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Um, I think it's stupid how the media doesn't criticize herbal "medicine" as being a scam. For example the Washington Post merely reports on how people in china/chinatown buy herbs to protect themselves from SARS, and has the tone that appears to encourage it.

Yeah, you are exactly right. Not only that, but some of this herbal shit is actually dangerous. Look at ephedra! This junk causes heart attacks and the FDA is just now trying to take it off the market. It's been out for years.

i'm guessing its an attempt to calm fears in the short term. give the people a psycological 'magic bullet' and the won't panic....at least in the short term.

oh and superman, the funky jesus!

Yeah, my Jesus is gettin' down and gettin' funky. Even on the cross.

that is just wrong

Col. Crackpot wrote:i'm guessing its an attempt to calm fears in the short term. give the people a psycological 'magic bullet' and the won't panic....at least in the short term.

oh and superman, the funky jesus!

I second that!

BTW the funky Jesus is cool!

go jesus! go jesus! it's ya birthday! uh! uh!

that is just wrong

But oh so right...

How many journalists are trained with even a modicum of science?

Col. Crackpot wrote:i'm guessing its an attempt to calm fears in the short term. give the people a psycological 'magic bullet' and the won't panic....at least in the short term.

That's why we have sugar pills

phongn wrote:How many journalists are trained with even a modicum of science?

Hardly any. We have radio talk show host here ( Dr Dean Edel ) who does a good job of presenting the good/bad of herbs and "alternative" treatments. He rails on folks who snub their nose at modern medicine but will swallow up the latest herb without the least bit of idea that it could actually harm you.

What about ginseng and Japanese green tea? And those foul smelling balls that work better than activate charcoal? What about accupunture?

Trytostaydead wrote:What about ginseng and Japanese green tea?

what about them? They're just TEA, for Bob's sake. Black tea contains antioxidants and speeds up your metabolism as well.

innerbrat wrote:

Trytostaydead wrote:What about ginseng and Japanese green tea?

what about them? They're just TEA, for Bob's sake. Black tea contains antioxidants and speeds up your metabolism as well.

But Japanese green tea is actually the one of the most goddamn powerful antioxidants out there.

Trytostaydead wrote:

innerbrat wrote:

Trytostaydead wrote:What about ginseng and Japanese green tea?

what about them? They're just TEA, for Bob's sake. Black tea contains antioxidants and speeds up your metabolism as well.

But Japanese green tea is actually the one of the most goddamn powerful antioxidants out there.

And Chinese black tea is another one.
Look, no one's saying that everythign that comes from Asia is bolllocks, just that chlorophyll can't cure cancer.

innerbrat wrote: And Chinese black tea is another one.
Look, no one's saying that everythign that comes from Asia is bolllocks, just that chlorophyll can't cure cancer.

Well, nothing can cure cancer outside of iving healthy and early detection (even then only some). But part of that living healthy is regularly maintaining a healthy ingestion of antioxidants which also helps wonder for those areas of your noggin that involve high metabolic rates of oxyegn as well and it's been shown that Japanese Green Tea is actually one of the best out there and beats the shit of just everything else.

Or you can just eat a healthy diet and not have to worry about getting antioxidents from tea.

That and western medicine is a whole lot better than trusting in an antioxidant that comes from tea.

Accupuncture has no scientific basis to show it is effective. As a matter of fact, the evidence says it's probably bunk.

www.skepdic.com

Look it up here.

Superman wrote:Yeah, you are exactly right. Not only that, but some of this herbal shit is actually dangerous. Look at ephedra! This junk causes heart attacks and the FDA is just now trying to take it off the market. It's been out for years.

The thing with the FDA is that they don't regulate herbal medicines, so they didn't, up until recently, have any say at all in what herbal suppliments could be administered and which could not. The same holds true for suppliments like Creatine or the Stacker metabolism enhancers. The FDA doesn't test them. It says as much on the bottles. They could very well be harmful, but because they are (for the most part) herbal suppliments, they're not regulated.

Kinda defeats the purpose of having an FDA if you ask me.

Well, those stackers, as you call them, mostly all rely on ephedra. Usually they consist of both ephedra and aspirin together.

Creatine is a different story. This is a substance that is produced in the brain, and I have yet to see any studies that show it to be dangerous.

Superman wrote:Well, those stackers, as you call them, mostly all rely on ephedra. Usually they consist of both ephedra and aspirin together.

I don't call them Stacker. That's the name of the product. Stacker 1, 2 and 3. 3 is said to be the strongest weight-loss pill on the market.

Creatine is a different story. This is a substance that is produced in the brain, and I have yet to see any studies that show it to be dangerous.

There haven't been many studies done on Creatine at all, so the long-term effects are as of yet unknown. It doesn't seem to be harmful so long as you stay hydrated.

Agree with you.

Superman wrote:That and western medicine is a whole lot better than trusting in an antioxidant that comes from tea.

Accupuncture has no scientific basis to show it is effective. As a matter of fact, the evidence says it's probably bunk.

www.skepdic.com

Look it up here.

Ummm.. well, it's Western medicine that SAYS tea is the best. As for accupuncture, it depends on what you're aiming for. The effects seen in hospitals are too great to be merely a placebo effect and it does wonders for stressed out people.

Pu-239 wrote:Um, I think it's stupid how the media doesn't criticize herbal "medicine" as being a scam. For example the Washington Post merely reports on how people in china/chinatown buy herbs to protect themselves from SARS, and has the tone that appears to encourage it. :roll:

I've heard people say: "Modern medicine is dangerous because there's all sorts of nasty chemicals and nasty side-effects."

Well, I have news for those people. Guess what medicinal plants have in them?

Give up? Get this, they have chemicals in them. Some of them have very nasty chemicals. And these chemicals can produce some nasty side-effects if abused, just like western pharmaceuticals. And since the sale of, or the contents of, snake-oil herbal remedies aren't regulated by the FDA, you're literally taking your life into your own hands when you try some of those herbal remedies.

I wonder if herbal medicine junkies would take something that contains water hemlock or nightshade. I mean it's natural, right?