Nucking Futs

My friend Koidy, who's from Batu Caves and just finished her BS at Franklin and Marshall, sent me this story. Ooooookie. To treat erectile dysfunction? (Or as the less squeamish of us would call it, "impotence".)

Koidy brought up concerns about proper controls since the article says

so far 40 volunteers had tried the tablet and responded positively.

Perhaps it's just sloppy writing on the part of The Star - maybe Dr Kim did describe a controlled study but the reporter just thought it would be too boring to put in a mainstream paper - but otherwise it sounds sketchy. Also no mention of whether the results were published in a peer-reviewed journal.

This is a really irresponsible statement to make:

“Furthermore, because it is not a drug, it is safe for those with hypertension or diabetes, or (those) who have recently had heart bypasses,” he said, adding that some of the volunteers had undergone bypass surgeries.

Not a drug? The last time I checked, the general definition of a drug was any chemical that alters the body's physiology. If you claim that it can give fat old men boners by dilating their blood vessels, it's a drug. This also falls under the fallacy about "natural" remedies that technophobic types like to believe - that if something is natural, it must be safe. Another small molecule that can be extracted from nuts (cyanide from almonds) is "natural", but I wouldn't care to assume its safety in any great quantity.

Anyway, nitroglycerin is used in heart patients for the same purpose - it's converted into NO in the body. Why reinvent the wheel?

Also, something I might not have picked up on if I hadn't seen someone's letter to The Star about Malaysian academicians entering bogus design contests: the "International Invention, Innovation, Industrial Design and Technology Exhibition" that this product won a gold medal at is hosted by Malaysia. From the list of "winners" [PDF] from last year, it looks like virtually all the entrants were Malaysian. And there were FIFTEEN gold medals given out to university teams in the "Biotechnology, Health & Fitness" category, out of a total of 46 gold medals awarded to universities. It's like a primary school Sports Day where everybody gets a prize. (I was going to say "Special Olympics" but it's not fair to associate handicapped people with the incorrigibly incompetent.)

Check out the guy lah...see for yourself.

And whatever happened to Tongkat Ali?

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Stupid cat went out right before a thunderstorm. I have now one very soggy and unhappy kitty wandering around my apartment looking for things to dry herself on..aiyayayayayaya.