Sometimes marketing sucks...

Researchers say appendix has uses

I think this is definitely a mark of where we are as far as medical science.
We may know a whole lot and have done a lot of amazing things, but we still have a lot to learn.

It's this part of the article that bugs me most:

"Darwin was also not aware that appendicitis, or a potentially deadly inflammation of the appendix, is not due to a faulty appendix, but rather to cultural changes associated with industrialized society and improved sanitation, Parker said.
"Those changes left our immune systems with too little work and too much time their hands — a recipe for trouble," he said. "Darwin had no way of knowing that the function of the appendix could be rendered obsolete by cultural changes that included widespread use of sewer systems and clean drinking water."
Now that scientists are uncovering the normal function of the appendix, Parker notes a critical question to ask is whether anything can be done to prevent appendicitis. He suggests it might be possible to devise ways to incite our immune systems today in much the same manner that they were challenged back in the Stone Age.
"If modern medicine could figure out a way to do that, we would see far fewer cases of allergies, autoimmune disease, and appendicitis," Parker said."

First - it unrealistically paints this age as a "sterile age".  That industrialization has santized, and by implication not in any way poisoned our society.  Really - clean drinking water? ... water that with some amount of regularity has traces of rocket fuel and prescription drugs... and artificial sweetners? 

"What Causes Appendicitis?"

So if sanitation is really the critical link - how do we explain these statistics: The epidemiology of appendicitis and appendectomy in the United States?
It looks like in the 80s we got dirtier.  Maybe I can buy that.  But 10-19 year olds are more sanitary than any other age group?  Men are cleaner than women?  Whites 1.5 times more likely to be sanitary than non whites?  Clearly things are being oversimplified in this article.

It's total and complete speculation that we get appendicitis because of an over "active immune system".  This article take a symptom - inflammation response in this particular organ - and throws in a couple of diseases associated with immune function to make their speculation sound impressive - being careful to throw in "ifs", "mights" and "mays".  It sounds like an empty election year promise.  

"If we can figure out what nature has already done and fake it, then we won't have to give up industrialization (and the pollution that comes along with it) and chemical medicines."  I will cynically throw in "...that have been making us so much money."  It all seems about as ridiculous to me as the guy who mentioned that he believed our next step in evoltion was to merge our biology with machines... give us each a direct connection in our brains that could tap us into the internet... and yeah he was serious too.

So second, it bothers me that the "solution" to this problem presented is only able to be solved by "medical science".  They are banking on readers believing that appendicitis is too complicated of a problem for them to solve and understand on their own.  Well, apparently it's too complicated for the docotors too or else they'd have an injection or a pill to pop that would cost us all a whole lot of money in the name of "safety and health".

Has anyone caught on just yet that this isn't a report of medical findings, it's an advertisement?  I paid attention to the fine print at the bottom of the article:
© Imaginova Corp. All rights reserved.
2009-08-24 16:41:24

Which leads me here:  Imaginova Corp.
"Imaginova is backed by investors: Blue Chip Venture Capital; Gannett Co., Inc.; RedShift Ventures; Steelpoint Capital Partners and Venrock Associates. In August 2006, the company raised $15M in growth equity financing [5]."

I randomly chose one branch to follow:
Venrock
"Venrock focuses its investments on early-stage and start-up companies in information technology and emerging technologies. These include: Intel, Apple, StrataCom, Check Point Software, DoubleClick, 3Com Corporation, Mosaic, PGP, Itek, Digex, Phoenix, and Second Rotation (gazelle). It also has a significant venture in the nascent nanotechnology field, with early funding of the primary company in this area, Nanosys, along with corporate heavyweights such as Du Pont.[1]

In addition, in the healthcare sector, Venrock has invested in HealthSouth Corporation, MedPartners, Inc. Caliper Technologies Corporation, Centocor, Genetics Institute, Idec Pharmaceuticals Corporation, Illumina, Millennium Pharmaceuticals, Sirna Therapeutics, and Sugen."

Further down the rabbit hole:
Millennium Pharmaceuticals
"Millennium Pharmaceuticals, Inc., The Takeda Oncology Company is a biopharmaceutical company based in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The Company markets Velcade (bortezomib) for injection, a cancer product, and has a growing clinical development pipeline of product candidates.
Millennium research, development and commercialization activities are focused in two therapeutic areas: oncology and inflammation. By applying its knowledge of the human genome, understanding of disease mechanisms and industrialized drug discovery platform, Millennium is developing a line of new product candidates. "

In fact their parent company Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited has a product "in the pipeline" to address "inflammatory diseases".

Convenient.

Here's a Consumer's Union action item.

I'm not sure if this is "marketing" per se.  It made me wonder where does marketing begin and when does it end?

SALE SALE SALE

Red Meat available at rock bottom prices!

Here's the CU post:

Last week the USDA announced the largest recall of beef in the nation's history--143 million pounds.  A significant number of "downer" cows--cows too sick to stand--had been processed into beef, despite USDA rules forbidding this.  A substantial portion of the recalled beef was distributed to schools for school lunches.

Meat from sick cows should not be eaten because it is more likely to contain harmful bacteria or transmittable disease. Is that meat in your refrigerator? Was it delivered to your child's school? Finding that out isn't easy.  USDA knows, but it won't tell you.

Tell the Secretary of Agriculture to disclose the stores and schools that received the recalled meat immediately. USDA should inform the public immediately about all retail stores and institutions involved in meat recalls!

Click here to sign their petition.

Isn't this still just a perfect example of "how marketing sucks"?

It proves the power of "word of mouth" advertising... and illustrates how even intelligent people rely on the reputations of the people/companies they interact with.

What does anyone out there have in their aresenals to combat this?

Add http://www.snopes.com to your bookmarks.

http://www.snopes.com/politics/business/cell411.asp

And to whomever sent you this (getting old) hoax, reply with:

Gullibility Virus Warning!

As for this one, you can add your cell number to the do-not-call list but there's no need unless you've been giving out your cell number on registration forms.