Antibacterial soaps - waste of money?
Antibacterial chemicals (triclosan) are
in so many products: soap, toothpaste,
deodorant, dog shampoo, cutting boards,
clothing, toys, etc. but they're no
better than soap and water. Even an FDA
panel found that out. But it gets worse.
Triclosan mimics thyroid hormone and is
turning up in fish, breast milk and
wastewater. A recent study has shown it
can disrupt thyroid function in frogs.
Equivalent data on humans isn't yet
available but research is being done -
in every household with these dumb
products. Antibacterial soaps can't
prevent colds or flu which are caused by
viruses so why bother with them?
About 300,000 Americans each year have
spinal surgery for ruptured disks and
sciatica - but is it worth it? Finally large
scale studies were done asking whether it's
better to rush into back surgery for
ruptured lumbar disks and sciatica or.just
wait. The results found that surgery was no
better than doing nothing. Patients in both
the surgery and non-surgery groups improved
substantially over a 2-year period.
This is really nothing new - other studies
have demonstrated the same thing. People
with ruptured disks in their lower backs and
people with sciatica usually recover without
surgery and (very important) there is no
harm in waiting. No one in either study
developed cauda equina syndrome that can
cause nerve damage, weakened leg or bowel or
bladder problems.
Many surgeons were against the studies
because they said that they knew that the
operations worked and it would be unethical
for their patients to participate in the
study.
The study mentioned that a percentage of
those who had back surgery needed repeat
operations within the year.
Weinstein JN, Tosteson TD, Lurie JD,
Tosteson AN, Deyo RA et al. Surgical vs.
nonoperative treatment for lumbar disk
herniation. The Spine Patient Outcomes
Research Trial (SPORT): A randomized trial.
JAMA. 2006;296:2441-2450.
http://jama.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/abstract/296/20/2441
Weinstein JN, Tosteson TD, Lurie JD,
Tosteson AN, Deyo RA et al. Surgical vs.
nonoperative treatment for lumbar disk
herniation. The Spine Patient Outcomes
Research Trial (SPORT): Observational
cohort. JAMA. 2006;296:2451-2459.
http://jama.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/abstract/296/20/2451
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