In the not-too-distant past, the rate of autism in the US was listed as 1 in 10,000 children. It is now acknowledged to be 1 in 150 children and as high as 1 in 93 children in New Jersey. While there are those who point to better diagnosis as the reason for the increase, little […]
The April 1 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association has an article written by a group of doctors who recommend that medical professional associations adopt stricter conflict of interest guidelines. The new proposals call for associations to refuse general budget support from the industry.
According to the editors of Scientific American in the April 2009 issue, “the security of our food supply is at risk—in ways more noxious than anyone had feared.” The article referred to the FDA’s action in 2008 regarding the non-therapeutic use of antibiotics in farm animal production.
The Bravewell Collaborative, a philanthropic organization, partnered with the Institute of Medicine (IOM) to convene this past February’s Summit on Integrative Medicine and the Health of the Public. The primary goal is to make a shift in US healthcare. John Weeks, publisher and editor of The Integrator Blog, poses this question to the integrative medical […]
According to Peter Chowka of NaturalHealthLine, the first two months of President Obama’s administration “have set the stage for the greatest transformation of American healthcare since the country declared its independence from Great Britain 233 years ago.” House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) has been quoted as saying Congress hopes to enact a mandate that […]
Two recent articles—one in the New York Times, the other in the Wall Street Journal—speak to a crisis of integrity in the medical industry that has led insiders like Dr. Jerome Kassirer of Yale and Tufts to muse that some of their colleagues appear to act as “paid prostitutes for the drug industry.”
Simon Baron-Cohen, PhD, director of the Autism Research Centre at University of Cambridge, recently published a study that showed a positive correlation between levels of fetal testosterone (measured by amniocentesis) and the number of autistic traits a child shows post-natally. None of the children in the study, however, had actually developed autism. What was being […]
The first nationwide study of human drugs in fish tissue is completed. Researchers found that fish caught near wastewater treatment plants serving five major US cities contained pharmaceutical residues, including medications used to treat high cholesterol, allergies, high blood pressure, bipolar disorder, and depression.
According to the FDA News, a bill to establish a comparative effectiveness research institute is scheduled for introduction in the Senate. The Comparative Effectiveness Research Act of 2008, sponsored by Sens. Kent Conrad (D-ND) and Max Baucus (D-MT), would evaluate the effectiveness of different drugs and medical devices that exist for the same treatment. The […]
Two physicians once leaned over to me during a break in a live radio interview and whispered, “It’s the joke in medicine: Newer is not necessarily better, especially when it comes to drugs.” I was dumbfounded. New drugs had to be better, right?