Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Growing a home apothecary

worldsensorium.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

41–50 of 56 posts

Re: Growing a home apothecary

#41

Post by teaker »

oblib wrote: post #32

I'll chime in for raw honey even though it's not a plant. About 12-15 years ago I started getting pain in my right shoulder. This went on for about 6 months. My wife and friends and my doctor told me it was "bursitis" and I'd need an operation to get rid of it. Back then going to the doctor was the leading cause of avoidable death so I wasn't keen on getting that operation (it's now the 3rd leading cause of avoidable…

Going to the doctor is a leading cause of death? I'd love to see the literature backing that claim up.

Guess we all better cancel those annual checkups!

Re: Growing a home apothecary

#42

Post by amanaplanacanal »

tsol wrote: post #29
jalk wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is it naïve to think that clinical trials have show that modern medicine is more effective? And the active molecules in those plants have been identified and can probably in many cases be synthesized more easily than extracted from the plants.

Yes and no. If I'm nauseous I can take a little ginger, but there isn't really an comparable over the counter anti-nausea med. There's dimenhydrinate for motion sickness, but that's different. Ondansetron is a prescription only anti-nausea med that's very effective, but obviously much harder to obtain. So modern medicine is more effective, only for the proper indication and when a 'modern' treatment is easily availab…

Isn’t that one of the recognized uses for cannabis?

Re: Growing a home apothecary

#43

Post by asdff »

boomskats wrote: post #25

Something worth remembering when criticising traditional herbal medicine for its lack of double blind clinical trials, is that clinical trials cost serious money. It's unfortunate, but with the way things work in the western world currently, it isn't in anyone's commercial interest to invest in proving the efficacy of any of these herbal remedies. They aren't patentable (because they're plants and because there's pri…

This is what the government grant system is designed to be for: to fund research that otherwise wouldn't happen because only so much good science has a direct path to profitability within the attention-span of your average shareholder.

Re: Growing a home apothecary

#44

Post by thethirdone »

oblib wrote: post #32

I'll chime in for raw honey even though it's not a plant. About 12-15 years ago I started getting pain in my right shoulder. This went on for about 6 months. My wife and friends and my doctor told me it was "bursitis" and I'd need an operation to get rid of it. Back then going to the doctor was the leading cause of avoidable death so I wasn't keen on getting that operation (it's now the 3rd leading cause of avoidable…

From Mayo clinic:

> Bursitis generally gets better on its own.

[0] https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/bursitis/diag...

Re: Growing a home apothecary

#45

Post by blacksmith_tb »

vorpalhex wrote: post #21
mtrpcic wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While I think the assessment that modern medicine is more effective, and often stands on the shoulders of these types of historically used plants, not everyone has safe access to modern medicine (either because "modern" medical treatments aren't available where they're located, lack of finances to pay for it in egregiously overpriced areas, or general mistreatment by the medical community). Using alternatives, while…

Except those alternatives will kill you dead if mishandled. This isn't a choice between "cough medicine" and "slightly less effective cough medicine", it's a choice between a controlled and inspected product and random plants that may or may not be the right genus, dose and concentration.

'Wrong Genus' seems to be giving monks and other gardeners less credit than they deserve? Sure, amateurs foraging for wild herbs could make some dangerous mistakes, but if you're intentionally growing a plant it's presumably the right one?

Re: Growing a home apothecary

#46

Post by thethirdone »

jalk wrote: post #12
luminouslow wrote: post #2

In medieval Europa monasteries were required since Pope Gregor to grow a number of medicinal plants to ensure that the population has access to medicine. While i am not an opponent of modern medicine, it is kind of sad how little modern humans use the remedies nature provides. Search for monastery medicine for more info.

Is it naïve to think that clinical trials have show that modern medicine is more effective? And the active molecules in those plants have been identified and can probably in many cases be synthesized more easily than extracted from the plants.

I think it would be naive to think that all modern medicine is more effective than herbal counterparts. Our understanding of medicine is not great enough currently to dismiss herbal medicines without investigation.

Much of our existing medicines come from scientific study of herbal medicines, and I do not think we have yet fully tapped that source of knowledge.

Additionally, I think there are many cases where an herbal medicine is a like 50% effective solution compared to modern medicine, but less than 10% the price. Many doctors may not even be aware of such treatments.

One non-herbal but older than modern medicine treatment I am aware of is soaking cuts, punctures, etc in very salty water to disinfect and help it close better. This is exceedingly cheap and helps ensure wounds never get infected.

Re: Growing a home apothecary

#48

Post by hosh »

hosh wrote: post #18
jalk wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is it naïve to think that clinical trials have show that modern medicine is more effective? And the active molecules in those plants have been identified and can probably in many cases be synthesized more easily than extracted from the plants.

I don’t think modern medicine has really taken a close look at synergistic effects of combinations of active ingredients. Our bodies are complex living systems, and it’s naive to think that our crude approach to pharmaceuticals — where we treat the body as a complicated, rather than complex system — is working well. Furthermore, this kind of tech requires expertise that is not easily decentralized. As such, it tends…

It’s also important for people to be able to participate in the well-being of themselves, their family, and their community. A medicine garden allows for such participation, and it’s something we lost when our medicine was industrialized.

Re: Growing a home apothecary

#49

Post by adamiscool8 »

teaker wrote: post #41
oblib wrote: post #32

I'll chime in for raw honey even though it's not a plant. About 12-15 years ago I started getting pain in my right shoulder. This went on for about 6 months. My wife and friends and my doctor told me it was "bursitis" and I'd need an operation to get rid of it. Back then going to the doctor was the leading cause of avoidable death so I wasn't keen on getting that operation (it's now the 3rd leading cause of avoidable…

Going to the doctor is a leading cause of death? I'd love to see the literature backing that claim up. Guess we all better cancel those annual checkups!

The figure has been disputed [0] but it originates from an analysis done by a John Hopkins University doctor published in the BMJ [1][2]:

> We define death due to medical error as death due to 1) an error in judgment, skill, or coordination of care, 2) a diagnostic error, 3) a system defect resulting in death or a failure to rescue a patient from death, or 4) a preventable adverse event. The prevalence of death due to medical error leading to patient deaths has been established in the literature. From studies that analyzed documented health records, we calculated a pooled incidence rate of 251,454 deaths per year.

> (1) If we project this quantity into the total number of deaths in the year 2013 (2,596,993 deaths), they would account for 9.7% of all deaths in the nation.

> (2) This figure far surpasses the current third leading cause of death on the CDC’s most recent rank order. Moreover, the 251,454 estimate we derived from the literature is an underestimate because the studies conducted did not include outpatient deaths or deaths at home due to a medical error.

[0] https://www.statnews.com/2016/05/09/medical-errors-deaths-bm...

[1] https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/2822345-Hopkins-CDC-...

[2] https://www.bmj.com/content/353/bmj.i2139

Re: Growing a home apothecary

#50

Post by fy20 »

oblib wrote: post #32

I'll chime in for raw honey even though it's not a plant. About 12-15 years ago I started getting pain in my right shoulder. This went on for about 6 months. My wife and friends and my doctor told me it was "bursitis" and I'd need an operation to get rid of it. Back then going to the doctor was the leading cause of avoidable death so I wasn't keen on getting that operation (it's now the 3rd leading cause of avoidable…

If you haven't had real honey, I'd recommend you try and find some. I'm from the UK and thought the more 'luxury' honey you get in supermarkets was as good as it gets... nope that's basically just purified syrup.

Real honey has so many more flavours to it, and it varies depending on the type of flowers they feed on and the time of year. Find some local beekeepers and try their honey.

Post reply on HN