“Giving RH Reality Check a Reality Check on Alternative ... - RH Reality Check” plus 1 more |
| Giving RH Reality Check a Reality Check on Alternative ... - RH Reality Check Posted: 19 May 2010 03:31 PM PDT
In an article entitled "A Natural Alternative to the Pill?" a "social media professional/Twitter lover" who goes by the name "jaz" expresses some healthy skepticism about the outpouring of praise surrounding the 50th anniversary of the Pill. Unfortunately, the article contains a lot of misinformation as well. So, here's a reality check. First, Jaz claims that "With the Pill off the table, we are left with very few options besides condoms (or diaphragms and cervical caps which are essentially out of existence and have lower effectiveness rates), or more permanent solutions like the IUD and sterilization which do not make sense for younger women or women who want to have children in the next few years." According to this table, male condoms have a 2 percent failure rate if used "perfectly" — i.e. every time a couple has intercourse, and the condom doesn't break or fall off. Diaphragms have a 6 percent failure rate. IUDS are not the same as sterilization either. Second, the article tries to suggest that herbal contraceptives are effective. Jaz discusses an herb called wild carrot (aka Queen Anne's Lace) and mentions the work of Robin Rose Bennett which "has been surrounded by controversy and naysayers in her efforts to bring this to American women." Well, count me in as one of the naysayers. Even Bennett says that her study was unscientific, i.e. was not a controlled clinical trial. Her sample was also very small — only 13 women — and three of them became pregnant. So far, not a good alternative to barrier methods. Jaz implies that this natural remedy is safer than oral contraceptives. According to Bennett, wild carrot is an estrogenic herb — in other words, it contains the same chemical as many birth control pills. So, the same contraindications for use of oral contraceptives would apply to wild carrot. The underlying assumption of the article is that natural remedies are safe because, hey, they're natural. Well, those who are looking to try this method on their own better be sure they can tell the difference between wild carrot and poison hemlock. Even jaz says she's "a little wary of making my own contraception, since it's more serious than making a smoothie or a mojito, though I do want to experiment with my inner alchemist and my green thumb!" She should be just as wary of herbal treatments prepared by so-called experts. Since herbal remedies are considered dietary supplements, they not regulated by the FDA as are drugs. This means no one is checking to make sure the health claims are valid. Also, there is no national system of licensure or certification for herbalists. This means that anyone can hang out a shingle and call her/himself an herbalist. [NB: if you take St. John's Wort be aware that it can interfere with the effectiveness of oral contraceptives]. So, while I agree with jaz that "women deserve to have a wide range of options readily available to make the ideal decisions for their bodies and sexual health," they also need accurate and reliable health information. RH Reality Check usually does this and gives guides on how to detect inaccurate information. In their section, "Fact v. Fiction," the editors write: "One trademark of the far right is misinformation. They make ideology sound like fact, belief sound like scientific data. We bring you the most widely circulated fictions about reproductive health, and the facts and resources to dispute them. If you are confused about how to determine if a study is real, this primer provides you with a great framework to evaluate any research study you read." Too bad the editors of the site didn't apply these same criteria to misinformation from the left. Women deserve better. Disclosure: My research is funded by the National Library of Medicine and the Connecticut State University American Association of University Professors Research Grant. I have no financial ties to pharmaceutical companies of any kind. Five Filters featured article: The Art of Looking Prime Ministerial - The 2010 UK General Election. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction. |
| The Biology of Oil and the Sociology of Democracy - OpEdNews.com Posted: 19 May 2010 01:00 PM PDT By Greg Coleridge (about the author) Page 1 of 1 page(s) For OpEdNews: Greg Coleridge - Writer A few weeks ago I met Riki Ott at the Move to Amend/Campaign to Legalize Democracy national gathering in Denver. We were among two dozen people who came together to begin to develop plans to end corporate rule and abolish corporate personhood.Ott is a marine biologist and toxicologist from Alaska who became socially and politically active following the 1989 Exxon Valdez disaster which spilled millions of gallons of oil in Prince William Sound. Ott documented the environmental disaster of the spill and its impact on people and communities. She began speaking out. She wrote books. She was widely interviewed. She was involved in litigation. When the BP Gulf Coast disaster hit, Ott was once again in the news. Her presence at our weekend retreat was interrupted by radio and TV interviews, including one on CNN where she mentioned that the oil we saw on the surface was like a tip of an iceberg. Oil forms a huge cloud or plume when spilled in water well beneath the surface. This cloud or plume extinguishes all oxygen, suffocating all plant and animal life in its path. In other words, the biology of oil when in water is much like the sociology of democracy when drowned out by money and corporate rights. There are many elements of our democracy that on the surface are easy to see: political campaigns, voting, issue forums, letter writing, phone calling, meeting with legislators, testifying before public officials, developing and publicizing voting records, organizing citizen initiatives, among others. These elements are often extraordinarily difficult for ordinary citizens to navigate to create a positive impact. But what we see on the surface of our so-called democracy is only a small part of the truth. Below the surface are huge destructive forces that infects everything on the surface, suffocating the voice and breath of people without money or corporate status -- making true self-governance virtually impossible. The plume of unchecked private money and corporate constitutional rights giving corporations the "right" to influence issue campaigns and political elections are toxic to democracy. The amount of oil spilled in the Gulf will have some proportion no doubt to the amount of lobbying and campaign donations/investments dumped by BP and other involved corporations into political campaigns to ensure their "rights" to make future profits are protected, just as in the past they were used to escape regulation, restriction, oversight and enforcement. Oil and democracy don't mix. Neither do banks and democracy. The current Senate banking bill doesn't punish those responsible for the Great Recession/financial crisis. Nor does it rectify the problems associated with unregulated financial markets. A few suggestions to address the issue are at click here Nineteen of the 22 members of the Senate Banking Committee in 2009 received political donations/investments from Wall Street corporations. Senators up for reelection this year are receiving at least $180,000. Wall Street financial corporations gave/invested nearly $15 million to Obama's election campaign, a record amount. Goldman Sachs alone gave/invested $1 million. If the Senate banking bill passes as is, the investments will provide favorable returns to financial corporations and their shielded and well-compensated CEOs. The legal fictions of "money is speech" and "corporations are people" cloud our view of how our democracy actually works. What we see on the surface is bad enough. The below the surface plume is the death to whatever is left of democracy. Move to Amend (movetoamend.org) seeks to dissolve the deadly toxins to our democracy by abolishing corporate personhood, ending corporate rule and reversing laws equating money with speech. It brings to the surface what has for too long been ignored. Call it a clean-up plan for democracy.
Five Filters featured article: The Art of Looking Prime Ministerial - The 2010 UK General Election. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction. |
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