I saw this interesting segment the other day and felt it was worth sharing to you.
It’s from John Oliver’s Last Week Tonight on HBO. (Warning: some people will likely find this offensive.)
As you can imagine, writing various books and articles, investigating herbs and health I read a fair amount of scientific articles.
And the more I do, the more flaws I see in science.
Yes, there is lower quality research and then better, but that’s only one problem.
This video mostly speaks to a few big issues.
First of all, a single study will become generalized and then sensationalized in our media.
Just the other day I passed by a TV news show somewhere and saw the headline “Gluten free diets found only to be beneficial to those with Celiac disease.”
Yeah, tell that to the thousands of people who have found it helpful and healthful to cut out or limit gluten.
The problem is that people then take this sort of message like gospel.
The second problem here has to do with the repeat-ability of studies, or rather the lack of it.
Studies cost money, often times lots of it. Funding seldom comes for the purpose of repeating something that was previously found.
Plus even in science people like NEW!
Then we see the issue with the search for statistically significant correlations. With random data this can be gathered through what is called “p-hacking”.
The other issue here is just because something works for one person doesn’t mean it will work for you.
Few people realize that science doesn’t prove things. It makes hypotheses and builds evidence for or against something, but it doesn’t actually prove anything.
But people tend to act as if it’s an all or nothing game.
For instance, Ashwagandha is “proven” to help in lower cortisol and the symptoms of stress. Multiple studies have found this, so in this case it is repeated.
In A Prospective, Randomized Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Study of Safety and Efficacy of a High-Concentration Full-Spectrum Extract of Ashwagandha Root in Reducing Stress and Anxiety in Adults, there was shown an overall 27.9% decrease in cortisol compared to 7.9% in the placebo group.
With the 64 subjects in this study this result was statistically significant. But what is not covered is individual results. 27.9% is an average. There are likely people that had double that result, while there are likely some people that became more stressed while on Ashwagandha.
John Oliver chastises one of the newsmen for saying “I think the way to live your life is to find the study that sounds best to you, and you go with that.” Well, since the placebo effect is so powerful that might just be a useful idea.
It might not sound scientific, but the placebo is the most scientifically studied thing there is! It’s not ashwagandha, but placebo did lower those people’s stress too.
Science is great. But we need to be careful placing it on a higher pedestal than it belongs.
After all when it comes to herbs, some herbs have more science behind them than others.
With pine pollen there are NO human studies. There’s barely even rat studies!
The problem with that is there are some people who believe if there is no science, it means it doesn’t work.
But because of the complexity and cost of good, repeatable scientific studies, we need to understand this is a big lagging indicator of anything’s effects.
We plan to continue to showcase science because that is what many people and the government wants us to show. In an ideal world everything would be “scientifically proven.”
But we are not in an ideal world. So with these flaws, look at science but do so within the frame of a bigger picture. That’s what we strive to do.
References:
- Yang, Qi, Mitochondria and Chronic Fatigue - March 27, 2024
- Eczema: A Natural Approach to Soothing Your Skin - March 10, 2024
- Harmless vs. Pathogenic E. coli - February 27, 2024
Barry says
So agree with you assessment.
Another huge problem is using the template of pharmacological pseudo science coming to conclusions based on isolates & not the whole plant.
It is a total lie to come to conclusions of any plant or tree medicine based on isolated studies. It does not even follow the Kock postulates. Years ago I read articles of so called scientists doing studies on dirt only to read that they were studying sterilized dirt. So ridiculous yet the sheeple are so easily moved.
mary jane bennett says
I’m betting if Jesus could heal people with touch, and part of that might have been their belief in it, that he also most likely imparted some other healthful advice to his disciples … and back then I wonder if they worked off a theory or just tried stuff until they found something that worked! Often by watching what animals did when they were ill, and then passed down the info. I have a book of old Egyptian cures that is really fascinating
Steven Mazur says
Both ashwaganda and pine pollen are a part of my daily routine. Can not say enough about these.