In an earlier post I quoted the book "Bad Science" by Dr Ben Goldacre.
(I think he also has a website.)
I found it an enlightening read, even after many years of exposure to various aspects of the medical industry.
His suggestion that there should be one overall Register of Clinical Trials makes complete sense to me.
Do you not believe that a company will bury a trial which shows their product in a poor light? I can tell you for sure that there are companies which have no compunction whatsoever in doing this. Or alternatively, change the method and/or data while the trial is in progress, until they get a result that says what they want.
Gav, re TGA testing for quality
and efficacy in 'natural' medicines which are intended for treating
serious illness, I wouldn't have thought there would be too many of these. Do you have any examples?
I have heard a professor of medicine say categorically that there are no natural products which are comprehensively tested for
effectiveness by the TGA. He did say they are checked for assurance they contain whatever substance they claim. This imo has nothing to do with their necessarily being effective. I notice on some that I've picked up and looked at that they usually say something like "May assist in the relief of....
......." etc.
Btw, it's a bit unfortunate that you seem to be the only person on this thread with your point of view. Don't mean to be, um, picking on you.
Hi Julia, have noted your comment "May assist in the relief of.........
That has to be stated on these natural alternatives to protect the supplier from litigation if it does not work.
Some things work for one but not others due to imo the genes we inherit.
Some homosexuals can be exposed to HIV/AIDS and never get it.
Some people develope cancer and can conquer it where others can't.
Some people can be exposed to ASBESTOS but never developes into ASBESTOSIS or MELOTHEMIOMA (Ithink that is the way they spell it ).
I was exposed to lots of asbestos in the late 1940's and have carried PLURAL PLAQUES around my lungs for my whole life.
However, during to a routine X-ray in August 1998, it was revealed I had developed a HISTYISOTOMA the size of a can of coke which was attached to my heart and left lung.
Having had this growth removed in the open heart surgery fashion which was attached to my heart and left lung, my surgeon informed me three days later that this growth was malignant and I had less than five years to live. Nobody in the medical profession would dare suggest it may have been caused from asbestos, although in the USA evidence has been produced referring to tumors developing outside the lung. I applied for compensation, but was informed that if I had survived more than 40 years, I had little chance of success.
I went a radium course for six weeks as suggested by the medicos which they stated "MAY help eliminate the cancer dregs". However, some two weeks before I started the radium treatment and during this treatment, my daughter who has been in the Pharmacy business for 32 years, strongly recommended I take three capsules of SHARK FIN CARTLEGE every day. On the 4th,5th and 6th week of radium, my oncology Doctor kept asking me could I swallow because the radium "cooks the asophalis" ( may be not the correct spelling) anyway its the tube that takes food from the mouth to the stomach, to which I replied in the affimative. He could not understand untill I told him I was taking SHARK FIN CARTEGE.
Following my radium treatment, I read a book written by Mr. Ron Gellatley N.D. "How to fight Prostrate Cancer and WIN", so I decided to give his treatment a go because the medicos could not gaurantee the radium treatment being successful.
His treatment was the use of a formulae named 'LAC-TO-MAX'. now called MAXIFERRIN. This formulae is made up of :-
*Lactoferrin from the first week's milk of a cow after having given birth.
*Collustorm ditto ditto.
*Bovine cartlege which is 9 times stronger than shark fin cartlege.
*Cats claw herb from South America.
Combining the ingredients with a high Beta Cerutone diet (carrots) and lots of Vitamin "c", he bought his PSA down from 125 to .5 in 6 months after being told he had less tha 6 months to live. The theory behind all this is the combination cuts down the blood supply to cancer cells and increases your imune system.
I took this formulae for ten years and after my sheduled 5 year clearance from my oncology doctor, he stated he was watching another growth forming below my collar bones and above the one that had been removed. He could not understand why it had disappeared in the period 2 years after radium treatment. I informed him of the treatment I had learned from Ron Gellatley and whilst he was unaware and a little sceptical of my success, he nevertheless said, if you have faith in something by all means do it.
I must also confess at this point in time, that I had practised YOGA for some years of which incompasses meditation. If one has the right state of mind it can help.
Julia, whilst this may have worked for me, it may not have the same result for someone else. Hence the statement we so often read on alternative treatments, "IT MAY ASSIST IN THE RELIEF OF.............
Hope you find this of interest.