FSM News and Articles
Natural cold and flu busters unlikely to do the trick but could do harm: Professor Geraldine Moses works as a clinical pharmacist at Mater Health Services in Brisbane, and holds a position with the University of Queensland’s School of Pharmacy. She has seen several people hit by side effects when they mix prescription medicines with complementary remedies. Echinacea is a herb commonly marketed to shorten the length of a cold. But it can get people into real trouble, she says. The herb can worsen autoimmune conditions like asthma, making any medicines a person might be using less effective. Professor Moses has seen people with asthma, as well as rheumatoid arthritis and multiple sclerosis, who have had their symptoms worsen after taking echinacea.
FSM Friends’ News and Articles
UK recommendations wrong on acupuncture: National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) draft recommendations on acupuncture don’t even make sense from an evidence-based medicine perspective, and utterly fail to consider science-based medicine principles.
General
Why I read the riot act to my chemist (snake oil merchant): “If they accosted pensioners buying the cheapest tinned tuna and sold them magical “alternative food” that was really cardboard, you’d say they were pretty reprehensible. Why would a pharmacist allow this? For the same reason I have to wade through an acre of snake oil to reach the “actual medicine” counter, and why every pharmacy in Australia is now awash with this hoax. Because quackery yields many times the profit of real drugs, which cost hundreds of millions to develop, test in clinical trials over years, gain approval for and manufacture. “
Share your views in the 2020 TGA stakeholder survey: Are you happy with Australia’s Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA)? Have you seen advertisements of therapeutics with misleading claims? Do you think the TGA should do more to regulate the sale of medicines, supplements and medical devices? Now is the time to have your say! Australia’s Therapeutic Goods Administration invites consumers, health professionals and other stakeholders to give their feedback in the 2020 stakeholder survey. This feedback will be used to assess how the TGA is meeting key performance indicators, and identify areas of potential improvement. The survey closes on 21 August 2020.
Less Known Health Professions
Radiologists. Radiologists are specialised medical doctors who diagnose ultrasound, x-ray, CT and MRI images, often without ever meeting the patient. Radiologist’s findings influence many parts of medical management, from whether an operation will be needed, through to how well someone’s cancer treatment is performing.
Today’s Abused Health Concept
Trusting social media information (AKA promoting TCM via outright lies) – FALSE: FDA approves Chinese medicine for treating COVID-19: The Philippine FDA put out a warning about the dangers of using TCM treatment ‘Lianhua Qingwen Jiaonang’ for COVID-19, which were neither safe nor approved. The warehouse was raided by authorities, and 2 people were arrested. Yet somehow, proponents of TCM morphed this into posts proclaiming that the FDA had approved TCM treatments for COVID-19. People lie on the internet. Go figure. Always remember to fact check before you hit share.