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Yes, "toxic" and "toxins" are incredibly vague. I loathe the use of those words, as they are both scary and nearly meaningless.
by pnathan 10y ago
Yes, "toxic" and "toxins" are incredibly vague. I loathe the use of those words, as they are both scary and nearly meaningless.
- nsxwolf 10y agoWhen I see "toxins" I just stop reading. I assume the article is an ad for a juice cleanse.
- bovermyer 10y agoThis seems... extreme, to me. Completely ignoring a thing because of an imperfection could narrow one's depth of experience.
- nsxwolf 10y agoIt's mostly involuntary by now. My BS detectors have been trained on that term my whole life. It's in the same category in my brain as "homeopathic".
- joshumax 10y agoEven if it's not recommending a juice cleanse, whenever I see the word "Toxin" in an article without context I assume that the post was most likely written for the layman and as such probably sacrifices accuracy for ease-of-comprehension.
- gertef 10y ago"homeopathic" is a specific term that denotes a specific discredited (pseudo)scientific concept, that has been analyzed. "toxin" is an general term that encompasses many established entities as well as phony ones. When you see "toxin", you can ask "which toxin are you referring to?"
- fattire 10y agoMy go-to default is black widow venom. If I don't get any specifics, I always just assume that the juice cleanse will rid my system of spider poison.
- copperx 10y agoI understand, but be aware that neurotoxic and neurotoxin are words used in scientific literature. "Toxins" in the context of the brain is completely OK.
- lr4444lr 10y agoIt begs the question: is a few days of codeine or valium the brain equivalent of a "lemon juice / cayenne" cleanse?
- jshevek 10y agoBegs the question?
- allannienhuis 10y agorelatively common idiom (which may or may not be used correctly here :) : https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/305/what-does-the-phrase-begging-the-question-mean https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/305/what-does-th...
- copperx 10y agoOP meant "raises the question."
- yomly 10y agoIs valium/codeine induced sleep equivalent to the real thing?
- amiga-workbench 10y agoWhen I see the term "Cloud", I do the same thing.
- icebraining 10y agoSo, no weather forecasts for you?
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- amiga-workbench 10y agoIts not like I ever leave my basement.
- amelius 10y agohttps://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toxicology https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toxicology A widely used scientific term.
- pnathan 10y agoQuite so. And the words "toxic" and "toxin" are used for every single snake oil solution/problem out there in relation to health. It's become a great example of a failure over time in scientific communication and how the common usage of terms has been rendered useless in meaning for the common person. It's a tragedy, but it's what's happened.
- agumonkey 10y agoFun fact: toxin meant arrow long ago, for taxus, (bark tree ?) which bow were made of. The funny part is that that tree is .. toxic, it embeds alcaloids which can kill. The taxus philogenetic family was often a symbol of death for cultures, and people commited suicide using its "effects". Lastly, those familiar with oncology probably know paclitaxel/taxol; which are molecules derived from these alcaloids for their cytotoxig capabilities (forbid mitosis and induce apoptosis). ps: in death you seek knowledge. #deadline
- HillaryBriss 10y agojust a footnote to your fine comment: the origin of that particular drug is the Pacific Yew https://dtp.cancer.gov/timeline/flash/success_stories/s2_taxol.htm https://dtp.cancer.gov/timeline/flash/success_stories/s2_tax... this same tree, as you indicate, was also used by Native Americans for making hunting bows https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self_bow https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self_bow
- agumonkey 10y agoI think the original taxol was made from Pacific Yew, but the synthesis is from another kind yielding a precursor molecule.
- coldtea 10y ago>Fun fact: toxin meant arrow long ago, for taxus, (bark tree ?) which bow were made of Actually from ancient Greek "toxicon" (related to archery) which stems from "toxon" (bow, not arrow), that got into latin. The association (toxicon -> toxic as in poisonous) came due to the practice of using poisons in archery (to make for lethal arrowheads). Greeks took the word from Scythians. Taxus, for the yew family of trees (poisonous), is related to that, but the transfer to latin as currently used was through "toxic(os)".
- agumonkey 10y agoYeah I skipped a beat on the bow -> poisonous arrows.