After writing Dyingman 37, soulcast member Shiningstar left a comment for me telling me she had picked up some goji juice at a health food store. A "different kind of place", she said. Yes they are.
In the article I mention Secretlife's observation that her health food supplement prominently advertised Omega 9 fatty acids on its label. I found out that this is because Omega 9's are made by the human body so adding them to a supplement is rather superfluous. I wish this were unusual. I looked up goji juice to find out it is commonly known here as the "Wolfberry". The juice of wolfberries is EXPENSIVE, often selling for as much as $10 for a quart. (shipping extra, naturally.) If anyone is shelling out this kind of dough, they've either got to have plenty of it to throw around or they need to be coaxed into parting with it against their wishes.
I imagine health food stores may be inclined to hype the wonderful properties of goji juice just as the internet sites do. The big claim appears to be anti-cancer properties just as anti-oxidants were all the rage a while back. (Studies have found no linkage with the exception of vitamin D for colon cancer for nutritionally deprived people {Taking Vitamin D supplements can be DANGEROUS. Don't do it unless a doctor says you should.) So antioxidants out, goji juice and other "natural" remedies in. It can't be something ordinary with lots of competition like orange juice. There's not much profit in that. OJ producers pooled their resources to push their drink as a cancer fighter years back. It can't have worked too well. They don't make those claims any more. (Or did the FDA jump on them?) People have been drinking orange juice already and perhaps they're skeptical something ordinary can do great things. That means, you need something uncommon. Unheard of. Exotic. Chinese.
Goji berries are the latest Asian health care import. It follows
in the tradition of acupuncture, shiatsu massage, and feng shui
(furniture arrangement that channels energy through your body.) The
Chinese are seen as mystical because they have mystical traditions.
Wisdom of the ancients was revered much as Western society looked to
Aristotle for all truth. The two cultures diverged with the appearance
of Sir Francis Bacon who had the nerve to suggest that nothing is true
until you can repeat the phenomenon. The nerve! To question
Aristotle. He got the likes of Galileo , Tycho Brahe, and Copernicus
in a LOT of hot water with that dangerous idea. Once the dust settled
and the church's support of Aristotle and arbitrary knowledge was
broken, modern science transformed everything especially the field of
medicine when Louis Pasteur would discover the realm of germs.
The Chinese? Not so much. Instead, home remedies. Nature.
These were what you healed with and when you found something that
people were convinced worked, you could get welcome attention from it.
I'd wager effective treatments were jealously guarded. Much of the
success might be attributed to the herbs and powders when it was merely the human body's immune system
allowing the body to fight of diseases. When you got sick again, you
took no chances. You asked for the powdered eye of newt or whatever
your local doctor was hawking. Today, Chinese still use powdered
rhinoceros horn to cure impotence because of the phallic shape of the
horn. It's kindergarten simple, and dead wrong (much to the detriment of the rhinoceros species). Americans laugh at
this, but somehow can believe goji berries are an undiscovered treasure
because they don't grow around here but from mystical Tibet, home of
the Dhali Lama.
Well, I'm a fan of Missouri's motto: "Show Me" If you need some proof that the claims behind goji are exaggerated, check out http://www.cancerdecisions.com/112104_page.html.
The Chinese cousins of Goji, acupuncture and feng shui both involve channeling "chi" energy (you can just as easily say its 'the force' from Star Wars) through our bodies in beneficial ways. I'd never had much faith in them but Penn and Teller put them both through the wringer in their Showtime series "Bullshit". Similar energy claims are made about misaligned spines giving chiropractic its mystical connection to healing. All are nicely explained by the placebo effect.
While I do not have great respect for modern medicine, I have even less for "alternative medicine". I'm of the mind that there isn't much we can do for our bodies outside of eating a healthy diet, exercising, getting enough sleep, antibiotics and vaccines. I might become a believer in statins, aspirin, and anti-angiotensin drugs. Almost all the rest I consign to the label of "crutches" that make us dependent on outside sources for our good health. The dread of eating vegetables, sweating, and missing late night TV keeps us from embracing the effective, but boring killjoy medicine our bodies do their best with.
* DM
Next: Tag. I'm it.
Fitness Goals:
60 beats per minute resting pulse.
10 miles cycling.
100 lbs. - 5,5,5,10 repetitions - two cycles.
Current Fitness Record: (since last entry)
Pulse: 60 beats per minute (unconfirmed)
3 min cycling (odometer broken)
Weights: 2 days 3-3-3-6
Blood Pressure: 117/67 10-2007
RECENT SYMPTOMS : Occasional ache in gonads.
ONGOING SYMPTOMS: Tightness / pain behind right knee, Infrequent pain in right knee when kneeling and shifting knee to the right. Inflexible pinkie and middle finger of right hand. (99% flexibility). Strained thumb.
DIAGNOSIS: Strain of knee? Unknown injury to right knee, possible impact from small stumble onto landing of concrete stairs. Recovering from confirmed stress fracture of secondary phalange (finger bone) of right hand and strained right pinkie. Unknown injury of thumb.
DRUG REGIMEN: Aspartame. (4 diet sodas daily) Caffeine (three cups of coffee daily. One or two colas.)ONGOING TREATMENT: Exercise (see Fitness Goals and Record)
PROGNOSIS FOR FOLLOWING WEEK: Good health.
POTENTIAL TREATMENTS: Fish Oil supplements. Leafy greens
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