Comments on: What Your Grandmother Told You…Still Holds True http://www.maryamwebster.com/blog/echinacea_is_good/ More Time, Space and Bliss for Busy Women in Leadership Fri, 04 Jul 2008 00:57:33 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.1.2 By: Eivind Eklund http://www.maryamwebster.com/blog/echinacea_is_good/#comment-184 Eivind Eklund Mon, 09 Jul 2007 12:07:05 +0000 http://www.maryamwebster.com/blog/echinacea_is_good/#comment-184 As I see it, there is a very good reason to see hundreds of years of anecdotal evidence as nothing more than an inspiration for what to check out: It has much of the time - probably most of the time - been wrong. It is definitively a good idea to check these things out; it's a bad idea to take the anecdotes as proof, as they're so often bogus. As I see it, there is a very good reason to see hundreds of years of anecdotal evidence as nothing more than an inspiration for what to check out: It has much of the time - probably most of the time - been wrong.

It is definitively a good idea to check these things out; it’s a bad idea to take the anecdotes as proof, as they’re so often bogus.

]]> By: Maryam http://www.maryamwebster.com/blog/echinacea_is_good/#comment-198 Maryam Tue, 10 Jul 2007 18:55:32 +0000 http://www.maryamwebster.com/blog/echinacea_is_good/#comment-198 <font color="#000080"><strong><em><font size="2">Hi Eivind, </font></em></strong></font><br /> <p>Thanks for commenting. You say "most of the time" anecdotal reports are wrong - would you have studies on that for us to check out? I haven't seen any that say this...but I have seen increasing studies by clinics such as Mayo and Meninger on the effectiveness of things as diverse as herbal medicine and shamanic drumming. </p> <br /><p></p> <p>Though you're right, just because someone says something is so is no reason not to check it out. Some of these things work, some of them don't, for sure. Sometimes folks back-when were just using what they had at hand that worked most of the time and passed that knowledge on because it was better than nothing at all. But to throw out years of 'what works' because the scientific studies haven't been done yet is throwing the baby out with the bathwater. Echinacea in particular has hundreds of years of proven safety and effectiveness in the Native American community. <br /> </p><p></p> <br /> We need to be mindful of what we dismiss and our addiction to the advanced knowledge of modern science. (which isn't often as advanced as it thinks it is) Simply because a workable tool is native knowledge or anecdotally corroborated does not mean it is untested. And scientific inquiry isn't all it's cracked up to be either - statistics can (and have) been manipulated and made to tell the story drug manufacturers, research houses and hospitals want them to as well. And as I said above, big pharma is not friendly to cures which grow in the ground - and hence, which it cannot lay patent to.<br /> <br /> Caveat lector. <br /> <br /> <font size="2" color="#000080"><strong><em>Warmly, <br /> Maryam</em></strong></font> Hi Eivind,

Thanks for commenting. You say "most of the time" anecdotal reports are wrong - would you have studies on that for us to check out? I haven’t seen any that say this…but I have seen increasing studies by clinics such as Mayo and Meninger on the effectiveness of things as diverse as herbal medicine and shamanic drumming.

Though you’re right, just because someone says something is so is no reason not to check it out. Some of these things work, some of them don’t, for sure. Sometimes folks back-when were just using what they had at hand that worked most of the time and passed that knowledge on because it was better than nothing at all. But to throw out years of ‘what works’ because the scientific studies haven’t been done yet is throwing the baby out with the bathwater. Echinacea in particular has hundreds of years of proven safety and effectiveness in the Native American community.

We need to be mindful of what we dismiss and our addiction to the advanced knowledge of modern science. (which isn’t often as advanced as it thinks it is) Simply because a workable tool is native knowledge or anecdotally corroborated does not mean it is untested. And scientific inquiry isn’t all it’s cracked up to be either - statistics can (and have) been manipulated and made to tell the story drug manufacturers, research houses and hospitals want them to as well. And as I said above, big pharma is not friendly to cures which grow in the ground - and hence, which it cannot lay patent to.

Caveat lector.

Warmly,
Maryam

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