Top 10 Things You Should Know About Alternative Medicine

Harriet Hall, MD (aka the SkepDoc), shares her wit and wisdom about alternative medicine including: chiropractic, the placebo effect, homeopathy, acupuncture, and the questionable benefits of organic food, detoxification, and ‘natural’ remedies.

Article appears in a four page PDF format which can be downloaded here.

The article is quite concise and devotes about a paragraph to each topic. Hopefully this can help people avoid some of the costs and trappings of alternative medicines and treatments.

Sorry, I cannot download the link, as my internet is horrible. But I know for a fact organic food is healthy, if she says it is not, then she is just stupid. But I haven't read it so I am just prejudging

Could you post some interesting parts of the article, or perhaps a brief summary in your own words?
I have studied this topic for over a decade and would like to hear your opinion.

Originally posted by Maddogkull
But I know for a fact organic food is healthy, if she says it is not, then she is just stupid

Not a lot of stupid people become doctors. This site contains a brief debunking of myths about organic foods. From that link:

Large studies in Holland, Denmark and Austria found the food-poisoning bacterium Campylobacter in 100 per cent of organic chicken flocks but only a third of conventional flocks; equal rates of contamination with Salmonella (despite many organic flocks being vaccinated against it); and 72 per cent of organic chickens infected with parasites...

The "organic foods" labels are largely a way in which marketers can get consumers to pay more for a product.

Deepak Chopra (or w.e his name is) Stupid Doctor

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reply to post by traditionaldrummer


I am not talking about companies supplying organic foods, I am talking about growing your own. You cannot debunk organic foods, being unhealthy. That’s just stupid.

Originally posted by AccessDenied
Could you post some interesting parts of the article

I tried to but in PDF format it became impossible to lay out.

It addresses swine flu vaccine fear mongering, chiropractic, blaming autism on vaccination, placebo effect, organic food myths, homeopathy, acupuncture, detoxification, etc. It is brief and concise and basically amounts to "watch out, this stuff is a hoax or this stuff can be dangerous". It does not go into great detail on any of the subjects and serves more as a guidepost for those who may know little about the topics.

Originally posted by Maddogkull
I am not talking about companies supplying organic foods, I am talking about growing your own. You cannot debunk organic foods, being unhealthy. That’s just stupid.

I don't need to debunk organic foods since plenty of others already have.

Growing your own food is better than store bought in my opinion but I'm not certain that homegrown implies that it is "organic".

really though almost everything has some type of chemical in it that doesn't need to be there, no matter what type of foods you consume, they put extra stuff in it so theres not much hiding from it

Originally posted by traditionaldrummer

Originally posted by Maddogkull
I am not talking about companies supplying organic foods, I am talking about growing your own. You cannot debunk organic foods, being unhealthy. That’s just stupid.

I don't need to debunk organic foods since plenty of others already have.

Growing your own food is better than store bought in my opinion but I'm not certain that homegrown implies that it is "organic".

It doesn't. Home gardens are easier to maintain with GMO seeds.

Maddog, there are plenty of unhealthy organic foods. Stop that nonsense.

-Dev

reply to post by DevolutionEvolvd


Lol, again remember that I said I pre judged I was under the impression he was saying homegrown foods are unhealthy, and got confused. never mind

reply to post by traditionaldrummer


That was a good no nonsense post. Thanxs OP. Now I'm just left with more questions about alternative medicine.

Ever notice if you talk about anything medical here, the first thing out of a posters finger tips are "take Colloidial Silver"?

Seems to be the cure-all from gas to a gambling problem. I say no thanks, I'll take my traditional medicine with 100 warning messages indicating possible problems and/or death. They make me feel better anyways.

Originally posted by brilab45
Ever notice if you talk about anything medical here, the first thing out of a posters finger tips are "take Colloidial Silver"?

Seems to be the cure-all from gas to a gambling problem. I say no thanks, I'll take my traditional medicine with 100 warning messages indicating possible problems and/or death. They make me feel better anyways.

Colloidal silver does have a toxic effect on microbes and is the least toxic heavy metal for humans. But ingestion of silver can cause argyria, a condition which turns your skin blue.