Arginmax: Herbal Viagra for women?

I don't usually look at "alternative" medical claims. There is so much nonsense in academic medical research that I simply cannot get interested in claims that are even less well-researched. There is however a huge industry centred around supplying people with arginmax (Google it!). A typical report is below. The claims are unusual for the "herbal" industry in that they DO have the backing of double blind trials reported in academic journals. All the research however seems to come from one Japanese guy (and his collaborators) located at the University of Hawaii in Honolulu -- Dr Ito. Salon says that one of the early studies "was coordinated by Mary Lake Polan, chairwoman of the department of obstetrics and gynecology at Stanford" but Ito was still given as the first author on the article concerned. Expertise in obstetrics and gynecology is in any case not a strong indicator for expertise in drug research.

I cannot find any independent researchers who have picked up on it at all -- which is very strange for such a huge industry as the impotence industry. One has to conclude that most scientifically-trained people who have looked at it have smelt a rat. The U.S. government has just announced a trial, however, so we may get something definite on it eventually. Independent replication is the acid test of any new scientific finding so the lack of it does leave a large question mark. Medical fraud is not at all unknown, sadly

Men have their Viagra and finally, a trial conducted at Stanford University is giving some women back their libido. And the good news is, it's not a drug, it's a nutritional supplement - a vitamin.

The university trial was based upon a herbal preparation called ArginMax. The participants were women who were not totally satisfied with their sex lives, and were given either placebo - which doesn't contain the drug - or the ArginMax compound.

The results of the four-week trial were exceptional. Seventy percent of the women taking ArginMax reported increased sexual desire, frequency and satisfaction. While only 35 percent of the women taking the placebo had a positive response.

ArginMax contains an amino acid called Larginine. It boosts the levels of nitric oxide in the body, which increase blood flow to the genital area. The belief is if the vaginal area is stimulated, the brain is sure to follow.

While early results have established that ArginMax is great news for women, believe it or not - as is often the case - it's even better news for men. Seventy-six percent reported a better sex life after taking ArginMax compared with 21 percent on the placebo.

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New pill may offer the obese an easy route to health

The next iatrogenic disaster coming up?

SCIENTISTS have created an exercise pill that tricks cells into thinking they are undergoing serious exertion and so helps the body burn extra fat. The drug hints at radical new potential treatments for obesity whereby fat people would be able to use drugs to slim down rather than dieting or exercising. The drug, a synthetic form of fat, has only been tested on animals. It appears to work by flicking a master switch within cells that regulates the laying down or burning of fat.

Ronald Evans, the researcher who created the drug, told the Experimental Biology conference in Washington DC over the weekend that such drugs could lead to new treatments for human metabolic syndrome. Sometimes called syndromeX, this consists of obesity and its consequences, such as high blood pressure, elevated levels of fat in the blood, heart disease, diabetes and resistance to insulin.

Dr Evans, of the Salk Institute, in San Diego, California, found the drug activated the same fat-burning process that occurs during exercise, increasing the amount of calories burnt with no apparent effort. This made the mice resistant to weight gain even on a high-fat diet. He used genetic engineering to create a strain of mice that had an innate resistance to weight gain and had twice the physical endurance of normal mice. Their ability to run an hour longer than a normal mouse led to them being dubbed the "marathon mice".

Such discoveries did not lead to potential new treatments because the genetic engineering that created the mice had to be carried out before birth and would be unacceptable for humans. "That is why the potential of chemical metabolic engineering - possibly a one-a-day pill as opposed to permanent genetic metabolic engineering - is so exciting," Dr Evans said. "In today's society too few people get an ideal amount of exercise." Such a drug could, he suggests, reduce fatty tissue, lower amounts of fat circulating in the blood, cut blood glucose levels and reduce resistance to insulin, limiting the risks of heart disease and diabetes. Type 2 diabetes is linked to obesity, and experts believe up to half of all cases could be prevented through changes to diet and exercise.

There are already a range of anti-fat drugs on the market, but they are criticised by nutrition researchers, who point out that people who take such drugs may lose weight at first but then pile it back on soon after. "These drugs ... always fail in the real world," said Marion Nestle, professor of nutrition at New York University and author of the diet book What to Eat. "If people want to get thin they have to control the calories they consume and exercise more."

Source

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Just some problems with the "Obesity" war:

1). It tries to impose behavior change on everybody -- when most of those targeted are not obese and hence have no reason to change their behaviour. It is a form of punishing the innocent and the guilty alike. (It is also typical of Leftist thinking: Scorning the individual and capable of dealing with large groups only).

2). The longevity research all leads to the conclusion that it is people of MIDDLING weight who live longest -- not slim people. So the "epidemic" of obesity is in fact largely an "epidemic" of living longer.

3). It is total calorie intake that makes you fat -- not where you get your calories. Policies that attack only the source of the calories (e.g. "junk food") without addressing total calorie intake are hence pissing into the wind. People involuntarily deprived of their preferred calorie intake from one source are highly likely to seek and find their calories elsewhere.

4). So-called junk food is perfectly nutritious. A big Mac meal comprises meat, bread, salad and potatoes -- which is a mainstream Western diet. If that is bad then we are all in big trouble.

5). Food warriors demonize salt and fat. But we need a daily salt intake to counter salt-loss through perspiration and the research shows that people on salt-restricted diets die SOONER. And Eskimos eat huge amounts of fat with no apparent ill-effects. And the average home-cooked roast dinner has LOTS of fat. Will we ban roast dinners?

6). The foods restricted are often no more calorific than those permitted -- such as milk and fruit-juice drinks.

7). Tendency to weight is mostly genetic and is therefore not readily susceptible to voluntary behaviour change.

8). And when are we going to ban cheese? Cheese is a concentrated calorie bomb and has lots of that wicked animal fat in it too. Wouldn't we all be better off without it? And what about butter and margarine? They are just about pure fat. Surely they should be treated as contraband in kids' lunchboxes! [/sarcasm].

Trans fats:

For one summary of the weak science behind the "trans-fat" hysteria, see here. Trans fats have only a temporary effect on blood chemistry and the evidence of lasting harm from them is dubious. By taking extreme groups in trans fats intake, some weak association with coronary heart disease has at times been shown in some sub-populations but extreme group studies are inherently at risk of confounding with other factors and are intrinsically of little interest to the average person.

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