It seems that the first television advertisement for medical marijuana has hit the California airwaves without a whimper. The first TV commercial just ran on a Sacramento station.
Having experience in many clinics from the Oregon border to the Mexican border, I can confirm that in most of California, medical marijuana is commonplace. It does not seem to be tremendously difficult to obtain, and I have attended many patients have valid prescriptions for it.
There is a list of conditions for which it is alleged to help, which is as long as your arm. Hearing about these conditions where cannabis is the preferred treatment usually causes me to smile, and I suspect that the list continues to grow with each new patient who wishes to use this remedy. Read more on Marijuana–The Only Drug Without FDA Approval…
Filed under Alternative Medicine by on Sep 10th, 2010. Comment. 
This is the system we want to run health care.
Civil liberties get lost, people spend a lot of money writing spy reports and then don’t read them. There is little in government that works.
I know the system that the FDA wants for drugs does not work.
First, you know nobody will use it with diet and exercise as recommended. They are both dull, not fun, and in the literature I read changes that are increasingly modest seem to be acceptable, and take a team of cheerleaders. Even “natural” companies, like Metagenics, have gone and credentialed counselors to help with lifestyle changes. Read more on Diet Drugs: The Public Is The Loser…
Filed under eating disorders, medicine, weight by on Aug 17th, 2010. 2 Comments.
This one makes my blood boil. Being a doctor, a good doctor, is not easy. It requires a lot of thinking, taking every patient who comes before you not just as a human, but as a clinical care problem. Knowing the facts, making judgments. It is because we have a tendency to abscond this role that “doctor extenders,” cheaper people, rush in to fill the void.
One of the things we have to do is to weigh the advantages and risks of every procedure.
Sure, there are some mechanisms in place to help us. Things like videotaped informed consents. Things like meters and technology and such.
In the case reported above, a woman who had Bell’s Palsy, a fairly common (and often, spontaneously receding) hemifacial paralysis was subjected to a CT scan. She got too much radiation and became quite ill; someone did not notice the excessive radiation noted on a panel somewhere. Read more on Should FDA Regulate CT Scans?…
Filed under medicine by on Jul 14th, 2010. Comment.
Before you read this, I want to warn you – at any moment, I can veer off into an emotional rant. And after you read this, you should be outraged, also.
There is a prescription form of Omega-3 fish oil being marketed by a major pharmaceutical company. It costs about seven times more than the same amount of Omega-3 fish oil you can buy as a dietary supplement.
If I had no other reason to dislike “Big Pharma” this would suffice. Everything I learn about pharmaceutical companies makes me think less of them. They are stealing our effective and useful natural substances without adequate science, creating patentable molecules, and making more money than any of us can imagine off human suffering and death. Read more on Fish Oil For $100 A Pill…
Filed under big pharma by on Jun 11th, 2010. 2 Comments.
Life is fragile at best. At worst it is undervalued. Prolonging it and maintaining its quality is something most doctors have at least thought about.
Me — I was brought up by family values as well as institutional values to venerate the academic system as a seeker of truth, guardian of highest ethics.
I thought that the institutions that regulated clinical research, whether they were academic or not, were at least trying to be ethical in the face of mounting economic pressures from those who develop substances to be used for the human body, to prolong and maintain life. Some people still believe in this.
Some people, even some I can call “friend,” consider me a failed academic, someone who could have contributed more to society had she written more papers that somebody thought were good enough to publish in medical journals.
All of the above is unadulterated lies and total BS that has kept many competent minds devoting their lives to ideals that are later sold to the highest bidder.
I don’t think I have any lingering doubts that my running from academics, yelling and screaming, was the best decision I ever made.
The story of Polyheme – developed as a synthetic substitute for human blood — is perhaps the worst example of human rights having been sold down the river for development of something of serious danger (if you believe the publically published academic results) and at best, unproven help (are they really keeping this kind of secrets from us so the company developing this junk can make money?) to either prolonging or maintaining life.
The story is complicated, but basically, here it is.
Read more on Substitute Blood — A Failure Of Clinical Ethics…
Filed under Research by on Feb 24th, 2010. Comment.
Here is a letter signed by prominent Irish psychiatrists saying that there is no evidence whatsoever that antidepressants cause homicide.
The “PLOS” or “Public Library of Science” is supposed to be an easier and gentler place to get science published, although the esteemed (foreign) colleagues who have done research with me on natural substances have informed me it is not so easy a door to enter.
Nevertheless, here is a very scholarly angle. There is evidence that the prescription of antidepressants may engender aggression, violence, or homicide.
There is also an article cited by Dr. Peter Breggin in the Journal of Safety and Risk in medicine, to which I cannot seem to link anyone directly but a download is available through the wonderful people at this Irish foundation. These folks are trying to bring forth the truth and the light.
I am now of the opinion that the academic ideal I once pursued does not exist, and is, if it exists, a pack of lies at best.
There are FDA black box warnings about antidepressants promoting aggression, but I am unaware of such warnings having ever stopped a colleague from prescribing any antidepressant.
Read more on Seeking Truth In Drug Research — And Getting Frustrated!…
Filed under prescription drugs by on Dec 15th, 2009. Comment.