FSM News and Articles
Legislative Alchemy 2019 – Chiropractors seek scope of practice expansion, including authority to prescribe drugs: “Finally, falling into no particular category, yet speaking volumes, the Idaho Board of Chiropractic Physicians convinced the state legislature that its peer review process, which is intended to “to review the appropriateness, quality, utilization and costs of chiropractic services”, was “unnecessary” and got the legislature to pass a bill (HB 0005) eliminating peer review.”
Friends’ News and Articles
Alternative Medicine exploits coronavirus fears: A few days ago, a reader here on the page joked “wait til the homeopaths start offering cures.” Now the pseudo-science is flooding in, and the stupidity is genuinely painful to watch. These people greatly increase the danger of infectious diseases without actually helping. When the Ebola crisis was developing in Africa, the spread and death rate was significantly worsened by ignorant herbalists and homeopaths who encouraged the infected to travel to for useless alternative ‘cures’, frustrating containment of the outbreak while also reducing the public’s engagement with genuine healthcare measures. How many unnecessary deaths will be caused by the anti-science crowd this time?
• “China’s National Health Commission recommends traditional Chinese medicine, with individualized remedies based on whether the patient is categorized as damp, hot, toxic, or bruised.”
• “ScienceAlert reported that India’s government was recommending homeopathy for coronavirus prevention.”
• Homeopathy Safe Medicine announced: “So if you are a homeopathy user you don’t need to wear a face mask…”
• “A practitioner of siddha medicine in Tamil Nadu claimed to have formulated an herbal medicine to cure coronavirus in 24-40 hours. He even offered to travel to Wuhan to offer his cure to the Chinese.”
• “The Herbal Prepper Academy lists herbs and essential oils to fight coronaviruses.”
What will be the cost of ignorance?
General
How does the Wuhan coronavirus cause severe illness? There’s much we’re yet to learn about this new virus, but we know it often causes pneumonia, an infection of the lungs which produces pus and fluid and reduces the lungs’ ability to absorb oxygen.
Alternative Medicine’s choice – alternative to what? “Modern health care consumers are faced with a hair-raising dilemma: the hard choice between medical care that is often cold and tangled in red tape, or the so-called “alternative” options — nearly all of which are unproven by definition, and which would have long ago been adopted by doctors if they actually worked. It’s no choice at all.”
Gwyneth Paltrow’s Goop wellness products condemned by NHS chief: “Gwyneth Paltrow’s range of wellness products has been criticised by the head of NHS England who warns that one of the recommended procedures poses a considerable health risk.”
Great Moments in Health and Science
Internal fixation for fractured bones: Sometimes bones break in such a way that they cannot rejoin correctly. In many of these cases, internal fixation devices help hold the bones together so they can heal safely.
Today’s Abused Health Concept
Goop and empowerment – Goop fail: “Women are not empowered to take control of their health by misinforming them about the evidence, by denigrating science, or by selling them snake oil with a compelling narrative.”