FSM News and Articles
How the “Don’t take this medication with grapefruit juice” warning originated: “Grapefruit eater/drinker? Check your medications! Several dozen drugs have subsequently been shown to be potentially affected by grapefruit. David Bailey died last month at age 77. If you ever receive a prescription with a sticker cautioning against taking grapefruit, give thanks to Bailey for his accidental discovery 30 years ago.”
Center for Inquiry warns Amazon: Stop promoting homeopathy for kids: It is often unsurprising to find that online retailers are less than concerned about avoiding misleading advertising, or following regulation. This tends to demonstrate the importance of a strong regulator with a strong focus on enforcement, otherwise consumers are left to fend for themselves without protection from harm or scams.
Did New Zealand let too few people die of COVID? “I agree with him that lockdowns are bad for business… however, countries that let the virus run rampant didn’t exactly have booming economies either. Millions of Americans lost their jobs, and the whole world is suffering from inflation today. It’s probably not good for offices, restaurants, and theaters when so many people are dying that morgue workers have to use forklifts to move bodies into giant refrigerated trucks, as happened here in New York City at the pandemic’s start. It’s also probably not good for business when workers get sick. A new study estimated that 4 million Americans are out of work due to long COVID.”
But is it real? “We see in the real world of medicine what happens when the profession fails to adequately ask and answer the question – is the phenomenon actually real? The proliferation of acupuncture is a great example. I won’t go into the details again here, I have written about it extensively in SBM (science based medicine) and elsewhere. Suffice to say, the evidence strongly suggests that acupuncture is not real – there is no underlying phenomenon specific to acupuncture. In fact, acupuncture points do not even exist. Yet it has infiltrated almost every medical discipline, and stands as a prime example of what happens without adequate SBM standards.”
General
‘Wellness hippie’ to scientist – How my brush with cancer changed my beliefs: How one woman’s cancer journey changed her perspective on alternative medicine.
How well do you understand placebo effects? How well do you understand the Placebo Effect? No it’s not “mind over matter”.
Today’s Abused Health Concept
Anti-vax doctors. Anti-vax doctor and SCAM-Proponent gets medical license permanently revoked: It is a pity it is so rare to see strong action taken against those who seek to sabotage public health. “Israel’s Health Ministry announced the revocation of Dr. Aryeh Avni’s medical license. Avni, who was a specialist in general surgery, engaged for years in so-called alternative medicine (SCAM) and had previously been caught forging vaccination certificates. He claimed in court that he operates in the context of freedom of expression … In his decision, [Judge] Shtrashnov called Avni “a charlatan, a clear coronavirus denier and a dangerous trickster, who behaves that way under the aegis of a licensed doctor.” … Judge Nimrod Flax said in his decision. “A doctor who chooses to conduct a delegitimization campaign of this kind excludes himself, and is behaving in a manner unbefitting a licensed doctor.”