ACSH/Staff, Oprah/Cranks, Meat/Breasts, HRT/Lungs, Sun/Skin, Spice/Island
by Elizabeth Wade
ACSH welcomes two new staffers
We'd like to extend a warm welcome to the two newest members of the ACSH team: art director Anthony Manzo and research intern Curtis Porter. Curtis will be taking over as writer of Morning Dispatch this week, as I prepare to leave to start my Fulbright scholarship in Mexico.
Could watching Oprah be dangerous for your health?
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Judgment calls are inescapable in the practice of medicine. Physicians and patients must choose among different courses of treatment based on imperfect knowledge and incomplete information.
Energy needs worldwide are expected to increase for the foreseeable future, but fuel supplies are limited.
Twenty years ago tomorrow, a combination of environmentalists, public interest lawyers, publicists, and members of the news media foisted a bogus health scare on the American public -- the fear that apples being sprayed with Alar were exposing children to a cancer-causing chemical.
This article first appeared on Forbes.com.
You would think liberal politicians are the only ones who stand up for us, the consumers. But consider the current effort to allow consumers in all fifty states to sue over injuries sustained from FDA-approved medical devices.
According to a study presented at the American College of Sports Medicine s annual meeting in Seattle, exercise for women over thirty may help stave off breast cancer. Of course, ACSH staffers recommend regular exercise for everyone, but the connection to breast cancer seems dubious. It s getting a decent amount of coverage but not a lot of skepticism. Health reporters tend to give a free ride to claims that things society accepts, like exercise, are good -- and things we don't like, such as synthetic chemicals, are bad, regardless of the strength of the evidence.
The World Health Organization recommended that new rotavirus vaccines made by GSK and Merck be included in all national immunization programs. The original vaccine against rotavirus, which kills over half a million children under five around the world each year, was removed from the market ten years ago because of a rare, potentially deadly side-effect.
The EPA has released the first of its Chemical Action Plans (CAP) targeting phthalates, following EPA chief Lisa Jackson's pledge last September to more closely scrutinize chemicals that cause public concern.
"Lisa Jackson said in September that increasing public concern about chemicals would result in more EPA regulation," says ACSH's Dr. Gilbert Ross. "Well, it's speeches like those that generate public concern when there's no reason for it," as Ross warned in an op-ed at the time.
An article in the British newspaper The Independent declares, "The world is facing a growing threat from new diseases that are jumping the human-animal species barrier as a result of environmental disruption, global warming, and the progressive urbanization of the planet."
A well-controlled, randomized study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association concludes that ginkgo biloba does not actually improve memory or brain function.
"This should be the end of the discussion on ginkgo biloba, but of course it won't be," says ACSH's Dr. Gilbert Ross. "Look at homeopathy. There hasn't been a single study that proves that it works or has any benefit to anyone, and yet billions are spent on it each year."
A new study by the Jules Stein Eye Institute of UCLA indicates that quitting smoking reduces the risk of age-related macular degeneration, which can lead to blindness.
"This is not a surprise, given the known negative vascular effects of smoking," says ACSH's Dr. Elizabeth Whelan. "Cigarette smoking definitely plays a role in age-related macular degeneration."
"On the other hand, smoking actually reduces the risk of old-age itself," quips ACSH's Jeff Stier.
Under the tobacco regulation bill recently passed by Congress, flavoring in cigarettes will be banned to diminish the attraction of smoking to youth smokers, with the exception of menthol. Menthol-flavored cigarettes represent 27 percent of the market and are the product of choice for 75 percent of African-American smokers.
Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz and Senator Amy Klobuchar have not withdrawn their proposal to introduce breast cancer screening in junior high school, despite the warnings of the chief physician of the American Cancer Society, an NIH cancer prevention expert, and a prominent breast cancer epidemiologist, all of whom believe that the bill could do more harm than good.
As usual, ACSH staffers agree with legitimate medical professionals. This is a ridiculous proposal, says ACSH's Dr. Elizabeth Whelan. Still, it is difficult to criticize an idea that sounds so proactive.
Vitamin, herbal, and otherwise non-regulated supplements have fared poorly under increasingly public scrutiny. ACSH staffers have long maintained that these and other alternative medicine products are not worth the money. Most of these supplements are the modern equivalents of nineteenth-century snake-oil, says ACSH s Dr. Ruth Kava.
The FDA's panel of psychiatric experts voted to approve the use of three drugs produced by AstraZeneca, Eli Lilly, and Pfizer for the treatment of schizophrenia and bipolar disorder in patients ages ten to seventeen. The drugs, already approved for treatment of adults, represent a remarkable achievement in the struggle against these devastating diseases, which affect 2.4 million and 5.7 million Americans, respectively.
California s Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment declared on Friday that the smoke from marijuana is carcinogenic and therefore falls under the purview of the state s Proposition 65, which requires all products with suspected carcinogens to carry warning labels.
Prop 65 is an unproductive law which provides no health benefit except to lawyers, says ACSH's Dr. Gilbert Ross. It has done nothing but encourage California s thriving bounty hunter litigation so that companies can be sued for not using the right warning labels.
Recently, Nestle USA voluntarily recalled its prepackaged, refrigerated cookie dough products after they had been linked to E. coli infections across twenty-eight states. Nestle is fully cooperating with FDA and CDC efforts to inform people of the dangers of eating this and other raw foods intended to be cooked before consumption.
ACSH staffers are glad to see this being addressed, and we view it as an unfortunate example of occasional contamination that no degree of oversight could prevent every time.
WHO Director-General Margaret Chan, when asked at a news briefing on Tuesday if there were any signs of the swine flu virus mixing with other strains such as avian flu, responded, The virus is still very stable...But as we all know, the influenza virus is highly unpredictable and has great potential for mutation.
This is somewhat reassuring, says ACSH s Dr. Elizabeth Whelan. At least we know that there aren t any big surprises for the fall flu season, so far.
Matrixx Initiatives is on the defensive since they were ordered to stop selling Zicam intranasal cold remedies after more than 130 reports of people who lost their sense of smell after using the zinc-based, homeopathic products. A public health advisory posted on the FDA website said the products have all been associated with long-lasting or permanent loss of smell and have not been shown to be effective in the reduction of the duration and severity of cold symptoms.
Alternative medicine has once again crept into popular fashion, to the chagrin of legitimate medicine. The only thing that these practices provide is placebos, says ACSH s Dr. Ruth Kava, which is not something most people seek from medical professionals.
ACSH's Dr. Gilbert Ross has noticed the regrettable trend: Despite the fact that there s no such thing as legitimate alternative medicine -- only real medicine and fake medicine -- it seems that more and more people and even doctors are buying into the power of superstition.
Daniel Henninger of the Wall Street Journal argues that the World Health Organization s phase six pandemic label, applied this morning to the H1N1 virus, is a loaded word that will instill a sense of panic that may impede the ability of public officials to assemble a rational response plan for this virus. While ACSH staffers agree the WHO s overwrought and highly public deliberation on this matter has been needlessly melodramatic, the terminology is not to blame.
Obesity seems to be the medical concern of the day. One New York Times article references a study to be published in today s Journal of the American Medical Association that determined that adults who were overweight as teens were twice as likely as similar adults who had never been overweight to develop pancreatic cancer later in life, and people who were obese as young adults were at more than twice the risk of adults who had never been obese.
School children may be a priority for next flu season s vaccinations, according to Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius. Young people are petri dishes for flu incubation, says Dr. Ross. Last year the CDC decided to focus on kids in order to prevent the spread of flu, and that may be their strategy again, especially if they decide to vaccinate against swine flu.
All the news that's fit to scare. That was the thrust of this weekend's New York Times article by Charles Duhigg entitled "Toxic Waters: Debating Just How Much Weed Killer Is Safe in Your Water Glass."
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