Perhaps this belongs in the confessions thread but...would you believe I once had a lady friend who was into that shit? She had a jar of it and would down a spoonful regularly (or you know...whenever she remembered) under the belief it was going to heal her insides. According to her in olden times the wealthy ate from silverware and the small particles of silver they ingested in the process were a significant component of their better health over the poor. She believed a lot of other shit her naturopath (who chose many of her potions and balms using the scientific method known as the spinning ring) and kinesiologist fed her as well. I don't think she is a Jones follower though.
growing up my family was heavily into this shit. Royal jelly, homeopathy, reiki masage, kinesiology, etc. I believed all this stuff because it was what i grew up around. same way kids learn racism. Oh fucking indian gurus too
eyeroll and some other whacky spiritual concepts. Highschool did a good job in teaching me to have a critical mind. Most of my family is still into this shit. Kinda sad. Grandmother put off seeing a real doctor and died of a rare treatable blood disease because she treated her symptoms with alternative ideas...
I think there is a place for naturopaths (not homeopathy) for certain things but not in place of real medicine. example being my wife was diagnosed with IBS by medical doctors. None of the treatments really worked. She suffered for probably for 15 years. Out of sheer desperation saw a naturopath (which i was strongly against to be honest) and after a few basic questions was sent for a fructose malabsorbtion test (a medical breath test to determine if you have a problem processing fructose). Came back positive. Removed most fructose from her diet - 100% improvement in a week.
You see my wife was always healthy eater, lots of veg and fruit. several serves a day no knowing that the high fructose content of some of them was giving her chrons level issues. She can still eat fruit and veg, but has a better understandning of which are higher in fructose, so she can manage the "fructose load" when she makes her choices. She's effectively eliminated the debilitating symptoms of fthe back of two naturopath consultations.
At the same time, if a naturopath tried to tell me that i could cure cancer with diet and herbs, id be looking for another one even if they were treating something benign.
SO for me, naturopathy and some techniques like acupuncture have some merit. Just need to avoid being blinkered when approaching any health based activity. That can go for science based medicine too.