I'm curious about Huffington Post's dedication to factual reporting. I noticed that your wellness editor is Dr. Patricia Fitzgerald and that all of her qualifications appear to be dubious. Lets take them one by one:
Acupuncturist: This is a highly dubious modality that can only claim to have highly controversial results. As a qualification for health related issues it is a negative mark on her record.
Certified Clinical Nutritionist: While there is nothing wrong with being an nutritionist per se, there isn't anything particularly impressive about being one either. It seems to be a similar label to "therapist." Academically it just doesn't mean much of anything. Nutritionists are also notorious as a group for pushing dubious health claims. See Acupuncturist above.
Homeopath: Homeopathy has no scientific justification for it's existence. If you understand what homeopathy is I shouldn't have to explain why,but because homeopaths have muddied the waters by not even being consistent with what they label homeopathy. Homeopathy is supposed to work by diluting a mixture to the point where there is statistically almost zero chance that there is any active ingredient in the dose. The inconsistency is that some companies market products with a significant amount of active ingredient in them (which makes the product non homeopathic). For instance zicam contains a non homeopathic solution that includes significant amounts of zinc and yet is labeled homeopathic.
Master’s Degree in Traditional Chinese Medicine and a Doctorate in Homeopathic Medicine: What does this even mean? Homeopathy is not proven to work, and "Chinese Medicine" is a hodge podge of things that probably have some effect and things that have been shown to have no effect (other than placebo). At this point in reading her qualifications I start to despair. Does your organization not care about reality?
Medical Director of the Santa Monica Wellness Center: Fine.
author of the best-selling, award-winning The Detox Solution: This is where I start to feel truly disgusted. There does not appear to be any scientific support for "detox" products or "cleansing" the body of toxins. This final damning "qualification" leaves me with a feeling of disgust. Your wellness editor is a charlatan. Her list of qualification reads like an anti science rap sheet. What right can a publication that bashes the republicans for their lack of attention to the facts have to push this bunk?
Was she an ironic appointment? Is her appointment a kind of bizarre performance art? What is the goal of your organization? Why are you people hurting America?
"It's not so much that it's bad, as it's hurting America ... Stop, stop, stop, stop hurting America." --Jon Stewart, to "Crossfire" hosts Tucker Carlson and Paul Begala
Science is not a replacement for religion. Science is not perfect. Science is simply our finest tool for creating our best approximation of reality. Science isn't about capital T truth it is primarily a way to avoid making fallacious statements that are easily shown to be false. Why do we need science? We need it because the human brain is designed to be fooled in a multiplicity of ways. Human memory is faulty. Human perception is subject so numerous types of illusions. We are easily deceived and actively deceive ourselves. Numerous biases plague our reasoning abilities. Humans are innately bad at statistics. The list of reasons that we need science to discipline our senses is daunting. It is amazing that we have managed to come up with any over arching view of the cosmos at all.
The ugly truth that many ruggedly individual American people can not face is that experts matter. In the days of our ancient ancestors a single human brain might have been able to encompass all of human knowledge, but that time is long past. People who study a single subject all their lives can not hope to master or even lightly touch upon all the scholarly work in their field anymore. In this world of minute specialization the time of the gentleman scholar, educated enough to responsibly question the scientific consensus, are gone
Individual scientists can be cranks or crazy or simply wrong, but the days when the educated layperson could truly understand the state of the scientific consensus in a specialized field is gone. Jim Carey is not in any way qualified to question or critique infectious disease doctors as a group. He is allowed to have his opinions, but your posting of those opinions as if they matter in any way is pathetic.
So please. Stop, stop hurting America. Stop hurting the public's appreciation for facts and science. Foster some regard for truth, Or you might as well be fox news.