FDA gets Scared by Tea
After my post on Ritalin, I’m feeling a little guilty about reporting on “medical breakthroughs”. So, I’ll admit right from the start: this is not entirely new. But, it is very interesting and could be important to you.
Catechins in green tea are 20 times stronger in their antioxidant properties than vitamin E. Here is the useful part. Green tea has been shown to protect the skin against direct damage to the cell and moderates inflammation. The fascinating thing about green tea is that it helps [the skin] whether it is applied topically or when consumed as a beverage.
New York’s Columbia University, Department of Dermatology did the lead research here, but its only one of many such studies that point in the same direction. There are plenty of claims and some supporting data suggesting green tea is also helpful in preventing cancer, but the official FDA take is that green tea and cancer prevention is bunk (June 30 2005)
Once again it is my nature to question all sides of the sphere, but I cannot help but focus on the FDA at this moment. “Do we believe them because they are looking out for our interest?” or “Should we not believe them because they get it wrong more often than the National Weather Service. Perhaps, we should not believe them simply because they are looking out for our interest!
What a country. Ever wonder where you sign up for a job you can get paid for not showing up, then, when you do show up, they encourage you to not care about the people you serve, and then you get to keep your job even if you’re correct only half the time?* Try our Government at USA JOBS.
*sick days, antiquated holidays, “personal health” days, family leave…“Take a number and wait.” “Sit here.” “Fill out this.” “We’re closing now.” “That’s not my department.” “Payment is due before we give you an application”….government efficiency; and it only gets more so.
Sour grapes or computer envy?
Right now I’m kind of hating the media. I know that’s a sweeping statement and I apologize for being so general. A couple weeks ago I came across an article about a subject I posted in May; If I Were King, which was about education concepts. I highlighted the efforts of Nicholas Negroponte, the former MIT Media Lab director and founder of the One Laptop Per Child project.
Quickly (actually too quickly), huge amounts of disparaging news items and lots of opinions flooded the presses. Mostly about Negroponte’s efforts and his ineffectiveness in delivering the goods for the price that he named. They ranged from a “raised eyebrow” about his inability to make a quality laptop for under $100 (Ever try it?), to making the whole project out to be a complete failure. Finally, I came across a fare minded article written in the Boston Globe.
Progress is always saddled with resistance and hurdles and the people who write about it, in the media, are not the ones who must overcome. Often the visionary never even gets to see the results, (but they sure get the criticism) and seldom are they the ones that end up carrying the project to a point of flourishing. Yet they are the ones that start the process.
Q: How can you tell a leader?
A: He’s the one with the arrows in his back.
The One Laptop Per Child project seems to be going through one of these inevitable rough times. I for one am enjoying the view and learning about innovation and creative efforts as they persevere (Be assured that if they don’t, someone will. Probably by standing on their shoulders). Lets keep an eye on the concepts and see what we can learn about perseverance (never a popular topic in a time of war). In the end let the Project be it’s own judge.
Compare the V-22 Osprey. Time Magazine just trashed it in it’s article called A Flying Shame. Come on! I have high hope’s for this amazing aircraft. It might be many years, but the non-military applications are what will be really exciting. Like the “laptop problem” we are assaulted with a catchy title and a stated failure with no mention of the future other than doom (Brings back memories of global warming).
History is full of examples of enormous successes which look like failures at many (sometimes any) points along the way. Navigation, Medicine, Engineering, Politics….
Sounds like the Media is on a rampage of judge-it-now-pessimism. Guess they always have been.
I’m reading The Four Hour Work Week by Timothy Ferriss. Mostly, I love it. He details avenues to totally eliminate unnecessary outside information from the world the Media shows us. If things continue, I might just have to join him in his well-thought-out approach to eliminating negative media input.
Perhaps we all can take a lesson from HappyNews.com.
