Date: Wed, 28 Jan 98 5:54:22 EST From: boddhisatva <kbevans-AT-panix.com> Subject: Re: M-I: Re: Ecology and the American Indian C. Sid, Scientific American has nice little article this month about the capitalist snow-job that is the "herbal medicine" trend. Have you ever heard the term "snake oil?". In Germany, where verdant liberals delight that doctors prescribe St. John's wort for depression instead of Prozac, and somehow consider it a victory for the proletariat. They ignore the fact that much of the data that the German Federal Health Authority's Commission E publishes in support of herbal remedies is proprietary studies by manufacturers and historical studies without controls. Greens also ignore that natural medicines are gather from nature by such methods as shooting rhinos, poisoning seahorses with cyanide and raking the underbrush clear in search of wild ginseng. Of course there are beneficial herbs and natural substances. Many of them derive from the defenses plants create *against* being eaten (capsicum - the active ingredient in capsaicin arthritis rub, for one, digitalis for another). But at least Merck poisons a few mice with their brews and sends out the results to the scientific community and the FDA before they sell the stuff. In America, recent changes in the law mean that I could go around selling hemlock and no one could stop me until someone died from it. You have to prove, not potential harm, but immediate danger before you can remove a "natural' product from the shelf. As for my comments on cannibalism, I was simply pointing out that there is a difference between learning from a culture and lionizing it. peace --- from list marxism-international-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu ---
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