I just went to that modern version of a Tupperware party known as the "nutritional supplement information presentation".
I know that sounds snarky but, hey, Tupperware is good stuff. My mom has stuff from 35 years ago that still works. These days they're all MLMs.
So, you kind of have two strikes there: Nutritional supplements and MLM.
But it was hosted by my chiropractor. My chiropractor is probably the least...chiropractor-y chiropractor I've ever had. Often, chiropractors--the red-headed step-children of medicine--are into far-out stuff.
I'm not knocking far-out stuff. I've seen some far-out stuff work. (I'm also a big fan of placebos. I think they're under-rated.)
Anyway, this stuff looks interesting and when one of the person singing its praises is a similarly staid cancer patient talking about how it alleviated 99% of her chemo- and radiation symptoms, well, I have to take notice.
The light research I did before the presentation was fairly good. I thought I'd see how it did with the brood.
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On Saturday mornings all of my conservative radio stations (and Air America) run infomercials for these things.
ReplyDeleteI can't listen, probably because I'm extremely skeptical of everything. I've always wondered why conservative radio listeners would like these things.
The science is spotty at best (of course, even a lot mainstream medicine is a more art, hunch, and tradition than folks realize.) But, like you noted, there is the placebo effect.
I've "experimented" with a lot of different things.
ReplyDeleteHeh. Never "experimented" with drugs, though.
There are some who believe that if it's not vetted by their doctor, it's a sham. Most of the real nutrition supplements guys these days have some studies that show a limited set of benefits, and then they rely on anecdote to carry them the rest of the way.
I'm aware that that's what's going on, though. I don't think it's a big deal if something doesn't work for me. Everybody's working with a limited set of data.
The true swindlers are easy to spot.
Oh, as for liberal vs. conservative, I dunno about ads, because I don't listen to the radio. I probably meet more liberals, insofar as you can tell, who are selling stuff.
ReplyDeleteBut it wouldn't surprise me if it were like homeschooling--that the two most prominent groups are right-wing fundie Christians and left-wing organic eating Gaia-lovers.
Middle-of-the-road folk are almost by definition less adventurous.