this post was submitted on 25 Jan 2024
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Aspirin comes from willow bark, which we used to drink in tea. Home remedies aren’t necessarily opposed to science, they’re often a part of it.
That’s neat, I remember reading about that lady who won the Nobel for a Malaria drug made out of wormwood they discovered after combing ancient healer books awhile back.
They start like panacea until their actual beneficial uses are confirmed / denied by rigorous study. While they're in their unconfirmed, protocol-less phase, I'd rather not use.
Willow bark was generally used for headaches and body aches, similarly to how it is today. The same could be said for tons of other medications. It’s perfectly fine to choose not to use them, but a home remedy is not inherently unscientific or dangerous.
I didn't say they were dangerous. Unscientific? Until there's science applied to it, they are, sort of by definition.
I take a phytotherapic daily to deal with a chronic illness. It's scientifically vetted, there's a protocol with established dosage and its potency is controlled by the lab that processes it.
I'm Brazilian, there is a ton of government sponsored research in folk remedies there, and I think it's great. What's not great is how many people (there, at least) are quick to advertise some herbal tea as having miraculous properties without any base to it.
Here's an example. There's no evidence for any of these claims. Growing up, all I've heard people attribute to it was "digestive" properties, which is another way of saying mildly laxative.
This pattern is repeated ad nauseum to countless other herbs, even the ones that have been studied. A multimillion dollar industry sprung profiteering from anti-scientific sentiment, preying on the vulnerable. Government intervened, requiring supporting science for manufacturer claims on labels and potency control. But websites such as what I linked are still funded somehow and there's no control on the sale. Quack gurus abound, essentially practicing illegal medicine, making diagnoses on victims reported symptoms and prescribing teas and supplements.
So yeah, I don't mind people brewing some tea once or twice to deal with some mild discomfort like stomach pain. It's when vultures circle the seriously ill suggesting their cure evades them because they're not doing enough and they need their panacea to get better that I start paying attention.
Right, I agree with you about that, but believe you’re using too broad a brush here, I don’t know if that was clear.
There’s a huge difference between ineffective herbal mixtures that are being predatorily advertised to people with chronic illnesses and this, imo. This is more akin to your dentist telling you to rinse with homemade saline solution if you can’t afford mouthwash- it’s a scientifically well established disinfectant, just made at home.
I think it’s wonderful that Brazil’s researching folk cures, too often they’re unresearched by the academic community, even though they’ve been in some cases (not all) used effectively for centuries. I appreciate you wanting to wait until there’s been rigorous academic testing, and I do think that’s the right thing to do, if it’s something that you can do. If you’re in a situation where you don’t have that option, it’s not as easy, in my opinion. Especially because there’s a huge backlog of traditional remedies to test, and not all governments are so open to testing them at all.