The current rate of suicide among soldiers should make us angry, maybe enough to destroy our computers or, heaven forbid, write to congress or even try to stop war.
I checked out this institution¸ the National Center for Veterans Studies, the best I could. I am not sure why the Department of Defense and the Department of the Air Force seem to have a love affair with this division of the University of Utah.
Of their current projects, some of the proposed studies are randomized clinical trials of various therapies as suicide preventives. I am a great believer in research. But there is one question I am asked frequently, still, although I evaluate research but am not currently engaged in it. People ask me if I am a doctor first or a researcher first. There is absolutely no contest. I am a doctor first. I want lives saved, first. Read more on Why Soldiers Commit Suicide These Days…
Filed under News, politics by on Oct 11th, 2013. Comment. 
Alright, so I am a cynic. It seems like the very public change of position of Dr. Sanjay Gupta, a mainstream doctor who presents mainstream medicine in the media is on the level with religious conversion among the missionaries.
Read more on Like Me — More Experts Are Changing Their Mind About Medicinal Marijuana…
Filed under Alternative Medicine, Government, News, politics, Research by on Aug 12th, 2013. Comment.
So who is or is not going to pay for contraception under Obamacare? And this is a religious question?
The truth of the matter is that even though the United States has promised religious freedom from the very start, they have not done a very good job, historically, of delivering on this promise. Read more on Whose Birth Control is it, Anyway?…
Filed under Contraception, Government, News, politics, Religion by on Mar 8th, 2013. Comment.
I used to say I was not a political animal. Pharmacology has become political. Not my fault; that’s for sure.
Marijuana has suffered a legal setback. This has not been covered by a lot of the media. I had a heck of a time finding it. Read more on Rescheduling of Marijuana Suffers Legal Setback…
Filed under Alternative Medicine, Government, News, politics by on Mar 7th, 2013. Comment.
I’ve got my outrage in motion and I’m blowing the whistle on one of the dirtiest tricks the big pharmaceutical companies play on us.
They have a technique called “Seeding Trials” that masquerade as drug testing (clinical trials) but are really nothing more than marketing surveys they can use to get around government regulations about promoting their drugs for alternative uses (also know as “off-label” uses).
But I’m printing this news in my private newsletter — not in my public blog.
The good news, you can read this for free. All you need to do is sign up for my free newsletter (that means “free of charge” as well as “Spam-Free”).
Just type your name and email address in that little box in the upper right hand corner of this page to opt-in. Of course, you can opt-out at any time also.
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Take care and be happy!
Dr. G
Filed under Government, medicine, News, politics, prescription drugs by on Feb 27th, 2013. 1 Comment.
The first time I heard of the fruit mangosteen, I thought it was just a Jewish mango. Turns out it’s Southeast Asian and in no way Jewish. Makes sense; I mean, how do you circumcise a fruit? Let alone teach it to read the holy books.
The second time I heard of it, I was trying to help a manic-depressive who went manic on it. A degree professional had suddenly thrown angry tantrums, put his hand and other weapons through nearby walls, and tried to burn down the apartment building where his woman-friend lived. He succeeded in burning down part of it. It all happened within a few hours of him ingesting mangosteen. I told him to stop the damned mangosteen. I remember seeing him through bars, and I doubted he could get any mangosteen in there, anyway. But he would not hear ill of his dear mangosteen. It was a multi-level-marketing product and he seemed to believe in it for that reason, despite some factors I was trying to introduce. Things like biochemical truth, behavioral pharmacology, and my decades of medical practice experience — as opposed to his multi-level marketing experience. His family stopped paying me as an expert. I think they all sold mangosteen. Read more on Utah, Mangosteen, and Bad Stuff…
Filed under Alternative Medicine, medicine, News, politics, Research by on Feb 14th, 2013. 3 Comments.
Prez and first lady painting a bookcase? Service day may be a good idea, but this is a little bit much the “photo opp” for my taste. I think the idea of helping others is wonderful, and the idea of putting group survival ahead of self-survival even better. I always thought this was good for any species. I remember quite a while ago how touched I was when I saw crows get food for an injured crow. Good for us folks, too, although we have a tendency to build hospitals and charge for services.
What is good for our species as well as for others is putting the group ahead of the individual for both us and others. The use of mathematical modeling to do this, although the subject is wonderful, is open to debate still, although there is to me a certain romance in pure intellect predicting actions around us. Read more on Seen On Jan 19th – The Day Of Service…
Filed under News, politics by on Jan 29th, 2013. Comment.
I’ve got to admit, I must have already been living in the world of alternative medicine by the time the FDA approved Xyrem. As far as I can figure, it’s exactly the same as the street drug GHB. Us pharmacology types call this gamma hydroxybutyric acid. In a stable salt form that people can take as a prescription drug, it can also be called sodium oxybate. Among other sets of cognoscenti with whom I would usually not hang out — read “on the street” — it is known as various other things that those initials can stand for such as “Georgia Home Boy” or “Grievous Bodily Harm,” a lovely term from old British law. There have been a couple of high profile American cases where Xyrem was used as a date-rape drug. The FDA has warned against taking dietary supplements that contain it. It’s the very same chemical as GHB. It is also an FDA approved prescription drug. Read more on Topic: Xyrem and Doctors…
Filed under medicine, politics, prescription drugs by on Dec 8th, 2012. Comment.
Drug company lobbyists still rule this country, even under a president who promised us something different. I am sorry it took me so long to find out about the threats and deals made by the White House to get drug companies on board with Obama’s healthcare overhaul. Apparently, it was released by Republicans at the end of May. Read more on Even Obama is Ruled by Drug Companies…
Filed under medicine, politics, prescription drugs by on Nov 30th, 2012. Comment.
Wait a second here. President Obama did not “mandate” compulsory birth control. As the headline plainly states, this is a mandate for insurance coverage for birth control.
Nobody is going to drag a young — or older — woman kicking and screaming into a gynecologist’s office and force her to take pills or injections or put anything into another orifice.
People are complaining that the President did not consult with people like Catholic religious groups. The Republicans especially do not like this. This is not surprising as they do not seem to like anything President Obama does — include breathe.
The Republicans — well, their opposition is supported by the part of the nation that seems to have chosen to “stupid up” its politics –left and right, liberal and conservative, yes and no. Read more on Contraception and Birth Control…
Filed under Contraception, News, politics by on May 21st, 2012. Comment.