Show HN: Weaviate – Build your own generative health search engine
One of my college room mates ended up with kidney stones at a very young age (early 20s) because of a dietary supplement. He got somewhat lucky; there have been cases of liver failure [3], damage to vision [4], and many other serious health complications. Worse still, diagnosis can be difficult because in the US dietary supplements are covered under separate rules from drugs [1], the FDA is limited to post-market enforcement [2], and ingredient labels are often incomplete or wrong [5,6,7].<p>If Healthsearch is based on the contents of advertisements and reviews, then it may not be much more than a search engine for at best unsubstantiated marketing claims and anecdotes about the placebo effect, and at worst summarization and promotion of dangerously inaccurate or incomplete product information.<p>I think this is a good example of a space where generative AI is probably likely to do far more harm than good, and where the best advice remains to seek out the advice of  educated and licensed medical&#x2F;dietetic professionals, where education ensures a minimum of competence and licensure ensures a minimum of skin-in-the-game.<p>Just remember: if it&#x27;s a dietary supplement, then it&#x27;s not a food or a drug. It&#x27;s a third thing and mostly a wild west. You have no idea what you are putting in your body, and the words on the label are just that: mere words designed to get you to purchase something. Without ground-truth data, it&#x27;s all GIGO.<p>[1] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.fda.gov&#x2F;food&#x2F;dietary-supplements" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.fda.gov&#x2F;food&#x2F;dietary-supplements</a><p>[2] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.fda.gov&#x2F;food&#x2F;information-consumers-using-dietary-supplements&#x2F;questions-and-answers-dietary-supplements" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.fda.gov&#x2F;food&#x2F;information-consumers-using-dietary...</a><p>[3] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov&#x2F;pmc&#x2F;articles&#x2F;PMC3076034&#x2F;" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov&#x2F;pmc&#x2F;articles&#x2F;PMC3076034&#x2F;</a><p>[4] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;journals.sagepub.com&#x2F;doi&#x2F;10.1177&#x2F;2474126419877567" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;journals.sagepub.com&#x2F;doi&#x2F;10.1177&#x2F;2474126419877567</a><p>[5] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.health.harvard.edu&#x2F;blog&#x2F;whats-in-your-supplements-2019021515946" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.health.harvard.edu&#x2F;blog&#x2F;whats-in-your-supplement...</a><p>[6] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.gao.gov&#x2F;assets&#x2F;gao-19-23r.pdf" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.gao.gov&#x2F;assets&#x2F;gao-19-23r.pdf</a><p>[7] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.gao.gov&#x2F;assets&#x2F;gao-19-23r.pdf" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.gao.gov&#x2F;assets&#x2F;gao-19-23r.pdf</a>