The News Review:
- $2.5B spent cures elude
- Medical breakthroughs seldom are
- Government investigates chelation-heart disease study
- WH Health Ministry organize alternative medicine workshop
- Supplement may be statin alternative for some
$2.5B spent cures elude
Martinsburg Journal
Karkosky uses the nine step process to control food cravings and reduce stress. A $2 million government study will test whether this acupressure technique can prevent dieters from regaining weight. (AP?file photo)’EDITR’S NTE: Ten years and $2. 5 billion in research have found no cures from alternative medicine. Yet these mostly unproven treatments are now mainstream and used by more than a third of all Americans. This is the third in an Associated Press series examining their use and potential risks. The Journal will publish this series on Mondays in the Health & Fitness section and online.
Medical breakthroughs seldom are
Charlottesville Daily Progress
a Chicago-area member of the American Medical Association says that the alternative-medicine movement is spreading from grass-roots populations to the most senior levels of orthodox medicine and that doctors who don’t know about alternative approaches are “losing their practice” and therefore risk losing ground financially (“AMA makes a change” Vegetarian Times 1996). We are regularly warned that alternative medicines do not undergo the rigorous testing required for conventional medicine yet many experts such as Thomas Moore in his book “Deadly Medicine” (1998) reminds us that the U. S Congress of Technical Assessment reported only 10 percent to 20 percent of the medical procedures done by conventional medicine has been proven to be effective. Rand Corporation studies show that one-third of all medical treatments are unnecessary and estimates suggest that almost half of all articles in medical journals are written by ghostwriters (London bserver 2003).
Related from Journowiki: Wikipedia-plus launches for medics
Government investigates chelation-heart disease study
Martinsburg Journal
The $30 million study with 1500 participants so far is one of the largest alternative medicine experiments ever launched. It tests high doses of vitamin and mineral supplements and chelation a treatment used for lead poisoning that has not been proved safe or effective for heart disease. Researchers suspended enrollment last August when the federal ffice of Human Research Protections began a probe into whether the people in the study were being fully informed of risks and adequately protected. Chelation involves intravenous doses of a drug in this case disodium EDTA. Proponents claim it can flush out calcium that has built up in artery walls.
WH Health Ministry organize alternative medicine workshop
Yemen News Agency
The three-day workshop which is attended by 30 participants aims to know the reality of alternative medicine in Yemen and ways of benefiting from medicinal herbs available in abundance in Yemen. Undersecretary of Health Ministry for Curative Medicine sector Ghazi Ismail affirmed the importance of studying and evaluating the status of alternative medicine in all its aspects by the participants. The workshop also will come out with vision and recommendations to enhance the legal status and preventing the consumer from the improper use of alternative medicine.
Supplement may be statin alternative for some
CNN
And only 2 of the 29 patients who took red yeast rice in the study developed myalgia — a far smaller percentage than could have been expected had they tried another statin. But in a way the study participants did try another statin. Red yeast rice which has been used in Chinese medicine for hundreds of years is derived from a fungus that grows on rice. It contains a series of compounds that slow the production of cholesterol in the liver. ne of those compounds monacolin K is a naturally occurring form of lovastatin the active ingredient in Mevacor a brand-name statin that was approved by the FDA in 1987 and now available as a generic.