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Deceptive Health Websites Are All Too Plentiful

By Lisa Neal Gualtieri. (Her earlier much-commented post on this subject is here.)

The Boston Globe reported this month on the sentencing of a former US Airways Express pilot, Stephen Sharp, “for selling a powdered drink mix over the Internet that he claimed was ‘100 percent’ effective in helping drug-using truck drivers, pilots, and train engineers pass federally mandated drug tests.” The ungrammatically-named “yourintheclear.com” no longer seems to exist.

Mindful of ongoing debate by Gilles Frydman and others about indicators of health website credibility, I searched for other sites selling similar products (there is no shortage) and looked on sites like Craigslist where people post questions about how to pass drug tests and how to detoxify. Based on a quick perusal, I found answers ranging from product advice that I suspect is similar to what “yourintheclear.com” sold to more than I ever want to know about urine temperature to what seemed like common sense advice. Read more »

*This blog post was originally published at e-Patients.net*

Overheard At Pain Management Clinic

Doctor: Mr. Smith, your urine test is positive for cocaine.

Mr. Smith: [Blank Stare]

Doctor: Have you been snorting cocaine recently?

Mr. Smith: No.

Doctor: Then why is there cocaine in your urine?

Mr. Smith: Maybe your nurse put it in there.

Doctor: If my nurse had cocaine, I don’t think she’d put it in your urine.

***

Bonus tip for pain management specialists: cocaine’s half-life in the urine is 2-4 days. “Random” urine drug testing on Mondays offers a higher yield than other days of the business week because most patients abuse illicit drugs on weekends>>weekdays.

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