Guest guest Posted August 2, 2005 Report Share Posted August 2, 2005 A recent massive study showed annual physical examinations have absolutely zero benefit for healthy people. In fact, they may lead to many unnecessary tests and expenses (and dangerous drug prescriptions, IMO). Doctors disagree, but this is directly proportional to how much money they make on the annual exams. So private practice docs are lot more concerned than those who work for HMOs. I am sure the pharm corps feel similarly. OTOH, there is evidence that intelligent educated people who never go to doctors are better off than those who do. Today I heard some fool talking about how he would have never known he was sick if he didn't go for regular exams. I immediately thought, " you are probably living in obvious denial " . Sure enough, that turned out to be the case. The man was 45 yo, 50 pounds overweight, never exercised, ate like crap and was surprised to discover he had high cholesterol and blood pressure. He praised his doctor for putting him on the right track. Freakin' idiot. A year later he has lost less than 20 pounds, which barely affects his risk level at all, plus he takes three dangerous drugs. And he was the poster boy for the AMA. That was the best they could do. Here's a mindblower. If you are fat, you are at risk whatever the Bush admin says. Eat right, exercise and stay away from drugs. And everyone knows that, you don't need a doctor to tell you. Here's a nice hypocrisy. Doctors have been all over the news in the past week slamming the misguided public for using echinacea despite repeated studies that it does not work for cold. They bemoan the fact that the public doesn't make health decisions based upon science, but instead relies on habit and anecdote. Well, ain't that the pot calling the kettle black? Clue up, morons. BTW, I looked at the echinacea studies and despite screams of conspiracy, I think the work is accurate. I do not believe there are vested interests at play here since the pharm corps don't have an option they want to sell you. This is quite different than when Pfizer slammed St John's Wort in a transparent market grab. A student pointed out that the sample size was quite small, but this is mainly an issue when results are only slightly significant. When a well designed study, no matter how small, shows no benefit to any participant, this is quite telling. However there are some questions about form and dosage that are unclear. It appears the dosage used was far too low to be effective, possibly 10-30 times too low if one bases dose on chinese standards. On the other hand, the value of echinacea in most forms available to the public is questionable. While it definitely works when used properly for certain conditions, I think most people are using weak forms and any benefit they get is placebo. I stopped using it for colds long ag. I used to get frequent colds (2-3 per year) and it never did a damn thing for. I moved to SD and have had 2 colds in 5 years. Traditionally it is was used more for things like snakebite, toothache, festering wounds, lingering fevers. It wasn't such a big deal for colds or general immunity till more recently. If you use a standardized extract, it does seem to be far more effective than tincture or dried herb or tea. It is pretty amazing for low grade toothache due to bacterial overgrowth in my experience, but only in standardized or freeze dried form (freeze dried from Eclectic Institute at whole foods is my favorite nonstandardized). Finally, it seems likely that the immune stimulating polysaccs in Echinacea and Astragalus have no activity in the human body unless they isolated, concentrated and ideally, injected. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted August 2, 2005 Report Share Posted August 2, 2005 Todd- Why don't you tell us what you really think? LOL -Steve >A recent massive study showed annual physical examinations have >absolutely zero benefit for healthy people. In fact, they may lead >to many unnecessary tests and expenses (and dangerous drug >prescriptions, IMO). Doctors disagree, but this is directly >proportional to how much money they make on the annual exams. So >private practice docs are lot more concerned than those who work for >HMOs. I am sure the pharm corps feel similarly. OTOH, there is >evidence that intelligent educated people who never go to doctors are >better off than those who do. Today I heard some fool talking about >how he would have never known he was sick if he didn't go for regular >exams. I immediately thought, " you are probably living in obvious >denial " . Sure enough, that turned out to be the case. The man was >45 yo, 50 pounds overweight, never exercised, ate like crap and was >surprised to discover he had high cholesterol and blood pressure. He >praised his doctor for putting him on the right track. Freakin' >idiot. A year later he has lost less than 20 pounds, which barely >affects his risk level at all, plus he takes three dangerous drugs. >And he was the poster boy for the AMA. That was the best they could >do. Here's a mindblower. If you are fat, you are at risk whatever >the Bush admin says. Eat right, exercise and stay away from drugs. >And everyone knows that, you don't need a doctor to tell you. Here's >a nice hypocrisy. Doctors have been all over the news in the past >week slamming the misguided public for using echinacea despite >repeated studies that it does not work for cold. They bemoan the >fact that the public doesn't make health decisions based upon >science, but instead relies on habit and anecdote. Well, ain't that >the pot calling the kettle black? Clue up, morons. > >BTW, I looked at the echinacea studies and despite screams of >conspiracy, I think the work is accurate. I do not believe there are >vested interests at play here since the pharm corps don't have an >option they want to sell you. This is quite different than when >Pfizer slammed St John's Wort in a transparent market grab. A >student pointed out that the sample size was quite small, but this is >mainly an issue when results are only slightly significant. When a >well designed study, no matter how small, shows no benefit to any >participant, this is quite telling. However there are some questions >about form and dosage that are unclear. It appears the dosage used >was far too low to be effective, possibly 10-30 times too low if one >bases dose on chinese standards. On the other hand, the value of >echinacea in most forms available to the public is questionable. >While it definitely works when used properly for certain conditions, >I think most people are using weak forms and any benefit they get is >placebo. I stopped using it for colds long ag. I used to get >frequent colds (2-3 per year) and it never did a damn thing for. I >moved to SD and have had 2 colds in 5 years. Traditionally it is was >used more for things like snakebite, toothache, festering wounds, >lingering fevers. It wasn't such a big deal for colds or general >immunity till more recently. If you use a standardized extract, it >does seem to be far more effective than tincture or dried herb or >tea. It is pretty amazing for low grade toothache due to bacterial >overgrowth in my experience, but only in standardized or freeze dried >form (freeze dried from Eclectic Institute at whole foods is my >favorite nonstandardized). Finally, it seems likely that the immune >stimulating polysaccs in Echinacea and Astragalus have no activity in >the human body unless they isolated, concentrated and ideally, injected. > >Todd > > > >Chinese Herbal Medicine offers various professional services, >including board approved continuing education classes, an annual >conference and a free discussion forum in Chinese Herbal Medicine. > > > > Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted August 2, 2005 Report Share Posted August 2, 2005 Todd what SD Oakland, CA 94609 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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