re candida yeast bloom fact or fiction in article rgo b et hsdndev harvard edu rind enterprise bih harvard edu david rind writes in article apr vms ocom okstate edu banschbach vms ocom okstate edu writes i don t like the term quack being applied to a licensed physician david questionable conduct is more appropriately called unethical in my opinion using laetril to treat cancer patients when such treatment has been shown to be ineffective and dangerous cyanide release by the nci hmm this is certainly among the things i would refer to as quack therapy and would tend to refer to any practitioner who prescribed laetrile whether licensed or not as a quack there are unethical behaviors such as ordering unneccessary tests to increase fees which i would not lable as quackish but prescribing known ineffective therapies seems to me to be one of the hallmarks of a quack david rind one of the responsibilities of a licensed physician is to read the medical literature to keep up with changes in medical practice all the clamor over laetril resulted in the nci spending quite a bit of money on clinical trials which proved to me anyway that laetril was ineffective against cancer a physician who continued to use it when better more effective treatments are available may deserve to be called a quack anti fungals are in a different class the big question seems to be is it reasonable to use them in patients with gi distress or sinus problems that could be due to candida blooms following the use of broad spectrum antibiotics gorden rubenfeld through e mail has assured me that most physicians recognize the chance of candida blooms occuring after broad spectrum antibiotic use and they therefore reinnoculate their patients with good bacteria to restore competetion for candida in the body i do not believe that this is yet a standard part of medical practice he deals with critical care patients where fungal infection systemic is a real problem and just because he tries to keep good bacteria in his patients does not mean that all physicians do this i think that aspergillis is more likely to be found in the sinus mucus membranes than is candida women have been known for a very long time to suffer from candida blooms in the vagina and a women is lucky to find a physician who is willing to treat the cause and not give give her advise to use the otc anti fungal creams since candida colonizes primarily in the ano rectal area gi symptoms should be more common than vaginal problems after broad spectrum antibiotic use the problem we have here david is proof that gi discomfort can be caused by a candida bloom the arguement is that without proof no action is warrented medicine has not and probalby never will be practiced this way there has always been the use of conventional wisdom a very good example is kidney stones conventional wisdom because clinical trails have not been done to come up with an effective prevention was that restricitng the intake of calcium and oxalates was the best way to prevent kidney stones from forming clinical trials focused on drugs or ultrasonic blasts to breakdown the stone once it formed through the recent new england j of medicine article we now know that conventional wisdom was wrong increasing calcium intake is better at preventing stone formation than is restricting calcium intake the conventional wisdom in animal husbandry has been that animals need to be reinnoculated with good bacteria after coming off antibiotic therapy if it makes sense for livestock why doesn t it make sense for humans david we are not talking about a dangerous treatment unless you consider yogurt dangerous if this were a standard part of medical practice as gordon r says it is then the incidence of gi distress and vaginal yeast infections should decline marty b
