HomeTalking Points
Talking Points
Homeoppathy slated
Homeopathy is no more effective than a placebo, according to an extensive study by a peak science body, reports The Guardian. The draft paper...
Cooked breakfast – with a side order of statins
As the home of cooked breakfasts and pints of beer, it is perhaps no surprise that Britain is the European king of anti-cholesterol drugs...
A super drug — at a super price
Sovaldi, a new drug to treat hepatitis C and approved by the US Food and Drug Administration in December, is a big advance, writes...
Govt dietary advice deserves a Health Warning
Consumers have already had ‘a bitter taste of how hopelessly misleading’ nutritional orthodoxy can be, writes nutritionist and author Joanna Blythman in The Observer,...
Calls for ‘sat-fats are good’ paper to be retracted
When a paper published on 17 March questioned whether fats from fish or vegetable oils are healthier than those in meat or butter, it...
Widespread US belief in medical conspiracy theories
Half of Americans subscribe to medical conspiracy theories, with more than one-third of people thinking that the US Food and Drug Administration is deliberately...
The annual check-up
Most US doctors say it’s time to rethink the notion of a yearly physical, a fixture in medicine since the 1940s, reports Medicinenet. Studies...
Thou shalt be healthy
In a bid to curb rising obesity rates and a growing burden of lifestyle diseases and weight problems in children, SA’s Department of Health...
Medical care or medical cruelty?
Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu recently pleased for a ‘mind shift’ in the ‘right to die’ debate. MedicalBrief's William Saunderson-Meyer takes up the issue, arguing...
Autism consensus challenged
Though the symptoms of autism frequently become less severe by adulthood, the consensus has always been that its core symptoms remain, writes The New...
MP: 'Legalise dagga — and mistletoe’
Parliament has had its first debate on the legalisation of dagga for medicinal purposes and the impact of cancer on society, with calls to...
UK surgery guidelines slated
Writing in The Independent, Zoë Harcombe, author of The Obesity Epidemic, is scathing of new UK government guidelines that recommend massively expanding bariatric surgery,...
‘Misguided’ war
Would the real purpose of the SA Competition Commission’s inquiry into private healthcare be to divert attention from government failure and legitimise punitive controls...
Therapists’ notes shared
Mental health patients do not have the ready access to office visit notes that, increasingly, other patients enjoy. But reports The New York Times,...
You can’t change an anti-vaxxers mind
Parents who believe falsely that vaccination is dangerous or unnecessary for children present a real public health hazard, reports Mother Jones. That's why researchers,...
Next big fight: Is SPD a real disease?
Sensory processing disorder (SPD) is one of those 'peculiar modern diseases caught in the purgatory between legitimacy and quackery', writes Slate. It’s widely accepted...