The "golden age" of medical quackery 1/2007

Medical quackery headline

Intuitively the month of January I've called a "golden age" of medical quackery, let's see whether this is becoming true. In December there was a lot of news about stem cell therapies. The month was closed with some "advanced" discoveries. Apparently there is some acceleration in biotechnology, let's see what this new month will tell us about new dangerous techniques from which the future outcome is highly insecure and compare it with current failures. The golden age of medical quackery is flourishing as is it all over the news and people see just golden mountains.

Time	Source *	Headline #
Jan 31 2007 Jan 29 2007 Jan 28 2007 Jan 25 2007 Jan 24 2007 Jan 23 2007 Jan 23 2007 Jan 22 2007 Jan 20 2007 Jan 19 2007 Jan 18 2007 Jan 18 2007 Jan 17 2007 Jan 16 2007 Jan 15 2007 Jan 13 2007 Jan 12 2007 Jan 12 2007 Jan 11 2007 Jan 10 2007 Jan 08 2007 Jan 07 2007 Jan 06 2007 Jan 05 2007 Jan 04 2007 Jan 04 2007 Jan 03 2007 Jan 03 2007 Jan 02 2007 Jan 02 2007 Jan 01 2007	MSNBC Reuters BBC Time Reuters BBC De Pers NY times NY times CDC BBC news Thebulletin [3] Guardian unlimited Yahoo Time NY times ABC News CDC Guardian unlimited PLoSONE NOS Reuters BBC NY times NY times Reuters MSNBC Forbes NY times Forbes Reuters	Only 25% children can sleep normal after tonsillectomy and adenoidectomy  GSK distorted clinical trials, covered up suicides, influenced academics with Paxil Protein called carabin controls immune system "machinery" (Comment: machinery view) FDA choose health above effectiveness pregnancies in contraceptives Experts say drugmakers should be realistic in studies on contraceptives SSRI antidepressants risk bone fractures. "Talking therapies are recommended"   Drug maker Pfizer suited because of off-label marketing Viagra Drug companies spent $4.5 billion last year on advertising, public & congress critical Eli Lilly sold $30 billion, faces state criminal and civil charges because of Zyprexa  [1] BDs [4] highest risks in-hospital deaths: anencephaly [5] (85.3%), trisomy 13 [6](60.4%)  Scientists recreated the Spanish flu. Virus indeed very dangerous (Comment: golden age!) Doomsday: Biotechnology cause "limitless variety of threats" Not even Kyoto Protocol can be met, long term action on earths pollution stuck  Superior court rules against Vioxx, Lawyer: "no medical science supporting the plaintiffs'" 1,5 million Americans injured because of medical errors annually Democrats lower medicare drug prices Democrats vote for stem cell research against Bush Cough and cold medicine containing pseudoephedrine cause death children British HFEA authorize creation hybrid animal-human embryos for stem cells Pigs (researched, but also other animals) could be source human Staphylococcus  Italian's biggest hospital source infections, 15% infected because of gross lack hygiene The pill cause allergies in children according to Finnish study Anti-obesity drugs [2] cause cardiovascular problems (Comment: meant to prevent)  Eli Lilly pays $1.2 billion to 28500 people to settle lawsuits involving Zyprexa [1]  Eli Lilly market Zyprexa as safer, more effective than other antipsychotic drugs, it isn't (Comment: "Replacement" doesn't work well) Natural vitamin E good for  pregnant woman, adding it to nutrition not Millions of women suffered breast cancer because of hormone replacement therapy Parkinson drugs pergolide and cabergoline (Permax, Dostinex) high risk heart valves Too much diagnosis: too much treatments: all of them can have harms Pexelizumab, an inflamation-figthing drug after heart stent implants, failed Biotechnology has engineered a cow able to resist mad cow disease	Definition quack Anti-quackery Health fraud Medical quackery Quack attack Quack buster Quack doctor Quackery Quackwatch Medical quack watch 5/2007 Medical quackery 3/2007 Medical quackery 2/2007 Medical quackery 1/2007 Medical quackery 2006 Medical quackery 12/2006 Medical quackery 1954 Medical quack headlines Quackery's quacks Quack spam Pages on quackery A medical quack history Are you a skeptic ? Biotech quack alert Doomsday: Biotechnology Evidence-based medicine Blog homeopathy quack Faq: homeopathy quack Homeopathy quack response Hormone replacement therapy Mercury: dental quack ? More medical quackery Pseudoscience Pseudoscience & SSRIs Quack reflex vs. nature Stem cell quackery

Notes

* We didn't link sources because of the temporary nature of news links  
# If there is space, the (possible) drugs involved are mentioned

1. Zyprexa: olanzapine, see 4,5 and 20 January. See also antidepressants
2. sibutramine, orlistat, rimonabant
3. Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists (Jan 17 2007), news sources mentioned news at Jan 18 2007
4. Birth Defects, neonatal
5. Anencephaly - incomplete development of major parts or all of the brain
6. Trisomy 13 - A syndrome with an extra third number 13 chromosome

 

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