Presently Australia is experiencing a major whooping cough (pertussis) epidemic.
It’s been in epidemic proportions since 2008-2009. Interestingly 2007 was the third lowest year on record since notification became compulsory in 1991. 2009 was a notably bad year for pertussis. A major contributor to epidemics is low pertussis vaccination rates, as evidenced here, in the UK and the USA. Adult boosters are crucial in combating this.
Contrary to certain claims this epidemic is not due to the pertussis vaccine nor does it demonstrate inherent flaws in the efficacy of pertussis vaccination. We do know that the age at which pertussis vaccine induced immunity wanes has fallen. Exactly how this relates to the acellular vaccine vs the older whole cell vaccine and the bordetella pertussis bacteria, is complex. However, there is a basic account here, along with interviews on The World Today and some musing on the error in blaming vaccine efficacy.
California experienced a severe epidemic in 2010, confirming the problem with waning immunity. Often used as a trick by antivaccination lobbyists to claim “the vaccinated” mostly get pertussis, the reality is different. Vaccinated individuals can catch a much milder form of pertussis, yet unvaccinated patients experience severe illness, disability and even death. In this same article, under Waning Pertussis Immunity Comes as No SurpriseDr. Carol Baker writes in part:
The California epidemic was caused by underimmunization of some children, and by waning immunity in fully vaccinated children. It showed that we are not where we need to be to have herd immunity. The 2010 California outbreak caught everyone’s attention.
Recently in Australia claims were made about pertussis vaccine inefficacy on ABC which I looked at here. It’s a favourite theme of the AVN and if you’re keen to look at exposing tactics it has popped up here, and here involving abuse of WHO data whilst we even have a cameo from Viera Scheibner pushing much the same at about the 6:45 mark.
Regarding adult boosters of 1 dose, the NCIRS fact sheet on pertussis (below), backed by citations states [my bold]:
The efficacy of the pertussis components of dTpa vaccines administered to adolescents and adults is inferred from the serologic results obtained in infants immunised with paediatric DTPa in pertussis efficacy trials. For both dTpa vaccine formulations, the immune responses to all pertussis vaccine antigens in adolescents and adults 1 month after a single dose of dTpa were non-inferior to those of infants after 3 doses of DTPa.
A large clinical trial in adolescents and adults demonstrated overall vaccine efficacy against confirmed pertussis of 92%, and a clinical trial in adults demonstrated prolonged immunogenicity from a single dTpa booster dose, with pertussis antibodies remaining above pre-booster dose levels in 85% of participants for 5 years after immunisation.
It’s widely known pertussis boosters are or have been available free in many states and territories. This may vary between new parents, family members, foster parents and other adults as a view of this Immunise Australia page suggests. It’s probably best to contact your own health department or just call the local GP. So, how are adults going keeping up with boosters?
An estimated 11.3% of Australians aged 18 years and over had received a pertussis vaccination as an adult or adolescent. Uptake was substantially higher among parents of infants aged less than 12 months old (51.5%).
Hmmm. It seems we can certainly lift our game. If you haven’t had a booster for 4-5 years please get one. If you’re an adult likely to be in contact with a newborn then definitely get one.
If you’re none too happy with the conduct of the antivaccination lobby the single greatest effect you can have against them is to get a pertussis booster. As adult herd immunity rises less infections will be passed to at risk children, non-immunised infants, other adults and there will be less notification in total. This will serve to deflate the claim that rising diagnoses are ipso facto proof that childhood vaccination is a failure.
The Australian Vaccination Network wrongly compares 95% pertussis vaccination rates in young children (11% of diagnosed age groups) with 11.3% of adult vaccination (89% of diagnosed age groups). Then claim total population infection (100% of all diagnoses) is due to ineffectiveness of childhood vaccination alone.
For example Meryl Dorey compares vaccination rates of small children – which are around 95% – with diagnosis across all age groups – which include adults at around 11.3% – to secure high notification levels. Of the 18 age groups making up notifications only 2 correspond to the 95% vaccination rate. 16 age groups fall outside that at which immunity begins to wane (the 11.3% vaccination rate). Including numbers of infants too young to have completed pertussis vaccination, it’s clear Dorey’s figures come most primarily from the unvaccinated and non immune.
Today, ABC AM interviewed a parent who lost a four week old to pertussis. She said:
I hadn’t had a booster and the most heart-wrenching thing for us is that we were not warned, there was meant to be a yellow warning sticker go on [her] blue book in the hospital, we didn’t get one.
We didn’t know about adults requiring boosters, nor did any of the adults around us, none of our family or friends knew and we also didn’t know that the area I was living in was in the grip of an epidemic.
Well, now we do know. There’s really no excuse if you’re able to be vaccinated.
Julie Leask, a research fellow and lecturer at the National Centre for Immunisation Research & Surveillance is a social scientist specialising in vaccination issues. Julie also lectures at the University of Sydney and Sydney Medical School.
She chats with Louise Maher on ABC 666, Friday November 25th about the government’s linking of vaccination to financial incentives.
On Friday November 25th after Nicola Roxon and Jenny Macklin announced the Stronger Immunisation Incentives reform, Meryl Dorey went on a lying frenzy.
First up was ABC 612 Mornings programme with Terri Begley. You can listen in the player below or download the audio here.
Let’s deal with Dorey’s second lie first. That Nicola Roxon’s media release makes no mention of Conscientious Objectors. This is also being propagated on the AVN’s Yahoo! email list as “despicable” on the part of Nicola Roxon. There’s “no mention” of it cries another AVN member whilst yet another writes authoritatively:
That exemption is rendered effectively unavailable to all those parents who hear, officially or semi-officially, only that there is no exemption, as is implicit in Dr Roxon’s media release, which is therefore highly deceptive.
Highly deceptive? Implicit in Dr. Roxon’s media release? [R]endered effectively unavailable? What planet are these people on? You can read the release in my prior post in PDF (on page 2) or visit the Health Ministers web page here. And what do we read smack bang in the middle of this “highly deceptive… despicable” media release?
Existing exemptions will continue to be available for people who register as conscientious objectors to immunisation.
Oh.
Would that stop Meryl Dorey from lying on air? Surely our self styled guru would at least read the media release. Search for the words “conscientious objector”? As Meryl told Terri Begley:
I have not seen anywhere in this information that’s coming out today to say that you are entitled to be a conscientious objector and still get the money. If the money is being given out it should be given out to all, whether you vaccinate or not, um, otherwise it becomes a matter of discrimination and I don’t think the Government wants to be discriminating against people, that is the wrong thing to do.
Frankly, that’s just not good enough. There are a lot of implicit accusations there, all wrong and all based on ignorance at best or Dorey’s own deception at worst. This is perhaps Roxon’s mistake here. She has failed to see that such a move will give the antivaccination lobby a soap box from which to embellish their misinformation and promote Conscientious Objection. Dumping the Maternity Immunisation Allowance and linking Family Tax Benefits as an “incentive” to complete vaccination schedules, may well become an incentive toward Conscientious Objection.
Earlier Dorey tries to make a link between pertussis vaccination of very young children in the ACT and the notification levels of pertussis in all age groups. National Notifiable Diseases Surveillance System data do not provide notification for each state and territory by age. I’ll get onto that again after we visit Dorey’s second ABC interview.
You may remember Dorey’s reply to the HCCC over complaints made. In September 2009 she wrote [bold mine]:
… the current increase in the incidence of pertussis has nothing to do with any purported decline in the rate of vaccination. Instead, we are seeing an outbreak of pertussis despite a substantial increase in vaccination against it – an experience which is being duplicated in every country for which mass vaccination against this illness exists.
She cited articles with the opposite argument to hers and even went as far as plagiarising a WHO graph. Despite the HCCC finding against her Dorey has made this claim often only last July blaming the vaccine for an increasing death rate. She makes this claim again on air except this time implicates the USA claiming [bold mine]:
…they are actually blaming the use of the whooping cough vaccine for this outbreak that’s occurring in the countries where the vaccine is being used.
This has also been picked up over at Thinking is Real which includes a terrific piece by piece breakdown of Meryl’s earlier distortion of an article she’d posted to Facebook. Dorey claimed it as proof that the pertussis vaccine is “ineffective”, where it says no such thing. It’s essential reading for those interested in Dorey’s tactics. Indeed the article reinforces all we know about pertussis immunity and the newer acellular vaccine.
Then it’s on to Louise Maher for Drivetime on ABC 666. Again you can listen below or download the audio here.
By this time Meryl has discovered CO still applies but is arguing government flyers and media reports aren’t stressing this fact loudly enough. Dorey’s risk to public health is borne out again as she raises the need for parents “who have done their research” to be able to avoid vaccination, get CO forms signed and still be able to collect FBT, way above the vital need to have their children vaccinated.
Nicola Roxon’s intent to raise the profile of vaccination schedules as essential to public health is being outdone by a conspiracy theorist arguing that the vaccines we’re using are not even known to “be safe and effective”, yet parents are being “bribed” to comply. Instead the government should be testing these perhaps unsafe and ineffective vaccines and comparing the health of vaccinated vs unvaccinated children, Dorey suggests with a straight face.
Then the distortion about pertussis again [bold mine]:
… we’re finding in the United States and in all other countries that use the mass whooping cough vaccination that the vaccination is not leading to a decrease in disease.
No doubt Dorey would be aware that the ACT Government’s alert on pertussis includes informing the population about a targeted adult vaccination program and states under “What else can you do to protect your baby?”:
Ensure your baby is vaccinated on time, this can be done from 6 weeks of age.
Ensure everyone in your household is up to date with their vaccinations.
The efficacy of pertussis vaccination is beyond doubt. It’s role in saving infant lives is irrefutable. Whilst vaccinated children may contract pertussis they receive a much milder infection and experience non life threatening symptoms. All pertussis fatalities in Australia have occurred in unvaccinated children. It is quite outrageous on the part of the ABC that Dorey was given uninterrupted air time to spread her rapid fire calculated untruth designed to malign an essential vaccination for infant health and presently, infant survival.
Asked about pertussis Ms. Dorey answered in dissonance to government advice and claimed vaccination “doesn’t seem to be the answer”, then proceeded to present a statistically implausible correlation between the rate of vaccination of babies in the ACT and the notification level of pertussis across all age groups in the ACT. It’s simply the same old trick Dorey has been using now for years. Comparison of unrelated data sets.
The Dept. of Health and Ageing National Notifiable Diseases Surveillance System represents the prevalence of legally notifiable diseases. It carries no information on the vaccination status, active immunity or lack thereof in the cases counted. Vaccine induced immunity for pertussis is temporary. It wanes and this is the primary concern in combating spread of pertussis. Of the 18 age groups covered, 16 are outside the age at which immunity can be said to wane. Of course, Dorey did not give age group specifics nor qualify her claim in the context of an epidemic.
Notification simply does not reflect the efficacy of pertussis vaccine induced immunity in vulnerable newborns. Notification does not reflect the origin of infection, but rather the location of diagnosis and compliance with the requirement to notify. This is further complicated by tourism, immigration, business travel, diplomatic and political visitors to our nation’s capital, potentially impacting on infection of the ACT populace.
Adults rarely experience the debilitating symptoms and as such represent a silent reservoir of infection. Around 11.3% of adults can be considered to have pertussis vaccine immunity. For this reason the ACT is offering free pertussis boosters. Authorities state:
Infants too young to be fully vaccinated are most at risk of catching the disease and suffering serious complications from pertussis. Most infants catch pertussis from their parent or carers.
Dorey claimed pertussis infection rates in the ACT were “seven times that of Tasmania and more than twice the level of most states and territories”. The second claim is false. No other state or territory is “more than twice” that of the ACT.
According to the National Notifiable Diseases Surveillance System on pertussis notification, the rates per 100,000 citizens at present for 2011 are: ACT – 217.3, NSW – 157.1, N.T. – 127.6, QLD – 167.7, S.A. – 128.1, Tasmania – 31.9, Victoria – 137.7, W.A. – 112.5.
Dorey also said:
…even though we’ve had a huge increase in vaccination rates over 20 years it has not correlated with any decline in whooping cough, in fact we have more cases of whooping cough now than we’ve ever had on record and that is despite an over 95% rate of vaccination amongst children.
Again the irrelevance of quoting unrelated data sets is borne out. This statement falsely assumes pertussis vaccination that provides temporary immunity in small children should also be contributing to the eradication of pertussis in the entire community.
There are other very good reasons documented by the National Centre for Immunisation Research and Surveillance. In their November 2009 Pertussis Fact Sheet on page 2 we find:
In recent years, there have been periodic epidemics which have occurred at intervals of 3–4 years (1997–98, 2001, 2005–06, 2008– 09), set against a background of endemic circulation. However, increasing immunisation coverage has been associated with reductions in disease among immunised children and adolescents. Between 1998 and 2008, there were 84,758 notifications of pertussis nationally, ranging from 5,670 in 1998 to 14,347 in 2008. However, the increase in notification rates over time could also be due, in part, to better case ascertainment through the increased availability of serological testing and more sensitive tests (e.g. polymerase chain reaction).
Of the last 20 years only the last three show childhood infection rates that compete with adulthood rates. This is due to an epidemic, not a failure of vaccine efficacy. Pertussis vaccine induced immunity does not offer 100% protection against contraction of pertussis in all children. However it does provide sound immunity in the majority, and renders infections far milder than those that strike unvaccinated children saving the lives of those vaccinated.
The reason we have “more cases of whooping cough now…” is due to excellent reporting which shows up in Notification data and a present epidemic of pertussis. One contributing factor is the prevalence of misinformation such as that peddled by Ms. Dorey leading to a drop in infant vaccination. Ms. Dorey omitted to include a fall in immunisation rates predicates a rise in infection in both vaccinated and unvaccinated children. In fact her deception can be further borne out if we quote from the article posted on her Facebook page. The one in which she claimed Californian pertussis vaccination was “ineffective”.
The California epidemic was caused by underimmunization of some children, and by waning immunity in fully vaccinated children. It showed that we are not where we need to be to have herd immunity. The 2010 California outbreak caught everyone’s attention.
In June 2009 the Journal Paediatrics published an article on the fall out from parents refusing pertussis vaccination for their child – Parental refusal of pertussis vaccination is associated with an increased risk of pertussis infection in children.The authors concluded in part [bold mine]:
Vaccine refusers had a 23-fold increased risk for pertussis when compared with vaccine acceptors, and 11% of pertussis cases in the entire study population were attributed to vaccine refusal.
Ms. Dorey’s statement of a “huge increase” in vaccination in the past 20 years is misleading. In 1989-90 71% of children were immunised. In 1995 61% of children were immunised. In 2001 71.6% of children were immunised. By March 2006 95.1% of children were immunised. There has been no steady increase in pertussis infection to match the increase in vaccination. This epidemic began in 2008. 2007 notifications were the third lowest on record since data collection began in 1991.
Pertussis infections rise and fall dramatically and until 2007-2008 the bulk of infections occurred in adults. In 2001 there were 48.5 cases per 100,000. In 2002 there were 28.0 cases per 100,000. In 2003 – 25.3, in 2004 – 42.9…. by 2007 there were 22.6 cases per 100,000. As mentioned this makes 2007 the third lowest year since records began. It is higher than only the first two years, 1991 and 1992 (1.9 and 4.5 per 100,000 respectively) when the notification of pertussis was still new to health practitioners. More so, Dorey has this very information in front of her but simply chooses to cite selectively. Consider the variation in Australian pertussis totals in the far right column. This does not show a steady increase:
Click to Embiggen
Little wonder the NSW Health Care Complaints Commission investigation established that the AVN:
provides information that is solely anti-vaccination
contains information that is incorrect and misleading
quotes selectively from research to suggest that vaccination may be dangerous.
The HCCC also stated that the AVN refusal to comply with requests may “…result in members of the public making improperly informed decisions about whether or not to vaccinate, and therefore poses a risk to public health and safety.”
Most frustrating is that this manipulation of unrelated data sets by Ms. Dorey has already been the subject of an upheld complaint, published on November 11th, 2009. Dorey’s obfuscation of her intent to mislead listeners and the failure of the ABC to properly disclose her biased agenda as an anti-vaccination lobbyist has also been the subject of an upheld complaint, published June 29th, 2010.
There can be no doubt that yet again Dorey has misled listeners in a most egregious manner that, in the context of the present epidemic, places the lives of Australian newborns at risk. The ABC has shown extremely poor judgement in putting Dorey to air as very few if any commentators can deal with the speed and volume of her misconception.
Dorey has absolutely no qualifications and as such should not be providing any on air information. She did not cite any scientific material, nor – for good reason – the source of her figures. Nor is her argument supported by any peer reviewed literature. Indeed quite the contrary.
In short the ABC has recklessly given Dorey a platform from which to seize control and misrepresent the Immunisation incentive, sway uncertain parents toward not vaccinating and repackage her lies on failing pertussis immunisation. In this light they have completely failed listening audiences.
A number of cult victims, mostly ex “members” have joined together and finding strength in numbers, have taken their concerns to Parliament, meeting on November 2nd. Almost exclusively the fate of cult victims who seek a resolution to trauma, abuse, financial and family loss is reprisal, harassment, threats and legal intimidation. CIFS recognises these standard features of cults and seeks to provide assistance, run workshops for those in need whilst pursuing a much needed federal government resolution.
Simply put, under present legislation by posing as a religion and operating under strict psychological tenure such groups to conduct their abusive money making crimes with impunity. Unaccountable to any over-arching body and pleading religious vilification they have the backing, money and time to challenge and defeat the victims they create.
CIFS has previously hosted national conferences in Brisbane. In March 2010 Nick Xenophon addressed the group. Prior to their 2011 national conference the “church” of Scientology threatened to sue over a brochure that contained material from Nick Xenophon’s 2009 Australian Senate speech on Scientology’s abuse of members. Xenophon pointed out the standards we’ve come to associate with this cult, particularly, ”blackmail, torture and violence, labour camps and forced imprisonment and coerced abortions”.
Citing a written threat from Scientology lawyers, Michael Bachelard writing in the SMH reported last July:
The Church considers the brochure conveys defamatory imputations that it … ‘is a cult’ is an ‘abusive and destructive group’, that it ‘psychologically manipulates persons under coercive controlling circumstances and runs a ‘labour camp’,” the legal letter said.
The church also accused CIFS Queensland of breaching the state’s religious vilification law by inciting hatred, severe ridicule or serious contempt of it.
Life Matters on Radio National have an insightful interview with an ex member of a not too hard to identify cult, who became involved after visiting a Mind Body Wallet festival.
Reading between the lines it seems Scientology may well feature prominently in the minds of CIFS volunteers, yet The Exclusive Brethren and Victor Hall’s Christian Fellowship are also known for churning out in need victims. ACA ran a segment on the Canberra conference.
Also Today Tonight cover the story of an Aussie cook forced into Scientology’s infamous “labour camp” because Tom Cruise suffered food poisoning when he went to play with his friend David Miscavige.
Well done to CIFS. May they get the help they need.
For that matter may the rest of Australia gradually see better protection from groups that exploit our silly laws to prey upon the human condition.
Cult victim group seeks government help – ACA
Tom Cruise comes the raw prawn with Scientology cook
Where are all the people dying in the street from complementary medicines?
Marcus Blackmore – September 2011
Although a seemingly innocuous if not arrogant turn of a logical fallacy called Begging The Question (and a few others as well) I was surprised at how gullible Blackmore may actually take Australians for. Four deaths in two years and 40 serious adverse reactions reported. But, not in the street to my knowledge. Forget the lead, mercury and arsenic poisoning from imported Chinese herbs.
In this case he’s trying to dismiss the vast vacuum of evidence for efficacy of Blackmores hanky panky, by confusing no medicine (or placebo) with a bad medicine. Confusing no effect with malignant effect. It’s also an inconsistent non-sequitur in that he’s applying the logic we would apply to real drugs (or consumer products under fire) to propose the absence of an outcome that by definition, cannot follow. Regardless of how you see this nonsense, it’s a pearler. It encapsulates so much of what’s wrong with regulation of alternative medicine today, in just a dozen words.
Fortunately for consumers it makes Blackmore look quite the villain. It has zero to do with the problem at hand. Namely the current Pharmacy Guild deal done during an evolving awareness of unsustainable claims and corresponding outrage. Although he hasn’t said this in response to recent criticism, he has been scathing of sound criticism, using this phrase before. More to the point it’s a taunting, if rather melodramatic version of What’s the harm? which to skeptics is a huge clanger. Professor Alastair MacLennan head of obstetrics and gynaecology at Adelaide University, cites “four harms of ‘harmless’ therapy”.
Probably most important is delay in seeking effective therapy, if there is one; increasing evidence of side effects and drug interactions, which are under-reported; a placebo effect that wears off within months and sees people ”becoming disappointed, disillusioned and depressed as they move along the health food shop counter seeking placebo after placebo”; and a multibillion-dollar industry that is a waste of the scarce health dollar, if they’re not doing any real good.
Interestingly, Marcus Blackmore’s Dirty Dozen words resonates more or less with each of those points. But back to the fallacy. Just because something isn’t doing harm doesn’t mean it’s doing good. Nor can potential benefits (such as supplements suitable for malnutrition) justify wide scale use or the – quite frankly – astonishing prices of Blackmores’ concoctions. Had he asked the question, “Where are all the people wasting money on complementary medicines?”, one could just steer him toward customer exit of any large store.
Fairfax Poll Today
Chemist Warehouse have made their position plain. But don’t abandon your trusted pharmacy/pharmacist. These guys are about slicing trade from competitors. Including (in my suburb) with the 30 plus metre aisle of junk potions bulging with Blackmores’ goods.
Their grab for the “integrity dollar” was written up today in The Age. The Life and Style section included a poll. Of note, the article continued:
However, in a sign the guild is backing away from the deal, it wrote in its latest newsletter that the Blackmores’ prompts in its computer system were a pilot only, which would be reviewed.
”Contrary to some media reports, there is no compulsion whatsoever on pharmacists to sell these products, nor is there any direct incentive to any pharmacist to sell them,” the guild’s newsletter said.
Fortunately the lack of evidence is now evident. In a great interview recently on ABC is Professor Paul Glaziou of Bond University from the Centre for Research in Evidence based practice. He went looking for and couldn’t find the evidence one would expect from Blackmores. He’s asked for them to make it available. He shouldn’t have to – nobody should be left looking for evidence here.
The clash of reality catching up with an industry that survives on social psychological trends such as the need to take control of ones health, distrust of pharmaceutical companies and a prevailing zeitgeist of choosing something – anything – natural in an environment we are erroneously told is highly toxic is getting louder. Marketers of this junk know this and they’ve been fighting a semantic battle against the growing doubts of efficacy, trying to head off reality at the pass.
We’ve gone from “natural”, to “alternative”, to “complementary” and now we’re getting scammed with Integrative. As though this cockypop mix of potion and ritual actually has a place waiting for it within the current model of evidence based medicine. Purveyors of naturopathy, vitamin therapy, supplemental, acupuncture, reiki, massage, kinesiology, meditation, homeopathy, chiropractic (the one stop shop for self-health sabotage) have delighted in maligning “allopathy” for years.
The paucity of evidence to defend the need for unproven products is summed up well by Dr Wendy Morrow, chief executive of the Complementary Healthcare Council:
Quite frankly, if complementary medicines didn’t work it would have been a fad that was here and gone in the blink of an eye. Their increasing use shows they’re not a fad, they do work if used appropriately, and I don’t see that people are going to stop using them.
Which could also be said about any of the useless rituals above which also come bundled with attacks on vaccination, antibiotic therapy, medication in general and ample conspiracies about “allopathy”. However, late on Friday Blackmores did publish a research summary. Bear in mind however that claims made in advertising are subject to the Therapeutic Goods Advertising Code which is something I wish to look into shortly.
Pharmacy news items reported on Monday October 3rd:
Blackmores reports that while there is evidence to suggest that some medications can affect how the body uses nutrients, this is ‘unrecognised or overlooked by many healthcare practitioners’. Blackmores says that the evidence was compiled in line with the TGA’s Levels of Evidence Guidelines for Listed products and demonstrates that ‘some prescription medicines diminish nutrients and that supplementation can improve nutritional status’, adding that the evidence for its Companion range was reviewed in consultation with ‘leading [unnamed] pharmacists’.
NPS have published Examining The Evidence and looked into each of the four “companion medicines”. They find evidence was “absent” except for the probiotic option, which was “limited”. To summarise each area:
Supporting evidence for using Co-enzyme Q10 with statins (none)
Evidence does not support the use of Co-enzyme Q10 to prevent myalgia (muscle pain) during treatment with a statin. No trials have shown that taking a Co-enzyme Q10 supplement with a statin prevents myalgia.
Randomised controlled trials of Co-enzyme Q10 to manage statin-associated myalgia have conflicting results and do not support routine use with statin therapy.
Supporting evidence for using magnesium supplements with PPI therapy (none)
Magnesium deficiency or ‘hypomagnesaemia’ has been associated with long-term use of proton pump inhibitors (PPIs). Case reports indicate that stopping the PPI is the best way to normalise magnesium levels. Taking a magnesium supplement with the PPI may not be enough to correct the magnesium deficiency.
No studies have investigated the use of a magnesium supplement to prevent magnesium deficiency during PPI therapy. A magnesium supplement should only be considered if a PPI has caused a deficiency in magnesium that requires treatment. Evidence for using a supplement with a PPI to treat magnesium deficiency is based on case reports.
Supporting evidence for using zinc supplements with antihypertensives (none)
Routine use of zinc supplements is unnecessary for people taking blood pressure lowering medicines (or ‘antihypertensives’). There is evidence that long-term treatment with certain types of antihypertensives may reduce zinc levels, but it is unclear how often this causes zinc deficiency.
Supporting evidence for using probiotics to alleviate antibiotic-associated diarrhoea (some)
There is some evidence from trials that probiotics may prevent antibiotic-associated diarrhoea in some adults and children. But limitations with the trials mean that the true effect of probiotics is uncertain, as is the most effective product or dose.
58 million prescriptions per year. Coke and fries. 90% non-compliance with regulation. No regulatory enforcement because it’s not “cost effective”. A recent audit finding the TGA has failed for decades to counter deceptive, false and misleading advertisements. If compound X is today found to be unable to make claim Y proper policing applies only to new products coming onto the market. Products already on the Australian Register of Therapeutic Goods cannot be edited.
Given what’s been leaking out about the industry and the paper tiger apathy of the TGA, it shouldn’t be surprising Blackmores’ “Coke and Fries” is geared for consumers money, not health benefits.
Losing In The Lucky Country 