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Huh? Sunscreens? When and where did I say AIDs is not caused by HIV? Never had a microwave (at least not for 20 years). You must be getting agitated in old age, MadMan. Go have a martini. And save yourself the trouble of trying to dredge up old posts, you have better things to do with your time.
You quoted Mercola. Mercola does not believe HIV causes AIDS, does not believe in microwave ovens, and believes sunscreens cause skin cancer (except the "natural" sunscreen he sells, of course.)
So if you believe Mercola has it right about vaccines, surely he is right about AIDS, sunscreen, and microwave ovens, correct?
A number of medical researchers with excellent credentials have stated their views about vaccinations in relation to the immune system. I am not a follower specifically of Mercola, so probably should not have chosen him as one of the doctors who write about vaccines.
People believe what they want to believe. There are those who believe in a holistic lifestyle; there are those who believe that the pharmaceuticals as administered by indoctrinated medical professionals are akin to God. Live as you will, according to your own beliefs. There is plenty of "professional" evidence out there to support both camps. You have to dig through the medical journals to find the non-mainstream viewpoints. As a copy editor for one of the major medical textbook publishers in the U.S., I frequently encountered alternative findings based on research studies, which of course never make it into the mainstream literature.
FWIW, I have no idea what Mercola's belief is about AIDS and sunscreen. But I'm sure there are professionals who back his views. As for microwave, you are correct, I have chosen not to use it. Your choice may be different of course.
I think "alternative medicine" had a significant blow when Steve Jobs - who had all the money in the world - decided to follow it - and died perhaps unnecessarily (pancreatic cancer is a bit** - but he apparently got his original Dx when he was at stage 1 - when the odds - although not wonderful - are decent).
I think anyone who declines to use a microwave oven because they think that doing so will add 10 seconds to their life is kind of misguided. To save on one's electric bill - or to avoid eating frozen microwaved foods - those are different issues IMO.
FWIW - I would be very skeptical of anyone who said that martinis cause AIDS . Robyn
I think "alternative medicine" had a significant blow when Steve Jobs - who had all the money in the world - decided to follow it - and died perhaps unnecessarily (pancreatic cancer is a bit** - but he apparently got his original Dx when he was at stage 1 - when the odds - although not wonderful - are decent).
I think anyone who declines to use a microwave oven because they think that doing so will add 10 seconds to their life is kind of misguided. To save on one's electric bill - or to avoid eating frozen microwaved foods - those are different issues IMO.
FWIW - I would be very skeptical of anyone who said that martinis cause AIDS . Robyn
Turning to alternative medicine later in life doesn't always "work," especially for serious and intractable illnesses like cancer, and more especially for pancreatic cancer, one of the worst.
re: immunology....Many of us WWII boomers were not fed with mother's milk (esp the colostrum), the best immunity-building substance there is, according to immunology experts. Many of us boomers also had a lot of immunity-compromising effects growing up (toxins all over the place and bad foods). Jobs is of our generation. The previous generations smoked and drank like fish, however their upbringings were not in general as weak as ours.
I have read the mainstream theories all my life, and I have read the much more probing theories, and have taken an approach that makes sense to me personally. Does this mean that I cannot fall ill and die tomorrow or next year? Of course not. Our individual approach to life follows our personal choices of what to believe, and obviously one size does not fit all. There are huge interests out there that will and can obscure research and findings, so anything so obviously biased gets a raised eyebrow on my part.
BTW, you could pose the question "Does microwaving foods destroy nutrients and enzymes?" And you will get 50 answers yay, and 50 nay in the literature. Your choice about whether to microwave your foods or not depends on your orientation to what makes sense to you.
A number of medical researchers with excellent credentials have stated their views about vaccinations in relation to the immune system. I am not a follower specifically of Mercola, so probably should not have chosen him as one of the doctors who write about vaccines.
People believe what they want to believe. There are those who believe in a holistic lifestyle; there are those who believe that the pharmaceuticals as administered by indoctrinated medical professionals are akin to God. Live as you will, according to your own beliefs. There is plenty of "professional" evidence out there to support both camps. You have to dig through the medical journals to find the non-mainstream viewpoints. As a copy editor for one of the major medical textbook publishers in the U.S., I frequently encountered alternative findings based on research studies, which of course never make it into the mainstream literature.
FWIW, I have no idea what Mercola's belief is about AIDS and sunscreen. But I'm sure there are professionals who back his views. As for microwave, you are correct, I have chosen not to use it. Your choice may be different of course.
It is not a matter of "belief." We are not talking about religion. The reason the "alternative findings" never make it into mainstream medicine is because the evidence to support them is lacking. Wakefield's fraud unraveled because scientists could not replicate his findings.
Mercola says that HIV does not cause AIDS. All the scientific evidence says that it does. There are no infectious disease experts who back his views. There is no support for his "belief" that sunscreens cause skin cancer, but he personally will sell you his own perfectly safe sunscreen. He's an excellent marketer who laughs all the way to the bank.
I would be happy to review any scientific evidence to support not vaccinating. It just does not exist. As the use of vaccines drops due to people making decisions not to vaccinate based on bad data, vaccine preventable illnesses are making a comeback. That causes people - often children - to die. If one makes what he feels is a carefully reasoned decision not to vaccinate based on Wakefield's fraud, he is acting based on bad, discredited data. The anti-vax folks would have done better to accept that Wakefield made up his findings in order to profit from his own vaccine. Refusing to do so discredits everything they say. It just makes them look silly.
And while anti-vaccine folks are vilifying the pharmaceutical companies for actually - horrors - making money from vaccines, their anti-vax gurus make money from being anti-vax, which is somehow all right.
There is not "plenty of professional evidence" to support not vaccinating. If you have it, please share it. Pages of people stating thier kids took a vaccine and became autistic is not evidence. Children do not get autism from vaccines. The risk of dying from a vaccine is so low that even after billions of doses (such as with the MMR) it is difficult to calculate the risk because there are so few deaths to count. The deaths from vaccine preventable diseases are all too easy to count, unfortunately.
Turning to alternative medicine later in life doesn't always "work," especially for serious and intractable illnesses like cancer, and more especially for pancreatic cancer, one of the worst.
re: immunology....Many of us WWII boomers were not fed with mother's milk (esp the colostrum), the best immunity-building substance there is, according to immunology experts. Many of us boomers also had a lot of immunity-compromising effects growing up (toxins all over the place and bad foods). Jobs is of our generation. The previous generations smoked and drank like fish, however their upbringings were not in general as weak as ours.
I have read the mainstream theories all my life, and I have read the much more probing theories, and have taken an approach that makes sense to me personally. Does this mean that I cannot fall ill and die tomorrow or next year? Of course not. Our individual approach to life follows our personal choices of what to believe, and obviously one size does not fit all. There are huge interests out there that will and can obscure research and findings, so anything so obviously biased gets a raised eyebrow on my part.
BTW, you could pose the question "Does microwaving foods destroy nutrients and enzymes?" And you will get 50 answers yay, and 50 nay in the literature. Your choice about whether to microwave your foods or not depends on your orientation to what makes sense to you.
The question about microwaving and nutrients is one that is subject to measurement, and the question is really what happens to nutrients with microwaving compared to other methods of cooking, not just microwaving compared to raw veggies.
"In conclusion, no significant nutritional differences exist between foods prepared by conventional and microwave methods. Any differences reported in the literature are minimal."
As with any cooking method, preparation of the food and duration of cooking has a big effect on texture and flavor. To that end, broccoli or asparagus steamed in the microwave to me has a superior flavor to that boiled in a pot. A lot of the nutrients are leached into the water when you oil veggies. Asparagus roasted in the oven is also good. Meats do not do so well and I do not try to microwave them. But to categorically eschew using a microwave because you think it will remove the vitamins and minerals is to ignore the scientific evidence.
Ah, Suzy_q2010, you are fighting a losing battle trying to get people to be rational. As you correctly point out, "beliefs" sounds a lot like religion. And indeed, the whole anti-vaccine attitude is a belief, not a rationally derived conclusion. But thanks for fighting the good fight; I don't have the patience for it because I get too disgusted.
I don't understand people who don't get vaccinations because they're "only" 50% effective (or 60-70%, in the case of influenza vaccines). If you had a 50-70% chance of winning the lottery you'd be playing every week. If a doctor told you that standing on your head for a minute a day cut your heart attack risk by 50%, I bet most people who could, would do it. Why not cut your risk of shingles by that much?
Shingles is nothing to mess with. A bad case can be extremely painful, require hospitalization, and cause lifelong nervous system issues. I'm a biologist who does contract work for several virologists and immunologists and it alarms me how misinformed people who have never even had a college biology class, let alone a doctorate in immunology, are when it comes to understanding vaccinations. There is a lot of overly simplistic misinformation out there.
I don't understand people who don't get vaccinations because they're "only" 50% effective (or 60-70%, in the case of influenza vaccines). If you had a 50-70% chance of winning the lottery you'd be playing every week. If a doctor told you that standing on your head for a minute a day cut your heart attack risk by 50%, I bet most people who could, would do it. Why not cut your risk of shingles by that much?
Shingles is nothing to mess with. A bad case can be extremely painful, require hospitalization, and cause lifelong nervous system issues. I'm a biologist who does contract work for several virologists and immunologists and it alarms me how misinformed people who have never even had a college biology class, let alone a doctorate in immunology, are when it comes to understanding vaccinations. There is a lot of overly simplistic misinformation out there.
The point with the Shingles vaccine is that the chances with or without it ended up being virtually the same ( I think I was researching having a subsequent episode, but it may also have included a first one for those who already have the virus lurking from chicken pox)
The question about microwaving and nutrients is one that is subject to measurement, and the question is really what happens to nutrients with microwaving compared to other methods of cooking, not just microwaving compared to raw veggies.
"In conclusion, no significant nutritional differences exist between foods prepared by conventional and microwave methods. Any differences reported in the literature are minimal."
As with any cooking method, preparation of the food and duration of cooking has a big effect on texture and flavor. To that end, broccoli or asparagus steamed in the microwave to me has a superior flavor to that boiled in a pot. A lot of the nutrients are leached into the water when you oil veggies. Asparagus roasted in the oven is also good. Meats do not do so well and I do not try to microwave them. But to categorically eschew using a microwave because you think it will remove the vitamins and minerals is to ignore the scientific evidence.
Just one of hundreds of sources that question microwaving. It's always good to get the other side.
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Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Sunscreens? When and where did I say AIDs is not caused by HIV? Never had a microwave (at least not for 20 years). You must be getting agitated in old age, MadMan. Go have a martini. And save yourself the trouble of trying to dredge up old posts, you have better things to do with your time. 
. Robyn
