beforewisdom

Finally, the FDA questions animal testing

“The promising diabetes drug Galvus recently got turned back by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

About 5,500 patients had taken the medicine in clinical trials at that point, but the problem apparently wasn’t with them. The agency was worried because some monkeys who were given high doses of Galvus developed skin lesions. Humans who took normal amounts of the drug for as long as two years didn’t get the sores, but the FDA refused to approve the drug until it saw more testing in people who might be at higher risk.

The decision spotlighted an important unresolved scientific question: What do the results of animal studies really tell us about humans? That question still puzzles researchers even though guinea pigs, lab rats and their brethren have long been part of experiments.

Read the rest of this Wall Street Journal article at:

Article

WOK carefully

There is good news and bad news from the Center For Science In The Public Interest..

The good news is that Chinese restaurant food has not gotten any worse for our health or our weight.

The CSPI was careful to be serious about labeling this as a good thing, because other types of restaurant foods have gotten worse in the years since they last made a restaurant food survey.

The bad news is that Chinese restaurant food still sucks.

Even vegetable dishes – without rice – can have more than 1/2 a days calories and an entire days allowance for sodium. Sodium has been linked to osteoporosis and shorter life spans.

I have read all sorts of scientists, doctors, trainers and health advocates tell people to only eat half of what they are served when they go out to eat. Many recommend asking the server to doggie bag your extra half of a serving before bringing it out to the table.

The status of this advice seems to me to be moving from obscure diet tip to well known, well accepted health rule of thumb.

I’m not sure if even eating at vegan restaurants is beyond the realm of this advice. The bulk of the calories in Chinese restaurant food comes from oil. A sandwich at the falafel shop can be just as deep fried as General Tso’s tofu or the eggplant dish at your favorite vegan place.

Anyway, here is the article. It is worth reading in addition to watching the video.

http://www.cspinet.org/new/200703211.html

And the video:

Electric cars are here, now

Forget the future, electric cars are here, right now:

http://www.tesla.com/

Also check out this organization that promotes the adoption of electric vehicles:
http://www.pluginamerica.com/

They will make private showings of Who Killed The Electric Car available to student and other groups.

I saw that documentary and it blew me away.

Electric cars can run, right now, with a range of about 300 miles and a top speed in excess of 80 mph. It takes 50 electric cars to make the same pollution as one gas powered car. Since electric cars have no transmission ( fewer moving parts ) they can be maintained for only a fraction of the cost of a conventional car. Electric cars only use 25% of the electricity that hydrogen fuel cell cars would. That electricity would come from dirty fossil fuel plants.

Electric car technology exists right now. Hydrogen fuel cell technology is decades away and requires “5 technological miracles” as the documentary put it.

Watch this cool trailer of Who Killed The Electric Car and encourage everyone you can to rent a copy of the film: