DailyDirt: Miracle Cures

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

Fri, Jan 23rd 2015 5:00pm — Michael Ho

Scams trying to convince people that losing weight is easy are everywhere. Losing weight is not easy. Maybe it is for some lucky people who have incredibly awesome genetics and the metabolism to burn calories like a hummingbird, but for most folks, it's not. It sure would be nice if a doctor or scientist found a simple weight loss solution (that didn't involve exercise or watching what you eat). However, that isn't the case, and there are plenty of examples of remedies that don't work (eg. Hoodia, ephedra, green coffee extract, etc). Audiences would like to be told there's a miracle cure, and some quacks even oblige them. For example, Dr. Mehmet Oz ("Doctor Oz") was scolded by US Senators for promoting unsubstantiated "miracle" dietary supplements. Researchers are actively looking for convenient ways to beat obesity, but before anyone buys some sketchy pills on the internet, wait for the science to demonstrate some effectiveness and safety. Keep on eye on various research projects, but don't get your hopes up. (And exercise in the meantime....)

Researchers at the University of Michigan are looking at an off-patent drug that appears to solve the problems of obesity, diabetes and fatty liver in mice. There haven't been any studies on humans for similar results, but amlexanox has been approved for use to treat asthma for decades. [url]
Another drug that shows promise in mice is fexaramine (or Fex). However, the media has overblown its effects on mice and also implied effectiveness in humans when studies have not yet been done. [url]
The FTC has some advice for people interested in various weight-loss fads and dietary supplements that claim to burn fat in short periods of time. Don't believe every headline you read! [url]

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Filed Under: amlexanox, diet, dietary supplements, dr oz, ephedra, fex, fexaramine, food, green coffee extract, health, hoodia, medicine, mehmet oz, miracle cures, obesity, remedies, scams

12 Comments

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art guerrilla (profile), 23 Jan 2015 @ 5:42pm

not on topic: having PACER/RECAP probs...
1. signed up for pacer bs...

2. got recap addon for chrome...

3. now what ? (this is where the campaign starts to unravel) little explanatory video begs the question, in that they start with an assumed case/docket number, blah blah blah...

4. uh, yeah, i'm *not* a lawyer (EVEN THOUGH you do NOT have to be a lawyer/etc to sign up for/use pacer, etc, it is pretty much assumed throughout the process); and EVEN the explanatory process for the activist campaign to download a bunch of pacer dox for free as in beer by recruiting a 'vast' nerd-wing konspiracy to have STUPID CIVILIANS, like me, sign up, and do the soft-ddos, is assuming you are a lawyer...
not helpful for legal stupidheads from stupidtown like me who still want to help download 'stuff', which should have been available in the first place...

5. the instructions are not clear: *says* icon will turn blue when 'logged into' pacer site, but not strictly true, you have to either select one of the available court links, or do a query, in order to have recap 'active'...
secondly, the short video was *not* what happened: i did *not* get a little icon inthe lower right corner which notified me it was uploaded to the archive, i only got it downloaded locally...

6. somehow got on a link from some group called asymptote, or some thing, that supposedly offered a way to find out what dox were needed, and *that* had a link for 'x' document being needed, i smooshed it, it was downloaded locally, but not anywhere else; it even had a specific button to upload, but i don't know if that happened...

has anyone else in techdirtia had similar problems getting the addon to work/upload ?
i guess i can figure out where to upload 'manually', but i thought it was also doing the bookkeeping in keeping track of what was/wasn't downloaded at that point...
thanks for help, can't find a lot so far on the sites in question...
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Gracey (profile), 23 Jan 2015 @ 6:23pm

And I wonder how many people are going to start running around looking for ways to get their hands on those drugs? People won't wait for tests and trials.

Have you ever heard of the "just in case" crowd?

They'll take anything, just in case it might work.

...reminds me of a lady I used to know. Took 2 tylenol every day at noon, "just in case" she got a headache.
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Mason Wheeler (profile), 23 Jan 2015 @ 6:58pm

A while back, a good friend of mine who was (more than) a bit on the heavy side declared her intention to lose 40 pounds over the course of the next month or so.

I sat down with her and asked her, as serious as I could, "it's taken you 20-odd years to put all those pounds on; why in the world do you think you could take them back off in a matter of a few weeks?" And she actually listened, and started doing something realistic about it: generally taking better care of herself.

Now, about 5 years later, she's noticeably slimmer and in much better shape, and that really is the only way to pull off a project like that.
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Lawrence D’Oliveiro, 23 Jan 2015 @ 9:43pm

As Tim Minchin Said ...
... “alternative medicine” is either stuff that has not been proven to work, or has been proven not to work.

Because if it has been proven to work, we just call it “medicine”.
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NoNameNoLife, 23 Jan 2015 @ 10:42pm

FTA: "Saltiel is teaming up with clinical-trial specialists at U-M to test whether amlexanox will be useful for treating obesity and diabetes in humans. He is also working with medicinal chemists at U-M to develop a new compound based on the drug that optimizes its formula."

AKA something we can patent and charge through the nose for once again.
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Max (profile), 24 Jan 2015 @ 4:33am

Ehhh....
At this point (early forties) I pretty much accepted that in spite of all that "miraculous advancement in medicine" (that somehow still manage to have failed to cure or even just effectively treat any major disease in the last half century) any cure that will cure anything I might remotely care about will only come along long past my expiration date. Ehhh, even medicine isn't what it used to be - now get off my lawn...!
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Udom (profile), 24 Jan 2015 @ 9:39am

Fat
Or... you could eat foods that aren't loaded with fructose and other corn syrup derivitives. Pretty much all processed foods have lots of fructose added, which your body has no way to metabolise and stores as fat. Fructose is also implicated as a major cause of Type 3 diabetes, which is suspected to be the root of Alzheimers.

Don't eat processed foods and instead eat fresh fruit and vegetables. You'll lose weight and keep your mind from wandering away.
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Groaker (profile), 24 Jan 2015 @ 11:44am

Fructose
The body does indeed have a mechanism to metabolize fructose. It is called fructolysis, as opposed to the metabolism of glucose which is called glycoloysis. The body needs this ability because humans are omnivores, and they eat fruit. This particular dietary substance often contains a lot of fructose -- for example in pears, in which 2/3s of the sugar is fructose, watermelon, and many more. Many fruits have higher concentrations of fructose than so called "high fructose" corn syrup, which is 42% fructose. That is lower than table sugar, which is 50% fructose. Honey is about 40% fructose and only 30% glucose. Fructose happens to be sweeter than glucose, and were people satisfied with reasonable amounts, a mix of "high fructose" and glucose would be healthier because it would take fewer calories to produce the same amount of glucose.

Alas human behavior is not like that. Whether glucose or fructose, fat or protein, some people will eat more calories than they expend, and the end result is obesity. Others care enough to exercise and/or diet to keep their weight down.

In a reasonably healthy human, carbohydrates, proteins and fats are mostly interchangeable. A normal body can interchange one for another as needed. Not unlike a checking account in Switzerland, which can accept multiple curries and dispense them in different coinage.

Eat too much protein or carbohydrates of any kind, and it will turn into fat.
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Anonymous Coward, 25 Jan 2015 @ 4:21am

Re: not on topic: having PACER/RECAP probs...
o-h-h-kay, thanks for the help, kampers...
guess recap is just fucked and i won't bother wasting time with it...
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Lawrence D’Oliveiro, 25 Jan 2015 @ 4:03pm

Re: Conservation of energy. Second law of thermodynamics.
As they say, “the difference between theory and practice is that, in theory, there is no difference, but in practice, there is”.

What throws the spanner in the works is that your body is rather flexible in the amount of energy it can burn. Start cutting down on your food, and your body will adapt to some extent by consuming less energy.

This is one of those well-known effects that discourages dieters: it takes a bit more effort than they thought it would to start seeing an actual weight loss.
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GeeC (profile), 26 Jan 2015 @ 6:25am

Re: Fat
Please don't spread the stupid... Fructose is easliy metabolized and used as fuel, even if it is more readily stored compared to straight glucose. And last I checked, there is a lot of fructose in fruit...
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Nigella Seeds Product, 2 Apr 2015 @ 3:55am

Some Alternative Cures Work Though
I think not all the said "miracle cures" can not be trusted. Some do especially when there is enough medical proof. like nigella sativa seeds extract which has medical studies being conducted on it that may help overall health including weight loss and has patent papers.
NIGELLA SATIVA CURRENTLY HAS SIX FDA SEPARATE PATENTS IN THE U.S. AND ONE IN THE UK FOR THE TREATMENT OF:
1.Diabetes (US 6,042,834)
2.Inhibition of cancer cell growth (US 5,653,981)
3.Improvement of the Immune System (US 5,482,711)
4.Viral Infections (US 6,841,174)
5.Psoriasis (US 6,531,164)
6.Asthma (UK – EP1709995)
* US FDA is US Food and drug administration .
This can be considered i guess.
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