Shaw's Eco-Logic

This HND piece describes the continuing failure of such agencies as FDA and CDC to protect the public. Among other things, we quote good friend Lawrence Muscarella on the horrible problem with heater-cooler devices, as used in many open heart procedures.

The inescapable concussion is that if institutions fail, then our last line of defense is...plaintiff's attorneys. But, wouldn't it be better if these bloated agencies actually did their job in the first place?

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This HND piece tries to draw readers out of the bitter election campaign, and asks them to reflect...on how to improve their health. Naturally, I couldn't resist mentioning James Whitcomb Riley's classic "When the Frost is on the Punkin."

We have plenty of time in dreary January to make our resolutions for improvement. What better time than glorious fall to take stock? The piece links to a few pertinent places, including lifestyle guru Bob Caputo and his suggestions for health tailgating.

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No doubt, we've posted numerous articles on glycemic control and type 2 diabetes on this site. This HND piece adds more fuel to the fire.

There's a good reason for my emphasis of this topic. Blood glucose level is easily determined at home with test strips, and given the "trigger" level of 126 milligrams per deciliter, will force compliant patients into immediate pharmaceutical therapy. Never mind that there are potentially serious side effects from these drugs—indeed, several of them have been withdrawn from the market. More than that, the supposed "necessity" of tight glycemic (blood glucose level) control has never been proved. To the contrary, it has been under attack since at least 2000, only you don't hear too much about that.

However, people like Cait O'Sullivan—pharmacy guru and academic detailer (providing objective, balanced, evidence-informed drug information on the best prescribing practices) for the province of British Columbia—have heard about it. O'Sullivan asked the FDA flat-out for proof at a recent seminar, and they simply shut her down.

We discovered some very interesting articles questioning the orthodoxy on glycemic control, and present them for your perusal.

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This HND piece invokes an Oscar and Hammerstein song to comment on some of the findings of a recent study that tries to explain why public satisfaction with the healthcare system has been lower in the United States than in other high-income countries, for decades.

One finding of the study is that Americans are much more concerned about accessing their "most preferred care" than patients in the other countries. As is far too typical of "learned" studies of healthcare systems, the authors seem to care little about rather important—nay, fundamental—concepts. In this case, for example, just what constitutes "preferred care."

Ah, but they dare not pursue that question since that would get into the matter of outcomes measurement. Fortunately, we do dare to raise such topics.

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This HND piece discusses a topic that seems to be well known and well documented—among those in the hydrogen community, but receives little publicity outside that realm. And this is the case, despite several hundred references in the medical literature as to the use of hydrogen as a therapeutic agent.

Hydrogen, being a superb reducing agent, is effective against those nasty free radicals, and the subset reactive oxygen species (ROS). Yet, is does not interfere with certain metabolic processes that do employ ROS. The answer to oxidative stress?

We also cover the events at Nordenau, Germany, and plug the organization leading the way on hydrogen therapy.

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