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Mercola breaks it down quite well in this article.
Here's the latest (Aug 2011) study.
Excellent article here by Dr Schor, on Aspirin/Cox inhibitors for breast cancer prevention or prevention of recurrence:
http://www.naturalmedicinejournal.com/article_content.asp?edition=1§ion=2&article=271&utm_source=Natural+Medicine+Journal+List&utm_campaign=6379125056-December_2011_Issue11_28_2011&utm_medium=email
Pearl: Over-expression of COX-2 occurs in about 40% of invasive breast cancer cases and is more common in large tumors, positive lymph nodes, ductal histology, and tumors that are high histological grade or hormone receptor–negative. Thus it makes even more sense to attempt to affect COX activity in women whose cancers fit these criteria.
Here's the latest (Aug 2011) study.
Excellent article here by Dr Schor, on Aspirin/Cox inhibitors for breast cancer prevention or prevention of recurrence:
http://www.naturalmedicinejournal.com/article_content.asp?edition=1§ion=2&article=271&utm_source=Natural+Medicine+Journal+List&utm_campaign=6379125056-December_2011_Issue11_28_2011&utm_medium=email
Pearl: Over-expression of COX-2 occurs in about 40% of invasive breast cancer cases and is more common in large tumors, positive lymph nodes, ductal histology, and tumors that are high histological grade or hormone receptor–negative. Thus it makes even more sense to attempt to affect COX activity in women whose cancers fit these criteria.
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A treatment plan that seeks to prevent disease, promote health, and prolong and enhance the quality of life; or therapy that is performed to maintain or prevent deteriorat​ion of a chronic condition is deemed not medically necessary.
--Medicare Guidelines​, Section 2251.3
--Medicare Guidelines​, Section 2251.3
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I'm not going to get involved in this fight among alternative practitioners, but the struggle for scope of practice is continuous. Naturopathic medicine is in effect the natural health practitioners left behind when chiropractic gained wide acceptance and licensing. The history is ugly, with practitioners ganging up on and deserting each other, everybody seeking recognition and respect.
I am currently studying under a chiropractor who uses "dry needling". I also have shadowed several acupuncturists (who are also ND's) and from what I have seen, I could probably do some therapeutic needling myself, but I do not intend to do so. I will refer to a local acupuncturist when I believe that a condition will respond to needling, but not because I believe in the whole Chinese medicine system of channels and energy. I will do it because I believe in the science.
The OAAOM has filed a legal challenge in the Court of Appeals against the Oregon Board of Chiropractic Examiners' rule OAR 811-015-0036 that chiropractors can perform "dry needling" with only 24 hours of education. An injunction to stay the rule until the legal challenge is heard (3-6 months) was also filed.
The Court of Appeals Appellate Commissioner issued a Stay Order dated July 29, 2011, which suspends the new rule until the issue is resolved by a full panel of judges after hearing a full presentation of the arguments.
Total legal cost is estimated at $30,000. We (OAAOM) are represented by Landye Bennett Blumstein with Thane Tienson as our lawyer.
*new tags: chiropractic, acupuncture
I am currently studying under a chiropractor who uses "dry needling". I also have shadowed several acupuncturists (who are also ND's) and from what I have seen, I could probably do some therapeutic needling myself, but I do not intend to do so. I will refer to a local acupuncturist when I believe that a condition will respond to needling, but not because I believe in the whole Chinese medicine system of channels and energy. I will do it because I believe in the science.
The OAAOM has filed a legal challenge in the Court of Appeals against the Oregon Board of Chiropractic Examiners' rule OAR 811-015-0036 that chiropractors can perform "dry needling" with only 24 hours of education. An injunction to stay the rule until the legal challenge is heard (3-6 months) was also filed.
The Court of Appeals Appellate Commissioner issued a Stay Order dated July 29, 2011, which suspends the new rule until the issue is resolved by a full panel of judges after hearing a full presentation of the arguments.
Total legal cost is estimated at $30,000. We (OAAOM) are represented by Landye Bennett Blumstein with Thane Tienson as our lawyer.
*new tags: chiropractic, acupuncture
QotD: Treat People Thusly
Jul. 31st, 2011 04:54 pmTreat people as if they were what they ought to be,
and you help them become what they are capable of being.
--Goethe
and you help them become what they are capable of being.
--Goethe
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Resonate This
Jul. 9th, 2011 09:12 amLately I keep hearing people talk about what they "resonate with". It is how people choose their spiritual paths. "The Lakota (path) is the one I find I resonate best with." And it is how many in complementary medicine decide which modalities to practice. An intelligent and lovely young woman "resonates" with UNDA numbers and believes that homeopathic "drainage" is how she should practice medicine. She would take a patient off a proven medicine to give them what she resonates with. A charismatic professor "resonates" with muscle testing and so uses it to decide what medicines to give.
I take issue with this. If we rely on psychological resonance to help us make decisions, what are they really based on? The attractiveness of the proposition to our subconscious mind? The degree to which it fits with what we already believe? This method for making decisions about important matters is unscientific and terribly dangerous. It might be appropriate for chosing a metaphysical practice, but is it really suitable for making decisions about how to practice medicine? I think NOT. Intuition has its place, but it cannot and should not completely replace rational thought. Unconscious competence comes only after years of conscious education.
I take issue with this. If we rely on psychological resonance to help us make decisions, what are they really based on? The attractiveness of the proposition to our subconscious mind? The degree to which it fits with what we already believe? This method for making decisions about important matters is unscientific and terribly dangerous. It might be appropriate for chosing a metaphysical practice, but is it really suitable for making decisions about how to practice medicine? I think NOT. Intuition has its place, but it cannot and should not completely replace rational thought. Unconscious competence comes only after years of conscious education.
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Cardiac devices. Yep. Most of them are covered by insurance. All those fancy gizmos that they are so eager to install in us, whenever we have a little heart trouble, those gizmos are increasingly suspect. The situation has gotten so bad that the GAO is pushing the FDA to take a more active role in overseeing devices used by the cardiac care medical industry.
During the period covered by the report ('05-'09), medical-device makers initiated 3510 device recalls, which cover everything from "field corrections" to revised labeling to retrieving a device from customers. The agency categorized about 83% of these recalls as class II, indicating the devices may cause temporary adverse health consequences, and 14% as class III, indicating the device is not likely to cause any adverse consequences. Only 4% were class I recalls, deemed by the FDA to have a reasonable risk of causing serious adverse health consequences or death.
During this time, cardiovascular devices were the most commonly recalled products: 532 recalls, making up 15% of all recalls during this period, while the 40 class-I recalls of cardiovascular devices represented 31% of all class-I recalls in the period. The largest number for cardiovascular devices involved automatic external defibrillators.
The next most common category is radiological devices, which accounted for 484 total recalls but only two class I recalls, followed by general hospital and personal-use devices, which accounted for 388 recalls overall, including 31 class I recalls.
SOURCE
http://www.theheart.org/article/1244193.do?utm_campaign=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_source=20110627_EN_Heartwire
During the period covered by the report ('05-'09), medical-device makers initiated 3510 device recalls, which cover everything from "field corrections" to revised labeling to retrieving a device from customers. The agency categorized about 83% of these recalls as class II, indicating the devices may cause temporary adverse health consequences, and 14% as class III, indicating the device is not likely to cause any adverse consequences. Only 4% were class I recalls, deemed by the FDA to have a reasonable risk of causing serious adverse health consequences or death.
During this time, cardiovascular devices were the most commonly recalled products: 532 recalls, making up 15% of all recalls during this period, while the 40 class-I recalls of cardiovascular devices represented 31% of all class-I recalls in the period. The largest number for cardiovascular devices involved automatic external defibrillators.
The next most common category is radiological devices, which accounted for 484 total recalls but only two class I recalls, followed by general hospital and personal-use devices, which accounted for 388 recalls overall, including 31 class I recalls.
SOURCE
http://www.theheart.org/article/1244193.do?utm_campaign=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_source=20110627_EN_Heartwire
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/652/965/447/?z00m=19981889
This is a petition asking for student loan debt to be forgiven so that we can go about the business of opening new businesses, instead of getting low paying stupid jobs just to be able to make monthly payments on our student loans. I've been saying for a while now that the student loan debt is the next bubble. Last year student loan debt surpassed credit card debt in the US. It's evident to me that I will probably not live long enough to repay my entire debt--I'm just not that young, and the economy is not looking great. I'm not saying I deserve a bailout: I own my foolishness taking on this debt. I'm willing to work hard for the rest of my productive life, and I'd like to give back. I always wanted to be a doctor. I've never had a debt before, and it was and is an uncomfortable decision. If there were prisons for debtors in the US then I wouldn't be too surprised to end up there. But we don't imprison debtors, we just harass them. It is that harassment and the suffering involved in mindless work that I would like to avoid, in favor of being able to concentrate on the business I would like to open, and the people that I would like to help. If the fed were to excuse my debt, I would be able to do more for public health than I otherwise could do.
This is a petition asking for student loan debt to be forgiven so that we can go about the business of opening new businesses, instead of getting low paying stupid jobs just to be able to make monthly payments on our student loans. I've been saying for a while now that the student loan debt is the next bubble. Last year student loan debt surpassed credit card debt in the US. It's evident to me that I will probably not live long enough to repay my entire debt--I'm just not that young, and the economy is not looking great. I'm not saying I deserve a bailout: I own my foolishness taking on this debt. I'm willing to work hard for the rest of my productive life, and I'd like to give back. I always wanted to be a doctor. I've never had a debt before, and it was and is an uncomfortable decision. If there were prisons for debtors in the US then I wouldn't be too surprised to end up there. But we don't imprison debtors, we just harass them. It is that harassment and the suffering involved in mindless work that I would like to avoid, in favor of being able to concentrate on the business I would like to open, and the people that I would like to help. If the fed were to excuse my debt, I would be able to do more for public health than I otherwise could do.
If you are a woman, especially. Women are more likely to be described as "cooperative, affectionate, helpful, kind, sympathetic, nurturing, tactful or agreeable", and it turns out the last thing you want is for someone to sing those praises for you in a recommendation letter. Why? Well researchers at Rice University did a study in which they took the personal pronouns out of recommendation letters. The readers couldn't tell if the applicant was male or female. They controlled for all the concrete academic reasons that a person might be selected, or not, in a medical and academic field, meaning that the letters were sorted as to be equal in that regard. Then they asked "who would you hire"? The answer was that the people hired would be the ones described as "confident, aggressive, ambitious, dominant, forceful, independent, daring, outspoken and intellectual". And those words of course were more often applied to men. If you apply those words to a woman, you're practically calling her a bitch in our culture. So women can't win. No big news there, but the lesson is clear. We can influence our reference letter writers to use a different paradigm in speaking about us, and get hired more.
SOURCE
http://www.rice.edu/nationalmedia/news2010-11-09-letters.shtml
SOURCE
http://www.rice.edu/nationalmedia/news2010-11-09-letters.shtml
Nice post here by a medical student contemplating the effect of television doctors on the flesh and blood practice of medicine: http://boards.medscape.com/forums?128@158.qasxa9gFZrf@.2a09cdc7!comment=1
( the text of an interesting blogpost, visit the link above to comment to author )
( the text of an interesting blogpost, visit the link above to comment to author )
Ever since a few brave scientists started speaking out about their findings---that mammograms weren't actually savings lives, that they aren't the best way to screen for breast pathology---the numbers of women who are going in for regular breast squishing and irradiation has been on the decrease. And the folks who were in that biz are not happy about it. Their pockets aren't so full anymore.
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QotD: Diseases of the Soul
May. 12th, 2011 09:08 amDiseases of the soul
are more dangerous
and more numerous
than those of the body.
--Cicero
are more dangerous
and more numerous
than those of the body.
--Cicero
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Dr Lawrence was recommending just about everyone get on low dose aspirin because of its cancer preventative effects. I hadn't heard that, so I just googled it (scholar) and found this review of 91 studies that shows a strong anti-cancer effect in many common cancers. In my current schooling NSAIDS are considered evil because they are hard on the intestine and kidneys. Specifically they can cause a breakdown of the gut lining that leads to immune dysregulation and even autoimmune disease. But as with coffee, the evil is balanced with the good: the lesson I take from this new information is that moderation is the key. No point in overreacting to any one piece of information, no point in being a tee-totaller or a total obsessive nutcase about your intakes.
( abstract )
( abstract )
http://n-equals-one.com/blogs/
Dr Todd uses this guy's genotyping concepts to guide his nutritional recommendations and I would like to study this much more completely. Book to check out: Change Your Genetic Destiny.
Dr Todd uses this guy's genotyping concepts to guide his nutritional recommendations and I would like to study this much more completely. Book to check out: Change Your Genetic Destiny.
the new MRSA: CRKP
Apr. 9th, 2011 09:46 amCarbapenem-resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae, that is. It is resistant to nearly all antibiotics, and according to the Guardian killed 25,000 people in Europe last year. CRKP has been reported in 36 US states so far and is sure to be present in others. LA County longterm care facilities may have lots of it. Antibiotic resistant micro-organisms are best beaten using the naturopathic principle of strengthening the innate healing ability of the organism: there's no bug that can beat a healthy immune system!
SOURCE
http://current.com/news/93141801_antibiotic-superbugs-crkp-mrsa.htm?xid=PTNiGoog
( notes )
SOURCE
http://current.com/news/93141801_antibiotic-superbugs-crkp-mrsa.htm?xid=PTNiGoog
( notes )
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Understanding LGBT Health
Apr. 4th, 2011 04:59 pmThere's an effort afoot to get some research done on LGBT population health and sort out who's getting what and why and how prevention and treatment efforts might be improved.
IOM Report on LGBT Health at
http://www.iom.edu/Reports/2011/The-Health-of-Lesbian-Gay-Bisexual-and-Transgender-People.aspx?utm_medium=etmail&utm_source=Institute%20of%20Medicine&utm_campaign=03.31.11+Report+-+LGBT+Health&utm_content=LGBT%20Health%20Issues&utm_term=Non-profit
IOM Report on LGBT Health at
http://www.iom.edu/Reports/2011/The-Health-of-Lesbian-Gay-Bisexual-and-Transgender-People.aspx?utm_medium=etmail&utm_source=Institute%20of%20Medicine&utm_campaign=03.31.11+Report+-+LGBT+Health&utm_content=LGBT%20Health%20Issues&utm_term=Non-profit
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Radiation Exposure Comparison Graphic
Apr. 2nd, 2011 03:10 pmThis graphic is so cool that they're selling pdf's of it for two buck fifty. Gives better information on relative exposures and health effects of acute radiation exposure than anything else I've seen.
