Results for: vitamins

Swine Flu Vaccine Fearmongering

Fear is a curious thing. It often bears no relation to the actual risk of what we fear. When swine flu first broke out in Mexico, people were understandably afraid. Travel was restricted, schools were closed, and so many people stayed home that the streets of Mexico City were empty. As the disease spread around the world, Egypt developed a paranoid fear...

/ September 8, 2009

Protandim: Another Kind of Antioxidant

Four years ago I received an e-mail inquiry about Protandim. I had never heard of it; but I looked it up and wrote a quick, informal, somewhat snarky answer that got posted on the Internet. It got a lot of attention. Googling for Protandim now brings up my critique right after the Protandim website itself: that can’t be good for sales. Over...

/ August 25, 2009

Functional Medicine IV

When I started this series on Functional Medicine, David Gorski suggested looking at Mark Hyman’s web page, which I had seen months before, but thought did not reveal much. That was a wrong. It shows a lot, and I suggest bloggers et al review it. So I decided on a fourth “functional medicine” (FM) installment, in search of what it FM really...

/ August 22, 2009

DSHEA: a travesty of a mockery of a sham

The Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act (DSHEA) is a terrible piece of legislation that protects supplement manufacturers rather than patients. Congress should be ashamed.

/ July 20, 2009

Functional Medicine (FM) What Is It?

Functional Medicine – What is it? After extensive searching and examination, my answer is still – only the originators of “FM” know. Or, at least one must assume they know, because so far as I can see, I certainly see nothing that distinguishes “FM” from other descriptions of sectarian and “Complementary/Alternative Medicine” practices. A difference may lie in the advocates’ assumptions to...

/ July 9, 2009

Naturopathic Prescribing: The Dark Side Beckons

I am a terrible Oregon chauvinist.  I think there is no better place to live on the planet. Period.  Great natural beauty, not a lot of people, best beer ever and no pro football team. Oregon is both casual and tolerant.  It is safe to say that dressing up in the Pacific NW means tucking your t shirt into your jeans.  And...

/ June 19, 2009
Quack duck

How do scientists become cranks and doctors quacks?

What are the characteristics of physicians and scientists that lead them to go down the dark paths of quackery and pseudoscience?

/ June 15, 2009
Oprah Winfrey

The Oprah-fication of medicine

When it comes to quackery, Oprah really is the Queen of All Media. The Secret, Dr. Phil, "America's Quack" Dr. Oz, and Jenny McCarthy all got their start thanks to Oprah, plus a whole lot of New Age nonsense.

/ June 1, 2009

Hostility Towards Scientists And Jenny McCarthy’s Latest Video

I’ve been fairly quiet about Jenny McCarthy’s campaign against childhood vaccinations, partly because Dr. David Gorski has covered the issue so thoroughly already, and partly because of my “do not engage” policy relating to the deeply irrational (i.e. there’s no winning an argument with “crazy.”) But this week I was filled with a renewed sense of urgency regarding the anti-vaccinationist movement for...

/ May 21, 2009

Raw deal: Got diarrhea?

I recently saw a 14 year old girl in my office with a 2 day history of severe abdominal cramps, bloody diarrhea, and fever. Her mother had similar symptoms as did several other members of her household and some family friends. After considerable discomfort, everyone recovered within a few days. The child’s stool culture grew a bacterium called Campylobacter. Campylobacter is a nasty...

/ May 19, 2009