Comments on: Alt med: win some and lose some

By: DennyMo

DennyMo — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 20:57:01 +0000

One thing that bugs me about Natural News is that if he’s right, senior management at Big Pharma/Big Ag/et al shouldn’t be getting cancer, heart disease, etc. If there is some “grand conspiracy” to foist illness on all of us and then profit from it, seems like they’d have a Fourth Directive built into the system that would protect them from the maladies.

By: Cairnos

Cairnos — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 23:56:14 +0000

What does it matter if herbal remedies can be patented or not? (Most) Fruits and vegetables aren’t under patent but that doesn’t stop companies making profit from them.

Just think of any add that shows someone wandering through fields or a greenhouse saying something like “Here at Big Pharma Farms we get up at the crack of dawn to make sure that you get only the very best {stuff} carefully picked at just the right time, so remember if you want quality in your {stuff}, buy they best…buy Big Pharma” …fade out to a picture of a bottle of tablets with a colorful label with vines and shi….stuff on it with a logo at the bottom of the screen saying something like “Because your family comes first”.

If they (you know, that they…Big Pharma, The Man, The Cryptofascist Illuminati…..those guys) can make money on it (and they can) without being sued out of existence (which is the sticking point), you can bet they would.

By: TheBlackCat

TheBlackCat — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 21:00:04 +0000

@ Wes: What makes you think that herbal remedies cannot be patented? If they can extract and isolate the active ingredient or ingredients, they most certainly can (and do) patent them.

By: Skepacabra

Skepacabra — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 04:25:01 +0000

Does Null still work at Fairleigh Dickinson University? Can we start a campaign to get his psychotic ass fired?

By: Jupiter

Jupiter — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 09:42:48 +0000

There’s a lady in Aus who is blind from a reaction to an unregulated over the counter herbal remedy. She was on TV last week.
Herbs can be effective but they need regulation and evidence based analysis just like any other – and especially since mixing one with another with your prescribed medicine can cause unknown and extremely serious reactions.

By: Hyperdeath

Hyperdeath — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 09:26:11 +0000

If the herbs worked, Big Pharma would have cornered the market…

Big Pharma has already cornered the market on much alternative medicine.

Many of these “natural medicine” dimwits will happily shell out to a multinational corporation, whilst excoriating a different (or the same) multinational corporation for producing drugs and vaccines (which in many cases are generic and manufactured at a hairline profit).

Big pharmaceutical companies have a lot to answer for, but the criticism they receive from the medicine-truthers misses the mark completely.

By: SpriteSuzi

SpriteSuzi — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 07:46:20 +0000

Phil, I just found another example of fatal woo…

2 Die and 16 Are Sickened at Spa in Arizona
Two people died and at least 16 more were hospitalized after they fell ill while sitting in a sweat lodge at a New Age retreat center in Arizona, the authorities said Friday.
…
The Associated Press reported that some of the guests had paid up to $9,000 for a multiday program run by James Arthur Ray, the former AT&T sales manager turned self-help expert who co-wrote the best-selling book “Harmonic Wealth: The Secret of Attracting the Life You Want.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/10/us/10spa.html?ref=global-home

Sad, sad, sad.

By: Steven

Steven — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 02:55:31 +0000

Actually ginger was the only one of quite a few ‘natural remedies’ that did work. Phil did a post about it a while ago.

By: I'd rather be fishin'

I'd rather be fishin' — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 00:22:46 +0000

James, # 18 is completely correct. If the herbs worked, Big Pharma would have cornered the market on ginger, oregano, garlic (why am I carving Italian food now?) farms. Yes, the basis for modern drugs came from herbal remedies after scientists figured out what in the herbs did what they did. Quinine, Aspirin and digitalis for example.

I have had the same ‘discussion’ with a couple of cousins. They think if something is organic is MUST be good for them; just like nicotine and strychnine which was used to treat deafness and cholera.

By: FreeSpeaker

FreeSpeaker — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 00:14:14 +0000

Wes, check out who owns several of the larger manufacturers of supplements.