This infiltration of folk medicine into the modern world has reached all levels of medicine and academia.

FORBES: Michigan May Legalize Fake Doctors

St John's Wort has been used for many years in folk medicine to treat disorders such as burns, wounds and depression.

BBC: Herb 'helps ease depression'

As Peter Lipson explained recently in his Forbes column, naturopaths are little more than fake doctors, whose practices are a modern-day version of folk medicine.

FORBES: Naturopathic shenanigans in the Maryland legislature

Many of the unscientific folk medicine beliefs, the ones that failed us for centuries, are making a comeback, one that is supported by a multi-billion dollar supplement industry among others.

FORBES: Michigan May Legalize Fake Doctors

You see as much enthusiasm for homeopathy, chiropractic, herbal remedies and other forms of folk medicine on the far right as on the far left, and for the same fundamental reason: distrust of expertise, of the scientific method, and of the good intentions of the authorities.

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It has been folk wisdom within medicine that using benzodiazepines for a long time is a bad idea.

CNN: What are the long-term brain effects of Xanax?