Quote Originally Posted by andee View Post
Well, I am learning more and more about "natural" and homeopathic remedies and they are all very interesting...some may sound kind of weird, but if they work, that's great!! I try not to dismiss anything too fast...anyone else have info???
Natural remedies can be good, some are effective (not all, by any stretch). Homepathy is just placebo effect, and that has been proven over and over through clinical trials. If all that is needed is placebo effect, then, great. It can be good for those who have very minor issues that would pass anyway in due time (like a cold or mild insomnia)...it is dangerous when it replaces proper treatment for serious issues, though. The site I usually check when trying to validate claims of natural health products (herbal supplements) is passeportsante.net but it is a french site. I think https://naturalmedicines.therapeuticresearch.com/ is the english equivalent. It searches through clinical trials about supplements and the findings, so you can have a better idea of what is just old wives' tales and what actually has some effect on health. One HUGE warning about this english site though, they take all clinical trials, no matter if the experiment protocol is flawed. So the data most probably is biased to make natural health products seem better than they are. If you have a background in science and are familiar with critical analysis of scientific papers, go on google scholar and look up articles on the supplement that interests you. Once again, not all sources are reliable, even in papers. You have to be able to evaluate the validity of the experiment.

Thing is, it is very easy to get lost in the claims of "ancestral" or "natural" practices if you don't have a very solid understanding of the human body and its biochemistry. I suggest that before you embark on a journey of learning about alternative medicine, that you pick up a book on human anatomy and biochemistry (as in, university textbook grade). It will help you understand if the claims have any logical sense considering how the body works.