terrasig | February 25, 2008From today's FDA Digest comes the following notice of action:
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today announced that Brownwood Acres Foods Inc., Cherry Capital Services Inc. (doing business as Flavonoid Sciences) and two of their top executives have signed a consent decree that effectively prohibits the companies and their executives from manufacturing and distributing any products with claims in the label or labeling to cure, treat, mitigate or prevent diseases.
The consent decree of permanent injunction is a result of the companies and their executives making unapproved drug claims and…
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…
terrasig | February 24, 2008I promise this will be the last to say about my vasectomy and the remarkable blogospheric response to my account. But I had to share with readers this observation, something that may only be of interest to other bloggers who like to examine their reader statistics. Here is the distribution by country of my last 4,000 site hits:
I've never had this concentration of non-North American hits since my early days of blogging when Terra Sigillata was the clue for a UK Telegraph crossword puzzle.
But why the Swedish concentration for the vasectomy post? Do the Swedes have an unusually high…
terrasig | February 24, 2008Following last week's outtakes from church bulletins, the synthetic organic chemist who goes by Milkshake of Org Prep Daily sent along this for our pleasure.
terrasig | February 23, 2008
You can see all the stars as you walk down Hollywood Boulevard,
Some that you recognise, some that you've hardly even heard of,
People who worked and suffered and struggled for fame,
Some who succeeded and some who suffered in vain.Celluloid Heroes, The Kinks, 1972
Star-generator hat tip: Pharmagossip
With gratitude to Johnny G. for taking me and T.P. to our first big concert, The Kinks at Nassau Coliseum, 1979-ish.
terrasig | February 22, 2008I am very deeply touched (as I was literally yesterday) by the outpouring of support and best wishes from fellow bloggers on the liveblogging of my vasectomy.
For all of the dark humor and puns, you have each been instrumental in supporting my aim of telling men relatively quick and painless the procedure is, or at least getting them to think about this as a contraceptive alternative to having their wives undergo a more involved tubal ligation.
I'll still never understand what makes things fly in the blogosphere as I spend hours writing what I think are thoughtful posts about drug safety…
terrasig | February 21, 2008Back in January several science bloggers had an exchange that degenerated into discussion of the process and aftermath of the vasectomy.
Well, as PhysioProf is wont to say, today I will sack up, literally. As part of my gift to PharmGirl for her [significant] bday next week I will undergo the knife this afternoon to render me no longer able to contribute to the gene pool. Of course, I won't be completely sperm-free until 20 to 30 post-operative ejaculations, the thought of which brings me great comfort. We have had one child and do not anticipate wanting any more - we got us a good one the…
terrasig | February 20, 2008Following the second terrorist action against UCLA's Dr Edie London and her other research colleagues, and the outcries of support that ensued, the institution is taking bold and well-justified action. This just in from Americans for Medical Progress:
UCLA is suing to protect researchers from animal extremistsLegal action follows attempted firebombings and harassment
Phil Hampton, e-mail
(310) 206-1460
UCLA is suing extremists to stop a campaign of terrorism, vandalism and menacing threats directed at faculty and administrators who conduct or support research involving laboratory animals.…
terrasig | February 19, 2008For more details on this story, you can go to Mark Chu-Carroll, Orac, Mike the Mad Biologist, or the Autism Blog. I just wanted to share my personal views on the need for childhood vaccinations and support a public information campaign from the AAP.
Until I started medical blogging, I had not realized quite how vocal was the community of individuals refusing to vaccinate their children, mostly at the urging of those who claimed that vaccines and related components caused illness in their own children. I will first say that no drug product, natural or otherwise, is completely and absolutely…
terrasig | February 17, 2008Yes, this is a science-related post, just a little off topic. We don't talk about religion much around these parts because my Catholic school upbringing and torture by nuns gives me PTSD. But I grew up in a place where your family was either Catholic or Jewish - equal-opportunity guilt.
So it is with painful nostalgia that I received the following missive from my mechanical engineer/grease monkey Catholic school classmate - (hey Tom, get off the computer; shouldn't you be in church anyway?). Enjoy!:
Subject: Church Bulletins
They're Back! Church Bulletins: God bless the church ladies who…
terrasig | February 15, 2008Apologies that I've been a bit preoccupied to put up my own content last night and today. In the meantime, I must direct you to an excellent ethics discussion by the always insightful Prof Janet Stemwedel on the research program led by Dr Edythe London, the UCLA researcher who has been terrorized personally by the Animal Liberation Front.
Janet's thoughtful analysis of this situation exemplifies why she is one of the leading bioethics commentators on the web today. I share Janet's concern that the public has been unusually silent in response to the attacks on Dr London.
terrasig | February 15, 2008This just in tonight from the NIH National Institute on Drug Abuse for those looking for a Ph.D.-level position outside of the laboratory:
NIDA seeks Molecular Biologist to Direct NIDA Program in Molecular Neurobiology: Under Represented Minorities Are Encouraged to Apply.
The DHHS and NIH is an Equal Opportunity Employer
Health Scientist Administrator, GS-601-13/14 NIDA
Salary Range: $82,961.00 -$127,442.00 USD per year
Location: Rockville, MD 20892
Open Period: Thursday, February 14, 2008 to Sunday, March 23, 2008
Job Announcements: NIDA-08-237161-MP and NIDA-08-237161-DE
Major Duties:…
terrasig | February 14, 2008It seems that everyone in the sci/med blogosphere is offering Valentine's posts reflecting their areas of professional interest. So, here's mine:
Your humble Pharmboy came of age with glam, punk, and New Wave music but thanks to PharmMom, RN, and her then-college-aged ER co-workers, I have a soft spot for 70s soft-rocking singer-songwriters. Yes, Jim Croce, John Denver, James Taylor, and Dan Fogelberg.
So it was with great interest and nostalgia that I opened this e-mail a few days ago from the Prostate Cancer Foundation:
Dan Fogelberg, the singer and songwriter whose hits "Leader of the…
terrasig | February 13, 2008
We comply with the HONcode standard for trustworthy healthinformation:verify here.
Regular readers may note that I have been diddling with the content of my left sidebar and posting a new disclaimer tab to indicate the accuracy and objectivity of the health information presented herein.
I added these details as part of my application for accreditation by the Swiss-based Health on the Net (HON) Foundation, a non-profit organization formed in 1996 to deal with the then-new issue of how a reader can determine the quality and objectivity of medical information on a website. You can…
terrasig | February 12, 2008There are responsible ways to present medical information and irresponsible ways. I will say at the outset that I have no ethical issues with discussing complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) with cancer patients, as long as the information presented is based in fact.
So it was no surprise to me and actually quite alarming to read a recent report suggesting that while only 1 in 20 breast cancer websites offer incorrect information, CAM-focused websites were 15 times more likely to contain inaccurate or incorrect information. The study to which I refer will appear in the 15 March issue…
terrasig | February 12, 2008Last week, we discussed the cowardly terrorist act toward UCLA's Dr Edythe London which was then expanded upon quite forcefully by Mark Hoofnagle at his denialism blog.
While we spend a fair bit of time around these parts questioning the leadership of the US national health agency, this statement of response from NIH is quite good:
On Tuesday, February 5, an incendiary device ignited at the front door of the home of Dr. Edythe London, an NIH-supported senior scientist and professor in the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. This domestic terrorist act against a scientist who has…
terrasig | February 9, 2008Nineteen years ago, University of Florida junior, Tiffany Sessions, disappeared from her townhouse complex in Gainesville, Florida. What happened to her remains a mystery today.
While a graduate student, a certain pharmacology blogger lived for two years in the same complex as Miss Tiffany up until five weeks before she disappeared. Along with a few dozen other UF students, they shared the same running route that bordered the pasture of the university's agricultural institute. Some thought that she was abducted somewhere along her run but others say she was last seen talking with someone in…
terrasig | February 9, 2008I'm an engineer. But a comparatively weird engineer: a feminist, radical, social justice-y engineer. In my research, I combine theoretical frameworks from women's studies, sociology, science and technology studies to apply to the study of engineering and engineering education - I like to think of my work as feminist engineering research.
With that introduction, Dr Alice Pawley joins ScienceWoman at On being a scientist and a woman.
Welcome, Alice - we look forward to some great discussions and commentary.
terrasig | February 8, 2008Another Wine Experience - Spanish wines from Ribera del Duero and Rioja
By Erleichda
The gathering of Jim's Disciples met at a nearby BYOB restaurant that we had used before for the monthly wine dinner. Most of the diners were outside on the patio enjoying a marvelous summer evening, while the ten of us gathered indoors (in what had been an 18th century stone barn) so as not to disturb the more genteel crowd. I would have preferred dining under the stars, but I understood the difficulty in attempting to accommodate us in the midst of romantic twosomes. Instead, we had to content ourselves…
terrasig | February 6, 2008I'll leave my neuropharmacology and neuroscience colleagues to comment in greater detail on this story (see earlier DrugMonkey post), but this report is just in from AP on Heath Ledger's toxicology report:
The cause of death was "acute intoxication by the combined effects of oxycodone, hydrocodone, diazepam, temazepam, alprazolam and doxylamine," spokeswoman Ellen Borakove said in a statement.
I haven't seen a copy of the report itself (maybe Smoking Gun will have it soon) but plasma concentrations of each were not noted. However, this was the statement from the family:
In a statement…