Results for: placebo
Chronic Lyme Disease – Another Negative Study
While Lyme disease itself is a real and often serious infectious illness, the existence and proper treatment of so-called chronic Lyme disease is dubious, and some would say controversial. However, like many controversies we cover, the science itself is not very controversial, but the topic is made so by a persistent minority of outliers who refuse to accept the scientific consensus. The...
NCCIH Strategic Plan 2016-2021, or: Let’s try to do some real science for a change
It’s no secret that we at Science-Based Medicine (SBM) are not particularly fond of the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH). Formerly known as the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM) and before that the Office of Alternative Medicine, NCCIH has been the foremost government agency funding research into quackery for the last 24 years, and, of course,...
Audio Therapy for Postoperative Pediatric Pain: Randomized Controlled Nonsense
In January of 2015, a study on “the effect of audio therapy to treat postoperative pain in children” performed at Lurie Children’s Hospital and published in Pediatric Surgery International made the media rounds. It was the typical story where numerous news outlets further exaggerated already exaggerated claims made in a university press release, in this case Northwestern University in Chicago. Some of...
More drugs, more supplements, and potentially more problems
Early in my career I was fortunate to be offered a role as a hospital pharmacist, working on an inpatient ward along with physicians, nurses, and a number of other health professionals. My responsibilities included conducting a detailed medication review with each newly admitted patient. We would sit together, often with family members, going through what was sometimes a literal garbage bag...
Testing Testosterone Treatments
Ponce de Leon is said to have been looking for the Fountain of Youth when he explored Florida. That’s only a myth. Now there’s a new myth, that testosterone supplements are a Fountain of Youth for aging men. Men are urged to get their testosterone levels checked if they have any of a long laundry list of vague symptoms. Anti-aging clinics promote...
The hijacking of evidence-based medicine
A hero of the blog, John Ioannidis, worries that evidence-based medicine has been hijacked, and when Ioannidis says something we at SBM listen. But has EBM been "hijacked"?
Oregon Health & Science University SCAM Day
I was looking over a recent class catalog from my alma mater, University of Oregon. I see the Astronomy Department is having a day devoted to astrology, inviting astrologers to talk about their profession. And the Chemistry department is having alchemists give an overview on how to change base metals into gold. And, to green our energy, the Physics Department, where I...
American Journal of Public Health article touts “potential public health benefits” of homeopathy
An article in the April, 2016 issue of the American Journal of Public Health caught my eye: “Homeopathy Use by US Adults: Results of a National Survey.” I was pleased to see that homeopathy use is actually quite low. The 2012 National Health Survey found that only 2.1% of U.S. adults used homeopathy in the last 12 months, although that was a...
Statin Side Effects
How bad are the side effects of statin use? A recent article on the subject suggests that they are not bad, comparable to the base rate in the population.
The claim that Gardasil causes premature ovarian failure: Ideology, not science
It’s amazing how, to antivaccine activists, it just so happens that a vaccine that targets a sexually transmitted virus must also destroy a girl’s ovaries. It must be a coincidence, right?