Category: Herbs & Supplements
Melatonin for sleep disorders – Safe and effective?
It’s summertime, and the living is easy. Forget the solstice. For most of North America, this week is the real start of summer – July 1 in Canada, and July 4 in the USA. Vacation time means breaking out of that those usual routines of work and school. I’m amazed after a few weeks of vacation how much sleep my body will...
Coenzyme Q10 for heart failure: The hype and the science
Could a product sold as a dietary supplement really be delivering the benefits that advocates have claimed for decades? That’s what you might be wondering about coenzyme Q10, following recent stories like: The energy-boosting supplement that could HALVE the number of deaths from heart failure screamed The Daily Mail. It’s Official: Coenzyme Q10 Improves Heart Failure Survival from the “orthomolecular” advocates AOR....
“Sense and nonsense” about alternative medicine in USA Today
Sometimes, between blogging, a demanding day (and night) job doing surgery and science, and everything else, I embarrass myself. Sure, sometimes I embarrass myself by saying something that, in retrospect, I wish I hadn’t. More often, I embarrass myself by letting things slide that I shouldn’t. For instance, when friends send me a prepublication copy of their books, I should damned well...
Tag Away
Skin tags (acrochordon) are benign growths, often raised on a pedicle with a tiny stem. 46% of the population has one or more of them. They are usually ignored, but some people think they are ugly and want to get rid of them, and sometimes the lesions rub on clothing and become irritated. Never fear! Tag Away is here! I saw it...
CAM Docket: Kardashian Diet Products Klass Action
Kim, Khloe and Kourtney Kardashian permit the use of their names and images of their curvaceous bodies to promote “QuickTrim” diet products, a line of dietary supplements making overblown claims typical of the weight loss supplement industry. Their personal testimonies and formidable publicity machine (Kim alone has over 13 million followers on Twitter), “has reportedly generated $45 million in revenue since they...
Knee Osteoarthritis: Thumbs Down for Acupuncture and Glucosamine
One more time: acupuncture and glucosamine are useless for osteoarthritis.
DMAA: Efficacious but is it Safe?
by Igor I. Bussel & Drey A. Pavlov Jann Bellamy has recently authored an excellent piece on the limitations of the FDA and how the DSHEA actually protects the profits of supplement manufacturers rather than the health and well-being of consumers. Bellamy used the very poignant and currently “controversial” example of DMAA (methylhexanamine or 1,3-dimethylamylamine) to illustrate her point regarding the loopholes...
Naturopathic organ repositioning coming soon to Pennsylvania?
Pennsylvania legislators need to know only one thing about House Bill 612 (licensure of naturopathic “doctors”) to vote against it: As a means of “naturopathic musculoskeletal therapy” the bill would allow naturopaths to “reposition body tissues and organs.” This is impossible. You cannot “reposition” tissues and organs of the human body by external manipulation. Why does this tell us everything we need...
Coconut Oil
Is coconut oil a miracle food, or a health hazard? Likely neither.
A closer look at vitamin injections
Vitamins are magic. Especially when they’re injected. Roll up the sleeve, find a vein, insert a needle and watch that colourful concoction flow directly into the bloodstream. It may sound somewhat illicit, but that person infusing it is wearing a white coat, and you’re sitting in a chic clinic. There must be something to it, right? Intravenous vitamin injections are popular with...