Asteriod, Schmasteriod
Yeah, the asteroid reference is from my story tonite (Thursday) on Oscillo. If you didn't see it on the news you should be able to check it out by Friday morning by clicking on the health page and looking for the video there.
Now to the nitty gritty stuff on Oscillo:
Want to share your experience with Oscillo?? Click Here
Now to the disclaimers. I'm including some websites for you to check out-- they all have their own agendas and my guess is if you have strong feelings about Oscillo one way or the other you will find a website that suits you. If you are middle-of-the-road you can check out the sites which may or may not help you.
Oscillo website: http://www.oscillo.com/
Homeo Info.com Oscillo site: http://homeoinfo.com/06_materia_medica/other/oscillococcinum.php
National Center for Homeopathy: http://www.homeopathic.org/
Quackwatch.org Oscillo: http://www.quackwatch.org/01QuackeryRelatedTopics/homeo.html
USNews.com Oscillo story: http://www.usnews.com/usnews/biztech/articles/970217/archive_006221.htm
Marketing materials for Oscillo stress that it is FDA regulated as a drug. As some of the above websites touched on (like the USNews story), what that means is open to interpretation. I asked the FDA to give me something I could include in my report and I'll give that to you here in full:
Oscillo (oscillococcinum) is marketed by Boiron as an over-the-counter homeopathic drug product. Homeopathic drug products fall within the definition of "drugs" at section 201(g)(1) of the federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (ACT), which references articles recognized in the official Homeopathic Pharmacopeia of the United States, as well as articles intended for use in the diagnosis, cure, mitigation, treatment, or the prevention of disease and articles (other than food) intended to affect the structure or function of the body. We understand that Oscillo is offered to relieve flu symptoms, which would cause it to be a drug within the above definition.
Under the Act, "new drugs" -- those that are not generally recognized by scientific experts as safe and effective for their labeled uses -- must get agency approval before they are marketed. However, under a Compliance Policy Guide (CPG), FDA generally does not apply this requirement to homeopathic products. The CPG -- titled "Section 400.400 Conditions Under Which Homeopathic Drugs May be Marketed," can be found at http://www.fda.gov/ora/compliance_ref/cpg/cpgdrg/cpg400-400.html. Other requirements of the Act, including labeling, facility registration, and good manufacturing practice requirements continue to apply to homeopathic drugs.
We have reviewed certain information about Oscillo, but as a matter of policy, we do not discuss our enforcement determinations and we limit communications about ongoing actions to the targets of those actions.
And finally, the studies... I couldn't include them and explain their pros and cons. That would have taken more time than the whole story itself.
It looks like there is really only one study that was published in a widely well-known, peer-reviewed journal. The study size was relatively small (about 480 people), which is larger than some other studies I cover! It did show that compared to a placebo.. Oscillo helped people with a flu like illness in the short-term.
But some doctors I talked to had problems with even that study saying that in the end it was a wash. In other words, the results vanished over time and people self-reported that the placebo helped them just as much as the Oscillo did. You know, studies are like that, I've found. You can probably find one to prove or disprove anything. The trick is to get a wide variety of studies done under different circumstances and look at the whole body of evidence. That's just not going to happen with Oscillo for many reasons.
Phew. That was a long one, eh?
Hey check out my friend Gina goofing off in the snow up in the mountains:
She was on a cross country skiing trip with her boyfriend Phil:
And here's a pic of little Megan (Remember the new Dr. McDreamy? Well, this is his older sister who took a likin' to those glasses. Her baby bro Jack is chillin' in the background looking cute as ever....)
And here she is developing her artistic talents:
Rob nailed it when he wrote me to say:
Cute, Cute, Cute,Cute, Cute, Cute,Cute, Cute, Cute,Cute, Cute, Cute,
Cute, Cute, Cute,Cute, Cute, Cute,Cute, Cute, Cute,Cute, Cute, Cute,
Cute, Cute, Cute,Cute, Cute, Cute,Cute, Cute, Cute,Cute, Cute, Cute,
Cute, Cute, Cute,Cute, Cute, Cute,Cute, Cute, Cute,Cute, Cute, Cute,
Cute, Cute, Cute,Cute, Cute, Cute,Cute, Cute, Cute,Cute, Cute, Cute,
Cute, Cute, Cute,Cute, Cute, Cute,Cute, Cute, Cute,Cute, Cute, Cute,
Cute, Cute, Cute,Cute, Cute, Cute,Cute, Cute, Cute,Cute, Cute, Cute,
Cute, Cute, Cute,Cute, Cute, Cute,Cute, Cute, Cute,Cute, Cute, Cute,
Cute, Cute, Cute,Cute, Cute, Cute,Cute, Cute, Cute,Cute, Cute, Cute,
Cute, Cute, Cute,Cute, Cute, Cute,Cute, Cute, Cute,Cute, Cute, Cute,
Cute, Cute, Cute,Cute, Cute, Cute,Cute, Cute, Cute,Cute, Cute, Cute,
CARDS !!!!!
There I said it! hahahahahaha
Yeah, I think I only said 'cute' once today. :->
Still to come: the Vancouver versus Clark County Fire District 6 weight loss challenge... Who gets bragging rights for the most weight lost?? And, a bunch of you sent me your thoughts about the pet therapy story I did ((you can also watch it on the health page)). I'll get some of those up tomorrow. THANKS for emailing me!!
