The BS Filter

During Garrett's first week of Chiropractic school, one of his professors took a moment during his lecture to give the students some advice.  He told them that there is a wealth of information on health, nutrition, and medicine that they would learn during seminars, in literature, and from other practitioners throughout their careers.   He reiterated the importance of learning from all these different sources, but warned that a lot of the theories, ideas, and practices that they will encounter will be a little far-fetched, radical, and sometimes completely bogus.
He then told the lecture hall full of students that his very first piece of advice to chiropractic students as they began their education was this: Put up your BS filters.
In other words, when you are presented with new information, be skeptical, ask questions, make sure that sound evidence backs up the theories and practices you are learning, don't get so caught up in a idea that you fail to use common sense and logic when assessing its validity.

For example, many chiropractors and naturopaths take the stance that "gluten is bad for everyone and no one should ever eat it" and they make this a big part of their practice.  Garrett has encountered this ideology more than once during his schooling and weekend seminars.  He put up his "BS filter", did some extra research, and came to this conclusion: gluten may cause sensitivities and problems in some people.  For those people experiencing digestive problems or problems with the supporting organs of the digestive tract, removing gluten from the diet for awhile would be beneficial to help the healing process.  This is the approach that Garrett will most likely take in his practice concerning gluten.

As I have been on my journey towards discovering better health for myself, I have adopted the same practice of "putting up my BS filter".  And I would encourage everyone else to do likewise.  It has helped a lot as I have read different articles and books.  Much of what I have read contain good ideas and information, but there is some funky, over-the-top stuff that I have to filter out or altogether ignore.  I find that if I didn't do this, I would either believe everything that I came across, or I would be so repulsed by some of the kooky ideas that I would fail to continue reading and would therefore miss out on all the good knowledge that is still contained in these readings.

So put up your BS filters.  Use your noggins; that's what they're there for.  You'll find that in the end, you will gain a whole wealth of knowledge that works for you, because--I believe--health is often a very individual thing; what works for one doesn't necessarily work for all.

Happy health hunting! :)