Quote:
Originally Posted by modest
I once was told by a doctor: "There's no drug that will make a healthy person more healthy" In response to some question I had about a supplement. I've spent some time wondering if this is always true or not. For instance: is fish oil only a good supplement for someone with a heart condition. If not, would it be considered part of a healthy diet?
I've wrestled with this when walking past the supplements at the pharmacy many times. Whatever the answer, I've found this thread a very good source of knowledge.
-modest |
I agree
Given that doctors, prescription drugs and hospitals are our leading cause of death.
There is a whole group of herbs called 'adaptogens' that do improve heath, Things like Ginseng and Gotu Kola and others.
There is no such concept as "adaptogen" in Western Conventional Medicine.( Even my spell check is having trouble with the word.)
Ginseng is especially interesting as it has a lot of well researched beneficial effects on the entire circulatory system. In rat studies it helped stressed animals survive.
I agree with Monomer that people's diet is generally poor.
But you would be amazed how much. For example I was once asked (when I sold herbs) by a lady what was good for 'digestive problems' and ulcers. I made a few suggestions and she trotted out more complaints arthritis, sleeplessness, tiredness, irritability.
Finally I stopped and asked her who we were talking about. "O my husband. He is 57 and will be retired as an invalid soon"
What does he eat?"
I asked
"Well he can't eat much, or keep much down, so he eats steak and sweet tea."
How much sugar does he use in the tea?"
Defensively, she replied, "I've told him he uses too much sugar"
Again I tried, "How much, is
too much?"
"We go though seven to ten pounds of sugar a week." she replied
I was a bit shocked, surprised and stunned by this reply.
And she wondered why he was sick?!!
This is the Twentieth century in an affluent Western Country.
It turned out this guy was living on copious cups of strong sweet tea and well (over) cooked steak. That's all. How could he/she not know this was a bad diet that would ruin his health?
How come a doctor had not asked the questions I asked?
I am not even a half trained medical person.
It saddens me to see young (and some older ) checkout operators who don't know the names of many fruits and vegetables at the supermarket cash register. (They are a bit better nowadays as they are sent to in-house training-school to learn the names; and the checkout monitors have "pictures" of the fruit/vegetables with a name.) I asked one young man, working in the Fruit and Veg section of the Supermarket, once if the fresh figs had started to come in yet. He asked me what they were and what they looked like. How sad; How much does he loose of life?
Most (97%) kids are not taught to garden or to cook at school.
At an exclusive boys private school in Northern Sydney some years ago the graduated "Old Boys" Union donated a multi-million dollar kitchen to the school so the young boys could learn to cook. The Old Boys felt that this had been a gaping hole in their own education.
I was once treated by an ortomolecular specialist, taking heaps of all types of supliments and restricting my intake of some foods like wheat and milk. Within a few months I felt the best I have ever felt.
Nowadays I live on a restricted income and cannot afford some of the foods and supliments I would like to buy. Sea food is especially expensive here now with most of it being exported to Japan.
Some supliments are unesesarily expensive. I noticed some Ginseng tablets (about 50+?) in the Chemist the other day that had only a few
micrograms of ginseng in them for $14.95. Yet I can buy a bag of whole chopped ginseng root at china town for $7.
Cheap herbal teas just don't seem to be around in outer suburbia.
Even Aspirin, at 50-75c a packet, is being taken off the shelves as a 75c sale is not worth the shelf space. (I use it for me
and my plant cuttings!). It is "replaced" now with $5+ packets of panadol or ibuprofen.
