Do Vitamins Block Disease? Some Disappointing News

[zazen]

33. I understand how the scientific process works quite well, thank you very much

And that includes how scientific knowledge is rhetorically constructed and grounded in ideological assumptions that are more powerful because they are more tacit. There are entire fields to understand the rhetoric and sociology of medicine, you know.

The scientific "method" has for 3-4 centuries been practiced by humans who get locked into asking questions, seeking evidence, determining what is evidence, using tools, and otherwise "advancing" knowledge through powerful paradigms that help them focus but also inherently blind them to what may be right in front of them.

Frances Bacon said something to the effect of "truth is more easily arrived at through error than confusion." The precision and rigor of science forces people to believe a set of precepts, which drives them to a range of discoveries. But that belief can blind them to other potential paradigms.

I'm very open to how routine supplements may paradoxically be causing harm. But I'm healthily skeptical of all findings and lines of research, whether they're pushed by the AMA or big pharma or NIH or a vitamin company or a foundation that's promoting naturopathic medicine--or even just funded by them, since I believe rigorous, well-meaning people do not go around intentionally promoting the agendas of their funders in the face of contrary evidence.

What I think is a powerful new source of scientific advance is this emerging trend on the internet of well-informed citizen/patient groups gathering enough anecdotal data (which really meets the standards of a lot of exploratory pilot work in clinical research) to justify further inquiry. These groups are struggling with a particular condition and are desperate to heal. They haven't had an opportunity to coalesce (rarely, except say with Lyme or in fighting medical obstetric practices) until the Internet, but I think there's great power here. They don't have secondary profit or academic or professional motivations. There's research on the "wisdom" of crowds tending to make guestimates, at least of numbers of beans in a jar, that tend to form a bell curve around the accurate answer. I wonder about these crowds at least suggesting interesting directions of research.

I bring this up also because just because someone isn't an MD doesn't disqualify them from a critical reading of peer-reviewed research, whether because their PhD is in another field or because they're a well-informed patient.