Reason for this Site
The reason for the creation and maintenance of this web site.
This site began as a simple research project (which wasn’t even going to be a web site), and exploded into the project that it is now. Basically, I was doing a bunch of Web searching, looking into various sites for what they offer. After a short while, I started listing the sites, and listing, and listing and listing.
Well, just having a list of links wasn’t enough for me. I starting thinking about reviewing the sites I found, because some of them, to be honest, really tick me off. Either they portray modern medical doctors as nothing but a bunch of money-grubbing scumbags, or they misinform to the point where I can only imagine that their only reason for being is to try to rake in the dough themselves. Some advocate downright dangerous practices.
So, I and some other folks have started doing just that. Our number one priority is to be fair, pointing out the good with the bad (unfortunately, some of these sites have nothing good on them). We spend a lot of time checking and rechecking the claims and other information on these sites. Our second priority in reviewing these sites is to address safety issues that may be missing from the sites themselves (alternative-medicine sites are notorious for a lack of good information about possible side-effects — natural does not equal safe). Other things we try to do in the reviews include pointing out fallacious logic, absurd marketing, misleading information and complete lies.
Probably the most important thing is that we try to add to the information available about these treatments. Being informed about our medical choices is essential for everyone. The lack of good information about both the benefits and risks of many of the treatments available at the sites we’ve visited is simply terrifying. Even sites which discuss the mainstream treatments often lack some crucial information (for example, Triton, the manufacturer of the popular MG217 line of coal tar products, neglects to mention that coal tar is a photosensitizer, so using their product can make sunburn much easier).
If you’ve read any of the reviews yet, it should be obvious that we are biased towards mainstream medicine and proper scientific evidence. I am proud of that bias, since, while the scientific method and clinical trials are not fault-free, they are currently the best tools known to mankind for separating the good ideas from the bad.
I’d like to emphasize some points made in the disclaimer. Neither I nor any of the contributors to this Web site have had any medical experience (so far). We are not doctors, nor are we professional scientists. We write what we believe to be correct, but, like any other people, we are fallible. Check with your doctor prior to using any of the treatments listed or reviewed here. Feel free to print out any of the information here for the purposes of discussing these things with your practitioners (we feel pretty strongly about good physician education as well as consumer education).