terrasig
Posts by this author
July 27, 2007
I once had a pharmacology professor who told us, "Today's side effects are tomorrow's therapy." What he meant was one's garbage is another's treasure. Side effects in one setting can be used for therapeutic benefit in another.
A perfect example is minoxidil, the antihypertensive vasodilator, that…
July 26, 2007
When readers are looking for clinical trials information, particularly for cancer therapies, I often refer to the NIH-operated clinicaltrials.gov:
ClinicalTrials.gov provides regularly updated information about federally and privately supported clinical research in human volunteers. ClinicalTrials.…
July 25, 2007
An article in the most recent issue of Annals of Pharmacotherapy concludes that the vast majority of known cases of herbal medicine interactions with drugs go unreported. Researchers at the University of Alberta, University of Toronto, and Health Canada surveyed 132 pharmacists. While 47% of…
July 24, 2007
I woke this morning to BBC reporting that the six Bulgarian nurses and doctor charged erroneously with transmitting HIV to over 400 Libyan children have been released and are safely home in Bulgaria.
Orac and Revere here at ScienceBlogs covered the upholding of death sentences against the six that…
July 22, 2007
$4240.00The Cadaver Calculator - Find out how much your body is worth.
July 21, 2007
From today's Washington Post:
Odile Crick, an artist who made the first widely published sketch of the double-helix structure of DNA, died of cancer July 5 at her home in La Jolla, Calif. She was 86.
Her graceful drawing of the double-helix structure of DNA with intertwined helical loops has become…
July 21, 2007
Orac has the complete story but the FDA has finally shut down sales of dichloroacetate by theDCAsite.com and buydca.com run by Jim Tassano and Heather Nordstrom.
Two agents (Chris and Steve) from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's Office of Criminal Investigations, San Francisco, arrived…
July 20, 2007
Another Wine Experience - South American Reds
By Erleichda
The wine dinner group known as Jim's Disciples met at another of the area's BYOB restaurants. The theme selected for the evening's repast was "South American Reds", which translated into red wines from Chile and Argentina. In selecting my…
July 19, 2007
My post the other day on a study showing a diet high in fructose caused massive increases in plasma triglycerides received an unusually high number of comments for this blog.
One comment in particular, from Audrae Erickson, corrected me on subsidies given to sugar cane producers vs. corn producers…
July 16, 2007
We're on the road today but I wanted to be sure that my Mom gets her birthday mentioned on the blog, so I scheduled this post in advance.
Put simply, my Mom is my inspiration for everything I have become. She started college (to be a teacher, I think) then embarked on a career as a secretary with…
July 15, 2007
Nearly two months ago, we spoke here of the surprising use of arsenic trioxide (Trisenox) in treating various cancers. Trisenox, approved in the US in 2000 for treatment of acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL), is also being investigated for other hematologic malignancies.
Now, the 23 Jul issue of…
July 14, 2007
Consumption of fructose, usually in the form of high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS), has been suggested as one of the underestimated causes of the increased incidence of obesity/metabolic syndrome in the U.S.
Given the magnitude of the issue, Medscape covered this report, "Fructose but Not Glucose…
July 8, 2007
Have you ever wondered how well-pressurized airlines keep the cabin of the average commercial flight? I have. So, in my gadget days, I once took my altimeter on a flight and learned that on my particular flight the cabin was pressurized to the equivalent of an altitude of 7200 ft (2195 m) above…
July 7, 2007
Destined for the annals of music history are the sole representatives of Antarctica during today's Live Earth concerts - Nunatak. Engineers and scientists who comprise the 22 members of the British Antarctic Survey rocked it today with one of their original compositions.
Nunatak is the British…
July 5, 2007
We've spoken on several occasions about heavy metal contamination of herbal products, especially in light of this highly-cited JAMA paper. Part of the problem is that plants will bioaccumulate heavy metas, especially when grown in soils rich in these natural and industrial products.
The Wall…
July 3, 2007
For the rest of July, Nature Chemical Biology is offering free access to about ten articles on research and training in natural products.
Investigations into natural products have recently regained prominence with the increasing understanding of their biological significance and increasing…
July 1, 2007
The New York Times Book Review section had a review today of Chris Mooney's new book, Storm World: Hurricanes, Politics, and the Battle Over Global Warming. (Review here; Chris' commentary here). The book was just released today and I look forward to reading it.
But continuing on, I couldn't help…
June 27, 2007
I just learned from Orac and Bora that the father of blogger Lindsay Beyerstein (Majikthise) has passed away. Dr Barry L Beyerstein was a member of the executive council of the Committee for Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal (CSICOP) and a biopsychologist at Simon Fraser…
June 25, 2007
Quite a few bloggers have been running their content through this website to get the equivalent of an MPAA rating.
Here's ours:
The rationale for this rating?:
This rating was determined based on the presence of the following words:
* drugs (5x)
* death (2x)
* pain (1x)
Well, a blog…
June 21, 2007
A Longmont, Colorado, engineer has been released on bail after backyard explosions led law enforcement officials to find a cache of chemicals and homemade explosive literature at his suburban home.
According to the Rocky Mountain News,
Ronald Swerlein, who allegedly rousted his neighbors with…
June 15, 2007
As you may have noticed, my posting frequency has been a bit light as of late between work, family, and other non-blog responsibilities. So, I'm going to take a bit of a hiatus to recharge the old batteries - maybe a week or ten days.
There's plenty of other good pharmaceutical reading both here…
June 11, 2007
As I noted in a previous post on arsenic trioxide, you just never know what source will give rise to the next promising drug. Last week's New England Journal of Medicine marked a key study on an old drug, mitotane (Lysodren, Bristol-Myers Squibb), that is a structural derivative of the pesticide,…
June 7, 2007
Another Wine Escapade - "Some Old World vs. New"
by Erleichda
Our wine and dinner group known as Jim's Disciples met recently at a BYOB neighborhood Italian-American restaurant. It wasn't my neighborhood, as there is nothing close by to the woods where we reside, but the sort of place a…
June 3, 2007
Yesterday morning's press release from the American Society for Clinical Oncology (ASCO) meeting included discussion of three abstracts on complementary therapies being tested in cancer and cancer-related indications. The highlights on the major news services are that 1) a shark cartilage extract…
June 2, 2007
Here are some interesting news items I found during the week but lacked the time to blog about:
Natural alternatives to growth-promoting antibiotics in livestock feed in EURelated: Herbal therapy for pigs at PigProgress.net
Coke and Cargill partner on herbal sweetener, Stevia (Rebiana)
Singapore…
May 29, 2007
From today's New York Times,
The 62-year-old former commissioner [Zheng Xiaoyu] received the unusually harsh sentence amid growing concerns about the quality and safety of China's food and drug system following several scandals here involving tainted food and phony drugs.
China is now under…
May 29, 2007
We've discussed previously the use of herbal extracts from black cohosh (Actea racemosa) for relief from hot flashes and other vasomotor symptoms of menopause and perimenopause. A clinical trial in Annals of Internal Medicine last December, showed that one black cohosh extract was no better than…
May 28, 2007
It doesn't take a hero to order men into battle. It takes a hero to be one of those men [and women] who goes into battle.
- Norman Schwarzkopf
Superb Memorial Day posts today from Orac at Respectful Insolence and Mark Chu-Carroll at Good Math, Bad Math.
May 27, 2007
After worries over the last few weeks of diethylene glycol being substituted for glycerin in cough syrup and toothpaste, I was happy to be reminded that we have a green source for glycerin. No need to risk using Chinese-sourced glycerin - glycerin (glycerol) is a by-product of biodiesel production…
May 26, 2007
Seventy-nine years ago today marked the passing of Dr John Jacob Abel, known as the American father of Pharmacology. Beyond his work on epinephrine, insulin, and devising a dialysis machine, Abel founded the departments of pharmacology at the University of Michigan and Johns Hopkins University.…