3 ms·
FYI, most of the time when you read an article that reduces complex functions to “methylation status”, it’s pseudoscience. Methylation is a real biological fun
by PragmaticPulp 4y ago
FYI, most of the time when you read an article that reduces complex functions to “methylation status”, it’s pseudoscience.
Methylation is a real biological function, but it has been co-opted by alternative medicine peddlers as a convenient (though incorrect) explanation for everything. It’s part of a new wave of alternative medicine that takes real scientific concepts (methylation, glutamate/glutamine cycles) and tries to work backwards from symptoms to assume the status of various cycles in the body.
One key feature of this pseudoscience is that it often has dual explanations for everything such that everyone will identify with it. For example, when they say that Vitamin B12 can make some people feel better but some people feel worse, they’re setting up an explanation that everyone will identify with: If you give someone a supplement and ask them to see if they feel better or worse over the coming hours, days, and weeks, eventually they’ll have a good or bad day and assign it to the supplement. The methylation pseudoscience people capitalize on this effect by claiming that all of their interventions will either worsen or improve people’s symptoms, which creates confirmation bias everywhere.
One of the easiest ways to debunk the methylation alternative medicine pushers is to examine how almost nobody claims to actually recover from their treatments. It’s always a back and forth of thinking they’re taking too much B12 or folate or other supplements because they’ve been conditioned to believe that all of their symptoms are traceable back to methylation.
To be clear, B12 and/or folate deficiencies are real and measurable conditions that should be treated if present. However, the idea that you can modulate all of the body’s processes up and down by taking varying levels of B12 and folate supplements is pseudoscience.
- ipaddr 4y agoYou argue to debunk requires no one to claim recovery then go on to say B12 deficiencies are real and can be treated. B12 deficiencies often need to be continuously treated which means you can debunk them. But they are real.. just not when a group I dislike says so? Being anti pseudoscience puts you in the same category as someone who is pro pseudoscience; both groups misuse facts to present their side and justify their position as the correct side in a holywar
- PragmaticPulp 4y ago> You argue to debunk requires no one to claim recovery then go on to say B12 deficiencies are real and can be treated B12 deficiencies are real and can be measured. Everyone who has a B12 deficiency and supplements B12 back into normal ranges will improve. This is an example of real science. Using B12 and Folate to treat pseudoscientific “methylation” issues that are presumed (rather than measured) based on vague symptom reports that go in both directions (e.g. some people feel better, some people feel worse) is the pseudoscience. > Being anti pseudoscience puts you in the same category as someone who is pro pseudoscience; What? > both groups misuse facts to present their side and justify their position as the correct side in a holywar No, one side uses real science and the other side uses pseudoscience. That’s literally the definition of the word. Measurable B12 deficiencies are real and supported by the science. Explaining everything, including anxiety, as caused by “methylation status” is not.
- ipaddr 4y agoYou missed my point and took a side in a tribal war. Then try to discredit the other side by putting in a qualifier of 'real' to change the meaning of science to something you can control by limiting who fits into this new group to whoever you decide.
- majkinetor 4y agoThe same is true for ortdox medicine, I don't know why you included only alternative medicine "peddlers".
- arrosenberg 4y ago> Methylation is a real biological function, but it has been co-opted by alternative medicine peddlers as a convenient (though incorrect) explanation for everything. It’s part of a new wave of alternative medicine that takes real scientific concepts (methylation, glutamate/glutamine cycles) and tries to work backwards from symptoms to assume the status of various cycles in the body. I'm not gonna say you are wrong about this, but methylation is also a super hot topic right now among legitimate researchers and biotech companies. It's completely possible that anxiety-response is modulated by methylation of specific sites that produce cortisol and other biomarkers. Agree that it's not driven by methylation per se, but the biological response could be tested and proven by analysis for specific methylation patterns.