I remember, several years ago, going to a national drug development meeting; the first time I had been at such a meeting, with drug company folks from the highest national levels. I remember how excited I was. Maybe someone could develop an antipsychotic that really could escape all those neuromuscular side effects. Maybe they had new things that were more powerful than antibiotics, which I already knew were not working as well as they ought to. I remember, with characteristic naivete, that it felt impossible to find anyone with whom I could discuss the pharmacology that so impassioned me, for the “big” drug guys seemed to be more interested in the business and politics of the thing. Read more on Could Fish Oil Prevent Schizophrenia?…
Filed under Alternative Medicine, FDA, Government, medicine, News, politics by on Sep 26th, 2016. Comment. 
I am not a particular fan of beer.
My family certainly did not have it in the house.
(Control freak that I am, I even had trouble with Passover wine. I never — and I mean never — managed to imagine how anybody made it through the allegedly requisite four glasses.)
I really don’t remember tasting beer until I was working Mme.Mareschal’s Cafe “Les Arcades” in Amiens, France, — a quaint village where I attended medical school — where beer was a staple. In fact, it was pretty much a staple everywhere in Northern France. Read more on Alarmism vs. Real Worries About Beer…
Filed under News by on Jul 19th, 2014. Comment.
People are not wired the same.
Individual differences are the spice of life and medicine. I love people, their verbal discourses, because they are so delightfully individual.
To me, the biggest problem with medicine is something I actually never heard anybody else discuss. I call it “norming.”
Maybe there is no other way to get started on developing a new treatment that could help many people who have similar afflictions.
But people are so different that what is life-saving for one may be poison for another. Read more on Dangers of Energy Drinks…
Filed under End Of Life, News, Stimulants by on Jun 24th, 2014. 1 Comment.
It is noble to teach the history and pharmacology of marijuana. After practicing as a medical marijuana doctor and writing some for The NORML Women’s Alliance, and Ladybud (among others), my endorsement of marijuana and its constituents as nothing less than medicinal marvels is a matter of public record.
What is going on in Florida is something very, very different indeed. Like the days of the Old West, when the gunslingers lived by the weapons on their holsters, now entrepreneurs are living on the cusp of an extraordinary wave of public opinion. The pro-marijuana opinion in these United States has never been higher, and those who watch, comment upon, and work in the field seem to have little doubt that a generalized legalization of use is not far away.
Recreational and medical use are very different entities. Read more on Tampa Marijuana School…
Filed under Alternative Medicine, Government, medicine, News by on Mar 12th, 2014. Comment.
I was in college when I convinced my parents to let me spend a hunk of my Christmas vacation with my girlfriend Susan and her family in Bucks County, PA. I assured my folks that we would do a lot of cultural and intellectual kinds of things. We would go to the symphony, where I could see Eugene Ormandy conduct some Tchaikovsky. We would do the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall — great because I loved the Founding fathers so.
I bought a little gold plated Liberty Bell, which I so loved that I wore it around my neck for many years when the gold plating had long worn off.
Her father, a design engineer, loved making toy soldier models which My-Father-Of-Blessed-Memory loved collecting. Susan’s father had told her to tell me I would bring home a new soldier for my father — that clinched the deal for sure. Read more on Don’t Eat The Blue Stuff — Or Yellow Either!…
Filed under News, Nutrition by on Nov 21st, 2013. Comment.
Filed under Government, News, Research by on Oct 31st, 2013. Comment.
My field is health – which is radically removed from bodybuilding. Oh, the work-out gurus will tell you they are experts in nutrition and health, but their knowledge is often flawed (to put it charitably). And they view someone like me with “Book Learning” as a real kill-joy.
There is something special about bodybuilding supplements — allegedly natural ones. I remember a fairly brittle bipolar – a young and pumped-up muscular male model — who refused, as both I and his girlfriend pleaded with him, to give up a body building supplement. I told him the contents seemed strange and unknown to me. This supplement had made him go angry and seemingly psychotic and she was ready to break up with him if he did not stop this strange supplement.
The girlfriend trusted me. The young man was lost in wishful thinking (and perhaps an adverse drug reaction bordering on psychosis). Read more on Deadly Health Supplements…
Filed under News, Stimulants by on Oct 6th, 2013. Comment.
I kind of like ABC news, since they at least reported the news about azithromycin and a lot of other folks didn’t.
For more information, here is the original article, and here is the FDA safety announcement (this link leads to a PDF which will load in a separate window, but you must have the Adobe Acrobat reader – free – installed). Read more on Azithromycin Scare…
Filed under Alternative Medicine, FDA, Government, medicine, News, prescription drugs by on Jul 22nd, 2013. Comment.
I used to really enjoy going to the kind of tiny circuses that tour the small towns in rural areas. Much of my adult life has been as a wandering gypsy doctor through such areas and it seems that many of the little towns had little to offer and went wild when the circus came to town – no matter how modest the offerings were.
Of course I had experience with the really big shows. When I was a kid my folks took me once to the Greatest Show On Earth — Ringling Brothers, Barnum and Bailey — where I think now the plethora of amusements in three rings is probably best suited for those who really enjoy their attention deficit disorder.
But it was in a tiny field in France by a beach on the English Channel that I saw a lovely one ring circus. I was most impressed with the lion tamer — a person of African descent, large and muscled and handsome — but I was close enough to see each time he put his head in the lion’s mouth, and he did it multiple times.
The old, indifferent lion had no teeth, but the effect was still thrilling.
The image was vivid, and I have not thought of it for many years.
I think of it when I hear talk about the Food and Drug administration (FDA).
The FDA has no teeth, and as you can tell from the interview below, is simply
Filed under FDA by on Apr 20th, 2013. 1 Comment.
Warning: Daily use of aspirin can lead to side effects which may include total loss of impulse control, man boobs, toe hair, and third nipples. Please consult your doctor before taking this and other over the counter medicine.
Well, not really. But your really should know the risks and benefits of anything you take, even if it’s over the counter, even if it’s aspirin. I have an early memory, and I cannot have been beyond high school or early college, for I was still going to Friday night services with my Parents-of-Blessed-Memory. My father would not let me in the choir with the other retired senior types with weak voices; but, it seemed to amuse him to no end when I out sang them and the cantor from the congregation. The cantor had some kind of a congenital dislocation of the hip and some kind of back pain and I don’t know what else. My parents had discouraged my still premature medical curiosity and told me not to ask him. Read more on To Aspirin or Not To Aspirin; That Is the Question…