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Musings on the intersection of science, medicine, and culture
PalMD is a practicing internist in the Great Lakes region of the U.S.. Aside from the great joy he finds in his family and his work, he likes communicating some of that joy to others. He has a special interest in the ways patients---and we are all patients at one time or another---are deceived by charlatans. He aims to change the world, one reader at a time. Previous writings can still be found here, and here. I also write twice a month for Science-Based Medicine
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December 31, 2009
Category: Narcissistic self-involvement
New Year's Eve. This is a profoundly arbitrary designation---the end of the year, end of the decade---really, there is nothing about December 31st that's any different than any other day. But for historical reasons, this is the secular new year....
Posted by PalMD at 5:20 PM • 19 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
December 30, 2009
Category: Absurd medical claims
The fake doctors at HuffPo are at it again. This time, Patricia Fitzgerald is writing about the "Top 10 Healing Foods of the Decade." The article has just enough correct information in it to be exceptionally wrong. One of the...
Posted by PalMD at 5:29 PM • 31 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Absurd medical claims
Dr. Sherri Tenpenny is reportedly a doctor, although according to her website, she no longer practices medicine in any recognizable way. Perhaps that's why she utters completely idiotic statements such as this one pointed out to me by Brother Orac:...
Posted by PalMD at 9:31 AM • 111 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
December 28, 2009
Category: Absurd medical claims
I've never understood food fads. Michael Pollan's maxim, "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants," has always seemed like reasonable, practical advice. Maybe it's a disease of plenty---we have so much food, we have to find new ways to conceptualize...
Posted by PalMD at 2:31 PM • 105 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
December 25, 2009
Category: Narcissistic self-involvement
Merry Christmas to my readers who celebrate this one. For those of you who do, you may sometimes wonder what those of us who don't are doing today. Well, I find that Christmas is a great time to work at...
Posted by PalMD at 9:55 AM • 14 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Medicine
Do you know how many people have chlamydia? Syphilis? No? Me either. But it's a lot. Depending on the group evaluated, chlamydia rates among young women range from 7-15%. And with STDs, there is always at least one other victim....
Posted by PalMD at 9:04 AM • 20 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
December 23, 2009
Category: Absurd religious wingnutery
Wouldn't it be cool if after we died we didn't...die? Just like in the fairy tales, we could go to some place where we play harps on clouds and eat marshmallows for breakfast; we could play with our dead dogs,...
Posted by PalMD at 3:02 PM • 41 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Medicine
Human beings are an interesting mix of fragility and hardiness, and we have a tendency to overestimate both traits. We also tend to be somewhat over-confident in our own ability to make sense of patterns. This combination of traits often...
Posted by PalMD at 2:03 PM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
December 21, 2009
Category: Medicine
Multiple sclerosis (MS) is fascinating illness that can range from mild annoyance to debilitating nightmare. The frightening nature and unclear cause of the disease makes it a magnet for questionable medical therapies (i.e. quackery). A piece published last week in...
Posted by PalMD at 2:35 PM • 54 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
December 17, 2009
I was listening to Tell Me More yesterday and was drawn into the story. The host interviewed Michael Crawford, a DC-based activist. He attempted to debunk the idea that black communities are strongly anti-gay marriage. They played a clip of...
Posted by PalMD at 6:07 PM • 11 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
