Sep 23 2008
But I Read It (It must be true!)
An inevitable part of the 21st century internet experience is spam. There is no corner of the internet in which one can avoid a sales pitch for items that inspire so much confidence in the merchants that they feel the best way to represent their product is to belch out an innumerable cloud of requests, hoping they get one sucker in every 10,000 or so to go for it. And unfortunately, some of these weasels sell “cures” for diabetes.
I don’t want to dash anyone’s hopes, but I don’t think there is a cure proper for diabetes yet. This doesn’t mean I put all of my faith in modern medicine nor do I discount the efficacy of herbal medicines. It just means I’m really wary of any claims that something I already have in my house will not mitigate or control a chronic illness, but wipe it out altogether.
A wise man once said not to believe everything you read. I fear what his comments would have been if he’d seen the internet. It’s not that there’s not good info on the internet. There’s scads of good stuff there. It’s just there’s also a great deal of crap. Sorting through it is within the capability of the average person with enough time to research and double check sources and with the ability to be objective and paitent.
Trying to cure chronic illness with a single pill does not lend one either to objectivity or to patience.
The same goes for diagnosis. There are a number of great web pages out there that will help aleve fears or help you sort through a number of possible explanations for symptoms before thinking you have a tumor. But that said, there’s a reason doctors still get paid the big bucks. With few exceptions, there is not a comparison between talking to a competent doctor about your health and taking down a bunch of stuff off the internet and diagnosising your self.
I’ve only actually followed a few links from spam promising to make me better. I’ve seen bitter melon extracts and fenugreek pills and I don’t doubt there is some benefit in the application of those herbs upon controlling blood sugar. But I don’t think they have my health first in their mind when they send anonymous emails by the dozen to my inbox.
In short, be careful of what you read. Especially on the internet. Even more so if they take Visa, Mastercard or American Express.
