Does that compare to the very good looking (female) "nutritionist" I heard talking to somene in a Santa Monica coffee house about the importance of colonics and how it takes a "few years" to "completely purify one's system"?
Ok, granted that colonic talk sounds wierd to many of us but is there ANY evidence that it does not work? No, because there is a general refusal to study this kind of approach. Is there any evidence that they do work? Well, many people say they do. We can either decide that all those people are gullable idiots or that there may be something to their claims. Curiousity is a healthy thing. We would all be better off if these matters were studied rigorously, not simply dismissed because the people who practiced things like colon cleansing seem a little marginal.
That and her special dietary advice and planning.
When, for obvious reasons, corporate and government institutions fail or refuse to do critical, evidence based research on diet (while pimping a huge variety of drugs and junk food), why should we snicker when everyday folks do the best they can to develop a better understanding of how their body responds to food and drink?
> Sad to say, but true. There are more than the usual number of "alternative medicine" practioners like this in Santa Monica, CA.
I don't like the terms "mainstream" and "alternative." There is good science and there is bad science. Good science is open-minded, rigorous, always looking to deepen and broaden understanding. Bad science is the opposite. Some good science is done under the rubric of "mainstream medecine." The rest is barbaric. Some good science is done under the rubric of "alternative medecine." The rest is sometimes good, sometimes neutral, sometimes bad guesswork based on what seems to be common sense about the body. To get all worked up about the evils of either allos or alts is to miss the point. But i will say this. At least the alts know that there is something very wrong with way doctors approach the body and and strive for something very different. Of course, capitalism and racialism exercise a destructive pull on their efforts, with the result that too many of them sound awfully silly. But at least they ain't killing hundreds of thousands of persons each year with deadly drug regimes based on idiotic assumptions about the body's needs.
Chris
> ---------- Original Message ----------------------------------
> From: Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com>
> Reply-To: lbo-talk at lists.panix.com
> Date: Thu, 25 Jan 2001 10:06:52 -0500
>
> >My father visited some quack sidekick of Gary Null's for his
> >arthritis. The quack discovered that he was infected with
> >cytomegalovirus. Something like 2/3 of adults carry CMV. But the
> >quack prescribed a round of intravenous vitamin C at $100 a pop (for
> >what must have been pennies worth of vitamin and saline). Thankfully,
> >my father told the guy to get lost, though I'm sure that's an
> >uncommon reaction.
> >
> >Doug
> >
>