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Menopause and “alternative” therapies
The recurring press chestnuts just keep rolling on and on, just as predictable as the four seasons. It seems that medical efforts to classify menopause as a disease state have failed miserably. Women are now seeking advice on other options from their medical practitioner. However, because of poor training, poor understanding of what role menopause…
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A question for the Australian Prime Minister, Tony Abbott
Currently the Abbott government is removing parents’ right to choose how many vaccines are injected into their children’s bodies in the first 19 years of life. The new social welfare policies called ‘Choices for Families” are removing all objections to vaccination other than a medical exemption signed by a doctor. This means that families will not be…
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(Clinical) Trials and errors
The new anticoagulants are a cause for concern. The brilliant medical marketing has meant that so many of our patients are on them. Perhaps as the years go by, we will get a better understanding of the adverse effects and interactions which are ever so slowly coming to light. When you consider the number of…
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Power of the media’s impact on medicine use revealed
More than 60,000 Australians are estimated to have reduced or discontinued their use of prescribed cholesterol-lowering statin medications following the airing of a two-part series critical of statins by ABC TV’s science program, Catalyst, a University of Sydney study reveals in the latest Medical Journal of Australia. The analysis of the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme medication…
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Balanced view in professional opinions
The new-look Australian Journal of Pharmacy heralds a interesting direction in medical marketing and related advertising. The front cover and inside two pages tell us that Panadol Osteo is “Australia’s No 1 pain reliever brand for osteoarthritis”. Pharmacists insist on “evidence” when discussions emerge on other options for arthritic pain, and accordingly, may I supply…
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Professional images?
I’m still trying to cope with the image of a pharmacist announcing that he was “binning the crap” or words to that affect, as he proudly announced that he no longer wanted to keep homeopathic medicines. That is his decision and is to be respected, but why would he make a goose of himself, especially…
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When it comes to cancer – who are the brave ones?
The recent death of Jessica Ainscough, the ‘Wellness Warrior’, sparked headlines that she was ‘brave‘. Suffering from a rare, slowly growing cancer, she rejected a drastic, but potentially life-saving medical treatment. She embraced ‘alternative medicine’. Two other beautiful young women, Amanda Rootsey and Belle Gibson, were also praised for ‘bravely’ fighting cancer ‘naturally’. Is that…
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Virotherapy: skin cancer successfully treated with herpes-based drug
‘Virotherapy’ uses modified herpes virus to attack melanoma cells and has potential to overcome cancer even when disease has spread throughout the body A 3D model of virus particles. The ability of viruses to specifically infect and kill human cells makes them promising cancer treatments. A 3D model of virus particles. The ability of viruses…
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How pharmaceutical marketing is harming us, and the seven reforms we need now
“I may sound like a conspiracy theorist nut when I say this but the pharmaceutical companies are master manipulators…” begins Dr Martin Whitely, Senior Advocate for the WA based Health Consumers Council. “… They rip off Australian taxpayers via the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme and pull the wool over the eyes of drug safety regulators everywhere.”…
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Plant extracts offer hope against diabetes and cancer
Diabetes is the fastest growing metabolic disease in the world. A new study has shown that traditional Aboriginal and Indian plant extracts could be used to manage the disease and may also have potential use in cancer treatment. Researchers from Swinburne University of Technology identified plant species that could potentially be applied in the management…