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Comment by magic_beans | Hacker News Reader

I've been told by a practitioner that saliva activates the kambo better than plain water, but who knows.

I've been trying kambo for ulcerative colitis over the past year. My gastroenterologist is perfectly happy to have me take a variety of medications for the rest of my life, whose safety has only been studied over a six-month period.

Western medicine gets the job done, it's true, but it's time to open our minds to Eastern medicine and so-called "folk medicine." Many of these treatments can complement Western medicine.

In my case, Traditional Chinese medicinal herbs have been clinically proven to enhance the efficacy of drugs used to treat Ulcerative Colitis

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Western medicine is just defined as medicine that has been through a rigorous clinical trial process that actually proves it works.

Until these Eastern medicine have gone through the same process, it’s just anecdotal evidence.

That definition practically speaking though also has other implications. Primarily that the only medicine that even gets the opportunity to go through a clinical trial process. Some medicines are so abundant that it's hard to profit from discoveries about them.

It’s true there isn’t a financial motivation, but there are plenty of trials run with government grants.

Fact is, if they really are beneficial, physicians want to know and are willing to spend time and money to collect data.

> Western medicine is just defined as medicine that has been through a rigorous clinical trial process that actually proves it works.

Given that off-label prescriptions are a thing, it's more medicine that's been proven to a satisfactory degree to be safe enough and to work for something. Lots of Western medicine as actually applied is anecdotal.

The TCM treatment I am currently using is, in fact, proven to treat ulcerative colitis via a clinical trial.

Some can complement but many are voodoo magic with no evidence of efficacy and advocating for their adoption to the detriment in trust in actual medical science is a grave disservice to society. You might be able to tell the difference but many people can't and what you're advocating will turn many people into Steve Jobs esque avoidable disasters because they believe some practitioner with traditional knowledge who can't read an x-ray.

Think carefully about all the effects of what you're recommending

Kudos for being up to the challenge of trying Kambo, it ain't an easy medicine. Am curious about any benefits you've seen to your condition (has your doctor noticed any changes?).

Western medicine does seem more concerned with maintenance of the symptoms than treating root causes unfortunately.

Since you mentioned TCM, I'd take a hard look at medicinal mushrooms like reishi and lion's mane as they're said to help with ulcers (I'm not a doctor, definitely do your own research and ask your doctor).

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