Read intelligently because the next crank you read may be your last

A reader of ours ran into a questionable book ad, and being a good citizen, sent it on to me. I glanced at it, and it seemed to be the usual silly book purporting to cure all that ails, but on deeper inspection, it was much uglier.

The book says that it “renders insulin and related medicines unnecessary within four days…”. This is a bit scary, not because this would be a bad thing, but because many diabetics are completely dependent on insulin to live. But, hey, maybe this is a good diet plan for type II diabetics and will at least help them reduce their need for meds. I mean, it could be, right? A quick trip to google disabused me of any thoughts of intellectual generosity.

The Crank
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Dr. Gabriel Cousens is the writer who promises to get you off insulin. While I applaud the idea of healing people, his claims are obviously suspicious. I mean, why are the rest of us so ignorant that we are blindly keeping diabetics on all these evil medicines?
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There is no such thing as alternative medicine

What is alternative Medicine, anyway?

That’s a great question. I know it is, because I asked it. I get this question almost daily. The secret answer is that there is no such thing as alternative medicine. You don’t believe me? Why not–I am a doctor.

There are several ways to define alternative medicine, and sometimes it is contrasted with “complementary medicine”. CM refers to treatments that “complement” traditional medicine, while AM refers to treatments that stand in the stead of mainstream medicine. CAM is a broad category used to refer to both.

So what’s my problem? How can I say that there is no such thing?

Because “mainstream” medicine is medicine that works. It has been studied, tested, deployed, followed, and it is proven to do what it says. Alternative medicine is any treatment that is not yet, or may never be, mainstream. If it is found to work, it becomes mainstream very rapidly. If it is not proven to work, it remains “alternative”.

So, I guess there is, after all, such a thing as alternative medicine. It is any treatment that doesn’t work. Why would anyone want that?

There’s lots of answers to that question. There are also several incorrect answers. The most common incorrect answer describes a conspiracy of doctors and Big Pharma. Others include the myth that patients are dissatisfied with their physicians and the care they provide. In fact, most people like their doctors. But they like their friends even more, and if a friend testifies about a great new potion, well, why not try it?

Why not, indeed. Your doctor knows quite a bit about the medications being prescribed, and the problems being treated. Your friend, alas, does not.

When someone offers you an “alternative therapy”, ask them what it is an alternative to. Does it work better that something else? Is it safer? How do you know? Why should I believe you?

Those questions apply to your doctor as well, but hopefully, you have already decided whether or not you trust your doctor and modern medicine. Try applying this simple test–when you have crushing chest pain and shortness of breath, who do you want to call: the GNC guy or an ambulance?

Maybe further explanation is needed to tease out the difference between “real” medicine and “alternative” medicine.

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The Road to Sildenafil – A history of artifical erections

The inability to achieve erection has been a source of consternation for men for, well, a really long time. But the recent history of treatments for impotence, wait, I mean Erectile Dysfunction, oh no, now they’re calling it Male Sexual Dysfunction, represents a medical revolution. In the last 100 or so years, we’ve gone from nonspecific and largely ineffective treatments, to progressively more successful treatment, finally resulting in a highly specific and effective pharmaceutical solution to the problem. The goal of this post is to share a history of this unique field of medical endeavor, the medical and biological insights we’ve gained, and the rather interesting characters involved along the way.

Erectile dysfunction is reported in about one out of five of all men and increases with age. It is therefore a serious problem for millions of American men (and their spouses a fair amount of the time), and hundreds of millions worldwide.

Our story starts with one of the earliest “medical” treatments for male impotence. Starting in the late 1800s, sheep testis extract was injected as a source of testosterone (although they didn’t know it at the time). This was the standard of care until testosterone was purified in the 1940s. However, testosterone as a treatment for impotence was pretty poor. The inability to obtain an erection has little to do with levels of androgens, and in studies at the time testosterone fared no better than placebo.

Thus, this was the treatment that failed for Geddings Osbon in 1960, leading to the next great leap forward in treatment of male erectile dysfunction. Osbon, a successful owner of a tire-retreading business, did what doctors dread their patient will do. He went home and looked around his shop and home and tried to come up with a solution to his medical problem. Usually, this results in disaster, and many doctors have hilarious stories of the attempts of such patients to cure less mechanical disorders with household materials. However, in this case, Osbon invented a device which he called the “YED” or “youth equivalence device” that is still today one of the most effective solutions to erectile disfunction. It’s also known as the penis-pump.

I’m afraid the rest must continue below the fold. I think it’s safe for work, but you never know…the description of probably the most infamous urology lecture of all time might be a bit much.

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