Daily life is not easy for Salvatore. At 17, he weighs 170kg [375 lb] and struggles to walk.
He can’t tie his own shoelaces and his Vespa scooter strains to bear his weight – in one week, its wheels broke seven times.
“He eats constantly,” says his mother Anna.
Salvatore is among a growing number of Italian children and teenagers living with obesity. The problem is particularly acute in the south: in parts of the Campania region, more than 40% of eight and nine-year-olds are overweight. The town of Ponticelli, on the outskirts of Naples, has earned the unenviable reputation as one of the world’s child obesity capitals.
It is a striking development in a country long regarded as the spiritual home of the Mediterranean diet. Yet today, Italian children are among the most overweight in Europe, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
Her recent breast surgery went perfectly. The tumor is out, margins are clear, and none of her scans show any cancer. So, she is understandably distraught when I begin to discuss the option of chemotherapy. “But I thought they got it all,” she says.
As a medical oncologist, I have had some version of this conversation hundreds of times, but it never gets easier. We call it adjuvant therapy — the medical practice of giving a person four to six months of chemotherapy after their cancer surgery, just in case. The underlying logic of adjuvant therapy rests on a single uncomfortable fact.
The practice of oncology is hard. I hope you never have to make a decision regarding adjuvant chemotherapy.
—–Steve Parker, M.D.
PS: There is a way of eating linked to lower risk of getting cancer. See below.
You can read about this (or watch the video) at various places. One is TheFocalPoints.com.
“84.4% of Cancer Patients Taking Ivermectin + Mebendazole Reported No Evidence of Disease, Tumor Regression, or Cancer Stabilization After 6 Months”
It just sounds too good to be true. And you know want that usually means. I’ve not done a deep dive into this report but I’m very skeptical. The study lumped a bunch of different cancer types together: breast, pancreas, colon, lung, etc. The uneducated among us may think all cancers are alike. They are not. They behave differently and, traditionally, require different therapeutic approaches for the best outcome. If (and that’s a big IF) there is a unifying underlying chemical or cellular phenomenon that causes all cancers, then a panacea like ivermectin/mebendazole may be an effective treatment. (In case you’re wondering, I was prepared to take ivermectin during the pandemic but never did.)
Just a reminder, I am not a cancer specialist. If I had cancer, I would consult a cancer specialist, typically an oncologist.
Authors of the study at hand do note that “…these findings should be interpreted as hypothesis-generating. Urgent prospective, randomized, placebo-controlled clinical trials are warranted to validate these observations and further define optimal dosing strategies.” You may recognize one of the authors, TV celebrity Dr. Drew Pinsky. What a Renaissance man! Other familiar author names are Peter McCullough and Harvey Risch.
This is a shoddy research study presented as a quality improvement project. This dubious classification functioned as an excuse for lack of interface with relevant regulatory bodies.
There is validity to the assertion that ivermectin and mebendazole show anticancer activity in preclinical studies. This study provides no meaningful evidence for or against the efficacy of such treatments in humans with cancer.
—–Steve Parker, M.D.
PS: Reduce your risk of getting cancer with the Mediterranean diet!
I recently started taking an omega-3 fish oil supplement with hopes of preserving cognitive function as I age. Cold-water fatty fish are a natural source of omega-3s and I haven’t been eating much lately. My supplement contains 1040 mg of omega-3 fatty acids. It’s a large pill that is difficult to swallow sometimes.
Alaskan Omega-3 Fish Oil by Sports Research
Now I’m starting to wonder if I should continue. From Daily Mail:
The [single observational study] researchers compared 273 people who take omega-3 supplements daily, with 546 similar non-users – and found that those taking fish-oil pills appeared to decline faster on several cognitive scores.
However…
…when it comes to omega 3s and cognitive function, in a major [meta-analysis] review published recently in Scientific Reports, analysis of 58 randomised controlled trials from multiple countries suggested that omega-3 supplements may be associated with slightly better cognitive outcomes – or slower decline in some areas, particularly memory.
Researchers analysed health data for more than 100,000 people between 2004 and 2018, covering several generations of people aged 50 and above across England, the US and Europe.
They found increasing rates of chronic disease, especially when comparing people born between 1936 and 1945 and those born from 1955 to 1959.
Rates of chronic disease rose across successive generations in all regions, with more recently born adults more likely to have cancer, lung disease, heart issues, type 2 diabetes and high cholesterol than their predecessors at the same age.
Although prevalence of type 2 diabetes rose at the same rate across all regions, diagnoses of cancer, heart problems and high cholesterol increased the most in England and Europe, with baby boomers and people in their 50s being 1.5 times more likely to have these issues than their predecessors at the same age.
Levels of grip strength, a good measure of overall muscle strength and healthy ageing, decreased across generations in England and the US, but either increased or remained constant in Europe.
Why is health worse?
Pollution? Poor food quality? Increasing rates of obesity? Increasing social isolation? Over-crowding? Loss of religion?
Last summer, a man’s brother-in-law suffered a fatal heart attack. The hospital bill for four hours of emergency care: $195,628.
The man’s sister-in-law was ready to pay it. He asked her to wait. He requested an itemized bill with CPT codes, the universal billing codes hospitals use, and fed the whole thing into Claude, an AI chatbot.
Within minutes, Claude found duplicate charges, services billed as “inpatient” even though the patient was never admitted, supply costs inflated by 500% to 2,300% above Medicare rates and charges for procedures that never happened. He cross-checked with ChatGPT. Both AIs agreed. He wrote a six-page letter citing every violation by name.
The hospital dropped the bill to $33,000. An 83% reduction. Zero medical training. A $20 app.
This is amazing.
I have a friend who was diagnosed with acute myelogenous leukemia about seven years ago. He was intubated quite soon after arrival at the emergency room. The bill for the first hospital day was ~$1,000,000. His wife went through the entire itemized hospital bill by hand and found numerous mistakes that were eventually rectified We’re grateful beyond words that my friend survived and is doing well to this day.
—–Steve Parker, M.D.
PS: This malarkey is one of the main reasons we need healthcare reform in the U.S. Like MLK said, “I have a dream.”
While I personally find the evidence overall supports the safety of glyphosate (I feel a risk-based approach is better than a hazard-based approach, there is a wide margin of safety levels, and the best evidence is negative), there is a lot of data that legitimately can be seen as concerning. There is also the question of industry influence in the research. A study from 2000 showing glyphosate is safe was recently retracted because of undisclosed industry funding. It is therefore no wonder that the public remains confused and divided on the safety of glyphosate.
As it stands, I think the regulatory agencies are correct in continuing to approve glyphosate. It is likely safe and better than all the alternatives. However, more and better research is always welcome. This is definitely an area where we would benefit from highly rigorous large consensus studies designed to resolve continued scientific disagreement.
I encourage you to do your own research and draw your own conclusions. I’m busy with other things now.
Scott Gavura at Science-Based Medicine posted a beautiful article on how science is supposed to work. I don’t understand how the scientific article at hand made it through the peer-review process all the way to publication.
Interest in vinegar as a health remedy is perennial. Apple cider vinegar (ACV) is simply vinegar made from fermented apple cider. Chemically, it is mostly dilute acetic acid, the same ingredient found in ordinary white vinegar. In 2024, a study published in BMJ Nutrition, Prevention & Health reported that a small daily dose of apple cider vinegar produced dramatic weight loss 6–8 kilograms (13-17 pounds) over 12 weeks. The paper was withdrawn more than a year later after substantial criticism. But even before concerns about methodology and reporting were raised, the magnitude of the results should have prompted skepticism: The numbers reported did not align with basic physiology.
Good intentions will always be pleaded for any assumption of power. The Constitution was made to guard the people against the dangers of good intentions. There are men in all ages who mean to govern well, but they mean to govern. They promise to be good master, but they mean to be master.
