Jonathan Edwards
"Gibberish"
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@barbc56
I was addressing this quote specifically
not disputing that some supplements can be harmful to some people. I know that they can. And FWIW, I agree with you to a great extent about basing supplement intake on DNA tests. IMO symptoms are a better guide to supplement intake, if you can monitor yourself well.
But I stand by my contention that a lack of evidence means exactly that: that there is a lack of evidence. Further, and most importantly, a lack of evidence regarding the efficacy of a therapy in no way implies the therapy has no therapeutic value for a given subset of people. It just means it hasn't been investigated.
When speaking of evidence we are trying to deal in known sureties, not conjectural possibilities such as "But you don't know, the opposite could be true."
You can use that argument to sell anything. If there is no indication of benefit on average then presumably as many people get worse as better - which doesn't seem a very good argument for trying something you do not like or need.
The placebo effect is very strong. Human beings like taking stuff. That is why they were taking stuff for thousands of years before anybody discovered anything that was actually useful (mostly around about 1950). And why take something as a tablet when there is plenty in ordinary food? It makes no sense to me.