ARE YOU an EMOTIONAL VAMPIRE?

ARE YOU an EMOTIONAL VAMPIRE?

If you were responsible for the follwing paragraph, the answer is a resounding YES!!!!

I was sorry to hear of your mom's passing. My father is in the hosp currently dying and I know how hard this is.. He has developed hypercalcemia related to that protein that he has that is gumming up his kidneys.. its going to be a slow process and its very exhausting for all of us..

Alternative Remedies Fail Government Tests.

Lindsay Tanner. Chicago AP.
2006-02-26. Available from
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20060227/D8G15U000.html

For years, millions of Americans have spent billions of
dollars on alternative remedies with unproven effects.
Now, rigorous science is starting to test those treatments
and mostly finds them lacking.

Last week, major government-funded research indicated
that two wildly popular arthritis pills, glucosamine and
chondroitin, did no better than dummy pills at relieving
mild arthritis pain.

Earlier this month a study revealed negative results for
saw palmetto to treat prostate problems; last July, ditto
for echinacea and the common cold. Those followed
similar disappointments for St. John's wort to treat
major depression, and powdered shark cartilage for
some cancers.

Yet despite the U.S. government's multimillion-dollar
investment to scientifically scrutinize a little regulated
$20 billion-a-year industry, the big question is, do the
results really matter when so many consumers swear
by these remedies?

The answer turns out to be, in this article at least, "no."
Follow the link to read the rest.

The justification for conducting many of NCCAM's trials
has been "wide use", e.g., stuff is widely used so we need
to figure out if it works so we can "inform consumers."
"Wide use" has continually been held out in lieu of phase
I and II data that would support the phase III studies on
"widely used" products - "wide use" justifies nothing,
though some of these trials provide a rough idea of how
many institutional review boards are asleep at the switch.

The other piece of the "wide use" gambit is that data
from rigorous controlled trials are useful to the public,
and (ostensibly) should improve public health by
educating people about safety and efficacy of the
products in question.

Well?

At some point you'd suppose folks would get
embarrassed at conducting phase I studies *after*
big phase III controlled trials. Not NCCAM. For
example, after the GAIT trial NCCAM recruits for a
phase I study to see if glucosamine affects insulin
metabolism:
http://www.clinicaltrials.gov/ct/show/NCT00065377?order=4

And of course every so often this backfires in a major way
and they have to terminate a study they shouldn't have started:
http://www.clinicaltrials.gov/ct/show/NCT00029250?order=59
Most people would suppose NIH would have figured out
if there was a drug-drug interaction, especially where
research subjects with HIV/AIDS are recruited.

What do the consent forms say or are they blank?

There's also stuff like this study, about which I refrain
from commenting: http://www.clinicaltrials.gov/ct/show/NCT00070980?order=156

Finally there is the director, an experienced trialist,
who claims in NCCAM's 2007 Congressional
Justification that a "major trial of the dietary
supplements glucosamine and chondroitin sulfate
showed that the supplements used together were
effective in relieving moderate to severe pain in
patients with osteoarthritis of the knee."
http://nccam.nih.gov/about/congressional/2007.pdf

It didn't. When a finding isn't among the primary or
secondary hypotheses (or endpoints), it's an association,
or less politely, a spurious association.
http://www.clinicaltrials.gov/ct/show/NCT00032890?order=1