If you're concerned about sham medicine, look up the countless Internet watchdog groups that promise to protect us from rampant health-care fraud.
There's Quackwatch, a skeptical view of virtually everything except pharmaceutical drugs and surgery, and its sister site, Homeowatch, which criticizes homeopathic cures.
Acupuncture Watch tells us why inserting tiny needles into the body is a waste of time and money.
Chelation Watch warns us about the dangers of removing heavy metals from the system.
And Chirobase sounds an alarm about chiropractic care.
Yet most "quackwatchers" were strangely mum after the heretical announcement this month by the nation's chest physicians that over-the-counter cough medicines do little, if anything, to relieve coughs.
According to new guidelines issued by the American College of Chest Physicians, the over-the-counter cough syrups generally contain drugs in too low a dose to be effective or contain combinations of drugs never known to treat coughs.
So Americans waste billions of dollars on these ineffective medications every year. Why isn't this a national scandal?
Full Article by Julie Deardorff
# posted by madthumbs @ 9:54 AM
