[lambdaba]

> The discovery that chronic inflammation can provide the impetus for cancers to develop is forcing clinicians to rethink their approach to the disease’s prevention.

Alternative health has been saying this for decades. Ketogenic diets + medicinal plants/mushrooms can do a lot, even after the fact.

[danielbln]

Alternative health says a lot of things, many things unsubstantiated. The difficult part is figuring out what's true and what's quackery.

[dsr_]

[flagged]

[crazygringo]

But the key part is:

> Has either not been proved to work

There's an awful lot of stuff that works, that nobody has run a large enough controlled study to prove it works. The organizations which fund medical research have specific priorities that exclude an awful lot. And a lot of things are just inherently difficult to objectively measure or control. There's no blood test for chronic muscle tension, for example.

So unfortunately, by restricting yourself to things that have been proven to work, you are possibly eliminating a lot of things that work.

But of course, trying to figure out, on your own, which stuff actually does work despite not being proven, is a long hard frustrating slog that tends to involve a lot of personal trial and error. Exactly what GP said:

> The difficult part is figuring out what's true and what's quackery.

[quesera]

This is inadequate.

Alternative medicine is simply any therapy that is not included in the established currently-accepted set of treatment options.

This varies by culture, time, and sometimes by individual.

Most alternatives are not better than the currently-known best. This is true today, we think, but it is definitely not true historically. (So how special is our current era?)

But when the currently-known best doesn't work well for everyone, or has deleterious side effects, any continued research will include alternatives.

I understand the fatigue embedded in your quote. It's a reasonable stance for those of us with ordinary concerns and who are far downstream from the research (including and especially retail practitioners).

But it is too broadly dismissive for real scientists and people who maintain a curiosity about the world.

[Workaccount2]

>Most alternatives are not better than the currently-known best.

I think a better way of phrasing this is "Most alternatives are no better than placebo".

[Earw0rm]

With the usual caveats about patents, incentives and monetisation. But yes, broadly this is accurate.

[morsch]

It's not hard to say all kinds things if you don't do it with scientific rigor. Unfortunately, it's very difficult to know which of the things are true.

[Spooky23]

Inflammation is typically an immune response. Chronic inflammation is a standard flag that is measured a used by doctors in diagnoses for many years, and by oncologists in particular when treating cancer.

There’s a lot of work right now into immunology and cancer, and they are discovering specific correlations as that progresses. This has nothing to do with mushroom tea, although that probably helps with acute inflammatory issues.

[lomase]

Scientific health has also been saying it for decades.

[amelius]

That's exactly what influencers on TikTok also tell me. These kinds of statement really need proof, otherwise they say very little.

[dapperdrake]

Correlation is symmetric (by "accident") while cause and affect are asymmetric on purpose.

[Der_Einzige]

Intermittent fasting and keto are not alternative health. The science for both of these is excellent especially for reducing diabetes.

[themk]

As far as I understand, Keto helps manage the symptoms of diabetes, but will not prevent it, and (without a source on hand), might actually increase your chances of developing it relative to a healthy diet that includes (mostly unrefined) carbs.