The antioxidant fad has expanded beyond just supplements. Smoothies, water, juices, and more are also marketed under antioxidant power food campaigns. I feel that supplements can help when a body has a true deficiency and needs help getting back on track with healthy eating, exercise and lifestyle improvements. I think it is unrealistic and possibly detrimental to consider supplements a long term solution to something the body has the power to heal itself. I believe we will have wonderful opportunities as TCM practitioners to support our patients with the improvements they are able to make as well as the changes they struggle make. It is challenging to counteract a culture that has been conditioned to believe there is a magic pill to fix anything that goes wrong in our bodies.
Can an aspirin a day dramatically cut cancer risk? The study referenced was a systemic study that compiled the results of other studies and I don't know if that is a good foundation for advising people to take a low dose aspirin a day to reduce the risk of cancer. Also, we are talking about synthetically made aspirin here and I am a skeptic when it comes to synthetically produced pharmaceuticals in general. However, aspirin from willow bark has been used for thousands of years to reduce pain, fever, and inflammation. In its natural form, perhaps it could support someone's immune system in fighting the onset of cancer.
It does seem that a big hurdle in our kind of healthcare is working with patients' perspective that we should just be able to stick them with needles and give them pills and they get better. That's what medicine is right? The doctor fixes you. Just changing this paradigm in a person seems like a big step towards health in itself.
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