Snake Oil

There remains a very popular idea amongst westerners that ancient people had some form of medical knowledge that surpasses the scientific achievements we've accomplished largely over the past 200 years. Acupuncture, homeopathy, herbalism, and holistic ideas have many adherents despite the fact that the evidence in support of these old practices is often completely non-existent. Consider the following statistics:

According to the WHO (World Health Organization) the life expectancy at birth in the United States, in the year 1900 was 47. Today the number is approaching 80 years. Medicine and nutrition have dramatically increased our life spans, but the WHO says the largest contributing factor is the reduction of death in childbirth due to the ubiquity of hospital births.

Humans in Swaziland live an average of 31.99 years. In Japan, 82 years.

In the 20th century scientific medicine has cured dozens of ailments such as diphtheria, the whooping cough, Hib disease, malaria, measles, polio, tetanus, typhoid & yellow fevers and others which were previously considered death sentences.

GMO (Genetically Modified Food) advancements have allowed us to produce greater crop yields, foods with increased nutritional value, resistance to pests. All in quantities required by our planet's growing population.

We live longer and healthier lives free from so many ailments purely because of advancements in the scientific understanding of biology and genetics so why do prejudices continue to exist in the face of such progress? Most likely a lack of understanding. Humans tend to believe what they wish to be true rather than what the evidence dictates, and beyond religion this is nowhere more evident than in medicine. The fallacy of Ancient cures is strong and plays upon our behavioral biases; we long to trust our elders and wish to hold to the wisdom of our ancestors. We suppose that if a practice has been around for centuries that it must be true. and while this behavior was once useful, in the face of science blind trust of dogma is purely a hindrance.