My wife bought some cranberry supplements, which claimed to maintain a healthy urinary tract. Cranberries have been traditionally used for this purpose, which makes me really wonder why the Food and Drug Administration hasn't verified that claim, at least in the general sense that cranberries help that sort of thing.
I can understand why they have better things to do than scientifically evaluate every snake-oil supplement. At this point, their job is to make sure that recalls happen when they need to, ensure that greedy pharmaceuticals aren't dumping harmful drugs on us for profit (success in this goal depends on who you ask), among a million other important but ultimately interminably bureaucratic tasks.
But why leave it to Ocean Spray to fund and publicize these kinds of studies? By now, haven't we done enough scientific research on things that might exist as a problem, or aren't as widespread as drug companies would like us to believe, and can turn to verifying simple medicinal truths for everyday troubles?
Perhaps the problem is educational: I wonder how many people (myself included) recognize why they even have health problems. I'm typing this on Dayquil, but I know my allergies went completely bananas yesterday after sweeping all the mildewed leaves off the patio. I doubt I would recognize a urinary tract infection, though.
We've known cranberries help that kind of infection for centuries. I'm probably on the low-knowledge end of the spectrum, but it seems to me that we've lost a ton of the down-home knowledge that kept people alive over the last several hundred years.
I guess that the main problem is that the majority of useful knowledge being passed down is being replaced by pop knowledge.Labels: health care, rant |
