https://reeserichardson.blog/2024/01/30/the-king-of-curcumin-a-case-study-in-the-consequences-of-large-scale-research-fraud/"
Curcumin doesn’t work well as a therapeutic agent for any disease....hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars, countless hours spent toiling by junior scientists, thousands of laboratory animals sacrificed, thousands of cancer patients enrolled in clinical trials for ineffective treatments, and countless people who have eschewed expensive and invasive but effective cancer treatment in favor of a store-bought spice, encouraged by research steeped in lies."
Well I suppose it still makes chickpeas palatable.
And what is the point that journo is making?
That they should not have investigated this compound at all? Without those investigations how would they know if it is useful or not?
In addition, personally, I would rather see them waste 100mil on a bunch of negative results studies than on one 'smart' bomb.
That said, the effort investigating this compound probably should have been much more subdued, like a few mil at most.
Negative results is what gives food for better understanding of anything as they are as important as positive results sometimes, but in this case they clearly overspent by a large margin.
I think the purpose is simply to inform the world of a scam being perpetrated on them essentially led by one individual with a PhD who is publishing fraudulent research. It's not my NIH pouring your tax dollars on into it so fill your boots. It's not just about money though, this story had a profound impact on me - I was downright angry after reading it.
I don't like to give this much personal information but in this case, I think it's necessary.
My parents are not young. I'm happy that they're still able to live on their own with limited support from the rest of the family but about 2 years ago, my dad was suddenly having trouble getting up from his chair or out of bed and barely able to walk. He was diagnosed with severe rheumatoid arthritis by our family doctor who immediately started him on a high dose of prednisone. The transformation was amazing and immediate and he got his mobility back almost instantly. Since the markers for arthritis in his blood were off the charts, the family doctor wanted my dad to have a consult with a specialist (here you have to be referred to one) but it takes forever to see them and covid protocols made things worse some doctors, this one in particular, was only doing phone consults. Meanwhile, our family doctor began the process of slowly ramping the dose of prednisone down to a tiny 2mg per day and everything was good. Then after an over-the-phone consult, the specialist wanted him off prednisone, first taking him to 1mg per day. At 1mg per day, he began having some pain again and when he was totally off it, more pain and less mobility. He was no longer walking around the block each morning so I made him call the specialist - I was fucking livid when she called and told him to begin taking 500mg of curcumin daily because I had already tagged it as a fad and fuck her replacing a drug that works with some unproven spice especially at my dad's age. It did nothing for him - NOTHING - now fast forward about two weeks when I took his morning coffee over he was sitting at the kitchen table telling me he didn't know if he could drink a coffee because his hands hurt so much he couldn't move his fingers. I immediately had him call the specialist who, without a consult or any tests, said, "Well it's not related to what I was treating you for so call your GP." I'm not a violent man but if it were possible to punch someone over the phone... Now he's back on 5mg predisone as prescribed by our family doctor and doing his daily walk once again. He was doing well on 2mg so this is a setback. The specialist wanted to see him again so I took him in expecting she would apologize for brushing him off but no... she wants to take him off prednisone... again.
Why would a licensed rheumatologist recommend curcumin to treat a
known condition? What would make her think it's a viable treatment for
any condition? Why would she think long term high dose of spice would be better than long term low dose of prednisone for that condition? If not prednisone, why not a proven, effective, NSAID instead? Why Biodom???
WHY? I don't even care how much they spent researching this fraud it's the far-reaching implications of the fraudulent research that's at issue. When a specialist swaps a known remedy for a fraudulent fuckin' fad, we're all in trouble. I have the unfortunate advantage of first hand experience.
I have to get moving. I'm on my way to my parents' place with coffee and a printout of the article. They can read over it while I vacuum the floors.
Poll
