Tag: herbal remedies

Pandemic drives huge surge in herbal remedy sales

The COVID-19 pandemic has fueled a boom in herbal supplement sales.

/ November 11, 2021

The Natural Medicine Handbook

Dr. Walt Larimore has written a very mixed bag of a book, combining useful general advice about supplements and "natural medicine" with some questionable specifics about individual products.

/ June 1, 2021

Billions on herbal remedies – and for what?

Consumers spend billions each year on herbal remedies, with little to show for it.

/ November 1, 2018

It’s Still Not Safe to Go Back in the Water, and Other Tales of Woo

A thoughtful discussion of water-based topics ranging from toddlers pooping in the pool to recommendations on daily alkaline water intake for newborns.

/ July 28, 2017

Medical Neglect of Children

Medical neglect caused horrific suffering for these children, ending in death or permanent impairment. Their parents failed them, but so did society.

/ May 2, 2017

Natural Remedies for Diabetes: Plavinol, Glucopure

There is not enough evidence to support using dietary supplements in the treatment of diabetes. There is preliminary evidence that some herbs lower blood sugar by a modest amount, but it would be foolish to think they could replace conventional treatment of diabetes.

/ February 14, 2017

What’s in your Traditional Chinese Medicine?

What's in your Traditional Chinese Medicine? An Australian analysis of 26 products found 92% were contaminated with heavy metals, undeclared plants, pharmaceuticals, or even animals like the endangered snow leopard, cat, dog, rat and pit viper.

/ December 17, 2015

Testing a Chinese Herbal Flu Remedy

During the early days of the 2009 H1N1 influenza A pandemic, the popular herbal formula maxingshigan–yinqiaosan was used widely by TCM practitioners to reduce symptoms. (It’s hard to pronounce and spell, so I’ll refer to it as M-Y.) A new study was done to test whether M-Y worked and to compare it to the prescription drug oseltamivir. It showed that M-Y did...

/ August 23, 2011

Report a doctor’s dubious practices, go to jail?

Althought I and other SBM bloggers have criticized state medical boards for not doing enough to protect patients from physicians who practice pseudoscientific medicine and quackery, they do nonetheless serve a purpose. Moreover, critical to medical boards doing even the limited amount of enforcement that they do is the ability of health care providers or other citizens to submit anonymous complaints against...

/ September 20, 2009