Root Canals

[GenuineRisk]

Originally Posted by golfer

I guess I'm too dense to respond to this, but if I weren't It might go like this:

Yes, the FDA is a Bastion of honesty and integrity, with no possible agenda.. Oh wait a minute, maybe not:
http://www.goodhealthinfo.net/cancer...lationship.htm

And yes, his anti-vaccine crap is very dangerous, because vaccine science is indisputable.... Oh wait a minute, maybe not:
http://nsnbc.me/wp-content/uploads/2.../BSEM-2011.pdf
I'm obviously not smart enough to read this paper, perhaps you can do it and let everyone know what it says?

Dr Mercola is guilty of espousing alternative, natural remedies for both treating and preventing diseases. Period, end of sentence. I will personally vouch for him, his website and his products.

Doug was nice enough to post a link to an article about Root Canal, written by Dr Mercola, but the sources of his information were Dr Weston Price, Dr George Meinig, and Dr Robert Jones. I am sure you can dig up dirt on all of them if you try hard enough.
Your response had not one word to refute any of the information in the article, only to warn us about the Dangerous Dr Mercola. Much Appreciated.

You believe what you want to believe, It makes no difference to me.
I'm Done.

Golfer, relax. I'm not attacking you. I really did think the FDA letter was a bit dense; that's why I posted the Tribune article as well. Not everything is an insult.

Dr. Weston Price died in 1948. His theories are interesting... for their time. Assuming he is the cutting edge of dental research is like assuming Darwin is the cutting edge of evolutionary theory. They aren't; science and progress has moved past them, though certainly by building on what they laid out. Price's theories are one of the reasons so many kids got their tonsils removed in the first half of the 20th century. It's not a common procedure today. Which is not to say focal infection theory doesn't still warrant research; of course it does, but it's far from established.

Mercola has espoused that AIDS is maybe not caused by HIV, but rather, by people getting all worked up about the fact that they have HIV. I'm sure my friend who just died last month of complications from AIDS would have lived if he'd just believed in himself a bit harder.

And Mercola's very persuasive, because he mixes common sense advice (wash your hands, for example) in with his crackpot theories. In addition, he uses words like "may" "possibly" and "could" which then people take as fact. Dr. Oz does the same thing.

The danger with natural and alternative options to treating disease is that very quickly, many people start to disavow modern medicine in favor of folk remedies that may, frankly, be dangerous. The anti-vaccine movement is killing children. Period, full stop.

I was really big into alternative medicine for awhile. I didn't get a flu vaccine for 17 years because I was on the b*llsh*t bandwagon of "Oh, they don't really work/Oh, it's good for your immune system to fight something off every once in a while/Oh, blah blah blah." And then I got the flu. And then I remembered that when you get the flu, you want to die. And now I get the damn shot, and I don't spend 3 days in bed, watching The Detective on TCM because I'm too weak to change the channel on the remote.

I ate macrobiotic as a kid because my dad was convinced that if our family had been eating macrobiotic, my mother wouldn't have gotten cancer. Never mind that the man who introduced the macrobiotic diet to the USA died of cancer himself.

Modern medicine, while not everything we want it to be, is pretty good. And depending on alternative medicine, to the exclusion of modern treatments is idiotic. Steve Jobs eschewed treatment for his cancer, preferring to use natural methods, and it's quite possible it killed him:

http://gawker.com/5849543/harvard-ca...ative-medicine

I'm not saying herbs and stuff like that are useless; many of our modern medicines are synthesized versions of herbs (over a quarter of which come from the rainforest, so save the rainforest! New treatments may be growing in the jungles!). And herbs can be dangerous too- I was on a licorice tea kick a few months back (I just like the taste) until I found out it can do your innards some pretty big damage if you overdo it (which I certainly was).

But the anti-science bent in some groups (and I find them on both the Right and the Left) is bad news when it comes to medicine. And Mercola takes advantage of them, bilks them out of money for his products and inspires them to neglect their health.

Blindly accepting Mercola, or the crap Dr Oz spouts because it's "natural" is just as dangerous as not getting a second opinion from a traditional doctor. Healthy skepticism is necessary. And Mercola's article on root canals just doesn't stand up to scrutiny. Doug may die of cancer someday (as might any of us), but it's not likely to be a root canal that does it:

http://utahcountyskeptics.blogspot.c...footnotes.html

That said, I think Michael Pollan is right on the money about diet: Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.

I do feel bad you thought I was accusing you of being dumb. I really didn't mean for you to think that, and I'm sorry.

[bigrun]

Been getting the flu shot for many moons, haven't had the flu since my 20's.
Usta get two colds a year like clockwork and those nasty coldsores..read somewhere that a garlic tablet a day helps ward off colds...been taking them for good dozen years and not one cold!...sniffles once...maybe it's all in my mind but really don't care..it works....Oh and an aspirin a day keeps the doc away..