text: Glad to hear you're doing better.  Yeah, sometimes the quacks are onto something, and these days, some doctors are recommending probiotics after antibiotics.  My rule of thumb is that if people have eaten something since time immemorial, like yoghurt with bacterial cultures, then it's probably not going to hurt.  Indeed, the scientific thinking that monosaturated fats contributed to cardiovascular disease was very quickly challenged because people eating Mediterranean diets dripping with olive oil didn't get a lot of CVD.
  
  And I think you're correct that a lot of times, people try quackery because science has nothing more to offer.  The Goop website is targeted at women, and there's an interesting article in Macleans about how part of the problems is that, aside from the reproductive system and breast cancer, there hasn't been a lot of medical research specific to women.  
  http://www.macleans.ca/society/dont-blame-gwyneth-paltrow/