General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Anti-woo commentators are a bunch of smug and condescending... [View all]laundry_queen
(8,646 posts)here in Canada awhile back about how some of Canada's most prominent scientists were doing research that had 'conflict of interest' written all over it because of where the funding was coming from. Some scientists even had purchased stock in the companies that owned the drug they were doing research for, or were appearing in ads touting the effectiveness of said drug. In other cases, pharmaceutical companies created many layers of 'consumer groups' or other 'independent' sounding groups to funnel their research funding so it seems like the research is funded by some independent agency, when it's really funded by the company that has a vested interest in the outcome. You can't tell me that THAT is science. Our system has a big problem when the only research being done is the research that is funded by the very companies that need the studies to have certain outcomes.
That doesn't mean I reject medicine. It just means I do my own research about everything. In fact, I've asked my doctor to put me on a particular med because of the research on it that I did...and I didn't bother with a lot of the other, non-western medicine, stuff for my condition because there was very little proof any of it worked. It works both ways for me. And I don't think the current issues with research are part of some vast conspiracy, rather I recognize that the profit motive is strong for many and that may have a huge effect on the outcome of some studies.