I’m not a big believer in self-medicating with herbal “remedies.” But then again, I also don’t scrape up stuff off an urban street and swallow it, so what do I know?

A 2001 review of 160 Cochrane systematic reviews (excluding complementary treatments) in the 1998 database revealed that, according to two readers, 41.3% concluded positive or possibly positive effect, 20% concluded evidence of no effect, 8.1% concluded net harmful effects, and 21.3% of the reviews concluded insufficient evidence.[7] A review of 145 alternative medicine Cochrane reviews using the more up-to-date 2004 database revealed that 38.4% concluded positive effect or possibly positive (12.4%) effect, 4.8% concluded no effect, 0.69% concluded harmful effect, and 56.6% concluded insufficient evidence.[8]:135-136

Her composting projects look really interesting, however. I wish she had more pictures on her site.

I love it when people string together words that mean nothing. “Maintain a bodily balance”, that’s a great one.

Also, composting your own waste outdoors within city limits may be illegal, depending on where you live.

Finally, @stevennatural what’s this “invigorate one’s immune system and maintain a bodily balance” mean exactly? Could you redo that sentence with some non-woo words, also known as “plain english” ?

Use at one risk, these statements will likely be labelled woo woo.

Physician, heal thyself, indeed.

disclaimer: I’m a regular user of herbal medicine — I go to a Western physician, too.

(ReCaptcha: another defraud. snerk.)

So does trepanation and bloodletting. Older is not always better.

What are the “other” options? The shrubs in the park? Behind Taco Bell? I don’t know…

On the other hand you’ve got prescribed and OTC pharmaceutical drugs that have been (for the most part) rigorously tested and studied. Of course sometimes drugs aren’t as awesome as we’re told (Thalidomide for example).

My take on all this is to research using interweb sources, libraries and health care workers if you want more information but take nothing as gospel.

Composting toilet. Yes, it seems literally anal retentive in a green way, but the article did label her as a radical environmentalist.

This is why you have to be careful where you get your compost from when you don’t have the option of using your own. It’s also why you don’t eat plants that have been growing in who knows what, especially in cities where industry was moved further out of town before soil contamination was fully understood.

“Plain Language” would be less discriminatory, I guess.

http://www.vrg.org/nutshell/omni.htm

Thalidomide is an interesting one especially as ginger was already available a natural alternative for extreme nausea during pregnancy. It was not pursued in research at the time, partly because herbal meds were not considered legit, partly because their was no money as you can’t patent something that’s been around forever.
Why push an opensource freeware med when there’s a promising copyrighted one that might bring in a bazillion bucks for some lucky CEO?

And of course some oldies but goodies that have been around forever, like opium and tobacco, are not neccesarily wholesome and helpful for whatever ails you.

Wrong.

If you’re talking about protein, you can get all the protein you need from eating a varied, balanced, vegetarian diet. My wife (who has been veg for over 20 years) was completely veg during her pregnancy, and underwent extensive blood testing and monitoring, and was repeatedly told she was one of the healthiest pregnant women her doctors had ever seen. She was 38 at the time, and hasn’t been in a gym for years.

Call it anecdotal evidence at best, but your insinuation that humans must gorge themselves like elephants to “make up for” not eating meat is total uneducated bullshit.