Genetic Engeneering and Factory Farming

I’ve just readin the New York Times:
Not Grass-Fed, but at Least Pain-Free By ADAM SHRIVER
Recent advances in neuroscience suggest it may soon be possible to genetically engineer livestock so that they suffer much less.
"If we cannot avoid factory farms altogether, the least we can do is eliminate the unpleasantness of pain in the animals that must live and die on them. It would be far better than doing nothing at all."
Read the whole story at: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/19/opinion/19shriver.html?th&emc=th
Great, create bulls who don't suffer in a bull fight! What you call this? I call it bull shit!
Far better for our earth and individual health would be closing/banning all factory farms.

Homeopathy and Traditional Chinese Medicine as believe systems

Recently I exchanged some tweets with @ChineseMedicine:
To @ChineseMedicine True, NSAIDs aren't the only way to treat Ankylosing spondylitis (AS)，there are also biologics .... 你推特的这编文章只关一个病人，不能说是研究。
To @Rheumatologe NSAID drug is not only way to treat Ankylosing spondylitis (AS).... 中醫師：服藥針灸治療僵直性脊椎炎 http://bit.ly/9IDbXl
To @Rheumatologe Neither I, nor the article said this was a research study. 請您再次看清楚這篇新聞的内容沒有任何文字提到"研究."
To @ChineseMedicine The artikel is about one individual - what does it prove? What is it good for? #AS (sorry for the Germanism artikel should be article)
To @Rheumatologe It suggests a possible treatment that might be successful in treating #AS for patients w. special conditions #ChineseMedicine
To @ChineseMedicine It suggests a possible treatment that might be successful in treating #AS ... #ChineseMedicine // Yes, it does, but ...
To @ChineseMedicine #AS #ChineseMedicine // Yes, it does, but it warrants further inquiery and after that studies.
To @ChineseMedicine TCM has a long history, but inductive synthesis cannot come up with reproducible results as causal analysis.
To @ChineseMedicine In order to give TCM its palce in medicine, you need to prove your hypothesis or it stays being a belief system.
To @ChineseMedicine Homeopathy isstill in the state of being a belief system (and that after 200 years) - but that wont change.
To @ChineseMedicine You can compare homeopathy to a taoistic charm that's burnt and the ashes ingested (belief system).
To @ChineseMedicine But a scientific study is always possible. // I might write a little more on my blog soon.

And that’s, what I just did:
Homeopathy (in whole) and Traditional Chinese Medicine (in larger proportions) are believe systems instead of modern medicine. They both have produced a large set of theories and volumes of written material, but so did Astrology. To make this clear, Western Medicine also isn’t free of believe. Science, however, comes to reproducible insights.
The basis of Homeopathy and Traditional Chinese Medicine is inductive synthesis, as described by M. Porkert (Porkert, Manfred (1974). The Theoretical Foundations of Chinese Medicine: Systems of Correspondence. MIT Press. ISBN 0262160587). Western science follows causal analysis, which has produced a system of rules, which leads to reproducible studies. Such a system doesn’t exist in inductive synthesis.
There’s nothing wrong with following a believe system, if there wasn’t a but. You will find some sad cases, where followers of Christian Science didn’t want to use any medicine and the prayers were insufficient to treat meningitis or diabetes for instance (good overview: http://whatstheharm.net/christianscience.html) – leaving the kids dead.
As Mao Zedong said: „Chinese medicine is a great treasure-house!“ (中国医药学是一个伟大的宝库) But I think that there’s a lot of fool’s gold next to the treasures.

To sum it up: to treat diseases and not discomforts/disorders nowadays, patients should be able to judge treatments – and that can only be done, if treatments are scientifically studied.

NSAIDs - a German observation

I've made a strange observation, quite a lot of both patients and physicians think that ibuprofene has less side effects than diclofenac, but think that diclofenac is the more potent NSAID.
I think it has something to do with dosage. Ibuprofene comes in a multitude of dosages 200, 300, 400, 600, 800 mgs and others. Diclofenac is mostly prescribed in the 50 mg or 75 mgs dosage, though other dosages exist as well. With 150 mgs diclofenac being the upper dosage, you reach this level with 2x75 mgs. If you start with 3x300 mgs ibuprofene, you'll have a long way to reach 2400 mgs, which is the upper level.
All in all diclofenac and ibuprofene have an equal share of side effect or efficacy given at comparable dosages.
If one has to take aspirin for vascular reason, diclofenac is the better choice, as ibuprofene which couteract the effect of aspirin.

PS.: This is internet and not a medical practice - don't change your medication unless you've asked your physician.

Fasten

Nun steht wieder die Fastenzeit an. Wahrscheinlich haben alle Religionen Fastenzeiten. Hierbei dient das Fasten einer spirituellen Erfahrung. Ja, auch glücklich kann man während des Fastens werden (Ausschüttung von Serotonin). Wahrnehmungen können intensiviert werden. Die gerne hervorgehohene Entschlackung findet allerdings nicht statt.
Beim Fasten nimmt man ab, aber nach den Kohlenhydratspeichern wird zunächst das Muskelgewebe und nicht die Fettreserve zur Energiebereitstellung verbraucht. Warum das? Die Muskulatur verbraucht mehr Energie als das Fettgewebe. Im Hungerzustand aber muss der Körper sich schützen, also vermindert er den Hauptverbraucher. Zusätzlich wird der Stoffwechsel heruntergefahren. Deshalb eignet sich Fasten auch nicht zur dauerhaften Gewichtsreduktion.
Kranke, schwangere/stillende Frauen, und weitere sollten überhaupt nicht Fasten. Das ist z.B. im Islam explizit geregelt ("Nur wer das Fasten, so wie es im Islam vorgeschrieben ist, ohne gesundheitlichen Schaden durchführen können, ist zu diesem Gebot verpflichtet. Deshalb sind Kranke, Altersschwache, Schwangere, stillende Mütter, Frauen in der Menstruation und ähnliche Personengruppen von dieser Pflicht ausgenommen." siehe: http://www.al-sakina.de/inhalt/bibliothek/fasten/fasten.html#5).
Einzelne Fastenkuren sind in der aktuellen Ausgabe (02/2010) der Zeitschrift Schrot & Korn nachzulesen: http://www.schrotundkorn.de/2010/201002w01.php. Zu häufigen Fragen berät die Webseite: http://www.heilfastenkur.de/tth_Haeufige_Fragen_zum_Heilfasten.shtml. Und selbstverständlich hat Wikipedia auch einen Artikel zum Thema: http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fasten.

Fibromyalgie and Stem Cells?

A couple of minutes ago, a patient asked about stem cells to treat Fibromyalgia. Someone in the South of Germany proposed this to her. There's neither study nor rationale for such a treatment. Maybe someone takes the FDA move to enable a study on ALS (Lou Gherig's disease) with stem cells to tell peple to use it in Fibromyalgia. The FDA permitted 12 patients suffering from ALS to be treated under study conditions. More at: http://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/01/21/stem.cell.spine/index.html As with all unproven claims and therapies: don't be a paying guinea pig!

Fibromyalgie und Stammzellen?

Gerade berichtet mir eine Patientin, ihr sei eine Therapie mit Stammzellen bei Fibromyalgie empfohlen worden. Dafür gibt es keine Studie und auch kein Rationale für die Durchführung einer solchen Studie.
Wahrscheinlich werden hierbei Berichte zum Einsatz bei der Amytrophen Lateralsklerose unverantwortlicherweise benutzt. Und selbst bei diesem Einsatz hat die amerikanische Aufsichtsbehörde nur einem Versuch bei 12 Patienten zugestimmt. Siehe: http://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/01/21/stem.cell.spine/index.html  .
Ansonsten gilt (wie bei allen nicht erprobten Therapien): seien Sie nicht zahlendes Versuchskaninchen.