I am not an expert. I do however, try to use some common sense and learn and research as much as possible to find new information when it comes to health care. Lately with all of the facebook, pinterest, and other social media sites a buzz with 'secret remedies evil drug companies don't want you to know about' I've been doing even more searching, and I'd like to debunk a few of these 'natural alternatives' that piss me off.
Gluten
Going gluten free is something that mom's everywhere are pushing onto everyone. Supposedly, going gluten free makes you more alert, gives you increased energy, makes you more capable of learning, and all around snobbier. Research says: Unless you have Celiac's disease, going gluten free has no health benefits.
Celiac's disease is something you are born with. If you have Celiac's disease it means that from birth, you are unable to eat gluten without going into anaphylaxis. Anaphylaxis is the medical term for your airways constricting to the point you are suffocating. This means that you cannot process gluten at all, and that if you even try you will stop breathing. Completely. There is no such thing as a 'gluten sensitivity' where it's just harder for you to process it. It doesn't exist. If you're saying "but I cut out gluten and I feel so much better!" that is because of one of two things. Number one, the standard placebo effect. It's been proven to work far more than cutting out gluten. People take sugar pills and lose weight because they think it will help them lose weight. Cutting out gluten, because you're changing your eating behavior, makes you think you must be losing weight, and so you do.
The second reason it may help lose weight is because cutting out gluten usually means you're cutting down on carbs. This diet change has been proven to have many health benefits like weight loss and increased energy, because the foods people replace carbs with, such as ones high in protein, are typically easier to break down into energy. This has been tried and tested many times and has been shown to work for many people. Limiting carbs, not gluten specifically, is what makes you feel better. Eating the same amount of carbs that are gluten free as you were before you switched shows little weight loss, and usually weight gain instead. These substitutes are typically higher in fat content and will in no way help you lose weight or feel better. If cutting out gluten makes it easier for you to cut carbs, go for it. But cutting out gluten for the sake of it is in no way beneficial. You're missing out on lots of minerals people typically get from foods that tend to contain gluten. There is nothing wrong with gluten as a substance. Humans have evolved over hundreds of years to be able to process all kinds of foods, and gluten was an easy one. It's normal for your body.
Honey and Cinnamon
There's a facebook post that's been going around for a while about the secret benefits of honey and cinnamon, claiming to cure everything from acne to cancer to the common cold. Some of these cures work, but most do not. While taking a little honey and cinnamon every day isn't going to hurt to try, research it before you try to cure brain tumors and heart disease without a doctor's help.
One of the reasons people claim that it works to cure things like influenza and colds is because honey contains natural antibiotics. This is true, it does. So does garlic and several other foods. Before you start squirting honey or garlic juice in your ear to fix an earache or sinus infection, understand that there are not enough antibiotics in any of these foods on their own to fight off bacteria that has taken hold in your body. Raw, unprocessed honey contains enough antibiotics to keep bacteria from growing in it, but for it to work in a human you would have to have veins running with honey. Also, these posts typically say that once you start feeling sick you should take a spoonful of honey until you feel better, usually around 3-4 days. If this works for you, you had a VIRAL infection, not a bacteria, and would have gotten better on your own in the same amount of time. Colds are viral infections, not bacterial, so even if there were enough antibiotics in honey to cure a bacterial infection, it would not work on a cold. Your body is strong enough to fight a lot of these things on its own. It's awesome like that.
There are some things that honey and cinnamon will work on, like your skin. Both ingredients contain exfoliators, antioxidents, and moisturizers that are all beneficial for skin care. This combination has also been shown to reduce inflamation in many people. Some of these tests are still inconclusive, but overall showing some positive results for people with arthritis pain, gout, and other regular inflamation even including heartburn, skin rashes, and even gas. It's not going to work on a swollen ankle or bruise because your body can heal those things on its own before the honey and cinnamon have a chance to start working. While it hasn't been shown to work for everyone, it can't really hurt to try for problems like this.
One of the reasons this post bothers me it because of the way it paints drug companies, scientists, and health care in general. It implies that every human being working in this field is so unethical and uncaring that they would conceal cancer treatments and allow people to die simply because they want to willingly deceive the public to make a profit. Yes, there are people out there like this, but do you really believe that the entire scientific community and every single health care practitioners are this way? Or that medical schools have conspired and fabricated western medicine to such an extent? Do you really think any one group of people are capable of keeping these secrets for so long?
Detoxes
There are tons of spas and drug stores offering detox foot baths or pads, drinks, or pills that claim to detox your system to help you lose weight and feel better. The best you can get out of these things is a fancy footbath and diarrhea. The latter can sometimes be good if you've been having digestive issues, but if you are able to eat and poop normally and regularly without pain or other side effects, your body is detoxing you naturally. It does it on its own. Human beings did not get to where we are now by evolving without a natural waste-detox system built in.
The foot pads and baths are all a scam. The pads that are sold in drug stores are designed to use different pads on the bottom of your feet in a claim that they pull toxins out of your body. These were proven to be a scam and pulled from the market at least for a while. The way they showed they were 'working' was by turning different colors after you had them on to show all the toxins they pulled out. Then, as you used them for several days or weeks, they would turn lighter colors to show you have fewer toxins now. In reality, the different pads were made with chemicals that when exposed to oxygen in the air for a certain amount of time they would turn colors. Then, the pads you would use successively would contain less amounts of these chemicals. Other pads contain teas that soak up sweat from your feet to turn colors to show you the toxins.
The foot baths at spas or sold for home use have also been proven to be a scam. They use the same kinds of oxidation chemicals to show your 'toxins' being washed away. All they are is a fancy, expensive foot bath. None of these things hurt you, so if you feel better doing it, as most of us do with a nice foot soak, you might as well, but a tub full of warm soapy water will do the exact same thing.
As far as detox pills and drinks and diets, these can be more harmful and you should be careful of any that are too severe. Most of them contain diuretics and laxatives that flush water and poop out of you quickly. The myth that the average person is holding 15 lbs of waste in them at any one time is false. If you have constipation problem or gastrointestinal issues, then you may be one of these extreme cases, and you should talk to your doctor if you're concerned.
Most of the time however, your body is pretty good at flushing out any toxins. That's why we're able to eat things like gluten, overcome viruses, and poop by ourselves. Congratulations, your body is more awesome than you thought! I'll leave you with my favorite video on the subject, created by Australian comedian Tim Minchin, with some suggestions about natural medicine and other life lessons.
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