Flash Remoting?

I am freshly picking flash 8 back up. I do a lot of php-mysql web development, but never got into it on the flash side, but as a rule I like storing and fetching lots of stuff from my applications.

I had read that flash remoting makes flash 8 able to interface with a database. But in reading a lot of discussions around here, it seems like people are just using LoadVariable calls to php scripts to get their information.

I was curious if there was better way to do things / any security issues I should be wary of.