Update from Health News Review
Gary Schwitzer, who runs a site called Health News Review that
systematically reviews the quality of health news, has posted
highlights from the site over at the World Health Care Blog. Gary
points out a number of disappointing stories in recent national health
news.
I, for one, am grateful that Gary has continued to mind so ably the
quality-of-health-news store while I've been off investigating new
directions (nothing terribly exciting to report as a result, I'm
afraid) and noticing what it's like not to blog regularly (was harder
to stay away than I expected).
posted by Emily DeVoto, Ph.D., @ 8/07/2007 08:18:00 PM 0 comments
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Where are the standards?
I was surprised this morning to find that the Washington Post had
published this piece. It's about a biochemist who is promoting manuka
honey from New Zealand as a wound-healing agent, and it also does a
pretty good job of promoting manuka itself.
But the article presents almost no evidence that manuka works.
Instead, it interviews other honey experts, who lament the slowness of
the medical community in accepting alternative treatments. The writer
does, to his credit, quote researchers in the field who acknowledge
that more research is necessary - including in vivo studies. One
small, unpublished study is described: it's not clear whether it was s
randomized, and though 7 of 10 wounds colonized with MRSA were no
longer colonized at the end of the study, no comparison result is
offered.
Apparently the FDA has approved manuka as a wound dressing, but what
does that mean? that they don't think it will kill you? and if so, how
do they even know that? Are the standards different for wound
dressings from, say, anti-cholesterol drugs?
Why so much fuss about something that hasn't even reached the level of
credible research? The article has that alternative-medicine air of
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