I’m still working on lengthy posts explaining how to recover bowel health.  In the meantime, here are a few interesting items from around the Web:

• The “Paleo Rodeo” always has an interesting collection of posts.
• Dr. Briffa comments on a New York Times story that a drug company hid evidence from clinical trials that their drug was deadly. This sort of behavior is outrageous but, alas, only too common.  Some treatments have about as much substance to them as Bernie Madoff’s hedge fund: they thrive, but only because of dishonesty by their developer and polite aversion of the eyes by everyone else.
• The Daily Mail (UK) reports that shrimp are getting hooked on Prozac. The antidepressant causes them to leave their rocks and expose themselves to predators. It’s a worthwhile reminder that drugs are powerful:  even when heavily diluted, they can substantially alter behavior.
• Speaking of Prozac and of drug company deceptions, Bruce Charlton points out that the over-the-counter antihistamine chlorpheniramine is safer than, and similarly effective to, Prozac, and that drug companies were suppressing evidence of inefficacy and safety hazards for their patented SSRI antidepressants as early as the 1960s. He concludes provocatively that “the whole official medical research literature, going back at least three decades, is pervasively unsound and untrustworthy.”

It is hard, sometimes, to avoid the conclusion that medicine has been diverted from healing into an unremitting pursuit of money. What is more, even the best doctors and scientists must join the pursuit, simply to remain in the field.  This suggests that the true trouble is less medical than economic and political.

Fortunately, it is often possible to make an end-run around the medical industry. For most conditions, the Perfect Health Diet is a more effective therapy than all the drugs in the pharmacopeia. And it’s available on this blog for free – no prescription, and no health insurance necessary.