Month: November 2011

Chiropractic Neurology

Chiropractic is a diverse collection of beliefs and practices occurring under a broad regulatory label. The differences among various chiropractics are so stark that it is difficult to make general statements about chiropractic practice. At one end of the spectrum, however, are so-called “straight” chiropractors who adhere to the original philosophy of D.D. Palmer – that a vital force they call innate...

/ November 16, 2011

Lessons Learned

I just returned from a trip to Montreal where I spoke at the Lorne Trottier Public Science Symposium, an annual event that David Gorski spoke at a year ago. My topic was “Puncturing the Acupuncture Myth” and the other speakers were Paul Offit, Edzard Ernst, and Bob Park. I was honored to be in such august company; and we were wined, dined, and...

/ November 15, 2011

Reporting back on my Grand Rounds experience at FSU

I'm no Neil deGrasse Tyson, but I think my talk at Florida State University went pretty well.

/ November 14, 2011

Defining what a “physician” is

It takes more than a stethoscope and a white coat to be a physician. A generous dose of reality and a lot of training are also required.

/ November 14, 2011

Dummy Medicine, Dummy Doctors, and a Dummy Degree, Part 2.3: Harvard Medical School and the Curious Case of Ted Kaptchuk, OMD (concluded)

A Loose End In the last post I wondered if Ted Kaptchuk, when he wrote the article titled “Effect of interpretive bias on clinical research,” had understood this implication of Bayes’s Theorem: that interpretations of most scientific investigations are exercises in inverse probability, and thus cannot logically be done without consideration of knowledge external to the investigation in question. I argued that...

/ November 11, 2011

Collagen: An implausible supplement for joint pain

I’m one of those odd people that enjoys distance running. I end up spending a lot of time in the company of other runners. And when we’re not running, we’re usually griping about our running injuries. As the cohort that I run with ages, the injuries are getting more prevalent. Besides the acute conditions, the chronic problems are starting to appear. Our...

/ November 10, 2011

Premature Claims for Neurotrophic Factors

Scientific medicine is not easy. By this point we have largely picked the low hanging fruit, and continued improvements are mostly incremental and hard won. In order to get the most out of our limited research dollars, and optimize medical practice with the safest and most effective treatments, we need to use all available scientific evidence in the proper way. That is...

/ November 9, 2011

Weight Loss Customers Are Being Hoodia-Winked

I first wrote about Hoodia in my “SkepDoc” column in Skeptic magazine (Vol. 13, No. 1, 2007).  The following is adapted from that column with an update from new research revealing that it doesn’t work and that it causes worrisome side effects. I first heard of Hoodia in 2006, when a radio ad informed me that it was the new miracle weight...

/ November 8, 2011

The Greater Good: Pure, unadulterated anti-vaccine propaganda masquerading as a “balanced” documentary

The Greater Good purports to be a film that provides a balanced look at the benefits and risks of vaccines. It is nothing of the sort. It is pure, unadulterated antivaccine propaganda that uses emotionally manipulative anecdotes to promote pseudoscience.

/ November 7, 2011

Pox parties taken to the next (illegal) level

Normally, we don’t post on weekends on this particular blog, mainly because most of our readership visits during the week and we don’t have enough bloggers to cover the weekend reliably anyway. However, occasionally something happens that’s so bizarre, so worrisom that we can’t wait until Monday. I don’t even care if I’m late to the party after Tara, Mike the Mad...

/ November 6, 2011