Medical roundup

John Welch - 1 August 1990

A recent leading article in The New Zealand Medical Journal looked at Diet and Behaviour. Food intolerance was strongly associated with the mother’s level of education. A little knowledge is a dangerous thing? As regards the putative link between sugar and problem behaviours the article says ”‘…it is just as likely that restless or aggressive children seek out more sugar as that sugar causes the inappropriate behaviour.” The authors conclude “…it should be recognized that modification of a particular child’s diet is almost always accompanied by changes in management.”

Source: NZMJ Vol 102 No 876 pp499-500.

NZ General Practice profiled a Chinese doctor who hopes to set up a practice incorporating both traditional Chinese medicines and conventional medicine. The “malicious natural factors” sound very much like the “humours” of the ancients and acolytes will be pleased to know that they can achieve chi by “keeping body organs in harmony and by breathing properly”. Those readers who have had a heart attack may be alarmed to learn that “a regular diet of pigs hearts stuffed with a special kind of nut will go a long way towards curing your problem.” Or should that read “stuffed by a special kind of nut”? With mounting alarm I noted that both asthma and schizophrenia can be treated with herbs “when his qualifications are accepted by the New Zealand Medical Council.” One hopes that they read this article first.

Source: NZ General Practice Oct 23 1989 p6.

Since I have already mentioned herbal treatment it is worthwhile to note that these preparations can have side effects as well as modern drugs. Minerva (British Medical Journal Vol 299 9 Sep 1989 p692) reports in her regular column a trial of the plant “Hook” in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis. As well as helping relieve pain and swelling, periods stopped in one third of the women patients and over half the patients developed a severe erosive skin rash, Such a side effect profile would, of course, preclude further use of this preparation.

Some of you may recall a story carried by both The Dominion and The Press newspapers on a girl with a rare disease called “William’s Syndrome”. This outlined her treatment by cranial osteopathy by which the osteopath was “able to normalise the blood supply to her organs

..establishing the normal movement pattern in the cranial bones.” I hope that most skeptics will know that this 8-year old girl’s cranial bones would have been well and truly fused. Here is the classic vague subjective language of the alternativists… “let drainage occur…allow the healing of damaged tissue.” The skeptic will also know that many conditions improve with time; a far more logical explanation than any effect from this specious treatment. Are reporters more credulous these days or will newspapers print anything outrageous in order to sell more copy.

Source: Christchurch Press Sat 16 Sep 1989, Dominion Friday 15 Sep 1989.

The medical profession does not escape my scrutiny either. The Lancet reported a scandal where terminally ill patients were exploited by a British doctor and an Iraqui vet. An investigative journalist outlined how a friend of his posing as an AIDS victim was offered a £10,000 course of immunotherapy “after a six minute interview during which neither a history or an examination was conducted.” The Lancet concludes “patients need some protection from the dangers of unregulated private medical practice.” I echo their sentiments at a time when New Zealand doctors are adopting such useless quackery as chelation, electroacupuncture of Voll and Ayu-Veda medicine to name a few, but more on these some other time.

Source: Lancet Vol 1 No 8642 p856.

It seems that specialisation has come to breast feeding. Sister Wendy Rosier, president of the Australian Lactation Consultants Association, reports a new use for the humble cabbage. To improve milk flow “thoroughly washed and dried, crisp cold cabbage leaves are applied over the affected breast. Leaves are changed approximately two hourly or ~

when they have become limp.” Could this be the origin of childhood hatred of cabbage? Several case histories are outlined in an anecdotal manner but I admit it would be rather difficult to do a proper placebo-controlied trial.

Source: NZ General Practice July 1989.

On a lighter note those of you who worry about your health will be able to look at your tongue in the mirror and sce if it “is pink, coated with a fine white fur, and has a good solid shape with smooth edges.” A red tip, however, indicates nervousness or insomnia. The ancient Chinese evidently have not heard of the raspberry ice-block. However, a raspberry tongue is seen in scarlet fever. Examination of the tongue is one of the diagnostic methods used in traditional Chinese medicine. There is a sound scientific basis for looking at the tongue (e.g. the smooth shiny tongue of vitamin B12 deficiency) but to conclude that “cirrhosis of the liver can show up as a purple patch on the right side of the tongue” is nonsense. Why the right side of the tongue. Presumably, because the liver is on the right side of the body!

Source: NZ Doctor 7 Aug 1989.

Editor’s notes

1. The cabbage leaf cure was promoted in the New Zealand Woman’s Weekly of 26/2/90 by Isobel Moon, its Plunket nurse columnist. She vaguely explained that “A certain substance is absorbed from the leaves through the mother’s skin.” (Sister Rosier believes the substance is allantoin, “a substance functional in garlic”.)

2. The news item about tongue diagnosis appeared on the front page of The Dominion on 21/7/89 (followed by a sharp response from a G.P. on page 3 the next day). More than nine months later, The Manawatu Evening Standard (on 26/4/90) thought the ‘news’ item still warranted publication.