Hucksterism in Alaska is alive and well

Articles like this worry me. They take a load of evidence-less, pseudo-scientific bilk from someone, and proceed to vomit it up on command. When we take conventional medicine, we demand it pass a level of evidence that proves, within a shadow of a doubt, that it does what it claims it does. Sure, there are occasional problems, like Vioxx, but the speed with which that was corrected demonstrates how powerfully self-correcting medicine is. When's the last time you heard of a herb was pulled from use because it wasn't effective? And believe me, it's not for an abundance of effectivity.

This one bit they let pass without even a blink.

It hasn’t always been the case. Often traditional healing was confused with shamanism and frowned upon by the Western medical world. Mala draws a clear distinction between the two, the former being a less supernatural version of healing that uses plants, spirituality, sweat baths, touch and story telling to treat people.

Emphasis my own. OH. I see, it's not supernatural, it's merely spiritual. I see the difference. If it's spiritual, it's not supernatural. That makes perfect sense. It's not dark, it's just very devoid of light.

Forgive me if I'd rather get more physicians assistants and dentists out into the bush; New York and California can keep their snake oil salesmen. These people are doing it right, helping people continue eating subsistence foods even when stricken by cancer. That's how you bridge, not hucksterism.

Could we get at least a little incredulity from the Daily Minor News? Or is that too much to ask?