musings on medicines from the Earth
Abel Pharmboy is the nom de plume of an academic researcher and educator who holds a PhD in Pharmacology. He writes on natural product drugs and dietary supplements, academic career development, medical journalism and, occasionally, making and listening to music and wine appreciation for the monetarily-challenged.
You can learn quickly the distinction between the fields of Pharmacology, Pharmacognosy, Pharmacy, the Pharmaceutical Sciences by clicking on the hyperlinks. You can learn more about the author here.
"Why Terra Sigillata?" will tell you about the origin of the blog name.
Please feel free to contact me off-blog by e-mail to abelpharmboy (at) gmail (dot) com.
Please read the DISCLAIMER for details on the blog's intended audience, advertising and comment policy, and how not to use the information presented herein.
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December 28, 2006
Category: Botany
President Ford and his family have a special place in the heart of Coloradans, in part for helping to popularize the Vail Valley ski resorts - the "Western White House," as it was then known. Little-appreciated outside Colorado is that...
Posted by Abel Pharmboy at 11:28 AM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
December 27, 2006
Category: Religion
A pediatric nurse and professor publishes, "When Parents Say No: Religious and Cultural Influences on Pediatric Healthcare Treatment."
Posted by Abel Pharmboy at 9:07 AM • 6 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
December 25, 2006
Category: Personal
To all of our readers, near and far, please accept our warmest best wishes for peace and happiness today and in the upcoming new year. If the other end of this internet connection finds you in a warm home and/or...
Posted by Abel Pharmboy at 2:18 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
December 23, 2006
Category: Botanical/Herbal Medicines
But guess where?
Posted by Abel Pharmboy at 7:53 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
December 22, 2006
Category: Botanical/Herbal Medicines
The Wall Street Journal's Science Journal correspondent today "bestows holiday gifts" (sub req'd) on researchers, drugs, and other approaches that have advanced health and medicine, or set it back. Given yesterday's discussion of the failed efficacy trial for black cohosh,...
Posted by Abel Pharmboy at 11:25 AM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
December 21, 2006
Category: Botanical/Herbal Medicines
Flash: the continued failure of botanical therapies return medicine and patients to weighing the risks and benefits of using treatments that actually work.
Posted by Abel Pharmboy at 1:30 PM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
December 20, 2006
Category: Blogging community
Hearty congratulations go out to fellow ScienceBloggers Orac (Respectful Insolence) and PZ Myers (Pharyngula, like I needed to tell you) for their respective wins in the categories of Best Medical/Health Issues Blog and Best Science Blog, respectively, of The 2006...
Posted by Abel Pharmboy at 1:35 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
December 19, 2006
Category: Botanical/Herbal Medicines
Here is the NIH press release of a study published in today's Annals of Internal Medicine. I'll have to take a closer look at the specific formulations of the supplements tested (two of which contained black cohosh extracts) and study...
Posted by Abel Pharmboy at 11:02 AM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Justice
Terrible news this morning, but not entirely unexpected given the complete ignorance of science in the case of medical personnel charged with intentionally infecting children with HIV in a Libyan hospital. The defendants have again been sentenced to death. Luc...
Posted by Abel Pharmboy at 8:36 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
December 18, 2006
Category: Biology
A great interview in Discover by our own Carl Zimmer.
Posted by Abel Pharmboy at 9:17 PM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
December 16, 2006
Category: The Friday Fermentable
This is too late for The Friday Fermentable, but the NYT has a great travel article yoga and wine retreats to be offered at DeLoach Vineyards in California's Sonoma Valley (one of my favorite zinfandel producers). Of course, this Americanization...
Posted by Abel Pharmboy at 8:08 PM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
December 15, 2006
Category: Blogging community
I specifically launched Terra Sigillata on my sister's birthday last year so that my aging brain wouldn't have to remember (or forget) yet another important date. The original post and ad hoc mission statement holds up pretty well after a...
Posted by Abel Pharmboy at 11:28 AM • 12 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Personal
A special shout-out to the one-and-only.
Posted by Abel Pharmboy at 10:16 AM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
December 14, 2006
Category: Alternative medicine
Following from my previous post about the JCO paper on the medical ethics of managing pediatric cancer cases where parents refuse standard-of-care therapies, I wanted to discuss an accompanying review on complementary and alternative therapies for cancer-related pain. Unlike the...
Posted by Abel Pharmboy at 9:57 AM • 4 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Medicine
Tara at Aetiology just posted a few minutes ago that today's New England Journal of Medicine has published a free-access, Perspective article on the case of the Tripoli Six, who awaiting their 19 December sentencing....
Posted by Abel Pharmboy at 8:23 AM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
December 13, 2006
Category: Biology
Thanks to a Conan O'Brien ad lib, NBC was compelled to purchase the domain name (via the NYT).
Posted by Abel Pharmboy at 5:01 PM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Alternative medicine
The first of two great back-to-back articles on ethics of alternative medicine use in pediatric patients and a comprehensive review of CAM methods for reducing cancer pain.
Posted by Abel Pharmboy at 2:57 AM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
December 11, 2006
Category: Food safety
Among the many duties charged to the US FDA is the safety of veterinary feed. Therefore, equestrian enthusiasts should take note of the following warning from the FDA Center for Veterinary Medicine on natural contamination of certain corn products with...
Posted by Abel Pharmboy at 3:10 PM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
December 9, 2006
Category: Blogging community
In an amazing show of solidarity, the Honolulu Marathon will be run twice this Sunday: once in Hawaii and once in...Iraq. Fellow ScienceBlogger, Mike Dunford, tells us that a number of soldiers serving in Iraq (including his wife) will run...
Posted by Abel Pharmboy at 2:25 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
December 8, 2006
Category: Pharmaceuticals
A shocking but practical meeting of science and religion.
Posted by Abel Pharmboy at 1:39 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
December 7, 2006
Category: Politics
We last spoke in September about the case of five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor unjustly imprisoned in Libya for the inconceivable charge of intentionally injecting 426 children with HIV at Al-Fateh Hospital in Benghazi. These health care workers...
Posted by Abel Pharmboy at 1:05 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
December 6, 2006
Category: Drug safety
Deaths in Panama from a toxic solvent used in a cough medicine harken back to a similar 1937 episode in the US, one in which food and drug safety laws were ultimately strengthened.
Posted by Abel Pharmboy at 10:05 AM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
December 5, 2006
Category: Cool stuff
Now here's a wreath that won't create controversy or get the homeowner's association after you! If you're agonizing over what to get for that hard-to-figure relative, how about a personalized gift wreath for the holidays? The idea: create your own...
Posted by Abel Pharmboy at 7:59 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
December 3, 2006
Category: Alternative medicine
Do we have a double-standard in setting the bar for scientific evidence between conventional and alternative modalities?
Posted by Abel Pharmboy at 8:53 PM • 9 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
