What is medicine’s 5 sigma? “A lot of what is published is incorrect.” I’m not allowed to say who made this remark because we were asked to observe Chatham House rules. We were also asked not to take photographs of slides. Those who worked for government agencies pleaded that their comments especially remain unquoted, since the forthcoming UK election meant they were living in “purdah”—a chilling state where severe restrictions on freedom of speech are placed on anyone on the government’s payroll. Why the paranoid…

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Today, ‘The Age‘ published a piece about the dangers of global warming and what it will do to our food, or in this case a non-food food, known colloquially as ‘bread.’ Researchers grew wheat under normal atmospheric CO2 concentrations and a comparative lot in a higher CO2 environment. The elevated CO2 caused the wheat to grow faster but the protein content was a little different than the wheat grown in normal atmospheric conditions. The article does not say exactly how or what was altered but my…

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The CSIRO has released some excellent videos about an area of Medicine that is being recognized as of utmost importance in optimal health: the Gut Microbiome (GM). The GM refers to all the bacteria in the large intestine that process foodstuffs that have not yet been broken down in the upper part of the gastrointestinal tract. Specifically, starches that are not digested, called Resistant Starches, are metabolised and produce energy not only for the bacteria but for use in the rest of the body.  Cold cooked…

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Well, faster than a speeding bullet, the FDA is on the verge of approving a new drug, one of the new class of PCSK9 inhibitors, to lower that bad, bad LDL-cholesterol. Of course, like the statins, they will not change the heart health issues of the world, save lives or do anything remotely useful.  Oddly, the FDA was more cautious with this drug than they were with the statins which were approved with very little human data, and with data from dogs showing that they were lethal because…

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  Big Pharma has more tricks in its repertoire than a hat full of monkeys. Here’s the latest. With the patents running out on Lipitor and the other statins, profits can only be maintained if more and more people take these drugs but how do you do that?  This leads to new disease invention, or ‘disease mongering’ a cute term to which I was introduced by Prof David Handelsman at the University of Sydney. Only here he was referring to a real clinical entity, that of men suffering from sub-optimal…

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More on the testosterone travesty. The 6minutes Newsletter, a publication of the Medical Journal of Australia, has clarified the guidelines for the prescribing of testosterone for men. If ever one wanted to see the worst example of government meddling in medicine, based on advice from ill-informed experts, this is it. To read the full article and comments, go here: http://www.6minutes.com.au/News/Latest-news/10-things-you-need-to-know-about-testosterone-pres?mid=2ae3cfbda8&utm_source=Cirrus+Media+Newsletters&utm_campaign=91875eeb50-6minutes+Newsletter+-+20150604060000&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_fe913f1856-91875eeb50-59874885 How on earth the decision to lower the ‘normal‘ low testosterone number to 6 nmol/L was made is, to say the least, disturbing. There is not a…

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