The Spirit of the ’70s

2021 ◽  
pp. 138-161
Author(s):  
Lewis A. Grossman

This chapter explores how in the 1970s, freedom of therapeutic choice advocacy, previously the domain of right-wing extremists, became bipartisan and mainstream. It examines how various cultural trends contributed to this trend, including a loss of trust in orthodox medicine, government, and other establishment institutions; a “rights revolution” (including the rise of patients’ rights); and the emergence of the women’s health movement. The chapter shows how Americans’ use of alternative remedies surged during this period and discusses in detail two 1970s social movements in favor of alternative treatments: a successful rebellion against the FDA’s attempt to regulate vitamin and mineral supplements more stringently and a campaign to resist the FDA’s ban on Laetrile, an alternative cancer treatment derived from apricot pits. The chapter also describes how American courts briefly seemed prepared to elaborate the holding of Roe v. Wade into a generalized right to freedom of therapeutic choice.

2020 ◽  
Vol 47 (4) ◽  
pp. 96-111
Author(s):  
Leandro Gamallo

An analysis of the evolution of social conflicts in Argentina between 1989 and 2017 in terms of three aspects of collective action—the actors in contention, their main demands, and their chosen forms of struggle—reveals important changes since the country’s return to democracy. Collective action has extended to multiple actors, channeled weightier demands, and expanded its forms. With the emergence of progovernment and conservative social movements, it has become apparent that not all movement participation in the state implies weakness, subordination, or co-optation and that social movement action does not necessarily mean democratization or expansion of rights. The right-wing government of 2015 opened up a new field of confrontation in which old divisions and alliances are being reconfigured. Un análisis de la evolución de los conflictos sociales en Argentina entre 1989 y 2017 realizado a partir de tres grandes dimensiones de la acción colectiva (los actores contenciosos, las demandas principales que enuncian y las formas de lucha que emplean) revela cambios importantes. La acción colectiva se ha extendido a más actores, ha canalizado demandas más amplias y se ha expresado de maneras más heterogéneas. Con el surgimiento de movimientos sociales oficialistas y opositores de índole conservador, se ha hecho evidente que la participación de las organizaciones sociales en el estado no siempre significa debilidad, subordinación o cooptación por parte del estado y que la movilización social no necesariamente implica procesos de democratización o expansión de derechos. La llegada de una alianza de derecha en 2015 abrió un nuevo campo de confrontaciones que redefinió antiguas alianzas y divisiones.


2003 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 32-35
Author(s):  
Leena Gokhale ◽  
David W Sturdee ◽  
Anthony D Parsons

Objective To estimate the extent of use of over the counter food supplements in women attending menopause clinics in the West Midlands Study design Questionnaire survey of women attending menopause clinics in Solihull Hospital, Birmingham Heartlands Hospital, Rugby and Walsgrave Hospitals and Birmingham Women's Hospital. Main outcome measures Type and rate of use of food supplements in hormone replacement therapy (HRT)users and nonusers and perceived benefits. Results Three hundred and forty women completed the questionnaire. 95% (n = 326) belonged to the white European ethnic group. The median age was 53 years, with 50% (n = 170) in the 50–59 years age group, and 30 % (n = 95) in the age range 40–49 years. Overall use of over the counter supplements in the clinic was 43% (n = 147), with Oil of Evening Primrose (53%) and vitamins (44%) being the most commonly used preparations. 71% (n = 242) women were users of conventional HRT. Of these, 46% were also using food supplements. The use of food supplements was higher amongst HRT users (46%) as compared to non-HRT users (32%). The use was similar between smokers and non-smokers. The most commonly perceived benefit was a feeling of well-being, 39% (n = 58/147). The proportionate use was highest in social class I and class II (51% and 54% respectively), in keeping with amount of disposable income. Friends (27%), the internet (26%) and magazines (20%) were the most commonly quoted sources of information. 79% (n = 116/147) were spending up to £10 each month on alternative remedies. 10% (n = 14/147) of women were visiting practitioners of alternative remedies. Conclusions The use of food supplements is widespread and particularly in those already taking conventional HRT. This study was not designed to test confidence in orthodox medicine, but the prevalence of use of supplements amongst menopausal women attending menopause clinics. The most commonly perceived benefit is a feeling of well-being, but users of food supplements are unsure of any additional benefit when supplements are taken in conjunction with conventional therapy. There is a misapprehension that “herbal” or “natural” equals safe. In addition, the correlation between supplement use and side effects is very seldom made, as these compounds are mistakenly considered almost universally safe, and physicians often fail to enquire about their use in routine history taking.


Author(s):  
Marisa von Bülow

Latin American transnational social movements (TSMs) are key actors in debates about the future of global governance. Since the 1990s, they have played an important role in creating new organizational fora to bring together civil society actors from around the globe. In spite of this relevance, the literature on social movements from the region focuses primarily—and often exclusively—on the domestic arena. Nevertheless, there is an increasingly influential body of scholarship from the region, which has contributed to relevant theoretical debates on how actors overcome collective action problems in constructing transnational social movements and how they articulate mobilization efforts at the local, national and international scales. The use of new digital technologies has further blurred the distinction among scales of activism. It has become harder to tell where interpretative frames originate, to trace diffusion paths across national borders, and to determine the boundaries of movements. At the same time, there are important gaps in the literature, chief among them the study of right-wing transnational networks.


2018 ◽  
Vol 26 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Clare Hemmings

Abstract: Feminist theory worldwide is confronting - perhaps as it always has done - a series of deep challenges. On the one hand, awareness of gender and sexual inequalities seems high; on the other, co-optation of feminism for nationalist or other right-wing agendas is rife. On the one hand, feminist social movements are in ascendancy, on the other there is a continued dominance of single issue feminism and a resistance to intersectional, non-binary interventions. If we add in the collapse of the Left in the face of radical movements such as those underpinning Brexit and Trump (and the frequent blaming of feminism for fragmentation of that Left) then it is hard to know what to argue, to whom, and for what ends. In the face of such claims it is tempting to respond with a dogmatic or singular feminism, or to insist that what we need is a shared, clear, certain platform. I want to argue instead - with Emma Goldman (anarchist activist who died in 1940) as my guide - that it can be politically productive to embrace and theorise uncertainty, or even ambivalence, about gender equality and feminism.


2002 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 236-243 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nagi B. Kumar ◽  
Keandra Hopkins ◽  
Kathy Allen ◽  
Diane Riccardi ◽  
Karen Besterman-Dahan ◽  
...  

Background The objectives of this study were to determine the prevalence and characterize the use of complementary/integrative nutritional therapies (CINTs) by patients during cancer treatment. Methods This retrospective review used data collected as a part of standard clinical care provided by the registered clinical dietitians and included nutritional history, demographic variables, anthropometrics, prevalence of use, and the specific integrative nutritional therapies used by these patients during cancer treatment. Results Twenty-nine percent of 820 patients reported use of CINTs not prescribed by their physician. Caucasians and patients over age 60 were the principal users of CINTs during treatment. Modular vitamins were the most frequently reported additive (86.9%), followed by botanicals/biologics (43.8%) and mineral supplements (28.6%). Conclusions A considerable proportion of cancer patients use unproven CINTs during cancer treatment. The health professional should become more aware of the complementary/integrative therapies that their patients are using during cancer treatment.


2013 ◽  
Vol 57 (2) ◽  
pp. 206-225
Author(s):  
LAURA L. DAWES

AbstractIn 1948 the New South Wales government instituted an inquiry into the claims of John Braund – a 78-year-old self-described ‘quack’ – that his secret treatment had cured 317 cancer sufferers. The ‘Braund controversy’, as it became known, was one of Australia’s most prominent cases of medical fraud. This paper examines that controversy and its effects on cancer philanthropy, medical research, and especially on legislation regulating treatment providers up to the present. With the Braund controversy in mind, the New South Wales (NSW) parliament struggled to develop legislation that would protect patients and punish quacks but also allow for serendipitous, unorthodox discoveries. Recent decades saw new elements added to this calculus – allowing a wide-ranging health marketplace, and allowing patients to choose their therapies. This paper argues that the particular body of law legislatures used in regulating cancer treatment and how regulations were framed reflected the changing context of healthcare and illustrates the calculus legislatures have undertaken in regulating the health marketplace, variously factoring in public safety, serendipitous discovery, the authority of orthodox medicine, patient choice, and economic opportunity.


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