Re: ATM Bilberry works - Feedback?

["B. Pepin" <atmjedit@conceptsnet.com>]

Give God a break. The estimated yearly investment in field-researching
'natural' products for pharmaceutical use now exceeds $25 billion in the US
alone. Physicians would be lost without natural substances and their
derivatives. Virtually all useful medicines have been derived either from
plant or animal products themselves, or are spinoffs from analyzing them.
Penicillin and all 'cillins' (fungus), Digitalis (foxglove), Aspirin (willow
bark), Coumadin (clover), Premarin (horse hormone), Ephedrine (ephedra
plant), Curare (curare), Morphines and codeines (synthetic opiums), etc.
etc. etc.  But I hear Mel about to warn this thread.... nuf sed?



----- Original Message -----
From: Richard Schwartz <richas@idt.net>
To: <atm@shore.net>
Sent: Thursday, November 30, 2000 4:51 PM
Subject: Re: ATM Bilberry works - Feedback?


>
> My son, who is otherwise smart, but likes to believe in things, thinks
that
> the entire scientific and medical community is a vast conspiracy to raise
> the price of drugs.  He thinks that anything natural (like poison oak or
> black widow venom?) is good for you-- especially if it is Chinese and sold
> in a health food store.   At various times, he has believed in angels,
> devils, fairies, demons, saints, sinners, yin, yang, and all that.  He
> thinks that his mumbling a prayer before a meal will cause God, the
creator
> of time and space and everything in it, to notice and favor him.
>
> So what we need here is a good dose of skeptical inquiry, not belief.  If
I
> develop night blindness, I'll consult an optalmologist, not a health food
> store.  After all, God created a universe where our brains evolved; it
must
> have meant for us to use them.
>
> If you really want to enlarge your pupils, come to the local beaches in
the
> summer time.  (This works best if you are single and under 50.)
>
> . . . Richard
>
>