this post was submitted on 24 Nov 2024
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Science Memes

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[–] ptz@dubvee.org 196 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (11 children)

In all that crazy, there's, shockingly, two good points:

  1. Psychedelics. There's at least anecdotal evidence they're good for treating certain traumas / PTSD. So, yeah, we should be looking into their medicinal applications. But is it the FDA or the DEA that's cockblocking those?

  2. Stem cells. Abso-fucking-lutely yes. But wasn't it the "pro life" people holding that up?

[–] Artyom@lemm.ee 6 points 16 hours ago

He also talked about obstructive health patents. I'll take "Things that he won't follow through on" for 500.

[–] FundMECFSResearch@lemmy.blahaj.zone 100 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (2 children)

Stem cells.

He’s not talking about the stem cells that can cure a select few diseases.

He’s talking about an alternative medicine thing which is basically sticking cells from your right arm into your left arm and calling it “stem cell therapy” then claiming it can cure hundreds of diseases.

There is zero evidence (or RCTs) showing his version of “stem cells” works.

The FDA bases approval on two highly successful phase 3 RCTs of a specific drug for a specific condition. You can read more about that process here

Neither psychedelics not RFK’s version of stem cell therapy has that yet.

[–] ptz@dubvee.org 32 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Thanks for clarifying. I took the mention of stem cells in the wall of crazy tweet to be the more credible form of stem cell therapy. Considering I was fully aware of who was making the statement, the fault is mine.

[–] thefartographer@lemm.ee 8 points 1 day ago

I suspect my insurance company will soon cover shoving goat testicles into my scrotum. I'll be so virile!

[–] Anticorp@lemmy.world 122 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Don't expect consistency from this administration.

[–] BeatTakeshi@lemmy.world 9 points 11 hours ago

Expect only what they can actually deliver. Chaos

[–] Dasus@lemmy.world 41 points 1 day ago

I mean psychedelics really shouldn't be suppressed as much as they want, but with him gutting all actual medical science, they're not gonna be helping much.

They have tons of potential and power, but binging mushrooms for three days and dancing in circles isn't probably the only way we can utilise them. (I'm not saying it's a bad one, just not necessarily suited for everyone.)

And actually if psychedelics gets lumped into his shit it might just be a step back for research on psychedelics when eventually this craziness of his blows up in his face. Hopefully before he implements any of it. Or even gets into office.

[–] pearsaltchocolatebar@discuss.online 22 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Clean foods is also a good thing

[–] ricecake@sh.itjust.works 57 points 1 day ago

My concern is that his definition of clean food is incompatible with a sane definition of clean food.

We're talking about a man who got mercury poisoning from eating unsafe fish, and ate meat that caused a worm to eat part of his brain. His standards for food safety are clearly not the same as mine.

If he were to assert that pasteurizing milk causes nearsightedness and lazy eye, I wouldn't not be surprised.

[–] ptz@dubvee.org 14 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Right, but we already have that so I left it off the list. Not that there aren't things that slip through, but that's mostly a matter of enforcement and ensuring compliance (both things I do not expect him to take seriously).

[–] mosiacmango@lemm.ee 31 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

We don't really. The EU refuses to import things like US chicken because of our food processes.

EU food standards are leagues past ours, but the core reason is regulating some of our worst factory farm processes. More regulation will absolutely not happen for 4 years, so no real progress will be made.

[–] ricecake@sh.itjust.works 11 points 1 day ago (1 children)

That "worst factory farm process" is cleaning chicken with cleaning agents generally regarded as safe.

https://sgp.fas.org/crs/misc/R40199.pdf

The EU food safety agencies have issued opinions that it's fine, and the EU would resume importing US poultry if it weren't for that. The same agents are allowed to be used on other imported and domestically produced foods.
The conditions in our typical poultry facility are perfectly in line with theirs, we just allow an additional rinse that they don't.

Our food supply is nowhere near as gross as people seem convinced.
The biggest threat to the cleanliness of our food supply is actually people like RFK who view the food safety apparatus as the enemy.

I really don't see the incoming administration blocking washing poultry with vinegar or a dilute bleach solution and compensating with increased staffing for food inspection agents. More likely they approve requests by the meat industry to be able to do their own inspection and reduce independent verification in the name of "efficiency".

[–] zero_spelled_with_an_ecks@programming.dev 5 points 22 hours ago (1 children)

GRAS can be self-affirmed by companies. It's a huge loophole.

Also, the conditions chickens are raised and slaughtered in the US as well as its dependence on undocumented workers that will not jeopardize their jobs by reporting safety issues or contamination hazards are also really large problems.

Our food supply has issues I would consider pretty gross and it's going to get a whole lot worse over the next few years.

[–] ricecake@sh.itjust.works 2 points 21 hours ago

In the case of the food cleaning sprays, I didn't use "generally regarded as safe" in the sense they use it for food additives, I meant it in the plain English sense. The list of acceptable sprays is codified by the FDA and both the US and EU food safety organizations acknowledge that the risk of public health because of them is negligibly low. That's why the EU also uses the same sprays, just not for poultry specifically. Our standards are otherwise completely compatible .

I'm not saying there aren't gross things in our food system, or things we allow that others don't. I'm saying the poultry thing isn't one of them, and the reputation our food system has as a disgusting free for all is unwarranted.

Given the giant list of companies that do absolutely nothing to limit the PFCs in our food, we really don't.

[–] jabathekek@sopuli.xyz 12 points 1 day ago

For point one, there was a big study about it but it turned out the study co-ordinators were intimidating people into saying that it helped them when it didn't. This is why psychedelics are still banned because the "scientists" that were trying to prove that they were safe fucked up in the dumbest possible way.

[–] fossilesque@mander.xyz 8 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

2: Yes, buttt there are some issues, but afaik do not throw the baby out with the bath water -> https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/02/29/the-stem-cell-scandal

[–] wewbull@feddit.uk 3 points 22 hours ago (1 children)

There are also very good reasons to think that the money in medicine distorts and corrupts the science. Fact is the proper trials are very expensive and the only institutions that can afford them are pharmaceutical corporations. So the only treatments that get trailed are the ones that make good business sense.

[–] grue@lemmy.world 3 points 21 hours ago (1 children)

So RFK Jr's Dept. of HHS is going to increase government grants for pharmaceutical research, right?

...right?

[–] wewbull@feddit.uk 3 points 10 hours ago

No idea. Can't get a handle on the guy at all. He's all over the place.

[–] Delphia@lemmy.world 1 points 18 hours ago

My guy, Peptides and SARMS are also super interesting,think of it as the middleground between sports suplements and steroids, chemicals to fuck with your hormones in specific ways. Im taking 4 seperate ones at the moment and my biggest worry is "Am I getting whats on the label" and the biggest reason I dont know is that the FDA wont approve them for human consumption, even though thousands of people do.

I know I might be placing myself at risk of side effects, but I'm already doing it! I'm going to continue doing it, at least let me know my BPC157 is legit.

[–] Steve@startrek.website 2 points 23 hours ago

We can simply harvest stem cells from the lowest status minorities in the deportation camps

[–] The_Che_Banana@beehaw.org 3 points 1 day ago
  1. Yes.
  2. Also, yes.