An Enemy of The People

It's been some time since I read Henrik Ibsen's An Enemy of the People, a novel about a town doctor decrying the health risks associated with the hot springs in the town which everyone thinks is otherwise healthy and is also key to their economic futures.

I belong to a group of health, wellness, and fitness professionals on LinkedIn. In response to a comment about who takes supplements, I weighed in about the tsunami of recent data that suggests that supplements may actually be harmful. Given that many members of the group sell such supplements, the reaction was swift and harsh. The doctors in the group who sell such supplements took an even angrier stance. It was as if I was threatening their livelihood, which I was apparently doing by speaking out against rampant supplement use.

I'm not surprised. We all know the effect that money can have on certain people. The arguments went back and forth with me asking for scientific evidence that their supplements work to prolong life and them countering it doesn't matter what the science shows as long as people say they feel better. Of course that led to a discussion about the placebo effect, but that resulted in my being lectured on people having a right to express their opinion. I agree that people have the right to express an opinion. I simply don't agree that they can state as fact that which lacks any supporting evidence.

However, what I found most interesting were the people who contacted me privately to say they agreed with me. Apparently, they were afraid to address the angry crowd directly.

Unable to refute me scientifically, the arguments turned more poetic with quotes from Robert Frost and some authors unknown to me.

Notwithstanding, by the end of the discourse, I was able to answer some people's questions, such how to treat a Vitamin D deficiency and perhaps, I was no longer the lone doctor warning the town of the dangers that lurked within. My day as an enemy of the people was done-at least for now.