As per my original posting on this subject, there are many cheap herbs and other nutritional supplements that can cure many ailments. However, there are legal restrictions on making any claims to this effect. This is because a great deal of very expensive trials are required to approve any substance as a cure for any given condition. Nobody is prepared to pay to test herbs as they cannot be patented (therefore no one could recoup the enormous amount of money spent on the testing).
I mentioned in an earlier posting, how I had read an article on research into using turmeric to treat cancer. The article stated that there was hope that they could make a drug from it soon. Why not just use the turmeric? Because you can’t patent it.
No patent = No significant profit.
I know from my own personal experience that colloidal silver works, but I’m not allowed to say that it will cure any specific conditions.
At one time in history, herbal remedies were all we had and would be administered by the wise old lady of the village. Well if it didn’t work, the wise old lady would soon be re-named the stupid old hag. Nobody had heard of the placebo effect back then and it had a very long history of working.
So why did this method of healing all but die out. Well I suspect that many wise old ladies got burnt as witches, as they had knowledge of “strange” things. Many people would call it “woo” nowadays. Villages became towns and towns became cities and old ways got replaced by more modern medicines, some of which are more effective, but many of which have side effects. There is place for both in today’s world, especially in the poor nations where disease is rife and they have trouble affording modern medicines.
Even if the herbal medicines are less effective, if it means that the price will allow a poor country to treat many more of their countrymen than they could otherwise do, then it is worth pursuing. Please see my first posting on this subject for a suggestion on how this might feasibly be achieved.
6 responses so far ↓
make money blogging // August 16, 2008 at 8:22 am |
I wish you would post more often…this is my “coffee drinking” blog:) Edgar Allen
charliedw // August 16, 2008 at 3:25 pm |
Thank you. I’ll do my best.
Not heard the phrase “coffee drinking” blog. I hope that a good thing
Cord Covers // August 20, 2008 at 11:18 am |
I tried to subscribe to your feed but it didn’t show up on my homepage at yahoo.com. Is it working correctly?
charliedw // August 21, 2008 at 2:59 pm |
Hi Cord
I’ll be honest, I don’t know much about this kind of thing, so I put your question to my brother who does. I’ve cut and pasted his reply below, which I hope helps.
Regards
Charlie
My brothers response:
“the feed is valid, but yes, Yahoo can’t subscribe to it, I just tried!
I googled for information about problems with Yahoo and there are plenty
of reports similar to yours, but they are mostly old and there is no clear
resolution of them. One suggestion is that if Yahoo hasn’t included you in
their directories (whatever that means) they may give trouble, so I’m
trying to do that for you. It can take up to 24 hours for that to happen
so prod me again tomorrow to look for you.
Meanwhile you could suggest that:
1) they could try using google-reader or another tool to subscribe
2) they could try again in 2 days (some people reported progress that way)
3) they could wait until you notify them that it works.”
Brian Owens // August 23, 2008 at 4:03 pm |
Interesting point of view. I’ll consider changing my mind about this but for now I still don’t see things the same way you do.
charliedw // August 23, 2008 at 10:02 pm |
Hi Brian
Too many people dismiss ideas without any thought, so if you are prepared to give it some consideration then you can’t say fairer than that. My posting above is “Part 2″ and it makes more sense if you read the first part as well.
Basically, I would like to see funding found to give herbal/nutritional remedies the same testing as drugs. It would settle arguements about their effectiveness once and for all. But at present there is no mechanism to fund such testing.
Regards
Charlie