I hope you are wrong and fear you may be right

Thanks to wise people such as Unyquity and Grizbear, I have morphed to a great degree in the opposite direction.  When I first arrived here I believed that herbs and supplements could provide answers that mainstream medicine could not.  Though I still believe that, I also realize that in order to effect true lasting healing one must provide a good foundation for health and address the whole body so that it is properly nourished, hydrated, exercised, de-toxed and cleansed, de-stressed, etc.   In many instances, proper diet and lifestyle choices are all that one needs to regain lost health and defeat illness.  When supplements are needed, they are likely to be far, far more effective if the health of the overall body is also addressed.

Supplementation certainly has its place, but we must realize the fallacy of chasing cures in a bottle - whether it is a bottle with an RX on it or a bottle of herbs or other supplements.  We have been conditioned by generations of mainstream propoganda to take the easy route and reach for a bottle of pills, thus it is easy to see how many people would prefer to take the easy way out instead of changing their diet to a nutrient dense healthy one which avoids much of today's SADS diet of junk and additives.  Much easier to stay on the sofa clicking the channel changer or live ones life through the computer than to get out and get essential exercise and life-giving sunshine.  Easier to leave our toxic bodies alone than to cleanse them.

If a body is out of natural balance and not functioning properly, as is often the case with those who encounter illness and unhealthy conditions, then it will not be able to properly assimilate utilize the nutrition one consumes and neither will it be able to do so with supplemental items.  First, one must endeavor to correct whatever  may be keeping the digestive system from operating properly, the natural detoxification system from working, etc., as well as what is keeping the  natural immune system from being as strong as it could be and stress eliminated and managed.  The very large majority of illness comes from a combination of under-nourished, under hydrated, undercleansed and toxic cellular terrain along with toxins.  In other words, it is all about the terrain.  Fail to address and correct the terrain and the road to good health will likely be detoured.

I share your concern about the morphing of CZ.  It saddens me greatly to see many posters who have valuable input and questions remaining silent because they do not want to subject themselves to the abuse we have seen happen in both the support and debate forums when their views happen to contradict those of someone else.  Many members as well as newcomers may have been turned away entirely.  In too many instances, we are seeing a demand for scientific validation when such a demand has never been a part of this site.  That is not to say that many of the basic tenets of this site have not been valid, just that they have not been supported, validated or understood by mainstream science - which is no friend of natural holisitic healing.

If people are looking for scientific validation, there are sites such as Sciencebasedmedicine or (shudder) quackwatch, which will assure them that the only real medicine comes in those RX bottles filled with unnatural compounds and the only treatments which work are the ones approved by the AMA.  Gerson, Hoxsey, Christopher, Schulze, etc. - quacks one and all.  Colloidal silver and virtually all natural herbs, vitamins and minerals are either maginally effective if at all or else dangerous.  Cleansing and detoxing gimmicks.  Accupuncture unproven.  Meridians pure quackery.  And on and on . . .

Then we have the cross-over paradigm which has taken root and grown at CZ:  natural healing and herbal products which have been validated by science (or at least the science chosen by the proponent of those items).  Forget hundreds of testimonials, forget hundreds if not thousands of years of use in traditional healing, forget the knowledge of herbalists and other alternative healers who have learned and plied their crafts for years, only those items which have been scientifically validated and proposed by a self-appointed expert are worth considering.  Certainly scientific validation of natural and alternative items is good - and everyone should do their own due diligence on anything suggested here which they are unfamiliar with (and that includes looking at the experience of others).  However, lack of scientific validation or acceptance is not a criteria for condemnation at a site whose basis is natural and alternative healing.  After all, lack of evidence is not the same as evidence of lack.

I hope that you are wrong while fearing that you may be right - and I hope that CureZone does not morph completely into a site where only one or two self-appointed experts dominate, where new and existinting members are afraid to post opinions contrary to the "experts" and where the traditional tenets of  CZ and its many valuable and knowledgeable contributors who truly believe in natural healing have been bludgeoned into silence.

Especially in support forums, but also in debate and private forums, no one should be attacked or belittled.