terrasig | July 27, 2007I 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 had the unusual side effect of causing inappropriate hair growth. But when formulated in a cream whose distribution could be restricted by where you put it, voila!...you have Rogaine (Regaine outside the US).
Well, a similar situation has been emerging over the last several years with "…
terrasig | July 26, 2007When 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.gov gives you information about a trial's purpose, who may participate, locations, and phone numbers for more details. The information provided on ClinicalTrials.gov should be used in conjunction with advice from health care professionals.
The other day, I accidentally typed in clinicaltrials.org.…
terrasig | July 25, 2007An 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 pharmacists had identified an herb-drug interaction, only 2 (1.5%) reported their cases to Health Canada.
But, according to the study authors, "19% of pharmacists said they had reported adverse events from mixing prescription and non-prescription drugs."
Why do pharmacists feel that reporting herb-…
terrasig | July 24, 2007I 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 opened the procedural door to their release.
It appears that the wife of new French prime minister Nicolas Sarkozy, Cecilia, played an important role over the last 48 hrs in negotiating the terms of release together with other EU officials. The terms are only just beginning to emerge, but it…
terrasig | July 21, 2007From 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 a symbol of the achievements of science and its aspirations to understand the secrets of life. The image represents the base pairs of nucleic acids, twisted around a center line to show the axis of the helix.
The free PDF of the famous 1953 Nature paper reveals the elegance of her interpretation of…
terrasig | July 21, 2007Orac 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 unannounced at about 11:30 am, on July 17, 2007 at our pest control office in Sonora California. They walked in, like men on a mission, I am told, and said "I need to speak to James Tassano".
I wasn't at that office. Our manager Eric called and informed me that 2 men from the FDA had come to see me. I…
terrasig | July 20, 2007Another 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 own bottles to contribute to the mix, I sought to avoid malbecs, as I figured there'd be plenty of those in attendance, and wound up buying a syrah and a pinot noir, just so as to try something I hadn't had before from the region.
The first wine tasted was from Lapostolle Vineyards in the Alexander…
terrasig | July 19, 2007My 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:
Regarding the comment that "large corn-processing companies benefit from subsidies unavailable to conventional sugar cane producers."
The U.S. government provides support to a number of farm commodities, including sugar cane producers, in order to ensure a stable farm economy and a reliable food…
terrasig | July 16, 2007We'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 a Pfizer sales rep. She then took leave to raise me and my sister. During my elementary school years she went back to nursing school, working the 11 pm - 7 am shift in the ER at a local hospital. I have the ultimate admiration for her going back to school, working, and having a family - an…
terrasig | July 15, 2007Nearly 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 Business Week reports on a company making second-generation arsenicals that are believed to have less toxicity since the arsenic is linked to organic functional groups:
But the arsenic that Ziopharm uses in its Darinaparsin (ZIO-101) is organic, which reduces most toxic side effects, [Ziopharm CEO Dr…
terrasig | July 14, 2007Consumption 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 Consumption Linked to Atherogenic Lipid Profile," from a presentation at the recent meeting of the American Diabetes Association by Peter J. Havel, DVM, PhD, and colleagues at the University of California at Davis Department of Nutrition.
In this small trial, 23 normal volunteers were first given an…
terrasig | July 8, 2007Have 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 sea level. At the time, I was living at about 8000 ft (2438 m) so I never gave thought to the fact that a prolonged flight might produce symptoms of acute mountain sickness in otherwise unacclimatized individuals predisposed to the disorder.
Now, in research supported by Boeing and published in last…
terrasig | July 7, 2007Destined 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 Antarctic Survey's Rothera Research Station's house band. The five person indie rock band is part of a science team investigating climate change and evolutional biology on the Antarctic Peninsula - a region where temperatures have risen by nearly 3°C during the last 50 years.
From April to October -…
terrasig | July 5, 2007We'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 Street Journal reported Monday that the Chinese are having issues with foods grown in "hot spot" soils such as those on former industrial sites or subjected to mining runoff (free full-length article reprinted at Moneyweb)
Ms. Lai, along with 57 other villagers, was eventually diagnosed with high levels…
terrasig | July 3, 2007For 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 recognition of the origin and function of their structural diversity. This issue highlights some of the major questions and advances in natural products research, from recent synthetic approaches to access complicated natural products to a new educational program which utilizes natural products as a basis…
terrasig | July 1, 2007The 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 noting that Richard Dawkins reviewed Michael Behe's new book, The Edge of Evolution: The Search for the Limits of Darwinism. Dawkins notes the unusual disclaimer from the Department of Biological Sciences at Lehigh University distancing themselves from Behe then spends a lot of time on dogs.
From…
terrasig | June 27, 2007I 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 University in Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada. He was only 60 years old.
Unaware of the connection to Lindsay, I have been using an essay by Dr Beyerstein in my alternative medicine lectures for almost 10 years. Why Bogus Therapies Often Seem To Work was posted at Quackwatch.com a couple of years ago…
terrasig | June 25, 2007Quite 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 about drugs and drug safety is going to mention all of these terms. But I was still anticipating a G rating.
terrasig | June 21, 2007A 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 explosions in the middle of the night, was told Monday he must post $50,000 to get out of the Boulder County Jail.
Swerlein will be formally charged Friday, possibly for possession of explosive devices after authorities removed more than 400 chemicals from his Longmont home over the weekend. He also…