Category Archives: Alternative Medicine

COVID misinformation: FDA warns about ivermectin as COVID treatment

It's just one of the many online rumors floating around about the coronavirus, treatments and the vaccine.

Staff video, USA TODAY

Antiparasitic medicines such as ivermectin should not be used to treat or prevent COVID-19, doctors for people and animals warn.

While ivermectin is an approvedtreatment for certain parasitic roundworm infections, it has not been shown to be an effective treatment for COVID-19. Additionally, taking over-the-counter medication meant for animals can have dangerous side effects.

There are people across the country that are doing all sorts of things,Great River Health Chief Medical Officer Michael McCoy said. I have seen the reports all across the country of people ending up in emergency departments due to taking ivermectin.

Ivermectin is used in animals to treat fleas and in humans to treat lice. It can also be used to fight ringworm and a number of other parasitic infections. McCoy said he has no clue why the drug has become popular among those seeking alternative treatment for COVID-19.

According to Mitch Hiscocks, a past president of the Iowa Veterinary Medicine Association, ivermectin has been shown to potentially have an effect on the Zika virus, which has spread through mosquitoes, though the reason for this effect isn't quite known.

It looks like (someone) jumped two steps and said ivermectin could treat coronavirus, Hiscocks said.

'You are not a horse': FDA warns against use of ivermectin as a treatment for COVID-19

Whether ivermectin actually treats Zika virus isn't known, what's actually known is that in a laboratory study there seems to be some small effect. Fundamental differences between the Zika and COVID-19 viruses, evidenced by the difference in how theyare spread, could be whatever is potentially making ivermectin have some use against Zika virus, which is spread through mosquitos.

In laboratory settings, ivermectin seemed to slow the production of Zika virus. Laboratory studies, however, are completely controlled by scientists and there is know way to know if occurs in a lab will occur if treating the virus in humans or animals.

Aside from the unproven success of ivermectin as a potential treatment for COVID-19, humans taking ivermectin from farm stores that is meant for animals is problematic for a handful of reasons.

1. Not all forms should be ingested

Ivermectin comes in many forms. There are forms of ivermectin thatare meant for oral consumption, but unless it specifically states it ismeant to beingested, it's likely not meant to be taken orally. Paste, creams or liquid non-oral formulations may be mixed with chemicals that should not be ingested even at small doses.

As an example, Hiscock saidtopical ivermectin that is used to treat cows is more than 90% alcohol, which could cause skin issues if applied topically or serious complications if ingested.

Fact check: 590% jump in poison control calls about ivermectin seen in Texas

2. Overdose risk

Ivermectin at farm stores is usually meant for treating large animals, like cows and horses. A safe dose for an animal may look like 1 cc per 100 pounds, so taking even a teaspoon could result in ingesting more than twice the safe dose, resulting in serious medical complications.

People are taking crazy doses that are meant for veterinary or animal purposes, McCoy said.

Overdoses of ivermectin can cause low blood pressure, problems with balance, seizures, liver injury, and it can eveninduce comas.

3. Dosage based on species

The other problem with humans taking doses of ivermectin meant for animals is that while dosing is based on weight, it is also based on species. So even if someone were to get their hands on ivermectin and take what appears to be the dose for their weight, this dose still could be a drastically different than what is safe for humans.

4. Allergies

Additionally, some people may be allergic to ivermectin, as are some dog breeds.If a dog were to be allergic to ivermectin and ingest it, it could cause the dog to have severe neurologic deficits or perhaps even die due to how severely it effects their nervous system.

Bottom line, if it doesn't say it's meant for humans, you shouldn't be taking it, Hiscocks said.

While those infected with COVID-19 should not attempt self-medicate with ivermectin, they also should not wait to seek treatment from medical professionals.

McCoy said it is very important that patients seek treatment for COVID-19 and not wait until they are so sick they need to be hospitalized. It's a problem McCoy said can cause a number of unanticipated issues.

I think we are seeing patients that are sicker because they waited, he said.

Fact check: Over-the-counter vitamins not proven to treat, prevent COVID-19

McCoy said hospital bed availability doesn't just take into account the number of physical beds. It also depends on the number of patients staff numbers can adequately support.

When considering how many patients a hospital can take, acuity, or the complexity of care required for patients in a hospital unit, must also be considered. The higher the acuity of a unit, the more staff members are needed to care for patients in the unit. Patients who come in sooner may not need to be hospitalized or may have a lower acuity number, meaning the hospital can accept more patients.

More: Iowa COVID hospitalizations highest since January, 25% increase since last week to nearly 500

The hospital also still must do all of its other routine functions in addition to providing COVID-19-related care. So just because the hospital has many beds free does not mean those beds are set aside for COVID-19 patients.

I heard a comment the other day of people saying, 'Why are there people still wearing masks? COVID is over', McCoy recalled.

McCoy said COVID-19 is most definitely not over for southeast Iowa. In fact, numbers at Southeast Iowa Regional Medical Center continue to go up.

More: Des Moines County COVID-19 vaccine tracker: 41% of people fully vaccinated

As of Wednesday, Des Moines County had one of the highest seven-day positivity rates in the state at 16%, with 142 new cases reported in the past week.

McCoy said the hospital has not yet issued a mandate for its staff to be vaccinated against COVID-19. Conversations about whether Great River Health, the health system that operates Southeast Iowa Regional Medical Centers in West Burlington and Fort Madison,will mandate the vaccine are ongoing and the policy could eventually change, but McCoy said it's too early to know.

More here:

Iowa doctor, veterinarian explain why you shouldn't use ivermectin to treat COVID-19 - Burlington Hawk Eye

Photo credit: Astrid Stawiarz - Getty Images

Sure, your necklace looks cute around your neck, your dangly earrings add some flair to your outfit, and your chunky ring spices up your pretty mani. But those jewelry items arent doing any *work* for you, you know? Time to try ear seedslittle ear accessories that can actually double as pain-reducing, good-for-you mental health tools.

Ear seeding, or auriculotherapya practice from traditional Chinese medicine that involves placing a small seed (or metal or ceramic bead with adhesive, which is more common nowadays) on your cartilage and outer earmay set off changes in your nervous system and, in turn, your body and vibe. So if you suffer from issues like stress, allergies, digestion probs, back pain, and more (*slowly raises hand*), you might want to put yourself in the market for these tiny but mighty gadgets.

And while there are tons of supposed benefits, youll want more information about some of the ins and outs of ear seeding before starting to stick them all over your ears. Understandable. The following are all your questions about ear seeds, answered by a doctor of internal medicine, a trained acupuncturist, and a holistic practitioner. In short, your ears are in good hands.

You use ear seeds as a method for quelling mind and body aches, even if theyre particularly painful. You can put an ear seed on one of various points on your ear, depending on what kind of therapeutic benefit you want, says Shari Auth, DACM, a holistic practitioner and cofounder of WTHN acupressure studio.

In Chinese medicine, the ear is a microsystem of the whole body with dozens of pressure points that do different things from relieving pain to boosting digestion, balancing hormones, calming the mind or helping you sleep, Auth explains. And while ear seeds dont work instantly, per se, they can shift your energy pretty fast and, most important, effectively.

The theory is that acupressure points in the ear match up with spots on your body, and by placing the bead, you tell your nervous system to turn down pain receptors and stress hormones impacting the area, says Tiffany Lester, MD, an internist and acupuncturist at Parsley Health.

Story continues

How quickly that happens depends on the issue. In serious pain? It may take a day or two. If you use seeds for stress, though, you should relax within an hour or so of applying.

The placement of your seed doesnt need to be exact in order to work, so its pretty foolproof to DIY; you can buy ear seeds from Amazon or other online retailers. Search ear seed diagram in Google to find an ear acupressure map that shows where to place based on the ailment.

If youd feel more comfortable having a pro do it, you can have seeds applied professionally at some spas and alternative medicine practices, though itll cost anywhere from 35 to 85 dollars for the jewels and involve a 10ish-minute process.

Yes. Ear seeds are pretty much harmless, and they shouldnt cause pain at all. You can even press down on your beads with your fingers when you want a boost in the acupressure benefits (for example, if youre feeling more anxious than normal and need a surge of ahhh), says Auth. A little red dot might appear on your ear, but its nothing more than a baby bruise. Just make sure you dont wear them longer than a week, to avoid uncomfortable swelling or soreness, says Lester. Roger that.

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Ear Seeding Is A Wellness Tool People Are Using To Reduce Stress And Chronic Pain - Yahoo Lifestyle

Some are turning to ivermectin, a parasite medication for horses, to treat COVID-19 despite health officials' warnings over the potential side effects.

ENUMCLAW, Wash. Ivermectin, a medication used to treat parasites in horses, has been flying off the shelves at Bill Meisers Country Farm & Feed in Enumclaw.

Our sales have been up for the past couple of months, over three times as much, Meiser said.

Now Meiser is wondering if hell be able to keep up with the demand.

Were currently out, we sold the last tube this week. We may or may not get a new supply this week, he said.

But wheres the demand for ivermectin coming from?

The drug is being falsely touted as a remedy to COVID-19 in some online spaces. Now, some people are trying to get their hands on the horse medication in any way they can, no matter who, or what its meant to treat.

People, or some people at least, are bypassing the human version and then going to stores with livestock supplies and picking up the medicine for animals, said Dr. Scott Phillips, medical director for the Washington Poison Center. If people are using veterinary products, they may not be making the right dose adjustments, and that makes for a real risk of toxicity.

Ingesting too much ivermectin can lead to side effects that range from nausea to seizures. However, that hasn't stopped people from looking for ivermectin vendors.

As a result, the Washington Poison Center says theyve gotten more people calling over ivermectin poisoning.

If you compare August 2021 to August 2020, weve seen about a threefold increase in the number of cases, Phillips said.

Meanwhile, farmers in Pierce County worry that they may have to look for alternative treatments for the animals that need the medication.

Meiser says he'll be screening requests before selling the drug from now on to make sure it gets to farmers in need.

Were only going to sell it to people we know, or people we know for sure have horses. Were not going to sell it to any new people. Were lucky to get any supply at all, and the people that need it, were gonna try to make the horse people get it, he said.

More:

Ivermectin poisoning cases have increased threefold in Washington, Poison Center says - KING5.com

Did you spread misinformation about COVID-19 today? How do you know? You dont.

Scientific study is just like politics in that diverse opinions achieve balance. When we shut down opposing views of science, we kill the very thing that saves lives. We omit what could be great achievements in medicine. When science is one-sided there is fear, distrust and resentment.

Maybe you choose not to pay attention to developments in science. Maybe you dont mind taking advice that is dictated to you via one-sided practices. Maybe you have an inherent need to learn everything you can from all sides. No matter where you stand, this very diversity of choice has come to a halt. To my point, this is not the way a healthy society thrives. If all needs are not met, no needs are met.

I am told to believe only one thing one view of all that is developing in science. My needs are not being met. I want to talk about doctors who have used alternative therapies for COVID-19. I want to know how COVID-19 was created. I want legitimate and factual explanations for suppression of opposition. There is no way to make sound judgement without all the facts. People are intelligent. We have a need to learn more in-depth information.

Throughout my research into COVID-19, I have been shut down when I am curious about what is deemed misinformation. I want to hear all sides. I want all the answers. I shouldnt be outcasted because of my curiosity. Isnt curiosity what science is based on? This doesnt make me or anyone else who is curious, any of the horrible names we are called. There is no justification for shunning curiosity.

Those that seek all information do not harm anyone. Those who suppress all information are killing science.

I think its time for a live national debate between leading doctors and scientists. A collection of all who want to attend, not just the professionals approved by the current administration.

We need the ability to ask uncomfortable questions. No suppression. No judgement.

Dot Mullins

Chehalis

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Letter to the Editor: Science Is Dead | The Daily Chronicle - Centralia Chronicle

Perhaps we are bored of sharing stories of unvaccinated COVID-19 patients pleading from their deathbeds for others to learn from their mistakes. (I'm not!) But the hot new trend in liberal-and-vaxxed social media is sharing scare stories about ivermectin an anti-parasitical drugcommonly used in farm animals in the U.S. that conservatives have convinced themselves is a robust alternative to getting the COVID-19 vaccine. (It most definitely is not.)But unlike the seemingly endless stream of stories about dying people realizing, far too late, that they should have just gotten the shot instead of playing Own-the-Libs Roulette with a deadly virus, scare stories about ivermectin have an undermining tendency of turning out not to be true.

Last week, a story from Rolling Stone went viral due to a headline that maximized liberal schadenfreude: "Gunshot Victims Left Waiting as Horse Dewormer Overdoses Overwhelm Oklahoma Hospitals, Doctor Says." Delighted at all these idiotic Trumpers poisoning themselves with horse paste, liberals spread the story far and wide.

The problem was that the story simply wasn't true.

As Daniel Dale of CNN explains, it seems the source of the story was a bungled mess of "Telephone"that starts with out-of-context quotes from one doctor.To be certain,Oklahoma hospitals are dealing with overcrowding, but the cause isn't ivermectin overdoses. The actual cause is people refusing the COVID-19 vaccine, then getting COVID-19, and in turn clogging up hospitals because they thought it was more important to thumb their noses as the "liberal establishment" than avoid an extremely dangerous respiratory illness.

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Conservatives were ecstatic about the Rolling Stone retraction, treating thisminor mistake as irrefutable evidence that everything that the mainstream media says about anything is B.S. Breitbart declared the story a "hoax," even though it was most likely just a mistake by overly eager traffic-chasers. Kevin Williamson of the National Review used the story as an anchor for an extremely creepy rant about the largely imaginary problem of the media fabricating the rape crisis. (A few bogus stories don't change the fact that the vast majority of accusations are true, Kev.)

Tellingly, both Breitbart's and National Review'scoverage ignored the real story, which is that risking a severe case of COVID-19 instead of getting vaccinated is a poor lifestyle choice. The word "covid" only shows up in the blockquote from the Rolling Stone correction in the Breitbart story. Williamson uses the word "rape" 13 times in his piece, but he never actually typed the word "covid," which only shows up, again, in the blockquote from the retraction. Instead, he writes, "The most important word in this story is not 'ivermectin' it is 'Oklahoma.'" In truth, however, the most important word is "COVID-19."

While there have been some ivermectin overdoses, the real issue here is not the horse paste or the useless consumption of it by Fox News addicts. The issue is what they're not doing: getting vaccinated. That is whatis causing hospitalizations to spike and over 1,500 people the vast majority unvaccinated to die every day. Conservatives want to debate the safety of ivermectin because it's a way toavoid talking about the real issue, which is COVID-19 and how refusing vaccination is both idiotic and unethical.

Conservatives knowa debate about horse paste safety is a debate they can probably win. While self-administering a drug that's packaged in horse-sized quantities has some dangers, the truth of the matter is ivermectin is generally considered a safe drug and it's used around the world effectively to treat serious diseases in humans, especially river blindness. Making the debate about the ivermectin itself also allows conservativesto pretend that this is a matter of liberal elites mocking the folkways of the common man of middle America as if consuming horse paste is a noble rural traditioninstead of something invented a few months ago as a response to President Joe Biden's well-publicizedvaccine rollout.

If the debate is on the more substantive grounds of vaccine refusal, then conservatives lose handilybecause refusing vaccines is both stupidly risky and, crucially, deeply immoral. Republicans and the apologistsknow this, which is whythey'd rather just talk about how the horse paste is safe. They want to ignore the more embarrassing story of how red-state hospitals are filling up with COVID-19 patients because conservatives think they're too good for a "liberal" shot.

Ivermectin defenders didn't invent this strategy, to be clear. This is a common shell game with "alternative medicine" pushers, who like to talk about how "safe" and "natural" their methods are while avoiding the real issue of how useless they are. "What's the harm?" is a common gambit of alt medicine peddlers.As long as the focus is on the side effects of the fake treatments themselves, they tend to get away with it. But the harm is that people are eschewing treatments that actually work in favor of these fake "alt" treatments, as we've seen in high profile cases like the death of Steve Jobs, who delayed cancer treatments in favor of juices and acupuncture. Not, mind you, because drinking juice is dangerous. No, it was the cancer that got him.

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Unfortunately, liberals play into this strategy by hyping the dangers of ivermectin, instead of dragging the conversation back to the dangers of being unvaccinated. And I get it! I too have succumbed to the urge to share stories about the risks of the horse paste. The problem is, inthe process, far too many liberals are spreading misinformation. The latest scare story claims that ivermectin causes "sterility," which is spreading like wildfire in left-leaning social media, even though it's been thoroughly and easily debunked. And as much fun as it may be to imagine Joe Rogan inadvertently sterilizing himself, it's way too easy for conservatives to exploit these fake stories as "proof" that they are being victimized for their quaint horse paste-eating ways.

Far too many liberals are taking the right-wing bait and imagining that this is a debate about the safety of horse paste vs. vaccines. But the real debate, the one conservatives are skillfully avoiding, is over whether it's safer to be vaccinated or unvaccinated. On that front, the evidence is clear and irrefutable: Being unvaccinated is exponentially more dangerous, as a quick glance of the COVID-19 hot spot map shows.

This is a classic opportunity cost problem. Time spent arguing about the safety of horse paste is time that could be better used talking about the risks of getting COVID-19 by refusing vaccination. Plus, who knows what the next "miracle cure" the right comes up with as an excuse to avoid taking a safe, effective vaccine? For all we know, it could be meditation and kale juice, long walks in the woods, or just standing on your head for a few minutes a day. The issue isn't that the "alternatives" to vaccination are dangerous. It's that not being vaccinated is dangerous. And liberals should resist any and all efforts by conservatives to muddy the waters with distractions like the fake debate over the safety of horse paste.

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Why is everyone arguing over horse paste? To avoid discussion about the dangers of vaccine refusal - Salon

Reports of medicine shortages in France have risen sixfold since 2016, with over a hundred different drugs affected.

Some of the most commonly reported shortages concern medicines used to treat high blood pressure, cardiovascular conditions and neurological issues.

Last year, one in four people reported difficulties in obtaining the medicines they needed because of their scarcity.

Earlier this month it was announced that pharmaceutical laboratories would from now on have to stock at least two months worth of products of major therapeutic interest to avoid shortages.

We look at the drugs that are most frequently reported to be in short supply, and the potential reasons behind this.

Which medicines are affected?

Medicine shortages have risen year on year since 2016, when there were 405 reports of a laboratory warning that they may run out of stock. In 2020, this figure had risen to 2,446, according to Frances medicines agency, l'Agence nationale de scurit du mdicament et des produits de sant (ANSM).

The spread of Covid-19 also caused a shortage of the muscle relaxant curare, which was widely used to treat intensive care patients.

ANSM reports also show that blood pressure medications irbesartan and ramipril, as well as other medicines concerning the cardiovascular and nervous systems are often subject to shortages.

Risperidone, which is used to treat schizophrenia, and lansoprazole, which eases stomach inflammation and ulcers, are also among the most commonly reported shortages.

When certain medications are in short supply, healthcare workers are left without an alternative treatment.

A November 2020 study* carried out by consumer group UFC-Que Choisir indicated that in 18% of cases, laboratories do not offer any substitute, leaving patients in a terrible impasse.

For other medications, manufacturers might suggest a mediocre alternative that may bring with it dangerous side effects, the group said

*The UFC-Que Choisir study concerned the 140 medicines reported to be out of stock or in short supply by the ANSM in July 2020.

What has caused the problem?

This rise in reports of shortages is in part due to the introduction of a 2016 law which lowered the threshold upon which laboratories were required to report a lack of supply to the ANSM.

The 2020 Loi de financement de la scurit sociale (Law on the funding of social security) also reinforced the sanctions that laboratories might face if they failed to declare a potential stock shortage as far in advance as possible.

Figures also indicate that medicine supply was impacted significantly by the Covid-19 pandemic, with 700 shortages reported in March and April 2020 alone, when countries were closing their borders to combat the virus spread.

At that time, 80-85% of Frances medicines and active medical ingredients were produced in China, according to Economy and Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire, who described this situation as irresponsible and unreasonable.

Even before the pandemic began, this dependence had posed issues. In 2017, to reduce its emissions, China limited the electricity supply of some industrial zones, which housed several pharmaceutical factories. This led to a global shortage of the antibiotic amoxicillin and clavulanic acid.

Several experts in the pharmaceutical field have also suggested that the short supply of many cheap, commonly used drugs may be down to the economic strategy of the manufacturing company.

Philippe Lamoureux, director general of pharmaceutical companies association LEEM told Le Monde that when medicines enter the public domain and the market is filled with competitors, their price falls very rapidly.

Sometimes the price falls below the cost of production, and so the medicine is no longer produced.

An ANSM study on the 3,530 shortage reports made between 2012 and 2018 showed that 63.4% of the medicines in question had first been made available over 10 years before, meaning that they were no longer profitable for the manufacturers.

If production stops and supply is reduced, demand and therefore profitability will increase.

Decisions to stop manufacturing certain medicines have direct effects on patients. On September 7, Franceinfo reported on the story of Marc, who was forced to have his bladder removed following repeated shortages of the medicines he needed for his cancer treatment.

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France medicine shortage: Which products are affected and why? - The Connexion

LYNCHBURG, VAAstounded by the damning information, local anti-vaxxer Pete Dixon was reportedly horrified Thursday after discovering that every single American who got a smallpox vaccine in the 19th century was now deceased. Were expected to follow along blindly with the CDC, but if people would simply look to the history, theyd see that the thousands of people who were inoculated against smallpox in the 1800s have since dropped dead, said Dixon, telling reporters that it was disgusting that the mainstream media had refused to share any stories about Americans who had taken the government-mandated vaccines, only to eventually perish from complications including respiratory failure, cancer, heart attack, stroke, or cholera. They act like these shots are completely safe and tested, but I guarantee that future historians are going to look back on this time period centuries from now and discover that everyone who took the Covid vaccine is dead, too. Dixon added that despite the medias constant downplaying of alternative medicine, not a single person in the 19th century had died from ingesting ivermectin.

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Horrified Anti-Vaxxer Discovers Every American Who Got Smallpox Vaccine In 19th Century Now Dead - The Onion

When Kimberly Sheldon was 47, she says made the biggest mistake of her life. That was in 2018, when she says that a dentist explained to her that cutting the tissue under her tongue would help her jaw pain, gum recession, and occasional headaches. Her issues, he said, could be due to the fact that the back of her tongue couldnt reach the roof of her mouth. With a quick laser slice, a $600 charge, and some instruction on tongue exercises, he seemed confident that she would feel better soon after.

But, according to her account, the dentist didnt explain the possible risks, which include nerve damage and scarring that can restrict the tongue. Sheldon only found out about the issues after she experienced them. Since then, she says, the effects have torn her life apart.

The idea that tongue position can contribute to health problems is not well-supported by research, but its edging towards the mainstream. Millions of people are watching YouTube videos about how the tongue allegedly influences the face and jaw, and books, videos, websites, and social media posts say that improper tongue position can contribute to a host of health issues dental problems, sleep apnea, headaches, neck and back pain, and more. These ideas are especially becoming popular in dentistry echoed by Colgate and a dental hygienists magazine. Some even claim that changing the tongue position can make people more attractive.

Two proposed solutions to help with an allegedly poor tongue posture are becoming more popular, which may be done together or separately (in Sheldons case, her dentist recommended both). The first is myofunctional therapy, a series of exercises to strengthen the tongue so that it can rest on the roof of the mouth. Celebrities, including Kourtney Kardashian, are promoting this therapy. The second is surgery on what some practitioners call a tongue-tie a condition in which the tissue under the tongue, called the frenulum, is supposedly restricted.

Some tongue-ties are undisputed diagnoses generally in very young children. In infancy, a type of tongue-tie where the frenulum attaches all the way to the front of the tongue and severely restricts its movement has been treated for hundreds of years. More controversial are hidden, or posterior, tongue-ties, which, as Undark previously reported, are increasingly diagnosed and cut in children. Adult tongue-tie diagnoses also lack rigorous evidence.

Despite the limited evidence, myofunctional therapy and tongue-tie surgeries are increasingly promoted as a treatment for the many ailments attributed to poor tongue posture in adults. Especially concerning, some experts say, is the claim that the therapy is an alternative treatment for sleep apnea, despite a lack of evidence and with possible risks to patients.

Many doctors, however, caution against the idea that changing tongue posture is a panacea. I think people want to believe that myofunctional therapy is helpful, Eric Kezirian, a professor and physician of otolaryngology head and neck surgery at the University of Southern California, wrote in an email. The problem is that the history of health care is littered with thousands upon thousands of treatments that were not helpful, or were in many cases harmful, in spite of peoples best intentions. (An otolaryngologist is also called an ear, nose, and throat doctor, or ENT.)

To be sure, some patients say that tongue surgery and therapy has been life changing. In an invite-only Facebook group for tongue-tied adults, which has more than 15,000 members, some advocates report improvements in everything from facial composition to migraines, neck tension, anxiety, and even bowel movements. But not everyone has a positive experience. After the numbing wore off from Sheldons procedure, she says the pain was horrific; her tongue was pulled backwards and pinned down, gagging her. Her dentist recommended more tongue exercises, she says. It didnt help. After months without improvement, Sheldon said a member of the Facebook group referred her to an oral surgeon four hours away, who also set her up with a myofunctional therapist.

The new surgeon said her problems were obvious: The first dentist missed a bit of tissue or ligament, and he would fix it with a second procedure. But after that second laser cut, Sheldon had a persistent painful burning sensation at the base of her tongue, and the tip and the underside became permanently numb some of the nerves were damaged, she recalls being told. She couldnt swallow solid foods, she says, and her weight dropped from 140 pounds to 106. Eventually, she was hospitalized due to difficulty swallowing, and got occupational therapy to help. Now, she sees a doctor every three months for related chronic pain.

When the frenulum is cut, it could damage nerves, salivary glands, and ducts that lead to salivary glands, says Soroush Zaghi, an otolaryngologist and sleep surgeon, as well as the medical director of The Breathe Institute in California, where Kardashian is a patient. Theres also a risk of scarring, which Zaghi says is the most common adverse outcome. Scar tissue can cause the tongue to contract and reduce tongue mobility.

Nonetheless, Zaghi advocates for a surgery that cuts through the frenulum and sometimes into the muscle. He calls the procedure a frenuloplasty, during which he cuts until the patient is able to lift their tongue so the tip is just behind the front teeth when their mouth is fully open, and the back of their tongue can reach the roof of the mouth. (Sheldons laser surgery was a different approach, and there is no consensus or evidence to indicate if one technique is better.)

A tongue-tie, Zaghi asserts, can contribute to improper facial development in children, plus mouth breathing, sleep apnea, and more. However, Cristina Baldassari, an otolaryngologist and sleep medicine specialist at Childrens Hospital of The Kings Daughters in Norfolk, Virginia, wrote in an email that there are no high quality research studies that demonstrate that tongue-tie causes any of these issues. The few studies that do exist have include small numbers of patients, or lack a control group.

Zaghi and others also promote myofunctional therapy, sometimes in conjunction with frenuloplasty, as a treatment for obstructive sleep apnea. But Baldassari says there isnt sufficient evidence to support myofunctional therapy as a sleep apnea treatment, either. The few small studies that have been done did not show that the therapy alone could decrease moderate to severe sleep apnea. Baldassari says she worries that real harm could come to sleep apnea patients with a severe disorder if they eschew conventional medical treatment for tongue therapy, because there are risks for medical complications like stroke and heart attack if the disease goes untreated.

The problem is that the history of health care is littered with thousands upon thousands of treatments that were not helpful, or were in many cases harmful, in spite of peoples best intentions, wrote Kezirian.

Cutting the frenulum could even make sleep worse, Baldassari says. Slicing through the tether could cause the tongue to fall back into the throat, obstructing the airway during sleep. This concern was echoed by Karthik Balakrishnan, a professor and physician of otolaryngology head and neck surgery at Stanford University, though he pointed out theres no research on the subject to know for sure. And even Zaghi says some people are better off with an intact frenulum, including those who dont have enough space to accommodate their tongue high in their mouth, and those with low tongue muscle tone (though Zaghi cannot point to a method for providers to objectively assess these things, he says hes working on it).

Baldassari points out that researchers know the tongue is involved in sleep apnea devices that send electrical signals to the tongue, which cause it to move outward during inhalation during sleep, are effective at enlarging the airway. But, she says, if this tongue stimulation is strengthening the tongue, like myofunctional therapy proposes to do, it doesnt have a lasting effect; if doctors turn the device off after a year, patients still have sleep apnea.

Yet Baldassari doesnt mind if someone with mild sleep apnea or other conditions like neck tension, anxiety, bad posture, allergies, or teeth grinding, want to try myofunctional therapy, despite the lack of research, because she says theres little risk. Still, she added in an email, it likely will be a waste of time and money.

In addition to the lack of strong evidence, both the tongue therapies and surgeries dont have strong professional standards. Neither has a standardized protocol, so the process varies from one practitioner to another. And while tongue-tie surgeries are performed by licensed doctors or dentists, myofunctional therapists have no system of licensure. Sarah Hornsby, a myofunctional therapist a sizable YouTube following and therapy co-director at The Breathe Institute, who offers a training program through the institute, acknowledges that this lack of standardization is one reason the medical community is skeptical of the therapy and says it is something therapists are working towards.

Though Zaghi has published a method for assessing tongue-ties, he argues that at least some standards for myofunctional therapy are unnecessary. For instance, he says that myofunctional therapy shouldnt all be based on one persons protocols he compared it to an exercise regimen, pointing out that there are benefits whether someone does yoga, pilates, weightlifting, or running.

Other experts disagree. If an exercise is used as a medical treatment, it needs to be researched that shows its effective, says Kezirian. Myofunctional therapy has nothing like this, he wrote in an email. (Kezirian holds a patent for a device to correct obstructive sleep apnea, as well as for head and neck exercises done with an apparatus to improve sleep disordered breathing, though he is not currently selling either product.) Not only do variations in practices make it difficult for researchers to evaluate whether it works, Baldassari wrote that if there is a lack of standardization, there is no way to ensure that patients are getting adequate therapy.

Myofunctional therapy lacks standardized training programs, too. A myofunctional therapist is often a dental hygienist, as Hornsby was; other times, the therapist may be a dentist or speech language pathologist who has completed a short online training program. Most of these programs, which are not accredited by a professional organization, cost thousands of dollars. (Several organizations, including the International Association of Orofacial Myology, do offer certifications to those who complete their training.) Even tongue-tie revision surgery training for dentists can be done online, or through a two-day course with two hours of hands-on instruction, and Zaghi teaches his frenuloplasty method online since the pandemic began.

Baldassari wrote that if there is a lack of standardization, there is no way to ensure that patients are getting adequate therapy.

Despite the lack of training and standards, myofunctional therapists stand to earn more than they did as dental hygienists, with fees ranging from $80 to $250 per session; those who are also dentists or speech therapists can charge more. And dentists who revise adult tongue-ties can charge up to about $1,500 for the procedure. I do not want to suggest ulterior motives, Kezirian wrote in an email, but of course treatment is offered to patients that pay for services, often on their own because these treatments are not covered by medical insurance.

Sheldon has also noticed these financial incentives. She avoids the adult tongue-tie Facebook group these days because she says practitioners are also members, and stand to profit from the groups messages. And when someone has an issue after a tongue-tie surgery, members tend to doubt whether that person did enough myofunctional therapy or found the right provider, instead of questioning the procedure itself.

Sheldon says she has struggled to forgive herself for agreeing to do something that brought her chronic pain and health problems. But one thing brings her peace: Because of her experience, she sought a second opinion when an orthodontist suggested that her son needed tongue-tie surgery in order for his teeth to be straightened. What happened to her, she says, saved her son from the possibility of a similar fate. Now, she adds, I dont believe that were supposed to be cutting peoples frenulums.

Christina Szalinski is a freelance science writer with a Ph.D. in cell biology based near Philadelphia.

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Short on Evidence, Dubious Therapies Turn to the Tongue - Undark Magazine

According to new research, replacing salt with a low-sodium alternative can lower the risk of stroke in people with high blood pressure. Published in the New England Journal of Medicine, the study looked at the effects of sodium on heart disease, stroke, and death.

Previous studies have shown that both elevated sodium and low potassium intake are associated with high blood pressure, cardiovascular disease, and premature death. Salt substitutes have been shown to lower blood pressure, but there have been concerns about using them in people with chronic kidney disease, as they could cause hyperkalemia, which may lead to cardiac arrhythmias and sudden death.

This new study was conducted in 600 villages in the rural areas of five provinces in China. There was a total of 20,995 participants who were divided into two groups.

One used regular salt, and one used a salt substitute that had about 75% sodium chloride and 25% potassium chloride. Participants in the salt substitute group were encouraged to use the replacement more sparingly than they would normally use salt to maximize their sodium reduction.

The average age of all participants was 65.4 years, and 49.5% were female. Of all participants, 72.6% had a history of stroke and 88.4% had a history of hypertension.

Researchers set an average follow-up of 4.74 years and found that more than 3,000 people had a stroke, more than 4,000 died, and more than 5,000 had a major cardiovascular event. Of these events, it was noted that the risk of stroke was reduced with a salt substitute compared to regular salt.

Major cardiovascular events were also reduced in the group that took the salt substitute, along with total mortality.

Principal investigator Professor Bruce Neal said, This study provides clear evidence about an intervention that could be taken up very quickly at very low cost. A recent modeling study done for China projected that 365,000 strokes and 461,000 premature deaths could be avoided each year in China if a salt substitute was proved to be effective. We have now shown that it is effective, and these are the benefits for China alone. Salt substitution could be used by billions more with even greater benefits.

Low-sodium salt substitution is a more practical way of achieving changes in the amount of salt that people consume. Many people struggle to reduce their salt intake, and this provides a way to achieve a reduction in daily consumption.

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Replacing Salt with a Low-Sodium Alternative Lowers the Risk of Stroke: Study - Bel Marra Health

A recent study by Rajiv Gandhi Cancer Institute and Research Centre Delhi says that psychological distress is driving cancer patients to alternative medicines.

Written by Jahnavi Sarma | Updated : September 3, 2021 7:40 PM IST

In India, alternative therapies are a part of life. Since ancient times and even before the advent of modern medicine, people have opted for healing therapies like Ayurveda, Siddhi and homeopathy to treat their minor and serious ailments. But in modern times too, this practice is evident and, in fact, recently there has been a revived interest in these alternative therapies. But how feasible is this when you are suffering from a serious illness like cancer? And, what is it that compels people to try out alternative therapies? These questions are important because, most of the time, patients do not inform their doctor that they are taking such treatments and more often than not the treating oncologist may also not enquire about CAM with their patients.

Research carried out at Rajiv Gandhi Cancer Institute and Research Centre Delhi (RGCIRC) has revealed wide usage of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) amongst cancer patients in India. According to researchers, there is a direct correlation between psychological distress and the use of CAM therapies among cancer patients, not only in India but also elsewhere in the world. A national health survey from the USA in 2007 showed a considerable increase in the popularity of different CAM therapies, such as acupuncture and naturopathy, over the last few years irrespective of age and social status. Another similar health survey conducted in 2010 in the UK found that more than one-third of patients used some form of Complementary therapy while using prescribed drugs.

For the purpose of the study, researchers interviewed 303 patients undergoing cancer treatment at RGCIRC. The patients were aged between 15 to 88 years. More than a third (104 participants) responded positively to taking CAM therapies. Out of these, 61 per cent had taken these therapies before approaching the hospital for conventional treatment. And, 39 per cent of these patients were still taking these therapies in a complementary manner. Researchers saw that Ayurveda was the most preferred form of therapy and 85 per cent patients from both groups choose it. The majority of the participants belonged to either middle or lower-middle-class families (56 per cent and 35 per cent) respectively.

Researchers also screened patients using a tool called Distress Thermometer (DT), which is developed by NCCN. This tool measures patients' subjective reports on the level and severity of cancer related distress on a scale of 0 to 10. Here, '0' means no distress and '10' means extreme distress. Researchers saw that a majority of patients, 79 per cent, suffered significant psychological distress.

Putting the results of the interview and the psychological screening together, researchers found a strong correlation between level of psychological distress and the use of CAM therapies. This means that with increasing levels of psychological distress, patients tend to choose CAM more often. Another thing that researchers saw was that awareness of cancer diagnosis and its prognosis was found to relieve psychological distress. But using CAM therapies before diagnosis may lead to poor prognosis. Dr Vineet Talwar, Director Medical Oncology RGCIRC says, "Taking recourse to CAM therapies before standard treatment may also explain the delay in diagnosis of cancer."

A patient may decide to try alternative therapy for treating cancer due to a number of reasons. According to researchers 44 per cent patients go for it after seeing advertisements on radio, TV, the Internet and Newspaper, suggestions from family and relatives influence around 31 per cent of patients and 19 per cent were influenced by suggestions by fellow patients. A majority of patients, 81 per cent, felt that there were no side effects associated with CAM therapies and 40 per cent were satisfied with such therapies.

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Is Use Of Alternative Therapy By Cancer Patients Feasible? Heres What A RGCIRC Study Says - TheHealthSite