Willow & Aspirin – A response to the critics of modern medicine

Aspirin is a synthetic compound that was made from salicylic acid which in turn was extracted from willow. Willow has been used for milleniums but was restricted by its irritant properties giving side effect. Eventually salicylic acid was found to be the active compound. The addition of acetyl group to salicylic acid occurred just before the 1900's forming acetyl salicylic acid and was patented by the drug company Bayer under the name of Aspirin. This patent lasts 20 years and then…

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31 January 2016

Quacks & Quackery

Understanding Health Risks; Oral Contraceptive Pill

Most activities are associated with some form of health risk, such as driving a car, walking across a busy street or even just leaving a child unattended for a few minutes. Likewise inactivity (i.e. sedentary lifestyle ) can all have devastating consequences but to out right absolutely try to ban such activities is far from pragmatic and in some instances ludicrous. One must also recognise that a particular activity might be beneficial in one aspect of health and harmful in another…

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30 January 2016

Islam

The Virtues of Muslim Doctors

The following is taken from a partial abridged translation of a book entitled "Mannerisms of the Muslim Doctor - Akhlaaq At-Tabeeb Al-Muslim" by Shaikh Muhammad Baazmool (may Allaah preserve him) The Muslim Doctor and the Goal behind Medicine The (practice) of Medicine is from the noblest occupations because its subject matter is about the life of the human being. Its aim and purpose is to preserve the health of the human being, strengthen his/her physical well-being and distance him/her from illness.…

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30 January 2016

Islam

Islam & Medical Contention Regarding Public Safety

Harms of Highly Opinionated Individuals in Society Unfortunately many do not restrain themselves when it comes to their opinions which is based upon incomplete knowledge thus they openly speak about all sorts of sciences and walks of life. So they will give opinions upon opinions even though they are not qualified and they are even encouraged to hold opinions in modern society. They feel being opinionated reflects ones standing in society and an understanding of the so-called 'fiqh fil waaqi (understanding…

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10 January 2016

Alternative Medicine / Islam

Islam & Medicine P5 – Competency of Health Adviser

These various disciplines of medicine are not inherent to any single individual (i.e. they are not born with those skills), rather they require learning of knowledge and skills from someone already competent within that discipline and to learn for a period of time that the one teaching is content that the student has completed all the competencies required for that discipline such that they can practice that form of medicine independently. This is not just generic to medicine but is the…

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21 December 2015

Nutrition

Superfood hype – Really just a marketing tactic

The food industry try to promote certain produces above the rest hence coined the phrase “superfoods” to attempt to convince everyday people to purchase such produces. There is no agreed definition for such “superfoods” among nutritional scientists or dietician, hence the food industry can really add what ever it likes to this marketing category. However generally speaking such foods that we have witnessed this label tend to be high in nutrients with antioxidant properties and omega-3 fatty acids with claims that…

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19 December 2015