HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: wchutt@alex.monsanto.com (Bill C Hutton)
Subject: Re: EMF worries: are they silly?
Organization: Monsanto Company
X-Newsreader: Tin 1.1 PL5
Distribution: usa
Date: Mon, 14 Dec 1992 17:00:20 GMT

There are two types of magnetic fields, D.C. or static fields and A.C.
or modulated fields. 

The earth's field is a d.c. field (so are the fields used in M.R.I.
machines). Electrical power is distributed using A.C. current and
***ALL*** magnetic fields generated by plugging something in the wall (unless
the device in question converts the power from A.C. to D.C. first) or
by power transmission lines are A.C. fields.

A reasonable summary of the literature in this arena would be:

D.C. fields have not been shown to have biological effects (unless a
very strong field is suddenly turned-off).

The issue of A.C. fields is quite controversial. There are people of the
opinion that A.C. fields are harmful but others claim the existing
evidence is circumstantial only.

To answer the question "EMF worries: are they silly?"; the answer is
yes with regard to static or D.C. fields.

Disclaimer: personal opinions only!
Newsgroups: sci.med
From: jimkent@well.sf.ca.us (Jim Kent)
Subject: Re: Getting off Xanax
Organization: Whole Earth 'Lectronic Link
Date: Thu, 17 Dec 1992 00:45:06 GMT


| Ask around, there are plenty of people who are quick to bad mouth
| Valium

Yes, I also bad mouth Valium,  but I've never had to hospitalize someone
just to treat the medical problems of withdrawing from it.  Xanax, OTOH, has
a full literature devoted to its withdrawal and frequently does result in
requiring hospitalization for medical management, as has been my experience.

There seems to be something in Xanax that only Xanax can help which results
in a very slow taper.

Jim Kent, M.D.
Newsgroups: sci.med
From: sue@netcom.com (Sue Miller)
Subject: Re: Physician's Incomes
Organization: Netcom - Online Communication Services (408 241-9760 guest)
Date: Fri, 18 Dec 1992 23:29:13 GMT

In article <BzFp5C.4E1@acsu.buffalo.edu> oispeggy@ubvmsd.cc.buffalo.edu (Peggy Brown) writes:
>In article <92352.175212DGS4@psuvm.psu.edu>, DGS4@psuvm.psu.edu writes...
>>In article <BzDIG5.DKv@acsu.buffalo.edu>, oispeggy@ubvmsd.cc.buffalo.edu (Peggy
>>Brown) says:
>>>
>>>In article <92351.153826DGS4@psuvm.psu.edu>, DGS4@psuvm.psu.edu writes...
>>>>In article <BzBHyG.4vJ@acsu.buffalo.edu>, oispeggy@ubvmsd.cc.buffalo.edu     y
>>>(Pegg
>>>>Brown) says:
>>>>>
>>>>>In article <gdavis.724433998@griffin>, gdavis@griffin.uvm.edu (Gary Davis)
>>>>>writes...
>>>>>>
>>>>
>>>>What do you mean by socialized medicine?  Do you have any evidence
>>>>that physicians in Germany, Canada, France, Britain, etc. are mediocre?
>>>>
>>>
>>>Nope, but I've seen plenty of civil service workers.  In these
>>>systems everyone gets the same increases/benefits whether they
>>>perform an adequate job or an exceptional job.
>>>
>>>So after being in a system like this for awhile, the top
>>>performers figure out that its stupid to knock themselves silly
>>>to do a good job when they get paid as much to do an adequate
>>>job.
>>>
>>>I think this kind of system encourages mediocrity.
>> 
>>I hope you don't mind if I await further proof (other than your beliefs)
>>that Canadian (or German or French) doctors are of poorer quality. :)
>> 
>
>I did not say they were of poorer quality.  You jumped to this 
>conclusion and started listing doctor's from different countries. 
>I do not find it necessary to discuss health care systems of 
>all these countries. 

I don't think he "jumped to this conclusion", I would rather
suggest that he reached it by following the (thin) trail of
logic that you laid.

>
>Since you seem to have misunderstood my point, I'll repeat it.
>I do not favor civil-service type systems (sometimes called 
>socialized medicine).  Whether other countries have systems like 
>this I do not know.  However, I would beware of any system that 
>did not reward doctors (or anyone else) for working extra hard,
>or a system that did not give them opportunity, to reach their 
>full potential.
>

But this statement of yours is just a straw man, since you seem to
know next to nothing about any health care system anywhere.  Why
are you making it?
From: habersch@husc9.harvard.edu (Oren Haber-Schaim)
Newsgroups: sci.med
Subject: Re: Chapped lips and Vaseline
Date: 12 Dec 92 21:21:40 GMT
Distribution: na

sfm@manduca.neurobio.arizona.edu (Stephen Matheson) writes:

>I was told recently that it's not a good idea to apply petroleum jelly
>to my perennially chapped lips because the petroleum jelly effect is
>only temporary and ultimately leaves my lips in a worse state.  My
>experience seems to confirm this, although I had always assumed it
>was because the condtions leading to the chapping were ongoing.

>Comments?
>--
I hadn't heard that criticism, but would avoid chronic use
of petrolatum in any case.  It is a poorly characterized mixture
of zillions of hydrocarbons which are foreign to the body.
It is absorbed below the epidermis even in fully keratinized skin.
Various associations with cancer have been known for a long time. 

Tried USP lanolin?   That is what I now use every winter to avoid
disaster on the skin on the back of my hands.


Oren Haber-Schaim            
habersch@husc.harvard.edu
From: garys@teal.csn.org (Gary F. Stevens)
Newsgroups: sci.med
Subject: Re: Strep Throat
Date: 15 Dec 92 15:50:56 GMT
Organization: Colorado SuperNet, Inc.

In article <1992Dec14.222759.21149@unlv.edu> robert@unlv.edu (Robert Cray) writes:
>How can you tell the diference between a bad cold and strep throat?
>I've been told that strep needs to be treated lest it damage the heart,
>however I feel rather foolish showing up at the doctors office with what
>is in all probability a cold.  Does strep really need to be treated, or is
>the heart thing a rare occurance?
>
>				--robert
>--
>robert@cs.unlv.edu

As far as I know a cold will not cause white spots on your throat. These
spots to not always = strep. It is never foolish to want to know what is
wrong with you are to want to feel good.

Go to your doctor and get a strep test. The MD will tell you if it
is not needed. 

The rapid strep test is ~50% accurate but it is fast and cheap. I think
that the error is in false negatives. The other type of strep test takes 
a few days to get the results.

You can get over a cold on your own. You might need some meds to get
over a strep infection.

Agian, I don't think it is foolish to go to your MD with a concern.
Newsgroups: sci.med
From: eepee@polaris.utu.fi (Esa-Pekka P{lvim{ki)
Subject: Re: Strep Throat
Organization: University of Turku, Finland
Date: Wed, 16 Dec 92 12:29:08 GMT

In article <BzB5D1.JD7@csn.org> garys@teal.csn.org (Gary F. Stevens) writes:
>In article <1992Dec14.222759.21149@unlv.edu> robert@unlv.edu (Robert Cray) writes:
>>How can you tell the diference between a bad cold and strep throat?
>>I've been told that strep needs to be treated lest it damage the heart,
>>however I feel rather foolish showing up at the doctors office with what
>>is in all probability a cold.  Does strep really need to be treated, or is
>>the heart thing a rare occurance?
>>
>As far as I know a cold will not cause white spots on your throat. These
>spots to not always = strep. It is never foolish to want to know what is
>wrong with you are to want to feel good.

Actually, most of the "strep throats" treated with antibiotics are not 
caused by streptococcus at all. Many different viral infections are 
indistinguishable from beta-hemolytic streptococcus infection by any other
method than the culture test specific for strep. Sore throat caused by a
virus can be just as painful, just as red-hot, just as full of white spots,
and so on. 

The ideal(istic) way of dealing with this is to go get the test done (don't
know about your state, but here (Finland) you don't need to see the doc
first, just walk straight to the lab), and if positive, start the antibiotics,
preferrably V-penicillin.

Inadequately treated strep throat (no antibiotics, not enough rest..) may
present a risk of a myocardial infection and thus should be taken seriously.
However, the antibiotics won't do any good for a viral infection, and, 
given that one is an otherwise healthy individual, even streptococcal infection
will leave no permanent harm, if for some reason it is not treated with
antibiotics, as long as one rests until it's gone.

Reading it again, I could have written a bit clearer and shorter, but I hope
it's understandable.

/ep

Newsgroups: sci.med
From: russ@pmafire.inel.gov (Russ Brown)
Date: Fri, 18 Dec 92 15:47:41 GMT
Organization: WINCO
Subject: Re: Myeloma information, anyone?
Summary: 
Followup-To: 
Organization: WINCO
Keywords: 

In article <27124@sybase.sybase.com> hamish@sybase.com (Innocent Abroad) writes:
>A close relative has been diagnosed as having "Myeloma".  I'd like to
>know more about the disease (its prognosis, longer-term symptoms,
>etc.), but neither of my medical guides says anything at all about this
>condition (some sort of bone cancer (?) with immune system side-effects
>by the sound of things).
>
One of the doctors posting to this group may be able to give you medical
details.  Multiple myeloma is characterized by an overgrowth of
malignant plasma cells (a B lymphocyte), usually involving bones.

Treatable, but rarely curable.

About 27% 5-yr survival, about 11% 10-yr survival ----- average.  Would
be a function of the type and stage.  Cause unknown, but a historical pattern
of excess exists in Minnesota, North Dakota, Iowa, and Nebraska, as well as
isolated areas in other parts of the country.

Stage I - 25-40% 5-yr survival
Stage II- 15-30%    "
Stage II- 10-25%    "

Chemotherapy regimes are being investigated, including combinations
Bone marrow transplants are at investigational stage.

Xref: sparky sci.med:22485 misc.kids:30377
From: collene@unisql.UUCP (Collene Pearce)
Newsgroups: sci.med,misc.kids
Subject: Re: Depra-Provera (3-month birth control shot) query
Date: 12 Dec 92 01:14:34 GMT
Followup-To: sci.med
Organization: UniSQL, Inc., Austin, Texas, USA

In article <1g83oiINN1fu@gap.caltech.edu> thogek@cco.caltech.edu (Thomas G. Kiefer) writes:
>
>Someone emailed me yesterday ....

I resent the email.  Let me know if you don't get it relatively 
soon and I'll resend.  :-)




-- 

********************* #include <std_disclaimer.h> **********************
* A. Collene Pearce (512-343-7372, x114) * Organization: UniSQL, Inc.  *
*                                        * Austin, TX                  *
* unisql!collene@cs.utexas.edu           * 512-343-7297 or 7383(fax)   *
************************************************************************
From: x92paszek@gw.wmich.edu
Newsgroups: sci.med
Subject: Adult male circumcision.  Info request.
Date: 13 Dec 92 14:52:11 EST
Organization: Western Michigan University

Does anyone know ANYTNHING about male adult curcumcision?

-Risks involved
-Cost 
-Procedure availability
-Sexual advantages/ disadvantages
-Pain 
etc.

I would appreciate any info shed on the subject.  Please post it or email it,
at your convenience.

Thank you.

Mateusz M.M.P.
From: lamontg@stein.u.washington.edu (Lamont Granquist)
Newsgroups: sci.med
Subject: Re: post-Prozac reactions
Date: 17 Dec 92 07:52:33 GMT
Article-I.D.: u.1992Dec17.075233.20795
Organization: 'Operation: Mindcrime'

mdkline@rodan.acs.syr.edu (Mark D. Kline) writes:
>I have started more than 600 people on prozac since 1987.  I have seen no
>unusual discontinuation effects, and I have seen no unusual suicidality
>or violent behavior.  

Well, the effect that I felt wasn't much -- enough that I felt abnormal, but
not so bad that I reported it to my doctor, particularly since it only lasted
a few days.  It was just distinct enough for me to feel it, and If it wasn't
the drug I'd like to hear some other explanation...  As for the violent
behavior... well, believe what you like, I damn near chewed my mom's head off
in a resturaunt at one point -- very out of character -- never happened
before, never happened since, but it was about three days after lifting
my prozac dose from 20mg to 40mg/day...  It was distinct enough that I knew
it wasn't a genuine feeling, and had to try to supress it...

Nortryptyline didn't do anything like this, Wellbutrin didn't do anything
like this...  And I'm not and never have been anti-prozac...

-- 
Lamont Granquist  lamontg@u.washington.edu
  "When dogma enters the brain, all intellectual activity ceases."
                                      -- Robert Anton Wilson
From: habersch@husc9.harvard.edu (Oren Haber-Schaim)
Newsgroups: sci.med
Subject: Re: Pepcid
Date: 12 Dec 92 21:32:37 GMT

garys@teal.csn.org (Gary F. Stevens) writes:
.....
>>relieve the discomfort.  This sounds like it could be a hiatal hernia.  His 
>>doctor gave him some pills to try -- 20 mg of Pepcid, famotidine/MSD.  Does 
>>anyone have any information on this drug or any idea of what his problem 
>>might be?
>>
>>Chris

>Pepcid is basicly an antacid. The best medicine I have taken for it
>is Prilosec. The problem with it is that it has not been approved for 
>long term use. 

Wrong.  Both famotidine (Pepcid) and omeprazole (Prilosec) inhibit
production of HCl, although they are different classes of drugs
that act in different ways.  Antacids, in contrast, do not inhibit
HCl production: they are alkaline substances that try to neutralize
HCl that has already been manufactured.

>For more information try your local pharmacy.

I have found local pharmacists to be poor sources of 
scientific information.

--Oren

(habersch@husc.harvard.edu)
Newsgroups: sci.med
From: rp@llex.ll.mit.edu ( Richard Pavelle)
Newsgroups: sci.med
Subject: Lupus
Date: 19 Dec 92 19:43:10 GMT
Organization: MIT Lincoln Laboratory
Originator: rp@llex


Please send some info to me. A relative has been disgnosed and
we know little about the disease or its treatment. Thanks.

 
Newsgroups: sci.med
From: med50003@nusunix1.nus.sg (WANSAICHEONG KHIN-LIN)
Subject: Re: "reflexology"?
Organization: National University of Singapore
X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.1 PL6]
Date: Tue, 15 Dec 1992 09:07:24 GMT

The difference lies in whether anything was actually done for the
person. If a 'healer' waved chicken feathers over your foot and said
your kidney stones were gone and you felt better - ask yourself this -
has anything actually been done?

You may feel better but the stone is probably still present.

gervais
From: nyeda@cnsvax.uwec.edu (David Nye)
Newsgroups: sci.med
Subject: Re: Bashing, truth, etc.
Date: 20 Dec 92 21:46:36 GMT
Organization: University of Wisconsin Eau Claire

[reply to hrubin@pop.stat.purdue.edu]
 
>Much of present established medicine was at one time considered
>quackery, or at least ridiculous.  The conspiracy as stated in the
>first paragraph is not a deliberate conspiracy, but it is not that far
>from what is happening.  The conspiracy is there to keep people from
>deciding what is appropriate for them, and part of it is the acts of
>moralists and bureaucrats to keep substances from us "because we cannot
>act intelligently", those physicians who do not provide the patient
>with information, but TELL the patient what to do, etc.  Few physicians
>have the ability to put widely separated information together, and
>unfortuantely this is almost gone from our sorry excuse for an
>educational system.
>
>But the problems we face are often far more complex than our physicians
>have learned to handle, and a bureaucrat is usually even worse.  There
>is, in effect, a massive conspiracy to keep those of us who must use
>medical process from acquiring the information, and in many cases from
>making intelligent choices.  If anything, the situation is getting much
>worse, and if the regulation mania gets worse, we will only get such
>medical care as the bureaucrats are willing to permit.
 
You are confusing two issues here.  One is the difference between
scientific medicine and folk or alternative medicine.  None of us doubt
that the latter possesses some beneficial treatments.  Scientific
medicine has adopted many of them.  We only require that they can be
proven scientifically to work.  We discourage our patients from seeking
treatments that are unproven.  To do otherwise would be hypocritical and
a disservice to our patients.  You can call this a conspiracy if you
like.  By the way, most of us see our roles as health consultants, not
dictators.  We tell patients what we recommend, often providing several
alternatives.  It is then their place to decide whether to follow our
advice or not.
 
The second issue is the one of payment.  No one is forbidden to visit a
chiropracter, reflexologist, faith healer, or any other kind of
alternative practitioner.  The "bureaucrats" just won't pay the bill.
They are responsible for keeping costs, and as a consequence, taxes and
insurance premiums, down.  They want to be sure that the money is spent
wisely, so they require that any treatment which they will cover be
scientifically proven.  Seems sensible to me, in principle at least.  In
the rush to tighten the lid on costs, however, Medicare and Medicaid are
now refusing to cover some things (mainly diagnosic tests) that we in
the medical profession believe are reasonable and necessary to diagnose
and treat certain illnesses.  This is "rationing".  Since this is
intensely unpopular, the government tries to call it something else.
It seems inevitable that it will get worse.  You can be pretty certain
that as the screws are tightened, alternative treatments are likely to
be squeezed out first.

David Nye
nyeda@cnsvax.uwec.edu
Newsgroups: sci.med
From: jod@equator.com (John Setel O'Donnell)
Subject: Lyme complacency; there they go again.
Organization: Equator Technologies, Inc., Seattle, WA
Date: Fri, 18 Dec 1992 05:08:36 GMT

Today's New York Times carries a report of an article published in
today's New England Journal of Medicine by a group led by Eugene Shapiro
of Yale.  The article headline is "Study of Lyme Disease Sees Low
Risk in Ticks".  The reported conclusion of the paper is that 
prophylactic treatment with antibiotics upon a deer tick bite is not
warranted.

This result conflicts with a paper published in NEJM this past summer
by Magid et al. which comes to the opposite conclusion. 

Other research results have established the fact that:
- Test technology is extremely poor (CDC, First National Conference on
  Lyme Disease Testing, 11/90)
- The Lyme spirochete disseminates very early in the course of infection 
  into the CNS (Luft, Steinman, et. al JAMA 267, 10), where it is 
  resistant to treatment;
- The spirochete invades human endothelial cells (Ma, Sturrock, Weiss, Infec
  Immun 59) and fibroblasts (Georgilis et al., Fift Int'l Conference
  on Lyme Borreliosis, abst. 165), which protect it from antibiotics
  including ceftriaxone.
- Patients see an average of three doctors before they are accurately
  diagnosed with Lyme.  Many are told they have lupus, multiple
  sclerosis, scleroderma, and/or psychiatric disorders (Fallon, Neilds,
  Fifth Int'l Conf LB, abst. 143).  40% are referred to psychiatrists,
  about a third are put on psychoactive drugs.
- Letting Lyme go untreated for more than a few weeks makes it very
  difficult and extremely expensive to eradicate.  The CDC's New Jersey
  study of children with Lyme found that direct medical costs 
  averaged $96,000 per child.  Children lost at least half of a 
  school year.

Yale's publication of yet another flawed, nearly corrupt paper, aided
by their press flacks who got the Times to lead with "...Low Risk", is
a detriment public health, fueled by their irrational obsession with
insisting that Lyme is relatively harmless and easily cured, despite
the now voluminous evidence to the contrary.

The facts are in, and the Yalies are lying.  Thousands more will
suffer because of their lies.

Lyme is a devastating, incurable disease in its later stages.  It is
very difficult to unequivocally detect in its early stages.  Despite
at least tens of thousands of new cases annually (CDC, David Dennis)
the 1991 Federal research budget toward a cure was less than $200,000.
The distortions and emotionally rather than factually based positions 
that researchers at Yale and elsewhere have put forth are largely
responsible for this national scandal.

I urge you to write to NIH and NEJM about this issue.  Ignoring the
disease, its consequences, and its persistence will not make it go
away.  Only better research will.  We desperately need public awareness
and public monies to bring this about.
-- 
- - -
John Setel O'Donnell                      jod@equator.com
Equator Technologies, Inc.                206-328-6544 voice/fax
Seattle, WA                               Read everything by Alice Miller.
From: quark@csa.bu.edu (Paul Fu)
Newsgroups: sci.med
Subject: Re: crohn's disease - help needed
Date: 11 Dec 92 00:01:01 GMT
Organization: Boston University, School of Medicine/Dept. Computer Science
In-reply-to: laser@buckwheat.cray.com's message of 8 Dec 92 14:53:52 GMT

In article <1992Dec8.085353.4765@walter.cray.com> laser@buckwheat.cray.com (Cathie Hartman 68387) writes:

   After 4 months of sickness, I was finally diagnosed with Crohn's disease in May of this year.  I haven't had a lot of luck with doctors and I am looking for information and advice. 

You should contact the Crohn's Society chapter nearest you.  THey have many
support and other services available to persons diagnosed with Crohn's
disease.
 

--
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Paul Fu, Jr. 		|  quark@cs.bu.edu	|  pfu@dhvx20.csudh.edu
Boston University	|  quark@bass.bu.edu	|  fu.paul@boston.va.gov
School of Medicine	|  GEnie: P.FU1		|  CI$: 72570,1614
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: mdebuitlear@vms.eurokom.ie
Newsgroups: sci.med
Subject: Re: "reflexology"?y
Date: 11 Dec 92 10:29:28 CET
Organization: EuroKom Conferencing Service

In article <1992Dec9.020159.26340@genie.slhs.udel.edu>, nancy@genie.slhs.udel.edu (Nancy Lebovitz) writes:
> I'm not going to call this major evidence for reflexology, but I had
> my feet checked, and the reflexologist told me that I having trouble
> with my teeth, which was true. Maybe he was using other body language
> indicators, but nobody else told me that I looked like I had a toothache.
> 
> I just had a quick diagnostic session, so I have no experience with
> whether reflexology can cure anything, but I'm impressed enough that
> I won't write the stuff off as guarenteed nonsense.
> 
> Nancy Lebovitz
> nancy@genie.slhs.udel.edu

Another personal experience.  I was asked would I be a guinea pig for a 
student of reflexology and agreed on the grounds that it probably wouldn't 
do any harm.

While she was working on my feet, two areas in particular were very tender.
I asked her what areas of the body they related to and she said my right 
knee and my left shoulder.  Strangely enough, I dislocated my left shoulder 
and had surgery on my right knee.  Later on, I noticed that my shoulder was 
quite stiff. This I was told, was the energies balancing themselves out.
That night, I slept very well and felt better the next morning than I had 
in years.

Just a personal experience, interesting though. I had no expectation of 
having a good result.  To the gentleman who originally posted, why not try 
a session and judge for yourself ? You can always stop the cheque if you 
are not satisfied.

Micheal De Buitlear.
M.De.Buitlear@EuroKom.ie
Newsgroups: sci.med
From: mdkline@rodan.acs.syr.edu (Mark D. Kline)
Subject: Re: Peter Breggin, _Toxic Psychiatry_ (Q)
Organization: Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY
Date: Sat, 19 Dec 92 15:19:32 EST

In article <BzD1G3.8D1@unx.sas.com> sasghm@theseus.unx.sas.com (Gary Merrill) 
writes:
>Antibiotics seem to work in an amazingly cross-cultural way. 
>I wonder why.

Antipsychotic drugs also work in an amazingly cross-cultural way.