Weekend Reading
It’s the May Long Weekend – in Canada at least. The flower above is the Trillium, commonly seen in cottage country at this time of year. Here’s some links, articles, and podcasts I enjoyed this week: Continue reading ‘Weekend Reading’
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Tags: GMOs, homeopathy
Vaccines work: By the numbers
It bears repeating that vaccines are one of the greatest of all the medical innovations ever invented. This infographic illustrates their success.
Here’s the source: Why vaccinate from vaccines.com using CDC data.
h/t @a_picazo
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Weekend Reading
Keep the heat on Health Canada: http://www.stopnosodes.org
Here’s what’s keeping this pharmacist engaged and sometimes outraged:
Health Canada explicitly puts the financial interests of homeopathy manufacturers above broader public health goals. From the BC Medical Journal, Health Canada licenses homeopathic vaccines:
Remarkably, at the same time as Health Canada focuses on influenza education, flu shots, and other proven prevention measures, that same body has licensed 10 products with a homeopathic preparation called “influenzinum.”[8] According to providers, influenzinum is for “preventing the flu and its related symptoms.”[9] Homeopathic vaccines are available for other infectious diseases as well. Health Canada licenses homeopathic preparations purported to prevent polio,[10] measles,[11] and pertussis.[12] Health Canada continues to assure Canadians that it tests products for safety and efficacy before allowing them to enter the market. All approved homeopathic products are given a DIN-HM number. The website states, “A NPN or DIN-HM means that the product has been authorized for sale in Canada and is safe and effective when used according the instructions on the label.”[13]
Pharmacist John Greiss compares Health Canada and the FDA and their action on opiates. The results are striking and reiterate the question above: Is Health Canada putting public health objectives above manufacturers? Continue reading ‘Weekend Reading’
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Tags: CCSVI, GMOs, health canada, homeopathy, naturopathy, public health, vaccines
Has one physician uncovered the secret to Olympic Gold medals? And is that secret as simple as undiagnosed low thyroid function? That’s the question posed in a recent Wall Street Journal column entitled U.S. Track’s Unconventional Physician. The narrative is familiar: Lone physician fighting the establishment of “conventional” medicine. This is the medical practice of Dr. Jeffrey S. Brown, who sees thyroid illness where others see normal thyroid function. He has his critics, but his high-profile athlete patients have won a collective 15 Olympic gold medals. Case closed & Q.E.D.? Not quite. The WSJ actually does a pretty good job questioning the validity of Brown’s claims, which are far removed from the current medical consensus: Continue reading ‘Will thyroid medication make you a faster athlete?’
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Tags: hypothyroidism, sports medicine, thyroid
When you pick up a bottle of supplements, should you trust what the label says? While there is the perception that supplements are effective and inherently safe, there are good reasons to be skeptical. Few supplements are backed by good evidence that show they work as claimed. The risks of supplements are often not well understood. And importantly, the entire process of manufacturing, distributing, and marketing supplements is subject to a different set of rules than for drugs. These products may sit on pharmacy shelves, side-by-side with bottles of Tylenol, but they are held to significantly lower safety and efficacy standards. So while the number of products for sale has grown dramatically, so has the challenge to identify supplements that are truly safe and effective. Continue reading ‘What’s really in your supplement?’
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Tags: health fraud, supplements, toxicology, vitamins
A hilarious and scathing examination of the regulatory system for “complementary” medicine in Australia.
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Tags: cam, skepticism
