[Xist]

Ah, conspiracy theories. You periodically hear about people who invent something that would significantly reduce petroleum usage and the oil companies buy their patent, possibly suing them into bankruptcy first. While that definitely sounds like a conspiracy theory, I do think that it is possible.
While I was catching up on everyone arguing with Oil Pan, a lady came to visit Mom, and it seems like she was excited about a video she saw on Facebook. Some lady found out that her son with autism lacked a hormone called Secretin, they injected him with it, his symptoms reduced more and more, until he was "Normal." The full story is here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenneth_Sokolski (except Wikipedia says improvements only lasted about six weeks and additional doses did not do anything)

This says there were sixteen placebo-controlled randomized trials demonstrating zero benefit from Secretin: https://www.quackwatch.org/04Consume.../secretin.html

I have not been able to find any pro-Secretin videos on YouTube, but I did find this against it, giving the same information as that webpage: https://youtu.be/JaR4zpdtvdk

The lady said "Of course the studies did not show any benefit! The pharmaceutical companies want to sell drugs!"

Couldn't they sell Secretin?

Here is a Princeton article about it: https://www.princeton.edu/~actin/doc...tACure_000.pdf

Basically the article seems to be based on this line:

I believe that the family of secretin receptors holds promise for developing treatments for autism. But because it is not normally found in the brain, more than likely secretin itself is not going to turn out to be the answer. Secretin is a clue, not a cure.

However, it seems the entire thing is just an explanation of what Secretin is and how it works.

Does this mean every parent should take his child to a physician for an “overdose” of secretin in hopes that the intestinal hormone will bind to receptors in the brain? I would say no. The pancreas is one of the most delicate organs in the body, and we do not know what the effects of repeated large-dose administrations of secretin on a child’s pancreas might be. Why take a “sledgehammer” to a child’s system when, if the secretin cousins do prove effective, pharmaceutical companies will be able to develop a ball peen hammer in good time?

Pharmaceutical companies to the rescue!

Aren't oil and pharmaceutical companies two of the largest political donors? Wouldn't it be in their financial interest to bury anything that risks their profits?