As I understand humans in different parts of the world consumed supplements without scientific knowledge of how they work. The scientific methods found some supplements to be good, others to be bad and the jury is still out on some. Is there a list of supplements that once had no scientific data for their efficacy but are now proven to be effective ?
Here are some examples that I believe fall in this category :
1> Fiber supplements (Psyllium husk was used centuries ago to cure stomach ailments)
2> Eucalyptus used for helping flus and bodyache
3> Stomach flora (Use of yogurt to supplement)
4> Cranberry juice for UTIs
Maybe woo is the wrong term, but say maybe 20 years back there was no published scientific data to show the benefits of fiber or active cultures in diet. So the medical community would not recommend these things - right ? All I am trying to establish is a list of supplements that people took with anecdotal evidence that were later proven to be beneficial by scientific methods.
Many common cures we have now are from folk remedies. That doesn’t make them “woo” unless the proponents are suggesting these nostrums worked for literally everything, or that because they stumbled on some things with pharmacological significance then every ditch weed is a miracle cure waiting to be recognized.
Apologies for the double post, but it has only been relatively recently that there has been any “scientific” studies of diet and supplements. And even a hundred-twenty years ago, Kellogg was dosing his victims, um, patients with vegetarian meals and yogurt at his Battle Creek sanatarium.
Nutrition has attracted more quackery than almost any other field of human endeavour. You can find “doctors” recommending almost anything. Some have proven to be useful (or at leat not harmful).
Thank you DrFidelius. Can you help me establish this list and the history of these cures as to when they made the transition from folk cure to scientifically recommended ?
Every time you show that one of thousand folk/woo remedies had some sort of health benefit (and one much narrower than claimed), you encourage the wootiful into thinking all folk remedies have some sort of health benefit.
I respect your opinion, and I do not believe it is true for everyone. Just like proving antibiotics have resistance risks or tylenol is the leading cause of liver failure in the US does not stop everyone from taking it.
I think it is good to make informed choices and to balance risk with benefit for any cure. It is in this spirit that I seek the list in the OP.
Is this one actually proven to be effective? I thought it was established that it had no effect when consumed in any kind of quantity that could be reasonably imbibed.
I reiterate Tripolar’s exception to “once had no scientific data for their efficacy” being considered synonymous with “woo”. Every medical treatment ever once had no scientific data for their efficacy.
In my mind, for something to be “woo” requires much more than that – it needs a devoted following that is absolutely certain of the treatment’s efficacy despite scientific research projects not finding the purported effect, exaggerated claims of the technique as a cure for a great many ailments, and (usually) a small industry around convincing people to try it.
Merely, “used to be a folk remedy, and then research found that it works” does not make a woo-to-science success story.
There’s a big difference between “folk or ancient remedy found to have efficacy” and “cure-all/discovery of the foundation of all ailments, lacking evidence and defying basic principles of science/medicine which is nonetheless fanatically believed in by supporters, a.k.a. woo”.
As regards the OP’s list, adequate fiber intake and sometimes fiber supplements have long been promoted in mainstream medicine. Eucalyptus extracts have been used for symptomatic relief of colds and flu (typically in OTC meds) for many years. Cranberry juice as noted may have some efficacy in UTIs but is no panacea, nor as it been ignored by mainstream medicine. Use of probiotics is something that has relatively recently gotten more attention in standard medical practice, once researchers were able to sort out actual uses from the great welter of nutritional nonsense promulgated by woo-sters.
It is good to be wary of the argument that Medicine Wuz Wrong Before, since it ignores the willingness of mainstream science/medicine to adopt new treatments/discard old ones if sufficient evidence supports such action*, and is used by alt med advocates to promote long disproven/nonsensical therapies (like homeopathy, adjusting one’s bodily pH, coffee enemas to flush out “toxins”, ear candling etc.).
*something the woo-prone are not willing to do. When’s the last time you heard of a woo therapy being discarded by alt med supporters because it is useless/dangerous?
The original cranberry juice “study” was funded by a cranberry growers association looking for a way to get their product used year round instead of mainly only during the Thanksgiving to Christmas season.
The flawed bought-and-paid-for “study” became an advertising campaign and became entrenched with the woo crowd.
Even if your sources are correct this is still a misuse of the term ‘woo’. I have heard of doctors recommending cranberry juice for UTI. Perhaps they did so knowing that drinking fluids was helpful, and fruit juices in general more beneficial than other drinks. To be woo, it would have to involve people insisting on it’s efficacy in the face of contrary evidence. It’s quite reasonable to believe that cranberry juice might be effective, and evidence to the contrary seems to be somewhat recent.
Doctors are no less susceptible to woo and urban legend than the rest of us, and if this story was true it would show up somewhere on the Internet (and doesn’t appear to). It’s not as though most practicing physicians conduct their own efficacy trials.
It’s one thing to question the efficacy of cranberry as a UTI treatment. It’s another to explain the origin of the belief as a fraud.
It is no secret that Ocean Spray funded the 1984 study that started the advertising campaign. Ocean Spray continues to fund research into the benefits of cranberry juice. Studies not funded by the cranberry business tend to find little to no effect.
Some doctors have indeed gotten caught up in the woo, however, urologists deal with this stuff on a daily basis … and they do not recommend cranberry juice as a treatment or preventative. They say “It’s just juice. Drink it if you like it.”