The Healing Properties of Tobacco--No Kidding
Tobacco for health? We admit, when we first heard that tobacco plants were being used experimentally as potential health remedies, we wondered: What are these people smoking? But we checked it out and found that some scientists believe the long-vilified tobacco plant may actually have a beneficial role to play in our health.
Researchers at Planet Biotechnology, based in Mountain View, Calif., are using the plants to produce toxin-fighting antibodies that may prevent cavities, the hair loss that occurs with cancer treatments, even traveler’s diarrhea.
“What tobacco plants do well is grow fast and prolifically,” says Elliot Fineman, president and chief executive of the company, which has received $3.5 million in government grants to pursue this research. Biologists modify the DNA in tobacco plants so they carry the genes to produce specific antibodies. Because the plants reproduce so fast, they turn into little antibody factories. “When we put antibody genes into tobacco plants, we can produce purified antibodies for $100 a gram, versus the $1,000 to $5,000 per gram it currently costs.”
Tobacco’s first marketable antibody offspring looks to be the cavity fighter. Some research suggests that a single application of the brushed-on liquid could ward off cavities, Fineman says. Too bad it doesn’t do anything for smokers’ breath or tobacco-stained teeth. Nonetheless, the cavity fighter is in clinical trials and, if the FDA approves, could be available to consumers in three to four years.
Does this mean tobacco farmers can look forward to making a more meaningful contribution to humanity? Not likely, says Keith Wycoff, director of research for the company. “If all our antibody dreams came true, we would still only require less than 1% of all the world’s tobacco fields.”
Bad Handwriting Can Be Dangerous
What is it with doctors? Did they all get pulled out of penmanship class to attend advanced-placement biology? They may be reviewing their Ps and Qs after a Texas jury in October found a physician liable for bad handwriting. The case involved a cardiologist who was accused of writing an unclear prescription, which resulted in a pharmacist dispensing the wrong medication to a patient who later died. The case is believed to be the nation’s first in which physician negligence is linked solely to bad handwriting.
Dr. Ramachandra Kolluru allegedly wrote the prescription for 20 milligrams of the heart medication Isordil to treat a 42-year-old male’s angina. The pharmacist read the order as Plendil, a high blood pressure medication, and filled it for the same dosage, although the maximum daily dosage for Plendil is only 10 milligrams. The patient had a fatal heart attack several days later. The doctor and pharmacist were each ordered to pay a $225,000 fine. Kolluru’s attorney, Max E. Wright, argued that the pharmacist was at fault for not contacting the doctor when the prescription information was unclear, and also that the patient, who had a long history of heart disease, did not die as a result of the medication.
In a high-tech world of digital tomography (a type of X-ray photography) and genetic mapping, you would think that medical experts could come up with a better system than scrawling illegibly on a prescription pad. Either docs need to review their Palmer method or move onto computerized prescriptions, as some doctors have. Meanwhile, here’s a health tip for patients: If you can’t read the prescription your doctor gives you, don’t assume the pharmacist can. Ask your doctor to write it so you can. No joke.
