Questioning the Quo: One Pharmacist’s Tale

  Though we don’t agree with everything in the article below – recently distributed by the “Orthomolecular Medicine News Service” – it’s a good read that that offers some insight to the pressures that pharmacists (and others) are under to perpetuate medicine that, at best, helps “manage” illness and at worst generates more illness: Confessions …

Eminently Quotable: Wendell Berry

How Stress Triggers Immune System, & Other News of Note

Study Shows How Stress Triggers Immune System (USA Today) Shedding some light on why stress might be bad for you, a new study finds that parts of your immune system ramp up when you get into personal conflicts with others. It’s not clear how this effect of stress may make you sick, but the activated …

Health: An “Active & Deliberate Creation”

Last week, to absolutely no one’s surprise, cooking show personality Paula Deen announced that, yes, she has type 2 diabetes. And what made her decide to go public now, three years after her diagnosis? As she told USA Today, “I felt like I had nothing to offer anybody other than the announcement. I wasn’t armed …

Raw Veggies’ Impact on Genes, & Other News of Note

Eating Your Greens Can Change the Effect of Your Genes on Heart Disease, Say Researchers (MedicalXpress) A long-held mantra suggests that you can’t change your family, the genes they pass on, or the effect of these genes. Now, an international team of scientists, led by researchers at McMaster and McGill universities, is attacking that belief. …

Stat!: Why Drug Deaths Keep Rising

Number of Americans killed in traffic accidents in 2009: 36,284 Number who died from drugs: 37,485 Frequency of drug-related deaths: 1 every 14 minutes   And which drugs are driving this increase? (Hint: It’s not stuff stuff like crank, crack or smack.) Most are popular prescription painkillers and anti-anxiety drugs, many of which have become …

FDA Conflict-of-Interest Rules Apt to Loosen, & Other News of Note

Lawmakers May Relax FDA Drug Conflict Rules (Reuters) U.S. lawmakers likely will change the criteria for advisers reviewing new medicines next year because of complaints that the rules meant to prevent conflicts of interest make it harder to find real experts. * * * Others say that the agency is not looking hard enough. A …

Death by Medicine

Possible Antibiotics-Asthma Link & Other News of Note

Antibiotic Use May Be Linked to Kids’ Asthma Risk (WebMD) Infants who take antibiotics during the first year of life may be at a slightly increased risk of developing asthma by age 18, a study shows. The study also suggests a similar risk of asthma for children whose mothers took antibiotics during pregnancy. The study …

Tamiflu Effectiveness Overstated, & Other News of Note

Tamiflu Effectiveness Overstated (CBC News) A University of British Columbia professor who specializes in researching publicly approved medicines is casting doubt on the effectiveness of the anti-pandemic drug Tamiflu. Dr. Barbara Mintzes says she’s looked at the manufacturer’s own clinical research and found that Tamiflu’s beneficial effects have been significantly overstated by the manufacturer Roche. …