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Posts Tagged natural health remedies

Friday links Grant Jacobs Sep 03

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Time to clear out those tabs! Lurking on my web browser are some great reads… for those that have more time than I do!*

First up is the excellent visual tale, The Illustrated Guide to a Ph.D. Don’t forget to read right to the bottom: there is a “bonus” graphic and story tucked away at the bottom of the page.

(Source: xkcd.com)

(Source: xkcd.com)

The New Yorker has an abstract for a longer piece on local murderer, and former head of psychiatry at the University of Otago Medical School, Colin Bouwer. (The full article requires subscription, but the abstract is entertaining in it’s own right.)

I have a hearing loss, so I have a tendency to pick up on stories with hearing themes. This blog post describes research indicating that those with Williams Syndrome have something resembling synaesthesia.

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Vitamin C, swine flu, media, lawyers Grant Jacobs Aug 23

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This article is an opinion piece. I am not lawyer or medic.

If you think my title looks like one of those lists in IQ tests were they get you to pick the odd one out, you’d be right, only this time one the question is what is missing?

If you thought ‘medical experts’, you got it right.

Peter Griffin has said quite a bit on this, so as a practical matter there is little left for me to add, but let me add my voice to express concern over the coverage given to this story in the way a (scientifically-minded) movie critic might.

My introduction to this story was John Campbell’s interview with lawyer Mai Chen, however this media story actually starts with an earlier documentary on 60 minutes which presents the case of a patient seriously ill from pneumonia from H1N1 (aka “swine ’flu”) where the family urged a medical team to use high-dose intravenous vitamin C to treat their critically-ill relative. The account of events is that the doctors were (understandably) reluctant to carry out the unorthodox procedure, but eventually relented under pressure that included correspondence from lawyer Mai Chen. The patient recovered: the program implies that this unorthodox treatment is the reason.

Whatever the motivations and reasoning in presenting it as they did, the documentary pushes a barrow rather than explores the subject.

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Vitalism ideology in chiropractic advertising Grant Jacobs Jul 25

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A dissection of an advertisement in which a local chiropractor tries to make vitalism sound credible

It’s been a very long time since I have taken the local chiropractor to task over one of his advertisements. I’m not able to give a full dose of Respectful Insolence in Orac’s inimitable style, but the chiropractor’s latest effort is begging to be deconstructed.

(Source: Wikimedia Commons.)

(Source: Wikimedia Commons.)

In his most recent advertisement (see lower right, page 5) he is selling that vitalism is not only credible (it’s not), but also implying it’s increasingly gaining acceptance (which it certainly isn’t and isn’t going to any time soon).

What’s strikes me isn’t the vitalism angle, it’s that the reasoning used reminds me very much of creationists trying to dismiss the theory of evolution.

Let’s back up a little and start at the beginning.

He starts by asserting — not demonstrating or questioning, asserting — that vitalism exists:

The first chiropractors called this special nature of the body its “Innate Intelligence […]

Note how this slips in an assertion “this special nature of the body”: vitalism is assumed to be true from the onset.

It resembles something I’ve often seen in creationist arguments: founding assumptions that assert or imply at the onset what they want to prove true, making their whole argument fallacious.

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Friday reading – Legionnaires’ Disease, human ash sculptures, and more Grant Jacobs Jun 18

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As a science blogger my web browser gets full of open tabs holding articles I’d like to read, but haven’t time to do more than skim. Weeding out the good but not good enough to leave you with the better of these, I give you with this reading list:

Legionnaires’ Disease occurs in New Zealand occasionally. Pump Handle’s blog post reports that a The European Journal of Epidemiology research paper concludes that perhaps ~20% of cases in England and Wales can be linked with car windscreen wiper fluid, not a source most of us would think of.

(Source: via BoingBoing.)

(Source: BoingBoing; artist: Wieki Somers.)

Immortalise yourself as a 3-D sculpture using your ashes? BoingBoing has a short post pointing to Dutch artist Wieki Somers’ work. (Click on ‘Consume or…’) An example is shown to the right. (HT: @JenLucPiquant)

The New York Review — that home of good book reviews — now has blogs, good ones too. (HT: Neuron Culture.)

Lancet editor sacked. The Scientist outlines some of the back story to why a senior editor at top medical journal The Lancet has been sacked.

Save research funding: close alternative medicine centres? PZ Myers passes on a money-saving idea for the NIH: close the centres investigating “alternative” remedies. (Potential saving: $US240 million.)

Measuring science and scientists. Nature News has put up a round-up of their articles and editorials on science metrics. (Not all the linked entries are open access, unfortunately, but some are. It’s a pity that they don’t indicate which are (are not) so if you aren’t a subscriber you get to find out by trial and error!)

Open Access 101. NCAR Magazine has an article looking into Open Access in some depth.

As always, comments welcome…! (Encouraged, in fact!)

Other posts on Code for life:

Oliver Sacks on Hallucinations

In good health or not? – “natural health” advertising in newspapers, magazines

Conspiring against science

What is your relationship with your research notebook?

That Ben Goldacre fuss

In good health or not? – “natural health” advertising in newspapers, magazines Grant Jacobs Jun 17

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Should newspapers take care to not place advertisements with dubious claims alongside sound medical advice?

My local paper is the Otago Daily Times. Today the ODT — as it is known locally — contained a supplement,* good health, which I think is let down by including advertising of some rather dodgy services and products.

see-thru-body

Don’t get me wrong. I like the ODT. It’s easily one of the better papers. Overall the good health pull-out looks fine too; it’s a case of a few letting down the many.

As you read on, bear in mind that I’m interested the wider point the advertising in this feature raises, not this particular supplement, which I’m just using to illustrate my point.

The good health supplement is presented as a 12-page pull-out magazine with an A-Z series of short pieces on Asthma, Burns, Chilblains, Drug and alcohol addiction, … Yellow fever and Zoster (as in herpes zoster infection, or shingles).

A brief skim suggests that the short pieces look sound. A number cite sources, including WWW sites, and some encourage readers to visit registered practitioners: well done.

The presentation is so much that of an informative magazine that I didn’t notice the (not so small) “small print” that it was an advertising feature until after I spotted a few dubious advertisements and decided to look closer.

It would be nice to know who wrote the informative pieces. I presume these are by staff writers, or free-lancers contracted for this feature. Let’s assume it’s not the advertisers but by one means or other representatives of the Otago Daily Times.

Here’s my beef:** a few of the advertisements strike me as too dubious to be placed alongside the rest of the material, including the other advertisers. Including them undermines the credibility of the supplement.

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Sunday reading list Grant Jacobs May 16

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(Source: publicdomainpictures.net)

(Source: publicdomainpictures.net)

There is a difference to claiming that compounds have molecular properties and claiming that they have higher-level properties as a consequence. Similarly, observing that a substance is essential, does not necessarily mean that supplementation of it will be beneficial.

A recent double-blind controlled study of Omega 3 oil adds to the argument that Omega 3 oil does not improve cognitive function (“brain power”) in school children. Blogger akshatrathi294 presents a short report of the findings of the research study.

(This is in contrast to a video recently presented on sciblogs.)

hermit_crab_queueRounding out the very bottom of the alphabetical list of blogs at scienceblogs is Zooillogix. The posting there is infrequent, but when they write they have something really interesting to say.

When hermit crabs grow too big for their present home (shell), they look for a bigger one. Recent research reported at Zooillogix shows that hermit crabs queue up for their new home. If you’re a hermit crab looking for a bigger home, you shuffle up to a bigger crab and wait. You’ll be joined by a smaller crab waiting on you. And so ad infinitum.* At some point the big guy quits his home and everyone has a upgrading frenzy. (There is some suggestion that competition for homes may play a role; see the comments.)

Then there is photographing African wildlife up very close with a BeetleCam.

*Biologists will know I am making a feeble play on an extremely well-known passage.

One of the harder things to convey to non-scientists is that scientists spent a lot of their time dealing with uncertainty or, cast in a more hopeful light, determining the extent to which they can have confidence in a finding. (Related to this is Nature editor Henry Gee’s blog post title “Science as a Religion that Worships Doubt as its God”, countering David Sloan‘s title “Science as a Religion that Worships Truth as its God” arguing that “What science is all about, in contrast, is the quantification of doubt.”)

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Have your say on the development of a Natural Health Products Bill Grant Jacobs May 13

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Submissions close in just a few days, on May 17th. PDF and Word copies of the consultation paper are available on-line.

The Ministry of Health list the key elements of the consulting paper as:

  • product approval, based on notification of products on a database
  • recognition of the decisions of trusted overseas regulators, where appropriate
  • a list of prohibited ingredients
  • a list of permitted ingredients and a process for adding new ingredients
  • a list of permitted low-level natural health products claims
  • labelling requirements
  • advertising rules
  • export certification, where it would assist companies to access overseas markets
  • a tailor-made manufacturing code of practice

Instructions for submissions and related information are available on the MOH website. (You can email your submission to email to , which is probably the likely approach for most of us.)

I’m a little too busy (an huge understatement) to scour the internet widely for other views on this, but as a quick starter list,

I have to admit I’m a bit frustrated that I didn’t hear of this sooner, but I hope even at this late stage some may find time to contribute.

Share your thoughts in the comments.

Other articles on Code for life:

Pharmacists to say that homeopathy does not work?

An horrific case of natural health treatment of cancer

Homeopathy check-up: Not in the health system, disclaimers on labels

Time for disclaimers on remedies?, “alternative” or not

Homeopathic remedies in NZ pharmacies

Medical remedies-burden of proof lies with seller

Elsewhere on sciblogs:

why ‘natural supplements’ need regulation

Alliances of pharmacists & GPs; opportunities to pressure for removal of useless “remedies”? Grant Jacobs Apr 06

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Today Elspeth McLean, writing for the Otago Daily Times, reports of a national alliance between pharmacists and general practitioners.

She reports that this initiative focuses on improving use of medicines through reducing wastage.

Perhaps memoranda of this kind might also be a means that GPs could ask that the “remedies” that pharmacists’ offer be consistent with practices they support.

Should the Royal New Zealand College of General Practitioners discourage, or even disallow, prescription services from pharmacies whose other remedies or services are inconsistent with the medical practices the Royal New Zealand College of General Practitioners supports?

I raise this a question to invite discussion. Examples of remedies that would be inconsistent with general medical practice would include homeopathy (see links below) and many other “natural health” “remedies”.

Other articles on homeopathy at Code for life:

Homeopathy check-up: Not in the health system, disclaimers on labels

Homeopathic remedies in NZ pharmacies

Time for disclaimers on remedies?, “alternative” or not

British homeopathy sceptics group aims for sugar high (with Dawkins video)

Undiluted humour: If Homeopathy Beats Science


Sources for medical information for non-medics and non-scientists Grant Jacobs Mar 18

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A recent up-swing locally in credulous claims about vaccines and the diseases they address has prompted me to list a small number of resources that I have found to have readable explanations of medical information for non-medics and non-scientists.

My lists are not complete or “definitive”, nor do I claim to be some authority on things medical. I’m just sharing a few sites I have used in the hope that they are useful for others who want find medical information. I have not listed sites that deal with medicines per se; these sites are focused on diseases.

Don’t forget that your best source of information is your registered medical practitioner.

(I emphasise registered medical practitioner to distinguish them from those offering “natural remedies” and those whose style themselves as doctors but are not in fact registered practitioners.)

Useful medical information websites

Others are welcome to recommend other sites in the comments below. The links are on the title of the sources.

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Medical DIY… Grant Jacobs Mar 18

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You know how the classic scene goes. Naïve ambitious husband describes his Do-It-Yourself plans… and “skills.” Wife stands there, wordless, with ever-widening eyes forecasting a disaster.

(Source: Wikipedia.)

(Source: Wikipedia.)

That’s how precisely researchers and medics feel watching non-medics and non-scientists determined to “do it their way” on things that affect others’ lives.

Sure, a few will genuinely do well. A rare few.

Most really should be honest and admit they haven’t the skills, or, realistically, the time to learn to become good at it.

Civilisations are built on an acceptance of division of labour. Builders know how to build sound structures so that your house doesn’t crash around your ears in a storm. Electricians know how to wire things up without zapping everyone to kingdom come. Plumbers know how to fit pipes that don’t create a lake in your living room. (Well, most of the time!) GPs know how to diagnose and treat the more frequent disorders, and a few besides (but they refer to specialists to for things out of the ordinary; they know when to pass the buck onto the better (wo)man).

Don’t fight it. Division of labour is there to get the best out of each area of knowledge.

Fighting it and trying to “do it yourself” without the training and experience is like the household DIY thing: maybe OK for very minor things; dodgy for even modest things; and downright silly for everything else.

You or your family’s health is worth a bit more than DIY set of shelves or light fitting, right?

Anyone who claims that in a few hours or weeks or even months of study they are able to speak more authoritatively than someone who has spent years (or decades) of full-time study on a subject has got to be kidding themselves.

This isn’t just about medical research. It applies to everything. Building, electronics, cooking fine cuisine, motor mechanic, competitive sport, whatever.

Don’t be a DIY idiot.

Footnote

Just in case anyone gets the wrong idea, this is not trying “bash” anyone! I’m just trying to express the feeling of watching people try their hand at something they haven’t the background to do.

This was written thinking of those people trying to “out research” the medical and medical research community. It’s good to see people trying to learn, but until they are at comparable level and have gotten past the “goofy error” stage (let’s admit it, we all made goofy errors early on in whatever we’re now good at!) it’d be wiser to rely on those with experience and training.

Other recent articles on Code for life:

Simon Singh, leaving job to deal with chiropractic legal case

Molecular biology in museums

An horrific case of natural health treatment of cancer

The inheritance of face recognition, or should you blame your parents if you can’t recognise faces?

Homeopathy check-up: Not in the health system, disclaimers on labels

Deleting a gene can turn an ovary into a testis in adult mammals

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