Non-herbal supplements
terrasig | April 19, 2007Even when I'm not blogging (like this week, for example), I tend to be doing things behind the scenes related to the blog such as responding to reader mail. In looking for sources to respond to a reader about herbal multilevel marketing firms, I came across an interesting site that tracks media stories and legal actions related to two of the best-known companies.
Rick A. Ross runs an expansive site from his institute in Jersey City, NJ, that is well-regarded for tracking "destructive cults, controversial groups, and movements." Ross remains somewhat controversial among anti-cult experts but…
terrasig | April 11, 2007The weekly NCI Cancer Bulletin recently featured a clinical trial being led by MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston where the supplement, alpha-lipoic acid, is being investigated to minimize the peripheral neuropathy associated with platinum-based chemotherapy such as cisplatin or oxaliplatin.
Peripheral neuropathy is an unpleasant side effect of platinum-based chemotherapy that is characterized by a burning, numbness, and or tingling in the extremities. The acute form of the syndrome resolves a few days after the platinum treatment but sometimes persists. A similar syndrome occurs in…
terrasig | March 6, 2007As a graduate student, I had the good fortune of meeting Dr Don Coffey, a professor of Urology, Oncology, Pharmacology, and Molecular Sciences at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, one of the most creative and humble scientists I have known.
I recall him telling a lunchtime gathering of us wide-eyed trainees that American graduate students don't think about their experiments enough; that is, one should spend some 10-20% of the time it took to do the experiment thinking about the results, especially if the results are not what you expected.
The exercise he challenged us to do for "failed…