Anti-woo commentators are a bunch of smug and condescending...

[Th1onein]

160. This is really a sad statement, made in ignorance.

Do you know that if a compound cannot be patented, because the patent has already been filed for, over twenty years prior, or because it is a natural compound, then it is almost always relegated to the "alternative remedy" realm? Why is that?

Because pharmas will not spend the money to test it, because if they do, other pharmas can make it and compete with their profits. So, now, you've got a system where you don't use most naturally derived (or older) compounds. They are simply lost to mainstream medicine. It's a shame.

Now, if you're lucky, the pharma will take the natural (or out of patent) compound and create a compound that's shaped almost the same, and test it for toxicity and efficacy. This testing takes YEARS, sometimes even DECADES. In the meantime, people are dying. They are dying because the pharma will not test that which it cannot profit off of.

And, then there's you, and others like you, who continually hammer in the idea, which is wrong, that these compounds are "woo." You tie the ribbon on the package, and deliver it to the hopeless, hapless consumer. It's a shame.

I'm not saying that there are not companies out there who take a piece of research on a compound found in nature, and exploit people to think that that compound is a miracle compound. They do that all the time. But the consumer has an obligation to himself, to do their research, to sort through the bullcrap, and come out with an understanding as to whether these compounds will help or hurt them. They also need to do their research and find out exactly how much of the "active" ingredient is in the product that the supplement company is selling. It's a buyer beware market, for sure, but you can at least be thankful that we still have the freedom to GET these compounds. If the pharmas had their way, you wouldn't be able to.