SCAMlandia. CAM in Oregon.
I quite like Portlandia. I find it funny and it captures a part of Portland. I recognize large swaths of the city’s culture in the show. Other representations of the city I recognize less. Sunset publishes beautiful photographs of the NW, but when I look at the photos I think, that section of the city never looks that good. It is quite...
What’s past is prologue
Today marks the five year anniversary of the blog. I was not part of the initial stable of writers, my first entry published Jan 31. As I remember it shortly thereafter they browbeat me into writing twice a month. I had a lot of hesitancy participating as I was uncertain I could keep up with the twice monthly writing requirements. I am...
780.6. What is a fever?
You can tell what a doctor does for a living by the ICD-9 codes they have memorized. There is an ICD-9 code for nearly every medical condition. Weightlessness is 994.9. Must be there for NASA, I have yet to see a weightless patient. Decapitation by guillotine is E978. There, I suppose, in case Marat returns from the dead. There is an ICD-9...
Disingenuous: Deconstruction of a naturopathic white paper
Science is the Concept by which we measure our reality I don’t believe in magic I don’t believe in I-ching… I just believe in science…and that reality. John Lennon. Sort of. As regular readers of the blog are aware, I am science/reality based. I think the physical and basic sciences provide an excellent understanding of reality at the level of human experience....
Down the Virtual Rabbit Hole: Kangan water®
The interwebs are more than a series of tubes, it has the power of endless distraction and tangents, a series of clickable rabbit holes that can drag you deeper and deeper into the alternative universes that are parallel with our own. One moment you can be on Science Based Medicine, grounded on the terra firma of reality, and then with a click...
Blonde Blood: Hydrogen Peroxide Infusions
Two scientists walk into a bar The first one says “I’ll have some H2O.” The second one says, “I’ll have some H2O too.” Then he dies. I have come to believe in my own version of The Secret. The Secret describes the law of attraction as a natural law that determines the complete order of the universe and of our personal lives...
The Light Fantastical. Ultra Violet Blood Irradiation.
What would you do if your swimming pool was dirty? Clean it of course. But how? Would you take out a few pails of water, treat the water in the buckets, then toss the water back into the pool and declare the pool clean? And if it were the bathroom that needed cleaning, would you clean it by treating a few bucket...
More Boosting the Immune System
Can you boost your immune system? Sure, with a vaccine. That's about it.
I Never Meta Analysis I Really Like
David Gorski recently pointed out that Science Based Medicine is going on five years. Amazing. That there would be so much to write about day after day comes as a surprise to me. Somehow I vaguely thought that ‘controversies’ would be resolved. Pick a SCAM, contrast the SCAM with reality as best we understand it, and, once the SCAM was found wanting,...
Protect Yourself
Every year influenza makes the rounds, and every year people refuse to get vaccinated for very bad reasons. Don't be a Dumb Ass - get vaccinated.