Category: medical

Well, Obama Mans Up On Somethng

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I have always felt that Obama has been profoundly ambivalent on the matter of abortion rights, so I figured that their response to a judge’s injunction against funding embryonic stem cell research would be to wring their hands, bleat a bit, and suggest that “Congress” do something.

I appear to have been too cynical, because the DoJ has announced that it will appeal this ruling:

The Obama administration said Tuesday that it would appeal a court ruling challenging the legality of President Obama’s rules governing human embryonic stem cell research, as the head of the National Institutes of Health said the decision would most likely force the cancellation of dozens of experiments in diseases ranging from diabetes to Parkinson’s.

I am truly shocked. My sense was that Obama would go the way he tried to on “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell”, and punt to Congress.

Before I add Heidi Montag to My List of They Who Must Not Be Named,

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I must note that her plastic surgeon died in a car accident while texting and driving:

Plastic surgeon-to-the-stars Frank Ryan was killed Monday when his jeep rolled over an embankment off Malibu’s Pacific Coast Highway outside of Los Angeles. Authorities believe Ryan was distracted by text messaging at the time of the accident.

Ryan, 50, was known for performing extreme plastic surgery on Hollywood celebrities, including “The Hills” star Heidi Montag. Ryan reportedly performed ten procedures on Montag in one day, including work on her ears, chin, nose, and breasts.

You know, there is a segment of our society that I neither understand nor approve.

They are free to neither understand nor approve me as well.

Still these events evoke Zathras to me:

At least, there is symmetry.

Rest assured now. Ms Montag is on my list of They Who Must Not Be Named.

Don’t Pray for Christopher Hitchens, Buy His Book

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Christopher Hitchens has metastasized esophageal cancer, and his friend and co-worker at The Atlantic, Jeffrey Goldberg, has fielded the responses to this news.

It’s very well written, and bears repeating:

A Message to Those Praying for Christopher Hitchens

Aug 9 2010, 10:05 AM ET

On behalf of Christopher Hitchens, who thinks all of this skydaddy talk is ridiculous, thanks to all of you who wrote in to Goldblog to report that they would be praying for him as he undergoes treatment for esophageal cancer (you can hear him talk about his current predicament here). I would like to reiterate, of course, that Hitchens is still solidly atheist (strike that ‘still,’ actually, because it implies his mind will change, which I don’t think will happen, at least, as he says, in reference to the mind we know today as Hitchens’s mind—what medicine does to his mind is a different story), but nevertheless I can report that he does not mock those who say they are praying on his behalf. What you could really, do, of course, if you’re interested in making Hitch happy, is buy this book.

As for the few of you who wrote to Goldblog to say they were praying for Hitch’s death, I can say that he does not care one way or another what you do or think or pray, but on behalf of myself and the entire team here at The Atlantic, let me just say, Go f%$# yourselves.

I believe God will forgive me for that one.

(%$# mine)

Anti-Vacc Fraud Doc Gets Medical License Pulled

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The General Medical Council, the physicians’ regulatory body in the UK, has revoked the medical licens(c)e of Andrew Wakefield and his colleague John Walker-Smith, though the 3rd participant in the study, was exhonerated when it was determined that he stopped doing tests when he determined that they were unethical.

The first two “doctors” subjected children to excruciating tests like lumbar puncture without any review from ethics committees,

For a devastating cartoon version of the facts, which details how Wakefield did this because he was bought and paid for, see here.

Unfortunately, it is highly unlikely that he will get what he really deserves, which is a very long time in gaol.

Earlier posts on the subject.

I’m Henry VIII I Am

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Well, not exactly, but it appears that my 2 weeks on Doxycycline has given me gout in my left big toe.

One of the triggers for gout is a sterile digestive tract, which the drug has delivered in spades.

I went to the urgent care clinic, and after a bit of a wait, got a quick diagnosis from the doctor.

I’m on Indocin, which is basically industrial strength Ibuprofen, and Colchicine, which is some weird stuff derived from the Autumn crocus.

The instructions for Colchicine say, “Take 1-2 tablets every 2 hours until pain stops, or nausea-vomiting-diarrhea.”

I just the Wiki on Colchicine. Great googly moogly. This is nasty stuff, as in a fairly potent cellular toxin when used to excess..

I’m taking my meds, and another acidophilus to deal with the “sterile digestive tract,” and heading to bed, thank you very much.

Pharmacist Troubles

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On Monday, I had a regular appointment with our doctor, and mentioned that I had a tick bite on the prior Tuesday, and that since I had Lyme disease before (1992), and actually ended up in the hospital with Lyme Carditis.

Since the standard test would show positive, it tests for the antibody whether or not I had it, so the Dr. S. prescribed a prophylactic antibiotic regime.

The standard drug for this is something in the Tetracycline family, most commonly Doxycycline, which he prescribed, and I filled at the CVS near our house.

It’s a mile away, and open 24 hours, but we have never been too satisfied with the service.

In this case, they filled the prescription in ½ hour while I got some blood tests, and filled it, no muss, no fuss ……… Or so it seemed.

The instructions on the label called for taking the pills at least two hours after, or one hour before, eating; i.e. on an empty stomach.

So, rolling the Wiki:

It should be taken with a full glass of water, after food, and patients should be upright for at least 30 minutes after administration to prevent irritation of the esophagus and stomach. Failure to take food prior to ingesting Doxycycline may induce vomiting.

eHow:

Take doxycycline with food or following a meal. If you have taken doxycycline on an empty stomach before and gotten away with it, the next time may be different. Doxycycline induced nausea is quite unpleasant and more serious stomach irritation can occur.

Also, no note on the label not to take it before bed, nor to avoid sunlight and UV, though Dr. S. told me that last part.

I’ve been wondering who the hell has been doing the flaming sword dance in my stomach for the past few days.

Also

Anti-Vaxxers Handed Another Well Deserved Defeat

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A 3 judge panel has ruled that there is no scientific basis for claims of a link between thimerosal and autism:

In a further blow to the antivaccine movement, three judges ruled Friday in three separate cases that thimerosal, a preservative containing mercury, does not cause autism.

The three rulings are the second step in the Omnibus Autism Proceeding begun in 2002 in the United States Court of Federal Claims. The proceeding combines the cases of 5,000 families with autistic children seeking compensation from the federal vaccine injury fund, which comes from a 75-cent tax on every dose of vaccine.

Understand that there is a fund, which can, and does pay out for things like allergic reactions, and judges ruled that there is no factual basis for this at all:

In the three cases brought against the government, by the parents of Jordan King, Colin R. Dwyer and William Mead, all three special masters used strong language in dismissing the expert evidence from the families’ lawyers.

The master in the King ruling emphasized that it was “not a close case” and “extremely unlikely” that Jordan’s autism was connected to his vaccines. The master in the Dwyer case wrote that many parents “relied upon practitioners and researchers who peddled hope, not opinions grounded in science and medicine.”

This is judge speak for, “Get out of here, you nut jobs.”

Now, if only we could get Jenny McCarthy and Bobby Kennedy, Jr. off of Huff Po before they do any more damage.

Sharon Osbourne Has Something to Get off Her Chest

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She is selling her breast implants on eBay:

Unsatisfied with the result of her breast augmentation procedure, Sharon Osbourne recently revealed that she plans to sell the breast implants online once they are removed. Talking to Britain’s New! Magazine, the judge of “America’s Got Talent” admitted that she’s thinking of putting them up for sale on eBay.

“I wish I had never had my breasts done. They have put these bloody great bags in that are too ****ing round. It is like [having] a waterbed on your chest. I hate my [breasts],” the wife of Ozzy Osbourne first pointed out why she was left disappointed. She continued to say, “I want to have the bags taken out – then I will put them on eBay.”

Ummm……I got nothing here……Too weird for me to pull out any additional humor……

Stephen Andrew Wakefield Acted Unethically

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Medical regulators in the UK have now ruled that Stephen Andrew Wakefield acted unethically in the conduct of his study linking vaccinations and autism.

The doctor who first suggested a link between MMR vaccinations and autism acted unethically, the official medical regulator has found.

Dr Andrew Wakefield’s 1998 Lancet study caused vaccination rates to plummet, resulting in a rise in measles – but the findings were later discredited.

The General Medical Council ruled he had acted “dishonestly and irresponsibly” in doing his research.

, Dr Wakefield said the claims were “unfounded and unjust”.

The GMC case did not investigate whether Dr Wakefield’s findings were right or wrong, instead it was focused on the methods of research.

During the two-and-a-half years of hearings – one of the longest in the regulator’s history – he was accused of a series of charges.

‘Callous disregard’

The verdict, read out by panel chairman Dr Surendra Kumar, criticised Dr Wakefield for the invasive tests, such as spinal taps, that were carried out on children and which were found to be against their best clinical interests.

The panel said Dr Wakefield, who was working at London’s Royal Free Hospital as a gastroenterologist at the time, did not have the ethical approval or relevant qualifications for such tests.

The GMC also took exception with the way he gathered blood samples. Dr Wakefield paid children £5 for the samples at his son’s birthday party.

Dr Kumar said he had acted with “callous disregard for the distress and pain the children might suffer”.

(emphasis original)

It’s likely that they will pull his certification to practice medicine, though this might not mean much, as Wakefield left the UK, and now practices in the United States.

His research, which was not merely bad, but corrupt, had sickened thousands of children who were either not vaccinated, or caught disease from their unvaccinated friends. (vaccines are not 100%, and the loss of herd immunity is a serious issue)

Additionally, Lancet has already rescinded the original article.

One hopes that he ends his life in jail, because he wasn’t just wrong, he pushed forward his bogus study in the hopes of making money from an equally bogus therapy that he had patented.

[on edit]
A sharp eyed reader noticed that I got his name wrong. I have corrected, but have left the original strike through to show what a complete prat I am.

Court Case Against the Patenting of Genes Progresses

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I originally wrote about this in May, and my position then is what it is now, that you patent inventions, not discoveries, and that the counter argument, “discovering is hard work,” is a load of crap.

The case law is clear that, “a product of nature is unpatentable unless it is sufficiently different to become a patentable ‘composition of matter.'”

In any case, the litigation, put forward by a number of civil liberties and scientific organizations, is now making arguments before the judge:

Federal court hearings continued Tuesday on a lawsuit that could transform biotechnology in the United States by eliminating gene patents.

The case hinges around the claims of Utah-based Myriad Genetics on BRCA1 and BRCA2, a pair of genes closely linked to breast and ovarian cancer. Myriad “owns” the genes, and says its patents make it possible to profit on diagnostic tests. The company argues that if you remove the patents, the tests — indeed, commercial biotechnology as we know it — will vanish.

Myriad is, from the perspective of an engineer, not a patent attorney, dammit,* full of crap.

Their tests for the gene are still protected, it’s just that alternative, and better test methods for the gene that they discovered will be able to compete.

Fundamentally, IP law is about the public good, as it says in the Constitution, “To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries,” [where “discoveries” means “invention”, hence the reference to “inventors”, it gets complex],

My guess is that if Myriad had been a bit less hard assed about their patents, they have absolutely refused to license to anyone for any purpose, this case would probably have never come up.

As it stands now, they are literally killing people, and this makes them a thoroughly unsympathetic defendant.

I can’t imagine this not ending up at the Supreme Court though.

*I LOVE IT when I get to go all Doctor McCoy!!!

Rom Houben Is In a Persistent Vegitative State

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You’ve doubtless heard about the miracle in Belgium, where a man has been determined to have functioning intellect.

I’m with Michael Shermer on this, this is Ouija board style “facilitated communication type hoax:

It’s a hoax, folks. Sorry to be the spoiler of a feel good story—that of Rom Houben, the Belgian man who allegedly “woke up” from a 23-year long coma—but the hard truth must win out over hopeful emotions. Houben’s “communications,” his “statements” about how he’s been aware all along of his condition, his “talking” to reporters (all descriptive terms used by hardened journalists softened into bleeding heart jelly) is nothing more than the “ideomotor” effect, where the brain subtly and subconsciously guides the hands and fingers over a keyboard, or a Ouija board, or directs the movements of dowsing rods in search of underground water……

…. Houben is just sitting there in a chair looking like he’s in a coma, with the facilitator standing next to him, his hand firmly gripped by hers, guiding his hand over the keyboard. ….

A simple test to prove my claim: show a picture of an object (say, a cat) to the facilitator and show a different picture of an object (say, a dog) to Huben. Don’t let either one see the other photographs. Then see what gets typed: cat or dog? As a control, show them both the same picture and see what gets typed. Prediction: Whatever the facilitator sees is what will get typed. Would someone there please run this simple test?

Such a test was already done in the 1990s when something called “Facilitated Communication” (FC) was all the rage with autistic children who, just like the Coma Man, “suddenly awoke” from their long sleep and began talking up a storm and sounding all the world like perfectly normal bright children, some even returning to school to take classes. Only they weren’t. Normal. Or talking. A facilitator stood next to a child, held his or her hand firmly in a grip with the index finger pointing down over a keyboard, then typed. In controlled tests by experimental psychologists, a photograph of an object was shown to the facilitator and a photograph of an object was shown to the child. Neither one saw what the other one saw. Sometimes the pictures were of the same objects, sometimes they were different. Result: whatever the facilitator saw is what got typed, 100% of the time, and never (0%) did what the child see get typed unless it was also what the facilitator saw. ….

Prediction: if the Coma Man story is not thoroughly debunked now, within a short time the families of people in comas will be snapping up these plastic keyboards and facilitating the communication of their loved ones locked up in a broken brain. Only they will be doing no such thing. They will be wasting their time, money, energy, and worst of all their emotions, setting themselves up for being crushed when awareness dawns on them that FC doesn’t work. Please, would someone in the Houben family put an end to this charade before it spreads through the coma community and wreaks emotional havoc.

(emphasis mine)

No happy endings here. We are merely seeing the ability of human beings to delude themselves, nothing more, nothing less.

Time to Go Long on Fig Newtons

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The American Medical Association has decided to reclassify marijuana.

It is currently a schedule 1 controlled substance, meaning dangerous, with no medical use, and the AMA, bowing to reality, has decided that it should be legal to at least test the stuff:

The American Medical Assn. on Tuesday urged the federal government to reconsider its classification of marijuana as a dangerous drug with no accepted medical use, a significant shift that puts the prestigious group behind calls for more research.

The nation’s largest physicians organization, with about 250,000 member doctors, the AMA has maintained since 1997 that marijuana should remain a Schedule I controlled substance, the most restrictive category, which also includes heroin and LSD.

In changing its policy, the group said its goal was to clear the way to conduct clinical research, develop cannabis-based medicines and devise alternative ways to deliver the drug.

Hopefully, the progress towards sanity involving THC will continue, and perhaps, I could then go back to one of the activities of my college days.

Requiem for a Quack: Hulda Clark

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I am quoting Orac, the pseudonymous blogger at Respectful Insolence, on the death of Hulda Clark, author of The Cure for All Cancers, who, ironically enough, died of cancer.

As Orac notes, she was a quack’s quack:

In that post, I listed a number of Clark’s claims, as documented by Quackwatch:

  • The adult liver fluke — which she misspells as Faciolopsis buskii — “stays stuck to our intestine, (or liver, causing cancer, or uterus, causing endometriosis, or thymus, causing AIDS, or kidney, causing Hodgkin’s disease).” Or the pancreas, causing diabetes; the brain, causing Alzheimer’s disease; the prostate (causing prostatitis; or the skin if you have Kaposi’s sarcoma.
  • As soon as there are adults in the liver. . . . a growth factor, called ortho-phospho-tyrosine appears. Growth factors make cells divide. Now YOUR cells will begin to divide too! Now you have cancer. . . . Having propyl alcohol in your body allows the fluke to develop outside of the intestine.
  • When the fluke and all its stages have been killed, the ortho-phospho-tyrosine is gone! Your cancer is gone.
  • Clearly, you must do 3 things: (1) Kill the parasite and all its stages; (2) stop letting propyl alcohol into your body; and (3) flush out the metals and common toxins from your body so you can get well.
  • It is not unusual for someone to have a dozen (or more) of the parasites I have samples of. You can assume that you, too, have a dozen different parasites.
  • Three herbs, used together, can rid you of over 100 types of parasites: black walnut hulls, wormwood, and common cloves. But the amino acids ornithine and arginine improve this recipe.
  • Use of these five products will kill the cancer-causing fluke in the first five days and the remaining parasites in another two weeks.
  • It takes 5 days to be cured of cancer regardless of the type you have. Surgery, radiation, or chemotherapy can be canceled because, after Clark’s recipe cures the cancer, it cannot come back.
  • All metal (fillings, crowns, bridges, etc.) should be removed from the mouth, and all teeth with root canals should be extracted, because their presence damages the immune system.
  • To prevent recurrence, stay on a maintenance program of killing parasites and give yourself a high-dose program at least twice a year. Also treat all family members and household pets.
  • The method is 100% effective in stopping cancer regardless of the type of cancer or how terminal it may be. It follows that this method must work for you, too, if you are able to carry out the instructions.
  • No matter what kind of cancer you have (or HIV or pains or weakness), a complete program of lifting the burdens on your immune system will miraculously clear it up.

(emphasis mine)

Ms. Clark made a good living shortening the lives of thousands of people.

ouch

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Russian Woman Gives Birth to Giant Baby:

Russian woman, Svetlana Tagantseva, 28, a resident of the city of Samara, gave birth to a very large baby. The newborn, who looks like a six-month-old boy, weighs 6.75 kilos (15 lbs). The baby boy is 62 cm [24 ½ in (!)]tall.

Doctors of a local maternity hospital say that they have never seen such a large newborn in their entire life.

Svetlana was last seen brandishing a hammer and anvil and mumbling about her husband’s genitals.

H1N1 Update

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I had to drop my son off at school today, because the buses were running so late.

It appears that there are a sh%$ load of drivers who are out sick, so they are scrambling with substitute drivers, who are not only getting last minute calls to show up, but are unfamiliar with the routes.

They are not saying that it’s Influenza, but I’m thinking that it’s likely.

AIDS Vaccine Achieves 1/3 Protection

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They have been testing an AIDS vaccine, actually a combination of 2 failed AIDS vaccines in Thailand, and it appears that it has a 32% effectiveness rate.

That may not seem like much, but typically, you start to see reductions in outbreaks once you hit this level, and this is the first vaccine that has shown any effect ever.

Of course, we can now expect the vaccine manufacturers to price it at a high enough price so that people in Thailand won’t be able to afford the vaccine.