Thursday, January 21, 2010

Mountain, Molehill, Dumbass.

The Quackosphere (tm) of late has been abuzz with talk of a supplement known as OSR. Now, to be fair, I know very little of OSR and have never used it on my child. But from what I've read, there have been quite a few people who say that their children are having good results from using it.

Then along comes Trine "Imagine a Cupcake" Tsouderos and her transparent take-down of OSR and autism treatments (Here). Really, she just rehashes the typical bullshit that we have all come to know and get nauseated by from the Quackosphere (tm). Hasn't been properly tested, yadda yadda yadda, blah blah blah. Really, she makes OSR out to be the most horrific thing you've ever heard of. It's an Industrial Chelator (insert dramatic horror music here)! It has all of these horrible ingredients that are all just so terrible. Again, I haven't really looked at all of them, nor have I read  much about OSR, but really, can these ingredients be any worse than some of the ones in Vaccines? Thimerosal anyone? And Vaccines have been properly tested? Really? Where's those control groups?

The comments are just as good. The Moron Supreme shows up there and gets a very sound trouncing from a commentor named Melpominee, who I am assuming is a female (Melpominee is one of the 9 Greek muses, daughters of Zeus). She asks something that no one was able to give her an answer for. I'll get more into that later.

Then along comes David "I have a PhD so I know more than EVERYONE" Gorski, aka Orac, aka SoCal Gal, aka scumbag (I'd link but I won't give that shithead any hits). He rehashes Ms. Cupcake's parroted talking points and doesn't really say anything new, just that parents like me are so horrible and that our children should be taken away by CPS. But if he is so adamantly opposed to it, I may just run, not walk, to my nearest supplement store and stock up.

What neither of these idiots can or will say, though, is how many people have had bad reactions to OSR. None of them can produce any reports of hospitalizations because of it. No one can say how many people have been injured by it. No one was able to respond to Melpominee's comment concerning this question. Someone even went to Orac's hate site and asked, very politely (and anonymously), if anyone has heard of any adverse reactions. Twice! The comments were completely ignored. Of course, we've all seen the data on how many people have had reactions to products that the Pharmaceutical industry shits out, haven't we? Moron Supreme makes a completely idiotic comment about how reports weren't being filed because there is no data tracking system for suplements. So, it's a grand conspiracy of people taking OSR who are somehow banding together to repress these reports of all of the adverse reactions to this product. Ooooo....scary.

Does it seem to you that they are making a mountain out of a molehill? And, oddly, not a fucking one of them can produce any data that says that OSR doesn't work. Strange indeed.

When you look at Ms. Cupcake's ties to the vaccine industry, her article is not in the least bit surprising. But, this is typical of the Oraccolytes. As long as it defends vaccines, no matter how poorly written or researched it is, it's a-ok. But, it's not ok when a celebrity mom questions vaccine safety because, hey, she used to bare her boobs. Doesn't matter that the celebrity mom who believes that anything Offit and the Pharma giants say about vaccines is a-ok in her book used to bare her boobs too. Or it's not ok that a doctor who questions the safety of vaccines allegedly faked some studies. But it's a-ok in their book that an entire industry has REPEATEDLY faked studies about their products. They are perfectly honest when it comes to their vaccine products.

Pot. Kettle. Morons.

Addendum:

I just found out something interesting over at the Tribune article from someone named ccdaddy about Moron Supreme. Apparently, he runs a corporate communications consultation business. It says on their website that their company "provides pharmaceutical marketers with safe and effective direct marketing and advertising."

I am not 100% sure that it's the same company that he works for. But if it is? This means that he has misrepresented himself to everyone in terms of objectivity and his "unbiased" opinion. It also means he's an utter pharma-whore and that he has lied about that as well. It also explains how he always has the time to go to the hundreds of blogs and sites he goes to and spews out his propaganda.

Oh, this is absolutely rich!!!

Further Addendum:
Apparently, the company he works for is a different one from the one that ccdaddy said. Or so Moron Supreme says....

Ah well. He's still a putz.

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

I hate Decembers

I know it's been a little while since I last posted. It has been horrifically busy over here with my wife and the kids and doctors and hospitals and holidays and work, etc. etc. that I have had no time at all whatsoever to write, blog, read, or do much of anything of personal interest (other than watch the entire Lost series up to the end of Season 5....where the hell have I been and why the hell haven't I watched that series before now?)

So, my little guy started having a new symptom that I'm pretty sure can be attributed to his condition. The weekend after Thanksgiving, he had his very first, full blown Grand Mal seizure. We brought him to the ER, and the completely useless and clueless "Doctor" tried to pass it off as febrile. Really? Then why wasn't he running a fever? Seriously, the idiot doctors that the Medical Schools are crapping out makes me truly worry about the future of Medicine in the US (David Gorski, case in point). Then, the day after Christmas, he has a second seizure, much smaller this time. Ah, the joys of Autism...

Our next step, and one I was extremely reluctant to do, was to take him to a Neurologist. It was only through the pressuring of my wonderful wife, her mother, and my mother combined that I caved in and finally allowed a Neuro to look at my son.

I was well beyond pleasantly surprised.

The Neuro was very adamant about not wanting to give my little man any drugs (huge point in his favor). He was highly interested in my son's diagnosis, how he was diagnosed and whether or not his condition was regressive, i.e. normal development followed by a loss of skills, speech, etc. He watched Nate for a bit, listened to our descriptions of his seizures, and then said he would like to run several tests. He wanted to do an EEG to monitor brain activity (pretty standard from what I've read); he wanted to do some blood tests (also standard). And then he said he wanted to test Nate for heavy metal toxicity. What? A mainstream doctor wanting to see if heavy metals were atributing to a child's autism and seizures? I say again; what? Not only was I pleasantly surprised; I was floored.

Bloodwork was done today, and the EEG will happen over a 48 hour period over this weekend (can you all imagine the fun of trying to keep the leads on the head of an 8 year old who has the mental capacity of an 18 month old). It's nice that for the first time, we have a mainstream doctor who is actually LISTENING! He WANTS to help.

As to my normal stuff, I promise that I will have more stupidity "Insolence" to pick apart soon. Orac is too much of a moron not to. Too bad he's so irritatingly boorish. Also, I have a few legal matters to attend to. Like finally sending off a certain Cease and Desist order (been entirely too busy) and send a certain individual's continued correspondence (after he had been told not to) to a lawyer. Curious...his bleeting has been welcomingly silent these past few weeks. Ah well....take what blessings I can when I can.