On Friday, April 2, 2004, at 09:15  AM, Maddy Mason, Accord, NY wrote:

> but it seems to me that if at baseline (contemporary Paleo diet) a
> condition
> exists (arthritis) and you add something into the mix (mainstream
> drugs,
> herbs, alternative treatments, etc.) you still haven't addressed what
> may be
> causing the condition in the first place. Not that that is easy to
> figure out!

Cases of arthritis have been found in the bones of paleo people. Paleo
diet may not have all the answers to every problem. Besides this, if
something has gone wrong, simply removing what made it go wrong will
not always cure the condition. Arthritis is a complex disease, and once
well begun the damage already present causes more damage by itself, as
when bone spurs irritate the surrounding tissue, even after what caused
the bone spurs in the first place is removed. Personally, I have no
problems with using WHATEVER provides relief, diet, chiropractic, or
modern scientific medicines.

When I had severe gastric reflux last year, I took the drugs
recommended by the Doc, even with the potentially nasty side effects.
They gave my body time to recover a bit while I tried to figure out
what caused the trouble in the first place. For diseases with no real
"cure", we play for the best trade-off we can get.

My two cents, Theola. Best wishes!