Essential Oils And Other Holistic Bullshit

Herbalife is the new thing. I have no idea what it is but my neighbor sells the shit, and keeps two U Hauls parked out front filled with inventory.

It’s a slimming* shake MLM company (one of the biggest MLMs in the world), not holistic medicine.

  • I have no opinion on whether the product “works”.

I’m of two minds on the subject. I know enough about science and medicine to understand that the vast majority of these things are a bunch of crap. At the same time, I do all sorts of things that make me feel better that don’t have much constructive use behind them aside from that, and so I feel a bit awkward talking people out of their voodoo. Now don’t get me wrong - when someone starts eschewing actual medicine when they need it, that’s one thing I won’t stand for. And if someone tries to talk another out of getting medical care, then I’m likely to go ballistic. But if somebody thinks that oil X helps them get over their cold quicker, then I usually just smile, nod, and say something noncommittal and let it go because perhaps the real value of the snake oil is that it makes people feel more empowered and worldly, giving a sense of confidence that possibly carries over into other facets of their lives.
“I can’t go into work because I’m feeling like crap. My boss is probably going to fire me.”
“I feel like crap, but I took supermagic oil formula that is a special secret that only my friends know about, and while I still feel bad at least I can “sense” that I’m getting better and I should be able to make it through the day”

… or something like that.

As a parent of a toddler, fuck those guys. A serious big fuck you for putting my kid at risk.

There are people I know who adhere to that bullshit. They are not allowed around my kid, plain and simple. Because they’re idiots, and put my kid at more risk for nasty diseases. (can you tell I take this a little personally?)

Placebo effects are immensely powerful, because your brain is capable of producing a whole pharmacy’s worth of drugs. It can do some amazing shit. So sure, things that don’t do anything can potentially still have utility, by tapping into that effect.

But it’s also kind of bullshit to charged people money for it. It’s the same as the bullshit preachers who get poor people to send them money.

And when folks abandon actual medicine in favor of magic, then it’s problematic, especially when it comes to things like vaccines.

I have no problem with placebo treatment. Stuff that is very much unlikely to help, but also does no harm? Have at it. I don’t buy old wives tales about treatments, but as long as they are in addition to modern medicine, have at it. It is when they are instead of medicine I lose my mind.

And then you spread your disease throughout the workplace. Thanks, magic!

Well, sure, but on an individual level it is often the only viable choice. Corporate culture being what it is some people simply do not have a choice not to go in.

Honestly, in my experience, spreading illness through the workplace is basically trivial compared to folks getting shit from their kids.

Kids are basically the only things keeping disease going, I think. As far as I can tell, when they go to school they sirens ask their time living each other’s faces, and possibly the floor and hand rails.

I once saw a kid lick the railing of a moving walkway in the Philadelphia airport.

So, these oils.

They healthier than the oil Popeye’s fries chicken in?

What happens if you cook ancient grains with essential oils?

They turn into diamonds.

Y’know, I’ve got some quinoa and steel cut oats lying around. Anyone wanna buy me a few ounces of cedarwood, pine, and cade essential oils and I’ll cook up the manliest fucking porridge you’ve ever seen?

Interesting article. My point still stands though. Doctors aren’t trying to prescribe cinnamon dust and not finding it on theapproved drugs list, and instead having to prescribe the 30x expensive Cinnamon Dust XL. ;)

By the same measure: surely homeopathic sellers are horrible human beings? They could simply drop their solutions into the toilet are cure humanity, but instead they horde it in bottles and sell it.

Rennie manage to package and sell chalk ;)

Doctors in the UK aren’t out to make money from the patients. (They probably make it from the NHS and drugs companies). So I trust my doctor, and I’d like to think he likes to cure me. If he says take X, I will. So if he thinks cinnamon dust is the best thing for whooping cough… why isn’t he doling it out?

Your food will taste of tree sap.

Is there actually more of this now or has the internet just “outed” them? I imagine there have been people who followed non-traditional methods for a long time but before they were kind of underground, and not sold on line or talked about by Hollywood stars.

I knew a kid in about 1970, his father was an eye doctor. Around 1985 I became one of his patients and I asked how his son was doing. Well, he was living on the coast practicing holistic medicine. There was something there that said his father wasn’t a big fan of it.

I certainly find it extremely likely that everything an MLM is pushing is utter bullshit. However, the test for bullshit claims isn’t “If big pharma isn’t making it, it must not be any use.” There are at least a few things out that are helpful but don’t get approval because they can’t be patented, so there is no incentive to do the trials. See also a whole pile of Soviet medicines - proven safe and effective, but unpatentable in the west, so no percentage in paying for trials.

Maybe TMI. As an ex-drug addict, placebo effect does nothing for me. If I don’t get the real deal, I know it. When I was in high school, I had friends that were really trusting. I’m not talking in a bad way, no. But I was able to use the placebo effect for good.

Example: Let’s call her S. S was one of my best friends. She was really worried about the English Regents Exam test in our Senior year. She was sure that she would fail. So I told her that I would give her a few capsules of speed that would help her stay awake and study before the test.

Now there is no possible way that you can suddenly study for a Regents test. But I know she had it in her to pass. I was i9n her classes. She was just worried.

So I took a couple of my mother’s iron capsules. Maybe I could have left the iron supplement in them? Anyway, I filled them with sugar. I gave them to her and guaranteed that she could take them and study for a bit but then go to sleep. The drug would help her memory, but not be speedy.

TL;DR. She did fine.

I never told her what I did.

Is she addicted to sugar now?

There are still people making and drinking colloidal silver solution and sleeping under crystal pyramids; there is nothing new under the sun (skin cancer trigger warning).

I’d like to read more about this “unpatentable soviet medicine” thing. Do you have any examples I can look up? Googling for “soviet medicine” just brings up lots of articles written by American journalists discussing how amazing cradle-to-grave free healthcare is.

The majority of humans still believe there’s a magical man that put the stars in the sky. How does it surprise you that they’ll believe in magical healin oils too? :(