September – An article in Glycobiology (Schnaar and Freeze, 18, 652-657 (2008) Paper), entitled “A ‘Glyconutrient Sham’,” attacks the products and marketing of Mannatech.  (The prefix “glyco-“refers to “sugar,” and “glycobiology” is a field that deals with complex sugar-containing molecules in living things.  “Glyconutrients” is not a term used by scientists, but rather was invented by the dietary supplement industry for products with plant-derived sugars that allegedly provide health benefits.)  The authors note that “legitimate discoveries in glycobiology have been used as marketing tools to help sell plant extracts termed ‘glyconutrients’.”  Except for individuals with certain rare medical conditions, there is no good evidence that taking any sugar-containing supplement is of value.  A Response from the President and CEO of Mannatech was published in the same issue (Persinger, 18, 658).

September – A large German study examined benefits of acupuncture for headache (Jena et al., Cephalalgia 28, 969-979 (2008) Abstract) News story.  About 15,000 patients with chronic headache participated.  Approximately 1500 each were randomly assigned to acupuncture plus routine care or were controls (only routine care), and the remaining 12,000 received acupuncture plus routine care.  Treatments were given for three months, and outcomes measured and three months and six months.  Acupuncture was found to decrease pain and number of days with headaches.  As pointed out in an editorial by Diener (28, 911-913), there was a major flaw in the study: no control for the placebo effects of acupuncture.  Many studies of acupuncture have found that sham acupuncture, as well as acupuncture using nonspecific points, give results that are nearly the same as “true” acupuncture.

September 15 – Wang et al. published a review of acupuncture for the pain of rheumatoid arthritis (Arthritis Rheum. 59, 1249-1256 (2008) Abstract).  They concluded that “conflicting evidence exists in placebo-controlled trials concerning the efficacy of acupuncture for RA.  Rigorous and well-controlled randomized trials are warranted.”

September 18 – The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) “announced 11 law enforcement actions challenging deceptive advertising of bogus cancer cures. The FTC charged the companies with making unsupported claims that their products cured or treated one or more types of cancer” Press release.  The products included herbal remedies, laetrile, shark cartilage, essiac tea, hydrazine sulfate, cantron, digestive enzymes, coral calcium, and black salve.  “The FTC also announced a new Web site about bogus cancer cures. The site – www.ftc.gov/curious  – tells consumers how to spot and report bogus claims they see online, and urges people with cancer to talk to their treatment team about any products they’d like to try.”

September 26 – A government-funded clinical trial of chelation therapy for heart disease has been halted News story.  Chelation therapy uses intravenous injections of a chemical such as EDTA to remove calcium from the body, supposedly reducing atherosclerotic plaque.  However, critics have long maintained that there is little reason to think that the approach will work.  The new study, which was to be the largest ever of alternative medicine, was interrupted due to charges that subjects were not fully informed of possible dangers due to the treatment.  As noted in an Associated Press story, alternative medicine critic Dr. Kimball Atwood said that “the heart disease study was based on misrepresentations about safety and effectiveness and ‘should never have been approved’.”

October – As discussed in our Featured Topic on glucosamine and chondroitin sulfate, a large study reported in 2006 found no benefit in treatment of osteoarthritis of the knee.  However, one subgroup in the study (those with moderate to severe pain) appeared to benefit from the supplements.  Thus, another study was carried out, using a larger group of such patients (Sawitzke et al., Arthritis & Rheumatism 58, 3183-3191 (2008) Abstract) News story.  The study examined 572 patients for two years.  They received glucosamine, chondroitin sulfate, glucosamine plus chondroitin sulfate, a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug (celecoxib), or placebo.  No group showed statistically significant differences from placebo.  As pointed out in our Featured Topic article, treatment with glucosamine or chondroitin sulfate does not make sense from the standpoint of basic biochemical knowledge.

October – For the last 10 years, there have been public concerns over claimed connections between vaccinations and autism.  Some of these related to small amounts of mercury used in preservatives in some vaccines.  However, as discussed in these news pages, numerous scientific studies have shown no connection between autism and vaccines in general, and mercury in particular.  Another idea is that the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine is related to autism by causing either a measles infection or an abnormal immune response.  Baird and coworkers studied this proposal (Arch. Dis. Child. 93, 832-837 (2008) Abstract) News story.  They compared British children with and without autism, and children that had received one or two MMR vaccinations.  The presence of measles virus, and evidence of altered immune responses to measles, was tested.  No differences were found between groups, indicating that the vaccine is unrelated to autism.

October – There is concern that high doses of vitamin C may be harmful during cancer treatment because it could protect tumor cells from being destroyed by drugs or radiation.  A paper by Heaney et al. (Cancer Res. 68, 8031-8038 (2008) Abstract) supports this concern.  The workers examined two types of cancer cells grown in the laboratory.  Cells that were pretreated with vitamin C were less sensitive to damage by five different anti-cancer drugs.

October 4 – An Italian study of nearly 7000 patients with heart failure tested whether omega-3 fatty acids, from fish oil, would be beneficial (Gissi-HF Investigators, Lancet 372, 1223-1230 (2008) Abstract) News story.  Compared to patients receiving placebo pills, those receiving the omega-3 fatty acids had slightly fewer deaths and hospital admissions.

October 8 – Studies of St. John’s wort for depression have given conflicting results.  An updated review by the Cochrane Collaboration (Linde et al., Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, Issue 4, CD000448 (2008) Abstract) examined 29 trials of St. John’s wort for major depression News story.  The evidence suggests that St. John’s wort is as effective as standard drugs taken for depression, with fewer side effects.  However, there is some concern over the validity of the conclusions, since the most favorable results were observed in German-speaking countries and in smaller trials.

October 15 – It has been observed that there are elevated levels of homocysteine in patients with Alzheimer’s disease.  Aisen and coworkers (JAMA 300, 1774-1783 (2008) Paper) tested whether three B vitamins that can decrease homocysteine levels (folate, B₆, and B₁₂) would be beneficial in Alzheimer’s.  Participants received B vitamins or placebo for 18 months.  The vitamins were effective in reducing homocysteine levels.  However, they did not provide any benefit in reducing the decline of mental function.

October 21 – An article by Harriet Hall, originally published in Skeptic, and entitled “Puncturing the Acupuncture Myth,” has been presented in revised form in the Science-Based Medicine blog.  The article concludes: “Considering the inconsistent research results, the implausibility of qi and meridians, and the many questions that remain, all the current evidence is compatible with this hypothesis: acupuncture is nothing more than a recipe for an elaborate placebo seasoned with a soupcon of counter-irritant. That is what R. Barker Bausell concluded in his book Snake Oil Science. The world’s first professor of complementary medicine, Dr. Edzard Ernst, is more accepting of low-prior-plausibility evidence than some of us; but even he used the words ‘tentative’ and ‘might’ when he recently wrote, ‘While there is tentative evidence that acupuncture might be effective for some forms of pain relief and nausea, it fails to deliver any medical benefit in any other situations and its underlying concepts are meaningless.’”