aren't interested in science) see Dr. Weil as a money-maker, which he undoubtedly is.<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana,Arial,Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Hey, Da-Vi-Oh. What about Vitiman C? It also is an anti-inflamitory. It's got a nobel prizer behind its bennifits.[/quote]Linus Pauling is the best example of a scientist who worked outside his field of expertise, and became a quack for it. He won a Nobel Prize for chemistry, and then for some reason or other, decided he was also an expert biologist and doctor. His ideas about vitamin C and many diseases (including cancers) have been soundly refuted through experiment. His Nobel wasn't in Medicine, and he should have stayed out of the field.<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana,Arial,Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">I thinks on the shrooms i'd like to hear what the old japaneese medicos said about their use.[/quote]Chinese. Would you like me to link you to some information on what the Chinese have to say about them, which Dr. Weil disregarded when he wrote that article?
[/quote]
Sorry dave. Didnt mean to say that you and Kil were attacking 'shroom-power only that u didn't applaud and clap to hear that 'shrooms were good for healing. Didn't know about Herr Dr. Wiel until Kil set me strait.
Am still interested in any "cites" you have linking to what ancient Chineese healers had to say about 'shrooms.
Wifey-poo's mag subscription renewal came in a couple of days ago and even though at least haf of the last year's mags are still unopened in original plastic wrapers, she is going for another years of it. Speachless i am! Hoping that manned mission to mars gets a GO! soon and that she gets acceepted into marsonaut program. 
edited to say "WOW! What hapened?" |
"If I don't know where we are, I can't plot a course home." Major Carter, SG-1 |
| Edited by - PruplePanther on 12/03/2003 12:41:18 |
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Dave W.
Info Junkie
USA
26021 Posts |
Posted - 12/03/2003 : 17:36:31 [Permalink]
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Pruple Panther wrote:quote:
Sorry dave. Didnt mean to say that you and Kil were attacking 'shroom-power only that u didn't applaud and clap to hear that 'shrooms were good for healing.
Considering that lots of plants, animals, fungi, etc. have some pharmaceutical value, that these mushrooms did wasn't at all surprising. If that three-mushroom combination proves to be as valuable for general health as Dr. Weil appears to think it is, I'll use it, myself. Until the health benefits are well demonstrated, however, this fool won't be parting with his money.quote:
Am still interested in any "cites" you have linking to what ancient Chineese healers had to say about 'shrooms.
Sigh. I quoted two medical articles above, from Yang and Kuo, which mention some traditional uses of Cordyceps, and what it's being tested for these days (immune suppression, in those cases). I then, in my next post, gave you a link on how it is "grown" and traditionally prepared.
I haven't looked into either of the other two kinds of mushrooms, and really had no plans to do so.
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Renae
SFN Regular
543 Posts |
Posted - 12/03/2003 : 18:38:22 [Permalink]
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Y'all are ruining Dr. Weil for me!  I visit his website often. I disregard a lot of the herbal stuff, because I don't believe in it.
Dr. Weil's site does have some good general health information. He does state, at least sometimes, that certain supposed therapies are just that: supposed. He sounds fairly reasonable here, on his website question of the day (www.drweil.com)...
quote:
Q: I would like your input on virgin coconut oil. I have been reading that it is very good for you and has been getting a bad rap.
-- Jo Anne Simers
Today's Answer
(Published 12/02/2003)
Coconut oil is one of the few saturated fats that doesn't come from animals, but like other saturated fats can raise cholesterol levels and, therefore, should play only a very limited role, if any, in your diet. In the past, it was widely used in movie popcorn, candy bars and commercial baked goods but was phased out of many of them during the past decade because of consumer opposition to unhealthy tropical oils.
Now coconut oil is being promoted on the Internet as a weight loss aid; it is also featured in a popular book by a naturopathic doctor. The rationale goes something like this: as a source of medium-chain triglycerides (MCT) coconut oil isn't stored in the body as fat as readily as oils composed of long-chain triglycerides (LCT). Some research from McGill University in Canada suggests that this is true; MCTs also boost metabolism and satiety, and therefore may promote weight loss when they replace LCTs in the diet. Because they are so easily digested, MCTs' are given in hospitals to provide nourishment for critically ill people who have trouble digesting fat.
Promoters also note that coconut oil is high in lauric acid and contains trace amounts of caprylic acid, both of which appear to have antiviral and antifungal properties, and support immune function. Lauric acid is actually present in breast milk; infants convert it to a substance called monolaurin that protects them from infections. These two fatty acids and their effects on health are being studied, but for now, we don't have any evidence suggesting that coconut oil is better for you than other saturated fats. The benefits of coconut oil in the diet, if any, are likely to be minimal, and until we have more and better evidence about coconut oil's effect of metabolism and potential role in promoting weight loss, I do not recommend using it.
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| Edited by - Renae on 12/03/2003 18:43:16 |
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Dave W.
Info Junkie
USA
26021 Posts |
Posted - 12/03/2003 : 19:46:43 [Permalink]
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Sorry, Renae, but it's really difficult to find the wheat amongst all of Dr. Weil's chaff. It's the use of phrases like "support immune function," which really have no medical meaning whatsoever, but which the general population jump on, saying, "that's good, right?" which get me in a lather.
Q: What do you call the guy who graduated last in his class from medical school?
A: "Doctor."
I'm not implying that Dr. Weil graduated last in his class from Harvard (that school of medicine has also given us Deepak Chopra and John Mack), just pointing out that "M.D." most assuredly does not mean "offers good advice" (not that you said that, either, I'm just on a roll here). |
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Renae
SFN Regular
543 Posts |
Posted - 12/04/2003 : 06:53:08 [Permalink]
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Dave, my clip from Dr. Weil's site is mostly wheat, not chaff. I'm not sure what 'supports immune function' means and I agree that it's vague. But he also says he doesn't recommend coconut oil as a weight loss agent and he reminds us it should "play a limited roll, if any, in your diet." People need to hear those messages and Dr. Weil (and others like him) may be one of the few sources they read. The average American doesn't read the New England Journal of Medicine. When I worked for health researchers, I read it, but my understanding of it was still limited (like most people, I'm not a Ph.D. in Epidemiology).
Recommending mushrooms for health doesn't seem to be terribly scientific, but so long as the mushrooms aren't poisonous, it doesn't seem to be that harmful, either. Most people reading Prevention magazine will do little more than perhaps add a few mushrooms to their diet. Which is preferable to starting the Atkins diet or taking dried armadillo testicle capsules or other such nonsense, IMO.
I'm dismayed and annoyed by the poor reporting of health research and by the growing tolerance of alterntive medicine. I embrace very little alternative medicine, though I do believe in the mind-body connection and I'm a firm believer in the role fitness and diet can play in your mental/emotional health. But if you're going to pick a poster boy for bad medical information, I don't think Dr. Weil is The Man. He at least offers sound medical info in the mix and does not accept every alternative therapy.
As usual, I'm wandering off-thread. Sorry. Plus I'm bitter after reading that yet another study shows echinacea ineffective, at least in children. I took echinacea for several months at the suggestion of my medical doctor. Looks like I just gave myself expensive pee.  |
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Kil
Evil Skeptic
USA
13476 Posts |
Posted - 12/04/2003 : 10:18:37 [Permalink]
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quote:
Renae:
Dave, my clip from Dr. Weil's site is mostly wheat, not chaff. I'm not sure what 'supports immune function' means and I agree that it's vague. But he also says he doesn't recommend coconut oil as a weight loss agent and he reminds us it should "play a limited roll, if any, in your diet." People need to hear those messages and Dr. Weil (and others like him) may be one of the few sources they read. The average American doesn't read the New England Journal of Medicine.
quote:
Renae:
I'm dismayed and annoyed by the poor reporting of health research and by the growing tolerance of alternative medicine. I embrace very little alternative medicine, though I do believe in the mind-body connection and I'm a firm believer in the role fitness and diet can play in your mental/emotional health. But if you're going to pick a poster boy for bad medical information, I don't think Dr. Weil is The Man. He at least offers sound medical info in the mix and does not accept every alternative therapy.
Actually, Dr. Weil is exactly "The Man." Dave is dead on. And did you miss my post about him? Because he is occasionally able to give sound advice in no way lessons the harm he does. As they say, even a broken clock is right twice a day. Please read my original post in this thread or at least read the article I suggested. Here it is again:
http://www.quackwatch.org/11Ind/weil.html
If you are truly "dismayed and annoyed by the poor reporting of health research and by the growing tolerance of alternative medicine," consider this. Weil has endorsed homeopathics, magnets for healing, therapeutic touch and many other thoroughly debunked alternatives to standard medicine. And he is read and trusted by many. He is probably the single most dangerous man in the health care profession because of his popularity. Simply put, Andrew Weil is a major league quack.
edited one stinking word....
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Uncertainty may make you uncomfortable. Certainty makes you ridiculous.
Why not question something for a change?
Genetic Literacy Project |
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Renae
SFN Regular
543 Posts |
Posted - 12/04/2003 : 11:26:28 [Permalink]
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Gaaaahhhhhh. I just read the article, Kil.
You skeptics ruin everything.
I still use Weil's breathing technique, which works for me to help me relax when I'm anxious or stressed. And I still consider some of his medical advice to be valid and well-supported (it even says some of his advice is supported by research in quackwatch's article.)
In one of his books I read, he recommends keeping fresh-cut flowers in your home. Most people would agree that flowers cheer them; unless you're allergic, it certainly won't harm you to keep daisies on your kitchen table. Not all of his advice is dangerous.
I don't have a problem separating the wheat from the chaff in most situations. But I realize most people don't think that critically about alternative medicine and in that sense, the potential for harm is great.
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