OT - Swine flu in USA, New Zealand, Canada and France - Page 9

I can't get mondo bongo out of my mind.

I must have the flu already,
www.youtube.com/watch

Mondo Bongo.

This is not meant to be a tirade, but as a practicing scientist, I get slightly irate when I feel that people have little insight and little interest in the scientific process. The CDC is not a pharmaceutical company and does not make money from drugs. They are the ones deciding on public policy here. Just because science can not always predict which emerging pathogens will prove most dangerous, and just because big pharma has a profit motive, does not mean that all drugs are bad, all government directives misleading. It is really not a conspiracy to keep people from enjoyong herbal remedies. I think I read in the last days that the 1918 flu started in the early spring, disappeared, and then reappeared in a far more virulent form a frew months later. It makes sense to at least take stock of our anti-viral meds, and start a new vaccine, because if we don't, it may be too late to stop very serious pandemic. We may well find that the virus is not that dangerous, but we do not know that, we do know that this virus has some of the hallmarks of a dangerous virus, and so people who are specialists in infectious disease will make a decision on how best to protect us. Right now we just need to use common sense, certainly not panic, but be more aware then usual of our health. Even if you never go to a doctor for a flu (I don't either) maybe reconsider this year. If I got a flu now and felt more then a little sick, I would call my doc, stay home and keep my kids away from my room, just to be conservative. I would certainly not go to a hospital unless my doc sent me. For those who use natural cures, by all meand do so, but do not expect them to help you with many serious illnesses. By the same token, many people, including some of my relatives, strongly believe that prayers help or even cure disease. I think prayer is great, but when it is used without medicine, the patient can suffer terribly. Just walk through any old graveyard and see all the gravestones for young children, many who died in the winter. This was before antibiotics were developed. All they had were folk remedies and prayer. Our soldiers in Iraq are coming home with injuries that would have been battle fatalities not many years ago. Medicine and science serve a very useful purpose in society. Claims made for herbal remedies are almost never tested in a scientifically sound clinical trial and judged by peer review before publication. Just as pharmeceuticals run some trials, and have an interest in the results, makers of herbal remedies run their own trials, and claim their own results. Even when a compound, whether "natural" or synthetic, is published, it is not taken as gospel by researchers, many follow-up studies are done. The process of approving a drug for clinical use takes many many years. In contrast, there is no regulation of herbal supplements, in terms of purity, claims made, anything. They are not prescribed, just adopted. This does not mean that some are not useful, just that they are not in general subject to the scientific method. For dogs, i would love to see a rigorous clinical trial comparing glucosamine supplements, instead every manufacteror claims theirs is the best. I would love to see a clinical trial comparing stem cell treatment of joint disease to conventional surgery, but that does not exist, just anecdotal data from a few dogs, and a web site selling the product. It is generally agreed that the science education of average Americans is very poor. Some of the comments made above regarding how the flu arose reflect ignorance, in my opinion. I am not trying to be obnoxious, most people have no foundation in science, therefore they mistrust science and sometimes all Western medicine. Science is based on evidence, and quantitation. Most people have no analytical training at all, they do not require proof for their beliefs, they look for evidence in one or a few places, and that's it. They adopt what "evide

Could someone tell me how to make paragraphs in a post? I see them in the original, but it all comes out as one paragraph in the end, very annoying. Thanks

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Breath.........

I am not totally against modern medicine.  The problem comes in when doctors want to push out herbs and call them dangerous.  A few people die because they actually need medical attention and they fail to get it because they tried the natural route instead.  Far more people (tens of thousands, by some estimates) die every year because of medical mistakes.  Add to that those who die or are sickened because their medications backfired, or they picked up something at the hospital or doctor's office...the list goes on and on.  Natural medicine does not give you hospital or doctor induced sicknesses. 

Natural medicine doesn't make mistakes with decimal points.  It doesn't change formulations.  It doesn't gain from keeping us sick.  The modern medical model does all that and more.  The over-prescription of antibiotics today has led to superbugs that are resistant or immune to the drugs used to treat them.  And I don't mind saying that the greed that led to this scares me.

In the case of a serious illness, such as cancer, a patient can't, in my opinion, afford to ignore any options.  I'd look into all options, including herbs, and cutting edge cancer centers are beginning to get a clue in that area, realizing that nutrition, exercise, and natural medicine all have their place in the treatment of a disease.

Take depression for example, or one of the other myriad syndromes that have popped up over the past few decades.  The herb St. John's Wort is just as effective as the drugs prescribed, and it doesn't make you suicidal.  You decide, but if I was depressed, I'd rather fix my imbalance than cover it up.

With regard the the use of herbs and natural medicine for major illnesses, I knew a lady who was diagnosed with breast cancer in both breasts, and was told that it had spread.  They told her to get her affairs in order, that she only had about a month to live.  She spent that month following a very strict diet, along with herbal medicine, and went back to the doc two months later.  They retested her, told her that she didn't have cancer, and that she must have been mis-diagnosed.  You can draw your own conclusions, but she's not the only one I've ever heard of.

Sitasmom,  I'm very sorry to hear that two people you knew ended up with blindness and kidney failure following untreated strep...That's a hard lesson, and a painful one.  Imagine, though, what it would be like to get one of the superbugs, and be told by your doctor, "Oh, I'm very sorry to tell you this, but I can't treat you.  We don't have anything that works on that strain."
Results are the same, but one was caused by stubborness (I know, I'm that way, too) and the other caused by greed.  Both are tragic.

So in summary, I'll just say that modern medicine has its place, alongside natural medicine.  There are times when natural medicine should be used instead of drug therapy.  JMHO

Crys

A little herb goes a long way....

Whats up Don?
Second time I've seen an empty post

Not that  kind of herb, Two Moons!!!  LOL !!!

Though it might not be any worse than Oxycontin and others...

Crys