Chinese herbs - spiritually ok?

[LilyM]

HopkinsReb:

You don’t need a patent to sell things.

Big Pharma in USA runs on patents. If something is not patentable, they don’t bother because they won’t make enough money out of it.

Loads of companies sell alternatives to pharmaceuticals (eg herbal supplements) and seem to do very well out of it. No reason pharma can’t do the same.

 

[Tis_Bearself]

I have a lot of exposure to big pharma during my past career and one of my friends is a high level manager in the industry. Just take my word for it, they don’t want to sell herbs. They basically want to sell things they can have a monopoly on for a period of time and the patent laws are set up to let them do that with stuff they can patent. There are entire bodies of IP law just for Big Pharma. They are not interested in competing with some company selling unpatentable items.

 

[HopkinsReb]

And yet generics are still widely available.

Patents are necessary for new drugs because they allow manufacturers to recoup R&D costs, which are sky-high (and paid almost entirely by US patients, as most countries have banned selling drugs at their true production cost). But there are loads of widely available drugs with expired patents produced by big pharma.

 

[HopkinsReb]

I’m not arguing that all herbal remedies are ineffectual. I’m just saying that I trust peer-reviewed research over ancient Chinese wisdom when it comes to such matters.

 

[Tis_Bearself]

Just sharing my personal experience as a patent lawyer who dealt with big Pharma for a few years. I’ll bow out now as this is another thread where discussion has become unproductive.

 

[Angel_Gabriel]

Yeah I agree here…herbs can be effective but they aren’t regulated so a person has no way of knowing the strength in any given bottle. (And make no mistake, A LOT are imported from China…who the heck knows what else could be in them!). With a pharmaceutical drug, it has passed trials…it will state what the side effects are. (there are ALWAYS side effects…anything strong enough to have an effect will have a side effect.)

It always baffles me how people can continue to say they don’t want any chemicals in their body…as they load up on herbs and essential oils which are, essentially, chemicals.

 

[BartholomewB]

There are also many cases of placebos helping treat conditions. It’s the reason that they use them in studies.

Yes, that’s why I was favorably impressed by acupuncture curing a sick dog. I am assuming that dogs aren’t as gullible as we are when a man in a white coat feeds us a spoonful of sugared water and assures us it will cure whatever it was we were complaining about.

 

[Bluebright]

I’d say do some research into what herbs you are being given (as you would medicine) for your health sake and also into your herbalist (just in case there isnt some organisation regulating them like there is with our medical profession). Look into the church teachings, it seems you have looked into this and are avoiding any occult like things. If you have researched all that and are happy then go for it. God gave you a brain for discernment, it also can’t hurt to pray and ask him. God bless

 

[HopkinsReb]

HopkinsReb:

There are also many cases of placebos helping treat conditions. It’s the reason that they use them in studies.

Yes, that’s why I was favorably impressed by acupuncture curing a sick dog. I am assuming that dogs aren’t as gullible as we are when a man in a white coat feeds us a spoonful of sugared water and assures us it will cure whatever it was we were complaining about.

Thing is, there was a study of placebos in which it was found that a placebo worked even when the patient was told it was a placebo.

It seems to be the case that simply having someone care for you has an impact.

 

[fin]

And some of those ancient wisdom happen to be effective, which is what matters. This whole looking for a demon under every rock isn’t helpful imo. Shrugs.