Year: 2008

Fake diseases, false compassion

Hi,  everybody!  I’m PalMD (although my byline says differently), and you may remember me from such other blogs as WhiteCoat Underground and denialism. The folks around here were kind enough to give me a regular gig dispensing my brand of medical information transfer, and I’m going to start out with a basic question: what is a disease? Human beings have some pretty...

/ October 13, 2008

A New Blog Is Born

Although I haven’t been with you long, dear readers of SBM, I have an important announcement to make.  I have a brand spankin’ new blog: Getting Better With Dr. Val. I used to blog at “Dr. Val and the Voice of Reason” at Revolution Health – so essentially this is a URL change. You can read the press release here. If you’ve...

/ October 13, 2008

Fun with homeopaths and meta-analyses of homeopathy trials

Homeopathy amuses me. Well, actually it both amuses me and appalls me. The amusement comes from just how utterly ridiculous the concepts behind homeopathy are. Think about it. It is nothing but pure magical thinking. Indeed, at the very core of homeopathy is a concept that can only be considered to be magic. In homeopathy, the main principles are that “like heals...

/ October 13, 2008

Announcing two more new bloggers

Last week, we at Science-Based Medicine announced the arrival of a new blogger, Dr. Val Jones. She’s already made her mark here by in the course of her description of how she awakened to the problem of unscientific so-called “alternative” medicine infiltrating its way into medicine coining a new term that may well become more widely used than anyone could suspect. I’m...

/ October 11, 2008

I No Longer Love a Parade

Parade magazine is the most widely read periodical in the US, with a circulation of 32 million and a readership of 71 million (1). They get that readership by placing it, free for readers, in over 400 newspapers. The column in question is “Ease The Aches Of Arthritis” By Dr. Vijay Vad, published 09/28/2008. Dr. Vad is a physiatrist (a rehabilitation doctor)...

/ October 9, 2008

Cholesterol Skeptics Strike Again

I’m really tired of arguing about cholesterol, but I feel obliged to stand up once more to defend science-based medicine from unfair calumny. Lewis Jones’s article “Cholesterol-shmesterol” in Skeptical Briefs (December 2007) included errors and misconceptions about cholesterol. It was a re-hash of the same kind of misinformation that is being spread by The International Network of Cholesterol Skeptics (THINCS) and that...

/ October 9, 2008

Nobel for HIV Discoverers

The Nobel Prize in Medicine was awarded this week to two French virologists, Françoise Barré-Sinoussi and Luc A. Montagnier, for discovering the AIDS causing virus, the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV). They will share half the prize of 1.4 million dollars, the other half going to three Dr. Harald zur Hausen for discovering the human papilloma virus and its relation to cervical cancer....

/ October 8, 2008

A “Shruggie” Awakening – One Doctor’s Journey Toward Scientific Enlightenment

In her inaugural post, Dr. Val Jones discusses her transition from being a shruggie - unaware of the risks and harms of alternative medicine - to awakened.

/ October 7, 2008

Vitamin C strikes (out) again

A new research paper on vitamin C and cancer came out recently, but didn't get much attention in the press. Why not? Because this one found vitamin C actually made things worse.

/ October 6, 2008

Voice of Reason Dr. Val Jones joins Science-Based Medicine

We at Science-Based Medicine are very happy to announce that Dr. Val Jones will be joining us this week as a regular blogger. Her first post will appear this Thursday, October 9. Val Jones, M.D. is the President and CEO of Better Health, PLLC, a health education company devoted to providing scientifically accurate health information to consumers. Most recently she was the...

/ October 5, 2008