Acupuncture, homeopathy, ‘Quackademia”, viruses, cancer, and more

 

FSM news & articles:

Comment on the (FDA) Notice: Draft Revisions to the FDA Blueprint for Prescriber Education for Extended-Release and Long-Acting Opioids; Availability; “Recommendations by the FDA (US) impact all countries.  FSM appreciates that it is appropriate for the FDA to recommend multidisciplinary pain management strategies. However, we remain concerned, that the FDA ‘Draft Blueprint’ suggests that acupuncture could have a place in patient care and that it is an effective alternative intervention for pain management.”

 

FSM ‘Friends’ news & articles:

The debate about homeopathy is over. These verdicts prove it: A collection of recent statements, compiled by Professor Edzard Ernst, from national or international organisations (rather than from single individuals) that are independent, conducted a thorough assessment of the evidence and have a reputation of being beyond reproach.

Quackademia down under: Quackademia is an apt term for the teaching or promotion of quackery in universities. Australian events also offer a glimmer of hope in this usually bleak situation. Sometimes our protests do have an effect!

Recklessly stupid TCM-promotion by the ‘Daily Mail’: The ‘Daily Mail’ is not a paper famed for its objective reporting. In politics, this can influence elections; in medicine, it can endanger public health.

 

Thanks to science:

Questionable “Young Blood” Transfusions Offered in U.S. as Anti-Aging Remedy: A startup called Ambrosia will fill your veins with the blood of young people and empty your pockets of $8,000.

 

Health promotion & disease prevention:

This simple blood test can predict cancer years before symptoms: A new type of non-invasive cancer test has just delivered promising results in an early-stage feasibility study, paving the way for a future when we’ll be able to get highly accurate cancer screening with a simple blood test

Boys should also get the HPV vaccine to protect themselves from oral and genital cancers: The human papillomavirus (HPV), which causes cervical cancer in women, is also responsible for many cancers in men.

 

Abused health concepts:

The march of pseudoscience: Are scientists and the scientific method being replaced by the misinformation of pseudoscience, new-age therapies and quantum mysticism?

 

Great Moments in Health & Science:

The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2005: On 3 October 2005 The Nobel Assembly at Karolinska Institutet awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for 2005 jointly to Barry J. Marshall and J. Robin Warren for their discovery of “the bacterium Helicobacter pylori and its role in gastritis and peptic ulcer disease

 

Did you know?

13 Diet Myths That Are Doing More Harm Than Good: You really don’t need to detox.

Health Check: what’s the right way to blow your nose?: Is there a right way to blow your nose? Could some ways make your cold worse? And could you actually do some damage?