alternative medicine
terrasig | January 13, 2009I just started receiving a bunch of Google referral hits from readers searching for a story about the US Federal Trade Commission apparently taking regulatory action against a church that is selling supplements claimed to exhibit anti-cancer activities.
The article in question, "Tyrannical FTC Threatens Christian Church with Imprisonment for Selling Dietary Supplements," was written by a gentleman named Mike Adams, an editor at NaturalNews.com. I'm not exactly certain at this point what the specific FTC actions are today since the article is rife with rantings and rhetoric:
The FTC has…
oracknows | January 12, 2009The seemingly never-ending quest of advocates of unscientific medicine, the so-called "complementary and alternative medicine" (CAM) movement is to convince policy makers, patients, and physicians that, really and truly, it no longer deserves the qualifier of "alternative," that it is in fact mainstream and even "scientific." That very search for respectability without accountability is the very reason why "alternative" medicine originally morphed into CAM in order to soften the "alternative" label a decade or two ago. Increasingly, however, advocates of such highly implausible medical…
terrasig | December 11, 2008NIH's NCCAM released a survey report on the use of complementary and alternative medicine in the US (report PDF here, post at WSJ Health Blog here.) . I don't know about you but the picture at Health Blog of the child receiving chiropractic manipulation scared the bejeezus out of me.
Overall trends were toward greater use of these unproven approaches, many of which have no basis in science. Most concerning is that one in nine children were estimated to have received a CAM therapy. And from the NCCAM report abstract:
Children whose parent used CAM were almost five times as likely (23.9%) to…
sb admin | November 19, 2008So, America is changing. We have an African American president. The Latino population continues to grow. How can the alternative medicine community adjust to this demographic shift? What are they to do?
I'm glad you asked! It turns out that immigrants are palomas ripe for the plucking. Now, we've talked about the ethics of alternative medicine, and how "meaning well" is not exculpatory. If you promote quackery, it's wrong, even if you believe your own drivel.
One of the worst types of drivel is naturopathy. This "specialty" advertises itself as "medicine-plus", but really it's "healing-…
terrasig | October 31, 2008PalMD has a nice post up at denialism blog reviewing a recent NYT article on a foundation run by DKNY's Donna Karan donating $850,000 USD to Beth Israel Medical Center to study the combination of Eastern and Western healing methods. PalMD has the details but he then gets into an area about which I am rather passionate: the incredibly low scientific-based bar that is allowed by journalists and hospital administrators for individuals to be considered "experts" in complementary and alternative medicine (CAM).
As the good doctor notes of one such expert:
Other than his standard medical…
revere | September 9, 2008This week CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Reports (MMWR) has a quick statistical snapshot of the percent of adults (over the age of 18) who used Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) by sex and selected conditions. CDC defines CAM as
A group of diverse health-care systems, practices, and products not presently considered to be part of conventional medicine. CAM includes acupuncture; ayurveda; homeopathic treatment; naturopathy; traditional healers; chelation therapy; nonvitamin, nonmineral, natural products; diet-based therapies; chiropractic or osteopathic manipulation; massage…
terrasig | July 20, 2008[Posted originally on 19 July but updated to include more information on BiDil]
DrugMonkey alerted me to this gem at Light-skinned-ed Girl on a company called GenSpec Labs who are marketing, African American-, Hispanic-, and Caucasian-focused vitamin supplements.
Seriously. I thought this was a link to The Onion.
The GenSpec promotion is a completely asinine and repulsive marketing exploitation of a concept that, surprisingly, often has some pretty good science behind it. But it's also very typical of the dietary supplement industry to take a little science and come up with some snake oil…
terrasig | June 18, 2008This link is just to quickly follow up on yesterday's post, "FDA Warns Individuals and Firms to Stop Selling Fake Cancer 'Cures'." The US FDA has specifically listed those companies and individuals as well as their specific products that were cited in yesterday's action:125 Fake Cancer "Cures" Consumers Should Avoid
And for more information to share with your family, friends, patients, colleagues, etc:Beware of Online Cancer Fraud
This latter post is of great general value for the lay public to detect red flags for fraudulent cancer treatment or prevention products as well as some general…
terrasig | June 17, 2008Perhaps the #1 reason I started this blog was to distinguish therapeutic natural products (i.e., single chemical entities derived from plants, microorganisms, etc.) from questionably-marketed herbal and non-herbal dietary supplements. After doing research and teaching in this area for at least 13 or so years, I have found that patients with cancer and HIV/AIDS are most often preyed upon by unscrupulous marketers.
Hence, I was delighted to see this action from the US FDA today. I can add nothing more to their press release other than my thanks and encouragement to do more in this regard:…
terrasig | June 16, 2008My blog posts seem to run in themes - sort of like when after you buy a car, you see other people driving that model all over the place.
Yesterday we posted about homicide charges being leveled against an unlicensed California chiropractor operating a clinic out of his garage.
That post garnered a large number of hits from a related story in the Canadian National Post, where our blog was linked under "More from the Web."
An Alberta woman has launched a $529-million class-action lawsuit against provincial chiropractors after a neck adjustment allegedly left her paralyzed. Sandra Gay Nette, of…
terrasig | June 15, 2008This is not at all funny but I guess ironic might be a better word.
The science blogosphere has been alight this past week with the recognition of naturopathy by the state of Minnesota as well as other aspects of alternative medicine.
As if the risks of going to an alternative practitioner are not enough, here is an alarming case from Sacramento, CA, of a patient dying at the hands of someone posing as a chiropractor:
Authorities said Antonio Arellano, 76, was taken into custody on suspicion of homicide after operating his clinic in the 4000 block of Washington Avenue.
On Tuesday, a 66-year-…
terrasig | June 6, 2008Here's one of those Friday afternoon press releases, hoping no one will notice. I'm having a little trouble parsing out whether this effort promotes CAM or is truly meant to inform physicians in a manner so as to protect their patients from unscupulous providers:
National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM)
For Immediate Release: Friday, June 6, 2008
CONTACT: NCCAM Press Office, 301-496-7790,
TIME TO TALK ABOUT CAM:
Health Care Providers and Patients Need To Ask and Tell
The National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM), part of the National…
terrasig | May 13, 2008I'm not sure whether this story qualifies as alternative medicine or religion, or neither. I throw it out to you because I and other sci/med bloggers widely criticize the infiltration of so-called alternative medicine in our academic medical centers.
But here in today's Health Journal section of the Wall Street Journal, Melinda Beck tells us of the application of mindfulness, a practice derived from Buddhism, to overcoming binge-eating disorders. Sure, this may be considered alternative medicine but it's really an application of psychology under the auspices of integrative medicine:
In a…
terrasig | April 17, 2008Dr Kimball Atwood IV at Science-Based Medicine and my long-time blogging colleague Orac have spilled oceans of e-ink on the institutionalization of alternative or integrative medicine in North America's top academic medical centers. Complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) is now often called "integrative medicine" to intellectually justify the incorporation of evidence-free, anecdotal practices into the business of academic medicine. Of course, integrative medicine does co-opt a few areas of conventional medicine, like nutritional and psychological counseling, supported by an evidence…
revere | April 16, 2008Thanks to a local health officer in Colorado I get word that the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has begun an investigation of claims made by my favorite infomercial quacks, the Kinoki Foot Bad folks (see my howl of pain in the post The TV ad that DRIVES ME CRAZY). Here's some of the AP story:
Late night television infomercials seem to have a cheap fix for anything: lose weight, banish cellulite or improve conditions like diabetes, arthritis and insomnia.
Or, all of the above.
Ads for Kinoki Foot Pads made exactly that bold claim, saying the pads use secrets of ancient Japanese medicine…
terrasig | March 26, 2008No, it's not a song by Foreigner - these are the names of two products "promoted and sold over the Internet for the treatment of erectile dysfunction (ED) and for sexual enhancement."
In yet another instance of a trend that would be comical if not so serious, the US FDA has announced that "Blue Steel" and "Hero" supplements contain chemical relatives of sildenafil, the active constituent of the prescription medication Viagra.
"Because these products are labeled as 'all natural dietary supplements,' consumers may assume that they are harmless and pose no health risk," said Janet Woodcock, M.…
terrasig | March 22, 2008I usually don't do these kinds of linkfests but we're on the road for a Pharmboy family Easter weekend and there are a few items of interest that slipped through my fingers recently. Here are a few things that readers may enjoy this weekend:
Bora's blog gets its 1,000,000th visitor
Go over and offer congratulations to Mr Community.
Get a tetanus shot first, and be sure to use clean nails.
Adding new meaning to "get off the cross, someone else needs the wood," WSJ Health Blog alerts us to ritual crucifixions in the Philippines. By the way, belated congratulations to our Health Blog…
terrasig | March 8, 2008Just a hypothesis here.
A vibrant, 55-year-old Denver-area furniture executive, Lesile Fishbein, is possibly near death according to The Denver Post:
The bubbly Fishbein, one of the most recognizable faces in the metro area because of her television ads for her company, Kacey Fine Furniture, was admitted to Presbyterian/St. Luke's Hospital for emergency treatment on Tuesday. She had been given an injection for chronic back pain and suffered a serious reaction, the friends said. She was later placed on life-support, which was removed Friday evening. [emphasis mine]
The natural product and…
terrasig | March 4, 2008"There's no credible evidence that what's in Airborne can prevent colds or protect you from a germy environment," said CSPI senior nutritionist David Schardt, who reviewed Airborne's claims. "Airborne is basically an overpriced, run-of-the-mill vitamin pill that's been cleverly, but deceptively, marketed."
One really needn't go any further than this money quote from yesterday's press release out of the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI).
With continuing investigations from the Federal Trade Commission and 24 State Attorneys General, the walls are crumbling down on the makers of…
terrasig | February 25, 2008[Note: I originally posted this last Thursday under another title but it got lost in other events of that day. As I find it ironic that Mr Comarow has been attacked by an alternative medicine practitioner and advocate, I find this story worthy of reposting.]
A few weeks ago the skeptical blogosphere was up in arms about an article in US News & World Report by Avery Comarow on alternative medicine services in US academic medical centers. Mr Comarow is a senior medical writer for USN&WR and best known as editor for the last 18 years of the magazine's annual feature, America's Best…