Sysiphus Speaks

I like to refer to Portland (Oregon, not Maine) and its environs is the great Pacific NW. Seattle, of course, is excluded in that designation. Just need to be clear. Over the years Oregon has been a leader in environmental issues and great beer, two of the many reasons I like to live here. Unfortunately, Oregon is also at the top of the list for unvaccinated Kindergartners. It is a sobering graphic with more than 6% of Oregonian are exempt from vaccines for non-medical reasons. You can see what the rates are for your state and gloat accordingly.

But if trolls do turn up on the site, it is nice to know they can be banned without worrying overmuch. To judge from a recent paper, Trolls just want to have fun, trolls are not good people:

The Senate Health Care Committee recently voted in favor of the bill but with substantial amendments that essentially rewrote it. As the bill stands now, the education and training requirement is gone. A naturopath with prescribing privileges would need to have a "collegial relationship" with an MD or DO who will review the naturopath's prescriptions quarterly and report any concerns to the naturopath and to the naturopathic board.

Lists are popular as well, although I tend to run across those on my Zite feed. As an example, 5 Unique Wellness Tips From Other Cultures. It was number 5 that peaked by curiosity: Earthing/Grounding.

The liberal faction scored a victory in 2008 when New Mexico become the first state to legalize a new iteration of chiropractor called the "advanced practice chiropractic physician." (Chiropractors are all about being called "physicians.") Much to their delight, with 90 hours of additional training (yes, that's right, all of 90) these chiropractors could prescribe certain drugs of, let's just say, dubious efficacy.

It seems to be an increasingly common way to spin a negative study for pseudo-medicines, especially for acupuncture.

The business of CVS is to make money. I am glad they are not selling cigarettes, although I suspect, given that Target quit selling tobacco because low profit margins in part because the high costs of theft and enforcement of age restrictions on sales. it may not be for the altruistic reasons cited. As long as they sell placebos to treat influenza for $24.99, I will not be sanguine as to their motivations.

I am always on the look out for better ways to heal wounds, so I was intrigued by From a Traditional Medicinal Plant to a Rational Drug: Understanding the Clinically Proven Wound Healing Efficacy of Birch Bark Extract.

When I saw the headline “Prince Charles tells skeptics “Be more scientific except homeopathy” at first I thought it was legit. It wasn’t. But it close enough to reality that it could have been.

Interesting headline: 80-Year-Old Man Paralyzes Women with Acupuncture, Molests Them. It continues: Seo is also accused of taking off A’s panties and molesting her after paralyzing her with acupuncture needles in the foot, he got access to A after promising to treat her uterus. Another victim, a 22-year-old employee, was also molested after receiving paralyzing acupuncture from Seo.

Harm from fake care

Population-level effects of suppressing fever

There were just a few bills added to our roster this week, but it does include that rare attempt to actually curb the normally expansive scope of practice enjoyed by CAM practitioners.

The law gives and the law takes away.

The law gives and the law takes away