BiDil (2005) is the trade name for isosorbide dinitrate/hydralazine, a heart medicine for Blacks. It is the first race-based prescription drug approved by the US government’s Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
In the 1980s Dr Jay Cohn took two drugs that were no longer under patent, put them together and patented them as a heart medicine – not just for Blacks but for anyone. The FDA refused to approve it for general use: trials showed that on average it did not make much of a difference.
Cohn went back through the numbers from the trials and found that it did seem to help those who self-identified as Black. So he applied for a new patent: the very same drug but this time meant for Blacks.
Cohn licensed BiDil to NitroMed, a drug company, to carry out new trials and market it.
To persuade the FDA to allow new trials, NitroMed claimed that Blacks were twice as likely as Whites to die of congestive heart failure (CHF), that the reason was genetic.
Both claims later turned out to be false: NitroMed used out-of-date figures from the 1980s. By 2003 Blacks were only 10% more likely to die of CHF. Since Blacks had changed little genetically in that time, most of the difference in death rates in the 1980s was not genetic.
Most differences in health between Blacks and Whites are unlikely to be genetic. For example, Blacks are more likely to be overweight, under stress (partly due to racism), eat high-fat foods, get rat diseases, etc, all things that can drive heart failure, none of them genetic. Blacks are less likely to have good health insurance, particularly in Republican states that block Obamacare money. Also not genetic.
In 2003 new trials went forward, with support of the Association of Black Cardiologists. They signed up 1,050 Blacks, 0 non-Blacks. Non-Blacks were not part of the trial, not even for comparison: the patent for general-use BiDil would run out in 2007 while that for Blacks was good till 2020. Only tests on Blacks had a chance of paying for themselves.
Results of the trial:
- BiDil decreased the death rate from CHF by 43% when used with common heart medicines of the day.
- NitroMed’s stock price increased by 73%.
In 2005 the FDA approved its use for Blacks.
Whatever it is that makes it work on Blacks is not necessarily true for most Blacks or only Blacks.
BiDil was not designed for Blacks. The Black thing was just something Cohn used to get FDA approval.
A blessing and a curse: Although BiDil saves lives, it comes with two broader dangers:
- The strengthening of racism: scientific racists point to BiDil as proof that self-identified race is biologically real, a fact of nature. They use that in turn to back unproved ideas that other things are mainly genetic, like Black crime and IQ.
- The medicalization of racism: using race-based medicine to deal with the side-effects of racial inequality. The drapetomania thing all over again.
Source: Mainly “Medical Apartheid” (2006) by Harriet A. Washington.
See also:
- From the annals of Negro medicine:
- Is race biologically real?
Does that mean that it is illegal, or potentially regarded as professional misconduct to prescribe the drug for use on persons who don’t self-identify as black (or who the doctor did not identify as black)?
Or will the prescribing doctor mark “black” as race for the patient just so he can prescribe the drug?
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Reblogged this on revealingartisticthoughts and commented:
Thanks Abagond for always sharing news.
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You know what abagond, this is why i don’t take ANY medicine from these white doctors. for all i know, they could be killing me!
I know the American governments history on us as black people as any black person on this blog and i gotta say, i am very paranoid around white doctors that want to prescribe me some drug.
I am into eating healthy foods for my medicine. if anyone has a netflix account, watch this documentary about Food, being used as medicine.
Food Matters:
“In a collection of interviews with leading Nutritionists, Naturopaths, Scientists, M.D.’s and Medical Journalists you will discover scientifically verifiable solutions for overcoming illness naturally. Food Matters also explores the politics behind the pharmaceutical industry and the possibilities of healing through natural vitamins and whole foods. This documentary brings to light the much controversial work of Dr Max Gerson (Gerson Therapy).
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Very interesting question, jefe. @ : o l ) >
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Reading this made me shudder in just the same way as when I found out that black men are routinely over-diagnosed with schizophrenia, a trend that has been in place for the last 50 years! From then, I have been suspicious of psychiatric labels and those that are fond of using them and pathologizing others.
As mentioned before:
“Race-based misdiagnosis emerged in the context of the civil rights era of the 1960s and 1970s, when activism became equated with mental illness…”
When it was investigated by Jon Metzl, he found:
“…that the criminalization of mental illness and misdiagnosis of schizophrenia meant many black men have been placed in prisons rather than psychiatric hospitals.”
http://psychcentral.com/news/2010/01/07/black-men-more-likely-to-be-diagnosed-with-schizophrenia/10602.html
http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/witness/201011/how-the-black-man-became-schizophrenic
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@ Abagond
Do you believe that genetic determinism has taken over where scientific racism left off?
A genetic “explanation” for behavior or IQ or other things sounds like racial essentialism in a different disguise.
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My sister used to work as a nursing assistant at one of the VA hospitals in New York back in the seventies. She astutely noticed when the White vets used to line up for whatever shots they were giving out at the time, they would be administering them from a tray she was holding – but if the next vet happened to be African American she was directed to use a different tray of needles. Now if the vet was Hispanic, Asian or anything but African American they were still given the needles from the White tray. She told me that she knew something was up at the time, but declined to make any comments to the medical authorities as she didn’t know enough about the procedures and what exactly was in the drugs being given out.
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What the . . ..
This is ridiculous. POC need to set up organizations in every field to challenge this kind of exploitation. It’s unacceptable, and as Abagond said, it can lead to other socially acceptable ideas. This gives me the creeps because it reminds me of the genetic testing that went on around Hitler’s time period. I can’t remember what they called that era of race supremacy medical tests, but it was horrific. I think there needs to be organizations in every field from education, to media, to law, to the medical field so these things are challenged and not allowed to slip under the radar and possibly grow into something very dangerous.
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Ahh, I guess it’s been a while since the last HBD wars…. Well, let the battle begin!!!
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” get rat diseases, ” Was that a mistype or is the state of Black American life so bad that a first world country has a population that worries about infection from vermin?
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After what happened in Tuskegee i can understand why many black people would be skeptical of this medication. And why is it particularly aimed at black people. Also the sterilizations done on black women in North Carolina some years ago, where they are having paying those women reparations. I can understand why the black community would be suspicious of the medical community at large.
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Will have to order book “Medical Apartheid.”
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Abagond,
DaJokah and I had discussed this medication when he tried to talk about “race-based” medicine.
“Linda says,
Also, this article you brought in is discussing a “new” drug “BiDil” that used 2, already in use drugs, to make it… this drug was controversial because its designers claimed that it should be labeled specifically for use by black people; when in actuality this drug could be used successfully by anyone—the drugs used to create it, hydralazine and isosorbide mononitrate, are/were proven and successful drugs already in use and there was no way that this “new” drug would not work.
isosorbide mononitrate is a nitrate ie nitroglycerine, that is given when people are having heart attacks; Hydralazine is a potent hypertensive drug that acts like vasodilator, that is used in the hospital to decrease the blood pressure without dropping the heart rate … neither of these drugs are new.
both of these drugs are given to everyone…regardless of race… in this study, they did what they were designed to do… Combining these 2 drugs is not groundbreaking…all it did was made it possible for patients to take hydralazine on a “long term” basis for maintenance. Imdur (isosorbide mononitrate) was already being prescribed for long-term cardiac maintenance
I’m not sure how I feel about this topic because on one hand, there is empirical evidence that supports doctors using race as a factor: Race is used to determine medical diagnosis such as sickle cell anemia, multiple sclerosis or cystic fibrosis.
But on the other hand, there are just too many variables that are left out when these trials are conducted – using “race” in medication and treatment plans has many factors to consider.”
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To me, the only time race can be considered a factor, is when diagnosing certain conditions, such as sickle cell anemia (African descent) or cystic fibrosis (European descent).
Both of these disease are seen prevalently within “racial” groups but it’s not concrete because sickle cell anemia is also prevalent in non-black groups:
“Sickle cell disease affects people of many different races. Sickle cell disease is often thought of as a disease affecting blacks, and a majority of patients — researchers estimate 60 to 80 percent — are African-American, but other races are affected.
People of Indian, Middle Eastern, Hispanic and Mediterranean heritage are also commonly affected. “People are often surprised to learn that this is not an African-American disease,” says Dr. Jordan.”
Some scientist believed that black people with European admixture can also be susceptible to cystic fibrosis but the disease is being under-reported due to CF being misdiagnosed as other disease or medical condition (TB or chronic pulmonary disease)
and some scientist believe that admixture is not the issue but that Africans /African Americans have a mutated gene for CF.
http://jmg.bmj.com/content/36/1/41.full
There is just too many variables in these researches for me to be a fan of “race-based” medications — because even race-based diagnosing of medical conditions can be off.
If anything, getting a family history is more reliable as an indicator of possible diseases that will affect an individual — such as most of the women in one family developed breast cancer by age 40 or most of the men in one family had heart attacks.
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I need to watch what I take from now on. I’ve been on medicine all my life.
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“The FDA refused to approve it for general use: trials showed that on average it did not make much of a difference.
Cohn went back through the numbers from the trials and found that it did seem to help those who self-identified as Black.”
“BiDil decreased the death rate from CHF by 43% when used [by Blacks] with common heart medicines of the day.”
Obviously, this drug was tested on non-Blacks without much success. You don’t think if big pharma could make money giving this to white people that they wouldn’t?
Why is it that the vast majority of elite sprinters, NBA players, NFL running backs, etc. are of West African descent?
Why is it that the vast majority of elite long distance runners are of East African descent?
why is it that Asian teams can’t seem to compete successfully at the highest levels of soccer (if you think a country like China with 1 billion plus people doesn’t try, look what they do with the Olympics)?
Why is it that, at the top levels, blacks can’t compete with whites in swimming?
(remember the exceptions prove the rule)
DIFFERENT RACES ARE DIFFERENT PHYSICALLY. I don’t see how anyone can seriously argue this point. The problem is that this leads to another truth which is harder to swallow…
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Kiwi:
So all the “scientific” stuff out there about different bone densities and muscle types must all be ® @¢!$+ lies, right, since the only thing stopping Blacks from dominating swimming is lack of good pools? Anyone who says East Asians are less buff (on average) is a liar, or maybe because East Asians don’t eat as much red meat or don’t have a tradition to work out or something. Samoans must just have a culture that emphasizes physical development. Nothing racial to see here folks.
Anyway, you can say “but these groups do not match modern concepts of “race””, but of course they don’t contradict these concepts. They are just further subsets of races that have additional (often significant) variations.
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@kevinblyton
I’m guessing by your question that you do not live in the US…is that correct?
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Agree that the tendency to find correlations between racial identity and sports participation may not be due so much to actual theories of race realist biology, but largely due to other factors, ie, cultural and family legacies, de facto segregation, access to training facilities, stereotyping (by coaches, universities and other sponsoring institutions, marketers), etc. , esp. in cases where the sports product is being commercialized.
Analogously, racialized medicine is obviously connected to the desire for pharmaceutical researchers to make money. They will form connections to racial identity if it helps get their product on the market.
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Biff,
on which system in the human body does medications/drugs affect?
why are you trying to make it appear as if the human body and its physiology is one dimensional.
Medication does not work based on physicality, Biff — you are comparing apples and oranges. You are discussing physical development with your examples
Medications affect the biochemical processes in the human body. All drugs have to go through the bodies fluids to reach their target systems, organs, receptors, and pathways– and to be eventually excreted.
Tylenol (acetaminophen) doesn’t care if you have a long-torso, big or slim hips, or a big forehead–it stops your headache because it signals the CNS pathways to open the vessels in your head and block prostaglandin production.
you are posing racial stereotypical questions/mindsets to prove a point that has nothing to do with how drugs work in the human body.
As I mentioned before, the drug Bidil is falsely marketed as a drug for black people because the main ingredients are two Very popular medications used to prevent/decrease Heart Attacks symptoms (nitroglycerine) and the other is used to decrease blood pressures for people who experience severe hypertension (hydralazine)
isosorbide dinitrate is already out on the market as a long-term maintenance medication that can be taken at home, it’s called “Imdur”
The only thing “new” about Bidil is that they managed to make Hydralazine a “long-term” maintenance medication that can be taken at home– because in the hospital, it is used as a short term medication (it’s great for pulling down blood pressure without decreasing the heart rate)
Other than that, –Bidil’s marketing is a FDA approved Scam!
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@ biff
“why is it that Asian teams can’t seem to compete successfully at the highest levels of soccer (if you think a country like China with 1 billion plus people doesn’t try, look what they do with the Olympics)?”
China, Japan, Korea and other countries from that region have only recently began to take soccer seriously.
It takes some time (years) to reach the level of top soccer countries like Brazil or Argentina once you are taking things seriously.
If you look at Japan, for example, you will see that they have already passed the level where they can play against some top African teams without fear. And it was not liked that before the World Championship they organized with Korea a few years ago.
To make success in soccer depend on the physical characteristics of the athletes in a country seems to me very naive, at best. As a citizen of a country where people are soccer fans, I know, and everybody here knows too, that aspects of organization of sport in a country – that take years to perfect – are far more important. This is specially important for collective sports.
China can be good and even top in soccer or basketball if only they are motivated enough and given sufficient time to put in place a program directed at that goal, trust me on that.
P.S.:
How is Brazil faring in athletics? How many medals do they won last time in the Olympics (in athletics)? Don’t they have enough “blacks” to help them succeed like the USA? Or don’t they want to? And Nigeria – the quintessence of an West-African country, how many medals in athletics have they won last time?
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Also Biff, the statements you made seem to be a favorite of Race Realists.
I won’t say that they don’t have some truth to them based on physical traits that are more common to people of specific Ethnic groups —
(I won’t say “race” because in modern usage of the term “race”–there are people who do not look physically alike lumped into the same category — such as Indians and Chinese people both being called “Asian” as a race)
but these physical traits which seem to be attributed to “race” seem to be heavily influenced by the Environment — you know, “nature vs nurture” (genetic determinism vs environmentalism)
Biff@ “Why is it that, at the top levels, blacks can’t compete with whites in swimming?”
Linda’s answer: white people are said to be better swimmers due to their physical proportions — long torso and wide chest/shoulders– like fish, so therefore they are better swimmers
now here is the but: could it be that people who swim a lot and from a young age, develop these proportions, and this is why they are better swimmers than people who don’t swim often.
because the Cullen Jones (black American professional swimmer) and the non-white professional swimmers (male and female) I see also have this long torso, wide chest/shoulder proportion.
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lets continue “nature vs nuture”
Biff@ “Why is it that the vast majority of elite long distance runners are of East African descent?”
Linda says:
Good question…Moroccans and Algerians (north Africans) used to dominate long-distance running before the east Africans got into the game.
simple answer — High Altitude and genetics specific to certain east African ethnic groups.
Ethiopia has a large population of people who live in high altitudes similar to the Andeans and Tibetan mountains. East Africa is a mountainous region.
so physically, the high-altitude east Africans probably have better lung capacity than people who don’t live in the mountains.
but high altitude is obviously not the only answer because then other high-altitude populations would be winning also.
the Kenyans are the current champs and their success is attributed to genetics but, what’s interesting, is that the top Kenyan runners come from one ethnic group: the Kalenjin (Nandi) —
“the Kalenjin number around 5 million, making them a small minority, even in Kenya, yet they dominate most of the world’s long-distance races.
In athletics terms many people associate East Africa with Kenyan and Ethiopian distance running. Intriguingly, the majority of these runners come from three mountainous districts beside the Rift Valley: Nandi in Kenya, the most successful district, and Arsi and Shewa in Ethiopia.”
http://www.wbur.org/npr/241895965/how-one-kenyan-tribe-produces-the-worlds-best-runners
The studies found significant differences in body mass index and bone structure between the Western pros and the Kenyan (Kalenjin) amateurs who had bested them.
The studied Kenyans had less mass for their height, longer legs, shorter torsos, and more slender limbs. One of the researchers described the Kenyan physical differences as “bird-like,” noting that these traits would make them more efficient runners, especially over long distances.”
http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2012/04/why-kenyans-make-such-great-runners-a-story-of-genes-and-cultures/256015/
So, with these isolated mountain people, it could be that genetics allows them to be better longer distance runners, but it cannot be said that this is common amongst ALL east Africans — only the people from these specific Ethnic groups.
so, the broad “racial” brush cannot be applied here
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Happy to correspond with someone other than Kiwi and jefe, who seem to love trying to pull an intellectual tag-team takedown of my comments..
Linda:
You said, “Also Biff, the statements you made seem to be a favorite of Race Realists.”
Yes, they try to be “realistic” (rather than just “idealistic”) about race, and they would be the first to tell you that certain groups of Blacks are better (on average) than any group of whites at many activities.
As for how exactly BiDil works, I don’t claim to be an expert. However, studies showed that it didn’t offer many benefits to non-Blacks, but offered huge, indisputable benefits for Blacks. To believe that the FDA is in on some conspiracy over this is pretty far out there.
Re: Cullen Jones, he doesn’t appear to be 100% of African heritage. Definitely see your point re: long torso, wide chest. As I said, the exception proves the rule. Re: whether you can develop proportions (rather than muscle) from exercise, Is it also maybe possible that if I played basketball more I’d get taller?
munu:
You said “China can be good and even top in soccer or basketball if only they are motivated enough and given sufficient time to put in place a program directed at that goal, trust me on that.”
OK, so how much effort a country puts in can be an important factor. However, racial differences also play a role. Sometimes there are freaks of nature like the Chinese hurdler, Liu Xiang, but generally East Asians just aren’t going to win track and field competitions. You say it takes time. In the1988 Olympics, China had 5 gold medals. In 2008, they had 51. It’s a lot of progress in 20 years and a lot of effort on their part to increase their international prestige. Soccer is by far the most high profile sport internationally. China has put a lot of effort into trying to develop a competitive team (scouting out the best physical specimens when they are young, hiring foreign coaches, etc.), without much luck.
In fact, in a world where Blacks have dominated at basketball and many positions in football, it’s interesting to note that soccer, at the highest levels, continues to be dominated by whites. http://isteve.blogspot.com/2014/05/20-highest-paid-soccer-players-by-race.html
I guess you would say that is coincidence or conspiracy. Anyway, for those of you who want to believe it’s just a coincidence that the NBA is filled with African Americans, that’s fine… you can call me the “r” word. However, to not believe that there are (on average) very significant physical differences between groups of people with different ethnic origins seems completely ridiculous to me.
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“Biff,
As for how exactly BiDil works, I don’t claim to be an expert. However, studies showed that it didn’t offer many benefits to non-Blacks, but offered huge, indisputable benefits for Blacks. To believe that the FDA is in on some conspiracy over this is pretty far out there.”
Linda says,
I am in the medical field, so I am very familiar with drugs and how they work; as well as the supposed “latest and greatest” in studies.
I have yet to use a drug on a patient that did not work on someone else on a different race. Medications work on the bodies systems and most diseases work in similar fashion.
Example: CHF -congestive heart failure affects the heart, lungs and kidneys.
The common symptoms that occur to show that someone is experiencing CHF is leg swellings, they get short of breath, and their blood pressure increases.
We have to treat these symptoms, so the result we are looking for is to help the swelling in the legs to go down (diuretics), the heart to start pumping within a normal beat range (beta blockers and angiotensins), so that the blood will stop backing up in the lungs and the kidneys can start working properly.
Why am I telling you this– to get it into your head that medications work on bodies systems, and manipulating the bodies systems is not “race” dependent
it’s based on symptoms that are common to ALL people afflicted with these diseases.
This particular study would be more conclusive and more believable if they had included the same amount of white participants as black ones, and other “races”
It’s very uncommon to have a medical drug research that tries to focus on race, and I don’t believe these results because they used 2 drugs that are common cardiac medications… of course they were going to work and they work just as well on white and Asian patients also.
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Linda:
Just saw this. “So, with these isolated mountain people, it could be that genetics allows them to be better longer distance runners, but it cannot be said that this is common amongst ALL east Africans — only the people from these specific Ethnic groups.
so, the broad “racial” brush cannot be applied here.”
I won’t disagree with your last post at all, except your conclusion a bit. Maybe it’s not a “broad “racial” brush”, but a “thin” one that is applicable here. It’s still different population groups with different body structures. This is HBD.
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Also, Biff,
please provide the study that showed that Bidil was tested on white patients, in order to show that the drug did not help them or offer any benefits.
and just to be clear, Nitroglycerin is used to decrease chest pain when a patient is experiencing an MI (heart attack) and an MI is not CHF —
but the one thing nitroglycerine will do is open up the blood vessels and decrease the blood pressure– so no matter what, a patient with chronic Hypertension/ CHF symptoms can’t go wrong.
but once again, anyone taking a low dose Nitro will receive the same benefit and white people with cardiac pathologies already do take long-term Nitro… it’s called Imdur. (same ingredient in Bidil)
So, once again, these people took an already marketed drug, combined it and changed the name, tested it only on black people in order to get FDA approval because the FDA already told them to get lost because they don’t have anything new.
if they were so sure about their results, why not test it on white, Latino, or Asian participants… they are affected by CHF also.
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Kiwi:
How did your last post contribute anything to the discussion?
If our positions on substantive issues were reversed, Abagond would call you out for violating his comment policy.
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Biff @ Re: whether you can develop proportions (rather than muscle) from exercise, Is it also maybe possible that if I played basketball more I’d get taller?
Linda says,
nope, that analogy doesn’t fly either – don’t forget, there are basketball players under 6 feet tall.
Tall basketball players are chosen after they’ve grown tall….until then, any kid who wants to play, does play – once puberty hits and growth spurts are achieved, the coaches start to discriminate based on height — so tallness in basketball is a “man-made” phenomenon!
(most professional swimmers start swimming before or during puberty, so their muscles adapt into their swimmers bodies, just like most gymnasts grow into theirs)
The goal of basketball is to get the ball in the net and having the ability to run back and forth. Growing is not the natural outcome of playing this sport but you will develop better coordination and spatial relationship perception.
Playing hockey won’t make you a better fighter either nor will snowboarding make you less susceptible to hypothermia.
I get what you are trying to say by relating “race” to sports or even physical development to sports but there way too many factors that contribute to each sport and the development of its winning participants… such as money.
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“Biff,
it’s interesting to note that soccer, at the highest levels, continues to be dominated by whites. http://isteve.blogspot.com/2014/05/20-highest-paid-soccer-players-by-race.html”
Linda says,
As an avid football fan, I object to Steve Sailors list. (and I’ll say up front, I am somewhat biased because I can’t stand Messi, over-rated want to be Maradona, and Wayne Rooney is overrated and only seems to score at club level)
He is going by club level media favorites — highest paid doesn’t automatically convert to “best” — Pepe and Sergio Ramos are better players than Fernando Torres, and they are defenders who probably scored more than Torres in the last 2 years!
to me, it seems Steve Sailor was just jumping on this bandwagon that you Yanks seem to be going through because the US team has been getting a lot of hype by the US media.
“Stever Sailor: One of the reasons soccer is so globally popular is that it’s a pretty white sport, much whiter than American football”
1. Cristiano Ronaldo, Portugal, white (might be tiny bit black through Cape Verdean great-grandparent) — generally speaking, Ronaldo looks like Tim Tebow.
2. Lionel Messi, Argentina, white
3. Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Sweden (Bosnian father and Croatian mother), white (often accused of being a Gypsy by opposing fans, but at 6’5″ looks pretty Balkan to me)
4. Neymar Jr., Brazil, black father and white mother
5. Radamel Falcao, Colombia, substantially white, father appears part black, perhaps some Amerindian too, judging from his hair
Oh please –Cristiano, Neymar, Suarez, and Falcao have black admixture — admitting that seems to be choking Steve.
He left Didier Drogba, Thierry Henry, the Ronaldos of Brazil off the list and they are all black/mixed race players. at one point, Henry made more money than David Beckham.
best soccer player of all time: Pele, black Brazilian
and the best soccer teams in history have been South American and so far in this world cup, the Colombians and the central/south American teams are/were kicking a’s! and the majority of the players are black or mixed race
It’s real easy to pick and choose, and give an Opinion, and that’s all Steve Sailor has.
(and Steve Sailor loses ALL credibility for adding Bastian Schweinsteiger — he should have said Jürgen Klinsmann, who is now coaching the US national team for big bucks!)
Soccer may be white in the US, but if you noticed, Jürgen Klinsmann had to import half-black, half German players, to the US national team in order to get them to beat Ghana!
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and just to get back on track about medications and race,
Benicar is another Cardiac medication that is sort of “race-based”
One of it’s cautions is that is can “adversely affect” black Caribbean people.
“ Angiotensin-II receptor antagonists should be used with caution in aortic or mitral valve stenosis and in hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. Those with primary aldosteronism, and Afro-Caribbean patients (particularly those with left ventricular hypertrophy), may not benefit from an angiotensin-II receptor antagonist.”
http://www.tecolandcorp.com/Product-Group-O/Olmesartan%20Medoxomil.htm
Afro-Caribbean people??? Now that’s really specific.
so I guess it’s OK for the black people in the rest of the world?!?
I’ve also read that Benicar works well on African Americans, if it’s taken with a diuretic.
Two conflicting views– Afro Caribbeans are warned but Afro Americans get the green light
even though both groups of people are subjected to the same indicators used in the race-based, kidney function studies –eGFR test, which is used to screen for and detect early kidney damage (and possible reason why Afro Caribbeans are warned to stay away from Benicar)
its said that black people with cardiac diseases typically have lower eGFR rates (measures kidney function using creatinine) so therefore, have more prevalence of kidney disease.
Kidney function studies are “race-based” because it’s believed that African descendants have more muscle mass than other groups of people (but did they test any Samoans though?!) and Serum creatinine is correlated with muscle mass, so the test is adjusted by 21% for black patients.
This test shows inaccuracy when a healthy person is tested, so once again, how trustworthy is this test in predicting kidney failure based on race.
If Benicar in not beneficial to Afro-Caribbeans, then logic would dictate that it’s not beneficial to African Americans.
The only reason why doctors would push Benicar to black Americans is because it’s combined with diuretics and it’s the diuretics which is more helpful – once again, it’s all in the marketing.
But I will say, I don’t like Benicar — not my preferred drug of choice, I have seen it cause rebound effects in older people (blood pressure goes back, stays uncontrolled)
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Linda:
You obviously know a lot about medical stuff. I was just generally citing the original trials that showed BiDil didn’t make much of a difference for the subjects. Maybe the FDA screwed up those trials or was engaged in some conspiracy theory stuff with the subsequent tests on Black.. or maybe they are just not as competent as you. However, it seems that the FDA doctors generally bought into the idea that the drug helped Blacks more than non-Blacks.
As for soccer players, I’m not saying Blacks can’t play well, and seems people with mixed (white with some Black and/or Amerindian) ancestry do particularly well. Just that it’s different than say basketball, where African Americans really do dominate. Anyway, the article you cited re: Kenyan runners really demonstrates HBD more concretely than anything I have cited. I don’t think we really have much of a substantive disagreement re: physical differences existing among different ethnic groups.
Sailer discusses a lot of the details you touched on, including nature vs. nurture with respect to the sons of German women and black American men who were brought over to help team USA.
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@biff
“As for soccer players, I’m not saying Blacks can’t play well, and seems people with mixed (white with some Black and/or Amerindian) ancestry do particularly well. Just that it’s different than say basketball, where African Americans really do dominate.”
That’s why people here think you’re ignorant. There’s no gene for soccer playing or basketball. African American NBA players have usually grown up playing basketball, have been pushed by parents or influenced by peers to be basketball players, because it’s more socially acceptable and more widely practised in African-American communities than soccer.
And great soccer players come in all colours,such as Pele from Brasil, where soccer is culturally acceptable and more widely practised.
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Linda,
Yep. That’s what Sailor really means but he’s trying to use “the world” as cover but you picked that thin fig leaf apart pretty well. As an aside, it was almost hilarious the way the media avoided mentioning the obvious overwhelming whiteness of the male and female “dude bro” crowds who they showed gathering to watch the US team.
But, as you mentioned, Klinsman’s no dummy. He knows that in order for the US to even really sniff the next level and be consistently seriously competitive on the world stage, he needs to push the sport to be a less of a middle class “socccer mom” thing here and tap into the talent pools that are either ignored or who play other sports. Can you imagine if athletic talent the level of say, Allen Iverson or Nate Robinson and so on, were directed toward soccer? Wow. I mean that Belgian dude who, literally, ran over the US in extra time is around the size of a NFL safety…
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OFF TOPIC: sports.
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Biff,
Maybe the FDA screwed up those trials or was engaged in some conspiracy theory stuff with the subsequent tests on Black.. or maybe they are just not as competent as you. However, it seems that the FDA doctors generally bought into the idea that the drug helped Blacks more than non-Blacks.
Linda says,
There is no conspiracy from the FDA… they do their utmost to support businesses and promote capitalism.. that’s why they told NitroMed to come back with something more “usable” that they could sign off on without looking stupid.
I’ll break it down this way for you: what happened with Bidil is this
imagine that you took Pepsi and combined it with Diet sprite, called it “Sprep”
and marketed it with a warning to black people that “drinking Sprep might make you fat” but Sprep doesn’t give this warning to non-blacks, even though research shows that they also can get fat from drinking high sugar soda.
Then image that you combined “Sprep” with Gatorade, marketed it to the public claiming that it will help white women loose weight because the new “Sprep” contains “electrolytes that speed up metabolism”
because when you did your new Sprep trials, the white women who used a “treadmill” before, during, and after drinking Sprep– lost 0.5% to 5% more weight than the non-white participants who did not use the “treadmill”
see what I mean about “other factors” that can change or manipulate a research trial…same thing by trying to use “race” to justify why one group dominates… a lot of other factors play into it other than “race”
and by the way, you said that “race” makes a difference and I said “ethnic groups” — big difference.. there are many Ethnic groups within each “race” for these Ethnic groups to be ignored because someone just wants to focus on colour.
correct me if I’m wrong, I don’t think HBDers recognize that amongst black people or rather “Africans”, that there are many different Ethnic groups — they have everyone boxed up and classified based on “race”
as if black people are one big monolithic group with no Variety or differences in genetic makeup… that’s why I don’t agree with HBD… I don’t believe that “races” dictate intelligence or performance… there are too many outside factors that go into a group being successful or not, in whatever they do.
Such as basketball players– they are chosen because they are tall– the coaches and owners are the ones defining the standards..not genetics
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@Eldridge S
You guessed right. I do not.
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Yes, Medicine is very racialized…always has been. I saw it in med school and throughout my training and practice.This will not change until more POC become medically trained But even getting to that point is hell itself. Last year about ten medical schools across this country did not have one black graduate. This country has less than 5% black physicians yet we make of 12% of the population.. the math is not hard to figure out.
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Linda said: “correct me if I’m wrong, I don’t think HBDers recognize that amongst black people or rather “Africans”, that there are many different Ethnic groups — they have everyone boxed up and classified based on “race””
I do think this is wrong. I wouldn’t call most of the the stormfront crowd HBDers. They are not big on nuances. Most of the intellectual HBD types absolutely grasp that there are important subtleties involved. For instance, I would bet dollars to donuts that the Tutsi would generally score better on IQ tests that the Hutu they subjugated for generations. On average, it is said that they happen to have lighter skin coloration and more European facial features. Maybe it’s all coincidence, and now you can’t always tell a Tutsi from a Hutu by looking at them. There are plenty of PC ways you could try to argue they are not really that different, but the people involved thought the difference was important enough that they engaged in genocide. Anyway, you are correct that most HBDers are looking at the big picture, things like declining US IQ and the effects that will have on civilization, and they notice that Black and Mexican IQ on the whole are substantially lower than the European average. Example of an issue of some import: all the left wing hand wringing about how U.S. schools are getting worse and worse. Actually, if you control for race, U.S. schools do pretty well (but it’s thought crime to even suggest this).
I will say you make a compelling argument with respect to your take on the FDA, and it’s possible in this case what you said happened with BiDil. However, if ethnic groups are different physically, it stands to reason that diagnosis and treatment could potentially, in some cases, be somewhat different for different ethnic groups.
Jacque,
Why should the members of a skilled, specialized profession reflect exactly the demographics of the whole country? Should the NBA be integrated on that basis?
And, if requirements for NAMs to enter med school are already much lower than for whites and Asians, would you just lower the requirements further for them?
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@ Linda
I think you’ve made some very informed comments here particular on the profiteering role of the FDA and the problematic category of “race” in how erroneously it can be used and applied as it stands undefined.
Of course, just reading from your exchanges with the character “biff”, much of what you have skillfully elaborated on is probably over his head as he still wants to clutch on to some form of genetic or scientific explanation for the physical differences we find between varying Ethic groups in the many varying “hybrids” (for want of a better word) of human forms..
This is where, in my view, the study of Melanin is key as a much mis-understood biological component present in ALL human and other life forms. Work by scientists has been done in this area but much of it remains suppressed or ridiculed because of its unpalatable implications in regard to the falsely promoted doctrine of white supremacy (racism) on the planet
It is certainly an area of scientific study characters like “biff” would run embarrassingly away from if the were confronted with the real truth…
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@Biff
The standards need not be lowered at all. Everyone should have equal access to quality education. THAT is not going to happen now is it? How great are white students anyway if the scales of education are tipped in their favor? The Black, Latino and Asians need to be exceptional to get in…the whites just have to be competent with good connections. It’s the truth dude …saw it with my own eyes.
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@kevinblyton
Ok..I think it’s safe to say that millions of Americans do live in very intimate proximity to rats & other types of vermin, especially in our many dense urban areas with crumbling infrastructure (where Black & Latino people are most affected). There’s no shortage of this in impoverished rural communities either. I’ve seen plenty of homes in dilapidated buildings that have been taken over by rodents & insects, so it’s not hard to imagine how many health issues might arise…
Despite it’s “first world” classification, you don’t have to look very far in America to find deplorably squalid living conditions comparable to those of, say, El Salvador or Haiti.
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I don’t subscribe to National Geographic or its special publications, but I do browse in every new subscription. In the latest NG’s Special Publication the cover reads: ‘Your Body 100 things you never knew’. Section eighty-six (pages 118-123) informs readers about physical maturity, aging, and the limits of division. According to scientists, an interesting finding is the discovery of the roles of telomeres. Telomeres are stretches of DNA that cap the ends of chromosomes, protecting chromosomes from damage and keeping them from fusing with other chromosomes. Researchers found that each time a cell divides, about 50 to 100 of the telomere’s nucleotides are lopped off. When the telomeres reach a minimum length, cell division stops altogether. This finding was bolstered by the discovery of telomerase, an enzyme in immortal cells (such as stem cells) that repair telomeres after each division. The enzyme does not affect non-dividing cells, such as those in the brain and heart tissues, and in cells that do divide, telomerase may promote cancer. It goes on to say biology is not destiny, even when telomeres are involved, but that people with stressful lives – for instance, African-American men experiencing racism – are found to have telomeres that are shorter than average. It did say that more research is needed to confirm these findings, but the studies appear to be another brick in the wall of evidence of the relationship between telomere length and environmental factors.
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I just watched a rerun of House in which this was the topic. They didn’t name the drug but it sounded like this one. A black patient refused to take the drug because it was targeted at AfAm. The black doc refuses to prescribe anything else. The guy comes back and is seen by house. He demands to be given the white people stuff. House says he is giving him the white ppl stuff but actually prescribed the black ppl pill. Foreman( black doc) learns of this and basically tells House he is a paternalistic racist.
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@Elridge S
You ain’t lying. Have you ever seen that show Infested? Even in the UK they say we’re never more than a few footsteps away from a mouse or a rat. Especially in London.
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Great posts @Linda
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@ Solesearch
I saw that interesting episode of House on YouTube about a month ago.
As a certified fitness nutritionist I can honestly say that we, Blacks, don’t eat enough foods that absorb sunlight. These UVR-absorbent foods are basically raw fruits and vegetables. Blacks and other people of color absorb sunlight better than their white counterparts. It is imperative that Blacks and other people of color eat natural foods that do the same exact thing (absorb sunlight). I commend Asians for eating earth-grown foods. Blacks, especially we, African-Americans, need to eat earth-grown foods similar to other Africans. The traditional foods that Africans, Asians and Native Americans eat are rich in antioxidants. Antioxidant keep deadly diseases like cancer at bay. Foods of color denote their antioxidant content. Black, blue and purple foods are loaded with the most powerful antioxidant called anthocyanin, which is good for the cells, tissues, glands, and organs (basically, the bodily systems). Red foods are loaded with a powerful antioxidant called lycopene, which is good for the heart. Orange foods are loaded with a powerful antioxidant called beta carotene, which is good for the eyes. Yellow foods (another carotenoid) are loaded with an antioxidant called lutein, which is good for the eyes as well. Green foods contain a pigment called chlorophyll, which is also an antioxidant. Interestingly, chlorophyll is similar to blood. Green foods play a key role in blood production.
Earth-grown foods are good for the organs or glands that they resemble. Here are some examples: A walnut not only resembles the brain it also promotes brain health and boost memory. A sliced tomato not only resembles the heart’s four chambers it also promotes a healthy heart. A sliced carrot not only resembles the human eye it also promotes healthy eyes. A sweet potato not only resembles the pancreas it also promotes a healthy pancreas as well. A sliced avocado not only resembles the uterus it also promotes uterine health too. I can go on and on.
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@Michael Cooper
Thank you for that information it is very informative.
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Are there alternative if you are allergic to walnuts?
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Do you guys really believe that the fact that out of the 70 people who succeeded in running 100 m under 10 sec 69 have westafrican ancestry is due to social causes, like stereotypes, culture, training? Do you really believe that the fact that white women prefer males of westafrican ancestry over males of european ancestry, and that they prefer males witn european ancestry over males with east asian ancestry had no genetic reasons concering the manliness of different populations? I k ow this is not directly rekated to the question if race based medicine, but I really wonder if you believe such strange things
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@ Erik Sieven @ Mary Burrell @ King
Comments deleted: sports is off topic here.
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OFF TOPIC: racial dating preferences.
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@Abagond: That’s cool Abagond. I thought Eri Sieven question was stupid so I just wanted to read his response. But I am good with this being off topic.
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@Ebonymonroe
Haven’t seen Infested. I may have to skip it…can’t stand looking at creepy-crawlies, especially at home. I have seen some rather decrepit parts of London, but it gets sooooo much worse here in the States (especially the epic scale of it).
Maybe some criminal junk scientists will conclude that African Americans & Latinos are “genetically” much more likely to have rats & roaches in their homes.
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@ Abagond
Erik Sieven was not really talking about sports, he was talking about HBD and using athleticism, and cross-pheonotypical attraction as examples of his cock-eyed HBD theories. All of this was precipitated by your post on an HBD drug called BiDil.
This all goes directly to your point 1 above:
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[ Tavis Smiley look-alike jogging around Central Park with his teenage daughter ]
“Celebrate the simple joys of life, with BiDil!”
[smooth jazz playing in background]
“Side effects may include: loss of dignity, drowsiness, euphoric hallucinations, erectile dysfunction, confusion, cold sweats, apathy, and loss of dignity”
[more smooth jazz]
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@King: I am thankful you cleared that up. i appreciate it.
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@ King
Erik Sieven’s comment restored:
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HBD, human biodiversity is what the race realist and scientific racism is about. That is what Erik Sieven was alluding to. This is pertinent to the Bidil post. And it contains many fallacies. Therefore making theories wrongheaded. That’s why I asked Erik Sieven if he believed this rubbish?
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Thanks Abagond, no problem, Mary.
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@ sharina
Thank you.
An alternative for walnuts would be other nuts such as almonds. Almonds, like walnuts, are loaded with omega-3 fatty acids (good fats), which promote brain and heart health as well.
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First off I’d like to say F&*k the pharmaceutical industry, but wtf are rat diseases?
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@ Kiwi
Harriet Washington in “Medical Apartheid” (2006), when listing nongenetic things that drive a higher rate of heart failure in Blacks, says:
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“abagond @ Kiwi
Harriet Washington in “Medical Apartheid” (2006), when listing nongenetic things that drive a higher rate of heart failure in Blacks, says:
“There is even evidence that hantavirus infection spread by rodents in urban settings can cause kidney disease and hypertension.”
Linda says,
Abagond, I’ve never read this article but it sounds interesting… I just can’t imagine that the Hantavirus would lead to kidney disease or Hypertension because these two are chronic illness that can managed over time.
and the Hantavirus is an acute respiratory infection. In short, it’s a virus that can kill you if left untreated just like the Flu or Pneumonia.
The hantavirus is a respiratory disease that affects the lungs and the kidneys by causing acute kidney failure, which can cause shock or respiratory failure — this is what leads to heart failure.
It doesn’t lead to long term heart diseases that a patient would have to manage long term, the heart failure it causes would be due to shock, blood volume loss or respiratory failure the person is experiencing.
The initial hypertension (high blood pressure) is probably caused due to the person having a Fever or high heart rate.
The signs and symptoms of hantavirus are flu-like symtoms, meaning: fevers, chills, tiredness (malaise), feeling short of breath, headache, backache, and internal bleeding (noticeable by the eyes being red)… this would lead to fluid buildup in the lungs, which will cause the kidneys to not function properly.
but it’s not common… a person is most likely to catch the swine flu before they caught the hantavirus.
The only way I could see this affecting a large group of black people who live in the city is if (a) they are hoarders or (b) they live in a nasty house that they never clean, and they share their bed, table, chairs, bathe and sleep with a whole passel of rats.
Here is an article about cases in NYC (and I guess NY would be a good example of an urban area where rats are common)
http://www.health.ny.gov/press/releases/2012/2012-10-22_hantavirus
I just wanted to put this out there so that people don’t think that this is a common problem or that they can pick this disease up from their pet rat or mouse.
Just wash your hands after playing with Ben and everything should be fine 🙂
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Abagond, you have no “sports” or “soccer” posts… so
I will put my comments on “the World” post since fútbol (aka Soccer) is a world sport
Ks,I wrote my response here:
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“Kiwi,
it’s established that hantavirus causes kidney disease. As for hypertension, I was thinking that likely has something to do with disruption to the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone hormone system due to the kidney damage done by hantavirus. That could very well result in chronic conditions like hypertension since hormonal changes are slow to take effect.”
Linda says,
The renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system is a sort of regulatory mechanism,
so whenever there is any sudden (acute) changes, such as blood volume loss, it’s affected…this is what would lead to high blood pressure (hypertension) in illnesses — its treated and will go back to normal with no lasting effects, hopefully
People with illnesses like Hypertension or Diabetes, illness that have to be managed on a long-term basis (chronic), will eventually have long-term kidney issues because of all the yo-yoing their kidneys go through.
I know that certain forms of hantavirus can cause kidney lesions but the one common to the USA, Hantavirus Pulmonary Syndrome (HPS) — it mostly causes acute kidney failure but not long-term kidney disease.
The one you mean is Hantavirus (HFRS- Nephropathia epidemica ie NE) but Abagond mentioned rat disease in references to affecting black Americans. HFRS/NE would be more common in Europe or Asia, whereas, yes, there is higher risk for HTN and lowered kidney function.
not to say that viruses don’t travel, but the respiratory hantavirus is more common to the USA.
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Reblogged this on E.M. Monroe and commented:
Wonderful, trenchant analysis. EMM
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@ Linda @ Kiwi
Thanks for the info on hentaviruses.
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@ Linda
Fair enough (about putting soccer under “The world” post).
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[…] BiDil (2005) is the trade name for isosorbide dinitrate/hydralazine, a heart medicine for Blacks. It is the first race-based prescription drug approved by the US government’s Food and Drug Administration (FDA).In the 1980s Dr Jay Cohn took two drugs that were no longer under patent, put them together and patented them as a heart medicine – not just for Blacks but for anyone. The FDA refused to approve it for general use: trials showed that on average it did not make much of a difference.Cohn went back through the numbers from the trials and found that it did seem to help those who self-identified as Black. So he applied for a new patent: the very same drug but this time meant for Blacks.Click through to read more. […]
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@ Eldridge S on Fri 4 Jul 2014 at 19:33:24
Yikes! Well I guess I shouldn’t be surprised to learn that life anywhere isn’t like tv. 😦
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