Results for: autism

The Fog of Medicine

I often get called on to be a diagnostician. The referring doctor is uncertain what is going on in the patient, often a fever of unknown origin, and they call me to help figure it out. Sometimes I do, sometimes I don’t. Making the correct diagnosis is not easy, even after 35 years. The classic phrase is the fog of war, but...

/ January 22, 2016

Don’t drink hair bleach

Hydrogen peroxide is consumed and injected in alternative medicine practices as a sort of "cure all". Is there any evidence to back this up? And how safe is it to inject or consume?

/ January 14, 2016

Guess who pioneered chemoprevention through diet?

This is an expansion of a post I did over on the Society for Science-Based Medicine blog about this time last year. The original post, which got far more traffic than is usual for the SFSBM, is a good example of how science works and the good that it can do. The hard work of real science illustrated here serves as a...

/ December 24, 2015

Is scientific peer review a “sacred cow” ready to be slaughtered?

I’ve frequently noted that one of the things most detested by quacks and promoters of pseudoscience is peer review. Creationists hate peer review. HIV/AIDS denialists hate it. Anti-vaccine cranks like those at Age of Autism hate it. Indeed, as a friend of mine, Mark Hoofnagle, pointed out several years ago, pseudoscientists and cranks of all stripes hate it. There’s a reason for...

/ December 21, 2015

Misinterpreting TACT: No, Chelation Does Not Outperform Statins for Heart Disease

Chelation with intravenous EDTA (disodium ethylene diamine tetra-acetic acid) has long been used for heavy metal poisoning. It binds the metal ions and facilitates their excretion from the body. In recent years it has been used for many other indications that are not evidence-based, such as autism and coronary heart disease. The Trial to Assess Chelation Therapy (TACT) was done to assess...

/ December 8, 2015

How not to debate a “pro-vaxer”

To say that the relationship that antivaccine activists have with science and fact is a tenuous, twisted one is a major understatement. Despite mountains of science that says otherwise, antivaccinationists still cling to the three core tenets of their faith, namely that (1) vaccines are ineffective (or at least nowhere near as effective as health officials claim); (2) vaccines are dangerous, causing...

/ November 30, 2015

To debate or not to debate: The strange bedfellows of Andrew Weil

Those who stand on the wrong side of science love public debates and frequently challenge science advocates to them. The reason, of course, is that public debates are almost never a good venue to argue science, and these debates almost never happen in a truly neutral venue. This time around, I got a bit of ego gratification when Andrew Weil apparently wanted...

/ November 9, 2015

Antivaccinationists and the Nation of Islam protest in front of the CDC, but don’t you dare call them “antivaccine”

Cranks of a feather quack together. Antivaccinationists team up with the Nation of Islam to protest vaccines at the CDC.

/ October 26, 2015

Naturopathy vs. Science: Diabetes Edition

Diabetes already requires care from multiple medical professionals, including physicians, nurses, dietitians, and pharmacists. Should naturopathy be included?

/ October 22, 2015

The American Cancer Society’s new mammography guidelines: Déjà vu all over again

One of the things that feels the weirdest about having done the same job, having been in the same specialty, for a longer and longer time is that you frequently feel, as the late, great Yogi Berra would have put it, déjà vu all over again. This is particularly true in science and medicine, where the same issues come up again and...

/ October 21, 2015