Heinerman critique.

Date: Thu, 23 Nov 1995 18:09:27 MST
Sender: HERB.TREARNPC.EGE.EDU.TR
From: Michael Moore <hrbmoore.RT66.COM>
Subject: Re: Education and Personal Choice was: Herbal Murder

I would take much what Dr. Heinerman writes with a grain of salt...he, an academic, frequently reduces the value of an herb to the effect of a single constituent, sometimes making leaps of presumption based on a single anectodal study, that I, a life-long non-academic, would be reluctant to do. Example: Ginger (Zingiber officinale) has strong and consistant physiologic effects, but on the basis of its high calcium content, Heinerman recommends its use as a DIETARY source of calcium (The strikes me as similar to using Digitalis as a volume diuretic, an effect fifth or sixth down the line in importance from it's PRIMARY effect).

SOME (not all) of his work shows signs of a Research/Publish syndrome, gathering database info together and slapping out a book, with little or no hands-on contact with the subject other than computer readouts and an encyclopedist's gestalt...blatant reductionism in my opinion.

(I have been told his opinion of me is even more lowly, so feel free to take my evaluation with several pounds of Sodium chloride...15 years of low-level mutual antagonism-from-a-distance may cloud my personal view, but not, I believe, my philosophical judgement.)

Michael Moore (hrbmoore.rt66.com)
http://www.rt66.com/hrbmoore/HOMEPAGE/HomePage.html
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