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Comment by el_cujo | Hacker News Reader

>I think people feel the need to add a scientific explanation to things where in my view the pure observation that it seems to work would be enough already.

I really could not disagree more, given how much conflicting health information I see talked about seemingly daily.

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Agreed. But if you try something and it shows benefits then you don’t necessarily need an explanation. For example exercise and mediation done regularly make me feel better but I don’t really care if it’s endorphins, hormones or any other mechanism that causes this.

For now. But what if it stops working? What if someone else wants the benefit but can't do the same things? What if there are other undesirable consequences that you'd like to avoid? Knowing how something works is generally much more valuable than knowing that it works in the long term.

Sure. It’s good to have people trying to understand things but while they are findings explanations we can take advantage of the benefits already and don’t have to wait. I am thinking the same about placebo effects. As long as it works let’s use it and in parallel make an effort to understand the mechanism.

One way to look at it is that health tips are subjective: they may be useful depending on the person and their lifestyle.

Another way to look at it is that, if we try hard enough, science will offer explanations that take into account all of these differences. But it might be really hard, like multi-billion dollar studies to reach basic conclusions.

Pure observation comes from your own experience, not from reading others'.

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