[juliangoldsmith]

Snake oil already seems to be a problem, with CBD oil.

A nurse I know told me about a woman who had been treating her breast cancer with CBD oil, convinced that CBD cures cancer. She finally went to the hospital when her entire breast became necrotic, and died not long after that.

[colechristensen]

Issues today include snakeoil salesmen, but something else too. Maybe you would call it fad folk medicine. Snakeoil without the salesmen. People writing and sharing elaborate health advice not for profit (maybe for clicks) having little or no connection to science.

[tcj_phx]

Conventional doctors still prescribe premarin, as if horse urine still has therapeutic value.

Premarin == PREgnant MAre's uRINe. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conjugated_estrogens

The tragedy of this situation is that physiologists have actually figured out a lot about the hormones since premarin was released. But horse urine is still a big business for the drug industry, even after the Women's Health Initiative was shut down early...

10 minutes appointments (edit: and symptomatic prescriptions) aren't long enough to drill down to the root of a patient's symptoms.

[colechristensen]

This is exactly the kind of snakeoil folk medicine I am talking about.

You are trying to argue that hormone therapy has no therapeutic value because one particular drug is derived from a biological source? Urine is gross so obviously the drug is a fraud? Mixed in with "big business" conspiracy. That is the kind of argument that should only work on a small child.

[tcj_phx]

(Just noticed your reply. It's been 5 days - this reply is strictly "for the record" & I don't expect you to notice).

> You are trying to argue that hormone therapy has no therapeutic value [...]

Estrogen therapy has always been a scam without therapeutic value. DES actually gave women's daughters vaginal cancer. Prescription horse piss actually gave women breast cancer. Etc etc etc.

Various other therapies are appropriate to help restore balance to people's (both male and female) hormone systems.

> Urine is gross so obviously the drug is a fraud?

How many women would take Premarin if their doctor said, "I'm going to give you some concentrated horse urine to help with these symptoms you're having." Exactly none. Synthetic Premarin-equivalents give women breast cancer just the same as genuine horse estrogen.

> Mixed in with "big business" conspiracy.

Pharmaceutical companies create "evidence" to justify their product, then the product gets pulled a few years later when it's realized the side effects aren't worth the negligible benefits. The fines are a fraction of their profits. Call it a conspiracy if you want - I prefer "fraud".