Medical roundup

John Welch - 1 November 1990

Anabolic steroids were in the news during the Commonwealth Games and Dr Michael Kennedy has been studying their use by athletes for the past ten years. His conclusion is that “anabolic steroids have no effect on aerobic sports, such as running and swimming, but may lead to a small improvement in the performance of trained weightlifters.” He quotes a 1972 study that showed when athletes were given placebo and told they were steroids, they got stronger and trained harder.

One million people in the US use anabolic steroids whose side effects are abnormal liver function, falls in plasma levels of testosterone and gonadotropins, decreases in sperm counts, aggression (“roid rage’) and psychoses.

This is another classic example of the under-rated and very powerful placebo effect, which, along with self deception, is the basis for many irrational beliefs.

Source: New Zealand Doctor 5 March 1990

The American College of Physicians has attacked the pseudo-scientific ‘specialty’ of clinical ecology and concludes that there is no good evidence for the belief that many patients are suffering from damage to their immune systems from environmental chemicals, food, drugs, or fungi such as Candida Albicans.

Source: Annals of Internal Medicine 1989;111:168-78

The American Food and Drug Administration has stated recently that over 98 percent of cancer risk is from unavoidable natural carcinogens in the diet and not from pesticides and other pollutants.

Source: NZ General Practice March 13 1990

GP News carried a recent article “Allergy Expert Makes the Chemical Connection” in which a visiting Australian psychologist is “convinced food and chemical sensitivities make people feel tired, irritable, aggressive or confused and affect concentration and learning.” Naturally, all this is detailed in her book Chemical Connection.

What worries me is that a trained psychologist, of all people, should fail to recognize that there is a wide range of human behaviours and far more logical and sensible reasons for feeling out of sorts than food and chemical sensitivities.

This pseudo-science is creating anxiety and exploiting the need of people to seek labels for their problems where none exist. It is time that articles like this were balanced with an opposing view in line with the philosophy that people are entitled to both sides of the story.

Source: NZ General Practice

This theme is continued in the new Adventure magazine in an article called “Leave Sugar and Chocolate Behind” written by someone from a health food company.

Eating sugar leads to a “see-sawing of our energy levels until finally we get pancreatic exhaustion”. Clearly the writer is ignorant of homeostasis and the ability of the body to maintain blood sugar within a very narrow range despite fluctuating dietary intake.

The article continues in much the same vein until the last column…”The essence of harmony is the balance of yin and yang, the duality of life forces. For instance, in a cold environment (yin) I tend towards whole grains, meat and fish (all yang).”

This nonsense could be dangerous if trampers took it seriously. We have excellent, well-trained dietitians in this country who could have done better had they been asked.

Source: Adventure February/March 1990

I was talking recently with a colleague who asked me whether any of my patients had ever told me about their experiences with alternative medicine. One of his patients had for years been sending his urine to a ‘therapist’ in the North Island who would write back and tell him what colours to use.

It occurred to me a simple test would be to send some urine from a horse and see what kind of report came back.

I was interested therefore to come across a reference to a similar practitioner, Theodor Myersbach, who practised his craft of uroscopy in the 18th century. Despite the hostile attentions of the medical profession who derided him as the ‘pisse prophet’, Myersbach enjoyed considerable popularity. All of this and more is detailed in a book by Roy Porter: Health for Sale: Quackery in England 1660-1850, Manchester University Press 1989, £19.95.

Source: The Lancet, September 9, 1989, p635.

In an attempt to counter quackery The Campaign against Health Fraud was recently launched in the UK. The group comprises doctors, lawyers, scientists and journalists and aims to provide the media with an independent assessment of health claims.

The statement that “you can tell a quack by his unwillingness to expose his claims to a clinical trial” is particularly relevant in this country to the practice of Electroacupuncture of Voll (EAV) which was found by a scientific committee to be without scientific foundation. Testing was declined by the doctor in question.

In New Zealand, the medical subcommittee of NZCSICOP has produced ‘truth kits’ on homeopathy, naturopathy, herbalism, acupuncture and one on iridology is currently in preparation.

Source: The Lancet, May 13, 1989, p1090.

The latest revival of ancient remedies is Ayur-Vedic medicine which is being promoted by none other than the Mahareshi Mahesh Yogi. Transcendental Meditation (TM) is used to balance the mind and body and is available from a centre in Christchurch for $400 plus GST (1987). Panchakarma (rejuvenation programme) costs about $100 per day and is available in one, three, five or seven day courses presumably depending on the degree of individual senescence.

Readers will remember that TM also empowers its adherents to ‘fly’ although no one has succeeded in doing any more than a controlled bounce (flop?).

Now the principles of quantum physics are to be applied to Ayur-Vedic medicine. NZ General Practice’s gushing review of Quantum Healing by Deepak Chapra, published by Bantam Books, doesn’t quite say how but a key element is “…our prized objectivity becomes inextricably subjective.”

Source: NZ General Practice October 9 1989.