[QasimK]

Do you really think someone is going to read that, start ignoring their doctors, throw all their medicine in the bin, and become some kind of natto evangelist?

It’s a common Japanese food and he just said give it a go.

[Broken_Hippo]

Do you really think someone is going to read that, start ignoring their doctors, throw all their medicine in the bin, and become some kind of natto evangelist?

Most folks don't become an evangelist! The rest, though - yeah, it happens. People get sold sham cures and diets all the time and dismiss proven treatments. Even when folks do not dismiss modern medicine and are doing things that aren't actively harmful, alternatives tend to delay proven treatments.

Additionally, if you cannot afford medical treatment and you are presented with some "cure" that seems be a small fraction of the cost, it gets easier to justify whatever sham cure the person is trying to push.

'just try it out' comes with responsibility when you are talking medicine as it can snowball into something else.

[kritiko]

I think what's funnier is that statins have become so cheap through generics, but they are demonized because of their purported side effects, so people are spending way more money for e.g. red rice yeast, which is just an unregulated statin.

[epgui]

Yeah actually, that would be an unsurprising (but clearly bad) layperson's reading.

If the last two years should have taught us anything, it's that even otherwise intelligent people will interpret perfectly reasonable, specific and precise health advice in the worst possible way.