Results for: placebo
Willow Curve Device for Pain: Strong Claims, Weak Evidence
Willow Curve is advertised as the “world’s first digital anti-inflammatory device”, “a laser smart device” designed to relieve joint pain with thermal and photonic energy. It contains over 150 bio-sensory and bio-therapeutic components that continuously monitor the body’s thermal and electrical response to the device, and computer chips use that information to tailor a digital prescription on the fly. That prescription consists...
Choosing Wisely: Changing medical practice is hard
One of the hardest things to do in medicine is to change practice in the face of scientific evidence that what you're doing isn't working. Quacks never change, but medicine does. The change might be slower and messier than we would like, but change does happen. Choosing Wisely is an initiative designed to bring about change by discouraging the use of interventions...
“Magic Socks?” Alternative Medicine’s Obsession With Your Feet.
I recently received an email from none other than Jann Bellamy pointing out a particular flavor of naturopathic nonsense that I had missed up until this point: “magic socks.” A quick search revealed that our own Scott Gavura had briefly mentioned this remedy in a 2013 post, but I plan on going into much greater detail. The claim contained in the newsletter...
More Lyme ‘Guidelines’
I noted with understanding that the Doubtful News can’t take it anymore. The relentless tsunami sewage slurry of pseudo-science (who says I can’t alliterate?) has worn her down. She is: currently experiencing a phase in which I can’t seem to bring myself to promote another ridiculous story in the media about a haunted location, scary sounds from the sky, or the latest...
October is National Chiropractic Health Month!
October is National Chiropractic Health Month (NCHM) and chiropractors can’t resist the opportunity to overstate, obfuscate, and prevaricate in celebration. They do this in the face of some unfortunate (for them) statistics revealed by a recent Gallup Poll. The Poll was paid for by Palmer College of Chiropractic as part of an effort to increase the chiropractic share of the health care...
“Female Viagra?” Misleading Headlines and Regulatory Dilemmas
The FDA recently approved flibanserin (brand name Addyi) for the treatment of hypoactive sexual desire disorder (HSDD) in pre-menopausal women. The story of flibanserin illustrates several of the issues we have confronted on this blog: It was hyped in the media. Misleading headlines called it the female Viagra. It was initially rejected by the FDA and was approved only after extensive lobbying...
NPR and the False Choice of Alternative Medicine
A recent segment on NPR is an excellent representation of some of the mischief that promotion of unscientific medical treatments can create. The title is a good summary of the problem: “To Curb Pain Without Opioids, Oregon Looks To Alternative Treatments.” The entire segment is premised around a false dichotomy, between excess use of opioids and unproven alternative treatments. It is clear...
The Worst Homeopathy Study. Ever
I run across a lot of information in my feeds that I need to save for further evaluation. The study “Does additional antimicrobial treatment have a better effect on URTI cough resolution than homeopathic symptomatic therapy alone? A real-life preliminary observational study in a pediatric population“, I saved with the file name, ‘jaw droppingly stupid’. The worst homeopathy clinical trial ever doesn’t...
An Industry of Worthless Acupuncture Studies
Even more interesting to me than the question of whether or not acupuncture is effective for any particular symptom is the meta-question of how acupuncture proponents have managed to promote a treatment with systematically terrible scientific data. A new study provides a fresh example of this, which I will discuss below. I think the behavior of acupuncturists reflects the fact that there...
Medical Theater: Vaccines and Ebola
And all the men and women merely players; They have their exits and their entrances, And one man in his time plays many parts, His acts being seven ages. At first, the infant, Mewling and puking in the nurse’s arms. Then the whining schoolboy, with his satchel And shining morning face, creeping like snail Unwillingly to school. And then the lover, Sighing...