http://educate-yourself.org/lte/whatareyourcredentials02may07.shtml
May 2, 2007

What Are Your Credentials? (May 2, 2007)

Subject: what are your credentials?
From: gatorwoman@mindspring.com
Date: Wed, May 2, 2007 8:29 am
To:   Editor

Good morning,

I was reading some of the info on your site and was wondering what your background is. Are you a scientist? Do you have a medical background? Or are you just giving your opinions on these subjects?

For example: You mention the role that diet plays in our overall health decline and, while I agree with you that diet and lack of exercise are significant factors, you cannot make blanket statements such as "chronic fatigue syndrome didn't even exist in previous centuries" because, truthfully, we don't know whether it did or didn't. It could be that it was never identified as a disease, or that most people didn't live long enough to show symptoms of it. The same goes for heart disease and cancer - we don't really know how long they've been around, or in what proportion to the population. Deaths from those diseases would've been considered "natural cause" deaths and would not have been widely studied. Medical records (at least in the Western world) practically didn't exist until the 20th century, and what did exist was only for those wealthy enough to be able to go a doctor. Perhaps Eastern medicine, which has been around much longer than Western medicine, maintained much more accurate records. But even then, there could be genetic differences between people of different races that skew the facts, such as the increased risk of diabetes in people of African descent.

If those kinds of statements are the "facts" on which you base your articles, you're not really educating people so much as creating an elaborate blog.

-Gloria

***

Hello Gloria,

Here's a flash: the medical establishment has kept medical RECORDS since the days of ancient Greece.

The statements concerning the relative newness of cancer blooming in the 20th century (and chronic fatigue in the late 20th century) are based on medical records, and not my opinion or blind supposition-as you wish to intimate.

Beyond that, I couldn't care less what you think of me or my credentials because wasting my time conversing with arrogant people like you who wish to insult and berate is something that I don't need to do.

Sayonara, Ken

 

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