This is a good point, and very true of Goop-style products. But I have to say, it's hard for me to reserve much charity for the way US medical regulation operat

This is a good point, and very true of Goop-style products. But I have to say, it's hard for me to reserve much charity for the way US medical regulation operates. Homeopathic medicine got a special exemption from FDA coverage, freeing them from basic standards like filing new-drug applications and testing finished preparations for strength and purity. Most of them are just water, but some retain enough strength and toxicity to do serious first-order harm, and many are marketed for treating serious conditions that absolutely need real treatment. It took 80 years to start making progress on that ludicrous exemption, while snake venom applied and antibiotics forgone inflicted untold harm. At the far end of the spectrum, medical devices are intensely regulated but medical procedures aren't. A mobility-assist for putting socks on has to be marketed with goofy infomercials to steer clear of FDA burdens, but a new approach to treating fibroid tumors can be deployed with no long-term studies - and then turn out to rapidly progress minor cancers to metastatic ones, and then stay in regular use with no informed consent while doctors debate. None of this means drug regulation lacks merit, or should be pared back without serious planning and study. But the current state of affairs is so absurdly arbitrary, and so covered in the scars of ancient political squabbles, that major improvements look not only possible but obvious.