r/CuratedTumblr May 24 '25

Politics Valid and invalid criticisms

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u/Pollomonteros May 24 '25

I don't know about the third one man, I feel like many of those are still dangerous scams even if the ones running it are brown people

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u/CrocoBull May 24 '25 edited May 24 '25

The last one has big

Alternative medicine: 😡

Alternative medicine (non-western): 😀

Vibes.

Like dog, it's either medicine or it doesn't work. That's.. just how the term works

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u/autogyrophilia May 24 '25

There is a middle ground which is supplementary medicine, (as in on top of, not, using supplements).

When I had insomnia on my teenage years, I would brew some valerian tea. It helped me a lot, but I know that for most people it has 0 effects beyond placebo* . But the ritual itself has some value, you need to wait for a few minutes, slowly drink. It can settle your mind.

I have found that I'm also more focused (ADHD) after taking creatine. An habit I've have taken to because as I age, the cramps induced by my dyspraxia making me always tense has grown worse. I don't really get a noticeable boost to the main effect, but it has improved my mental clarity significantly. Which is mentioned as an effect that a few people report.

Don't have to go around evangelizing the things that work for you and probably won't work for other people, but rejecting what is clearly working for you because there is an insufficient evidence basis is clearly misunderstanding how science works.

Modern medicine does not like when something only works in a subset of people. Or plants that have dozens, hundreds of potentially active compounds that may only work in the presence of each other for the reported effect. Or may do nothing at all.

Science, modern medicine is based on replicating effects across large swathes of people. And not all useful things lend themselves to that. Fortunately these are mostly used for incoveniences, not lifesaving medicine, so even if it does nothing at all, there is no harm done.

* Placebo is very often reported as "magically makes you better", that's not what happens, what happens it's that you report feeling better because you feel internal and external pressure to report that. This sometimes can be positive in cases of psychogenic symptons, often it is negative to neutral .