Holistic Health Thread

IMO, the real question is "What claims do you believe about garlic and why do you believe them?"

Regardless of whether you want a "western medicine" answer, if you believe garlic will help your health in some way, then you -- again, IMO -- ought to have good reason for that belief. "I've heard" and "people [...] swear by it" aren't very good ways of determining effectiveness. Adopting an unsupported belief, and then persisting in it until/unless someone proves you wrong, also isn't a very good way.

Whether or not they're supported, and whether or not they're "western", claims == marketing, in the big business of health. Word-of-mouth marketing ("people swear by"), television ads, and even published papers are just different flavors of that. Some claims/marketing are more plausible than others, and it's best to have a good reason for deciding which ones to believe and which to dismiss.

Sweetie-pie. That is what my inquiry to Dupont was about. I didn't say I believe anything. I said I'm open to all ideas, and may or may not adopt any. Relax.

I mean this to be a neutral, not a pointed, aside:

For the record, I prefer not to be addressed as "sweetie-pie."

I think you have missed my point, but I won't pursue it.

fwiw, garlic's been pretty well studied from a clinical/research perspective, with its ability to lower blood pressure (among other things) well-documented.

tossing that off as "nonsense" seems more ill-informed to me than simply saying "i've heard"...

eat laver bread (sea weed) its full of minerals...

The cursory web search I did for such studies this morning showed me no reputable research that conclusively demonstrates effectiveness. Some sources that I considered credible concluded that some blood pressure -reducing effect has been demonstrated, but not sufficiently so to make official recommendation to use garlic for this purpose.

My point is, that if you want to believe a claim such as, "garlic reduces blood pressure," then find direct supporting evidence yourself. It's up to you to convince yourself that the claim is correct; it's not up to someone else to prove the contrary.

If you like, we could spawn a side discussion to explore the documentation behind this particular claim. That might be interesting.

ETA: Oops. Simulpost with Larinda, with whom I agree 100%.


All righty then.

My goal in starting this thread was to get ideas about things that people have tried that they perceive to have been of health benefit to them, not to insist that people cite studies that support their claims. Everyone here is intelligent enough, IMHO, to decide how much credence to give to claims that are made. I also hope that people are responsible enough to do their own thinking and their own research before they ingest products and/or start new health regimens. I know I am.

All I'm looking for, here, is ideas, not arguments. That said, I have no objection to a vigorous discussion, including challenging each others' ideas, as long as we all respect each other and DF guidelines, of course.

exactly. and it should be understood by anyone who is only looking for that kind of data justifying alternative or natural health methods that not only is the motivation & funding for that kind of research going to be more limited than for a potentially profitable & patentable product, but also that data and study results can be purposely skewed in many ways.

as for garlic... am not taking a position either way... but there happen to be many scientific abstracts and assertions by medical universities of the results of those studies, highlighting those particular properties of garlic.

going deeper into that subject doesn't interest me. i spend most of my hours in pharma. i don't need it to tell me whether something in my body is beneficial. when i take it, i have my proof. done.

quite agree. we're all big boys & girls... we can each do the level & kind of research we each respect & need in order to make our own decisions.

Not live bacteria. Botulisum spores. Which it does, but not in a form an adult system can't handle.

Btw, if you feel like going the home route for aspirin, the original primary plant source is meadowsweet, not willow. Easier to process. Either one, you have zero control over what dosage you'll actually get as that's completely dependent on growing conditions, individual plants, at what stage they were picked, how they were handled, and how long they've been sitting around after drying if they were, but willow is going to be more difficult to process and you might not get any actual salicylic acid at all.

I *can* make a comfrey salve. It's much quicker and more reliable to buy burn cream. Likewise I could probably track down the ingredients to make an ersatz Vicks Vapo-Rub, but it's not really worth the effort.

Yeah. I mis-remembered. Wooh mentioned, a page or two back, that botulism in babies ain't pretty.

Aside: It's amazing I survived my mother's mothering. She fed us honey by the bucket full, whole milk from birth, and (heaven forbid!) solid food at two weeks old. It's amazing how cutting edge medical recommendations evolve over time. I wonder if, one of these days, our descendants will look back on medical practices of today and marvel at how barbaric we were. Probably. *shrug*

Cool! I found a web page that has a series of at-desk stretches that look (to me) like yoga poses/stretches that have been modifed so you can do them at work with minimal muss and fuss. Perfect for a quick break, several times a day. :-D

http://www.allthingshealing dot com/Yoga/Take-a-Yoga-Break/8381

My mom still has "liniment" in her medicine cabinet. The same one she's had in there for about 30 years made by my great-great-great aunt. It should still be good, I don't think kerosene goes bad.

My mom has quinine and asafoetida (sp) AND liniment. Ha! I see your crazy lady home remedy and raise you! :lol:

Actually, I should amend what I said earlier about quinine. It's good stuff, however old fashioned. A couple years back, NPR did a story on the top 10(?) discoveries that changed human history, or something like that. Quinine was on the list. It was the first effective treatment for malaria, and enabled all sorts of things, good and bad, such as colonization of India and Africa by people who didn't have immunity. It also saved countless millions of lives.


I just enjoy making fun of my Mom, because I can. When I was little, only near-death experiences prompted doctor visits. Other than that, a handful of home remedies covered everything. Asaphoetida, liniment, quinine, camphor, Milk of Magnesia, Father John's, Vick's Vaporub, paregoric, baking soda and aspirin. That was it. If one of those (or some combination) didn't work, you weren't long for this world. :lol: ETA: Oh yeah and tobacco out of my step-granddad's cigarettes to reduce swelling of bee stings. I kid you not. Tobacco. Do not try this at home, and don't ask me why it works.

So ... what is rolfing? Sounds like a cousin of deep tissue massage. I found this thread which discusses it, but I'm having trouble understanding what structural integration means.

http://www.dance-forums.com/showthread.php?t=27117

Thanks. Yeah. I found it. :-D