Science

Good news from a new article in the Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine: knowledge of local medicinal plants is still fairly strong even in a native community only 4 km from a city center and bisected by a highway. The majority of the population still relies exclusively on medicinal plants for self-medication.
In the community of [...]

It’s important that we continue to find new antimalarials because the parasite becomes resistant. Two new antimalarials, one from Brazil and one from Senegal, made the herb news this year.

Despite significant advances in medicine, liver cancer remains a major cause of death in the United States and the rest of the world. As limited treatment options are currently available, novel preventive control and effective therapeutic approaches are needed. Several naturally occurring dietary and non-dietary phytochemicals have shown enormous potential in the prevention and treatment of cancers.

This popular drink is now being sold in most stores when just a few years ago it could only be found in health food stores.  This article indicates kombucha is beneficial against liver disease.

Abstract
Kombucha, a fermented tea (KT) is claimed to possess many beneficial properties. Recent studies have suggested that KT prevents paracetamol and carbon [...]

Opinion & Commentary

This just in via Facebook.
Outside Magazine sez
“Americans spend hundreds of millions of dollars on fish oil supplements every year, but studies have never been able to prove their effectiveness.”
I would not recommend seeking health advice from Outside. Sorry, guys.
What the author misses here is that intervention trials for preventive medicine are essentially impossible. We can’t [...]

Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) plans to introduce legislation to regulate dietary supplements more strictly. Seems the Senate has been unable to do much of anything. Maybe they can agree on some supplement bashing?
Food and drug attorney Justin Prochnow (Greenberg Traurig, Denver) comments on the issue:
Once again, Senator Durbin has taken a run at introducing legislation [...]

At first we were glad to see a “natural news” aggregator. But we’re sticklers for facts, not fans of spin.

Another black eye for the so-called “ethical pharmaceutical” business. In what is being called “the biggest research fraud in medical history,” a member of Pfizer’s “speaker bureau” has pled guilty to fabricating dozens of drug studies. Dr. Scott Reuben, working on a $75,000 grant from Pfizer produced a research study on their drug Celebrex. Naturally, [...]