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April 29, 2008
As you may have read earlier, the only thing chriopractic has ever really been shown to do is to help low back pain about as well as conventional therapy. That doesn't stop chiropractors from doing whatever they want. It sure seems harmless enough, though---you back or neck hurts, some guy moves…
April 29, 2008
This is a reprint from my old blog that will provide necessary backgroud for an upcoming story. Thanks for your indulgence.
I am often asked my opinion of chiropractic care. My usual answer (based on evidence) is that it can be somewhat helpful in the treatment of low back pain. That's it. Any…
April 29, 2008
Dear Floridians,
Greetings, and an early "hello"! I'm heading your way at the end of the week to spend my tourist dollars, and I can't wait to see you!
But first, some important business.
Your representatives in the Florida House have just passed a so-called academic freedom bill. I strongly…
April 29, 2008
Just as the 60-day deadline approached for filing a legal challenge to a new health standard to protect mine workers from asbestos exposure, mining industry trade associations submitted their petitions in federal court. MSHA's rule was published on February 29, and tick-tock, like clockwork,…
April 29, 2008
On the heels of the Union of Concerned Scientistsâ report on political interference with EPA scientists, the Government Accountability Office reports that the White House Office of Management and Budget is taking a major and non-transparent role in EPA toxic chemical assessments.
At issue is the …
April 28, 2008
Today is Workersâ Memorial Day, when we remember the victims of workplace deaths, injuries, and illnesses. According to the International Labor Organization, 2.2 million people die from work-related accidents and diseases every year, and another 430 million suffer from work-related illnesses or…
April 28, 2008
In this morning's post, Mark mentions an article from the alternative medical universe that is the Huffington Post. One of the latest bits of idiocy to come out of HuffPo is from Barbara Fischkin. I have no idea who this person is, but her writing shows a few things: she is willing to go against…
April 27, 2008
On the eve of international Workers' Memorial Day (4/28), Ken Ward of the Charleston Gazette displays again his journalist acumen, particularly on health and safety issues for workers. Thirty years ago today, at the construction of the cooling towers at the Pleasants Power Station at Willow…
April 26, 2008
There's been some chat around here regarding why people blog. I'll leave out the entire matter of why people write in the first place---that topic is so well covered in undergrad, there's no reason to try to add to an already voluminous literature.
But why blog?
Well, anyone can do it. I don't…
April 26, 2008
Apparently, Gary is now a documentary filmmaker, and officially an HIV Denialist. What a pity. So many people like him. It's a shame he has to go from being wrong to being wrong and dangerous.
Check out this beauty from his website (edited for space):
Documentary filmmaker (sic) and health…
April 25, 2008
Thereâs a lot going on right now with the FDA and drug regulation:
The Health Affairs Blog has posts by Scott Gottlieb (a former FDA official now at the American Enterprise Institute) and Jerome Kassirer (a former editor-in-chief of the New England Journal now at the Tufts University School of…
April 25, 2008
The World Health Organization has declared today World Malaria Day. Why "World Malaria Day"?
World Malaria Day is an opportunity for malaria-free countries to learn about the devastating consequences of the disease and for new donors to join a global partnership against malaria.
World-wide there…
April 24, 2008
Here at denialism blog, we've written a bit about so-called Morgellons syndrome. Every once in a while, when I tire of sanity, I scan the news for more Morgellons madness, and when it comes to madness, Mike Adams never disappoints.
In his latest foray into paranoid idiocy, he tries to link this…
April 24, 2008
The Union of Concerned Scientists has released another disturbing report about political interference with government science. For Interference at the EPA, they surveyed EPA scientists from all of the agencyâs scientific program offices and 10 regional offices, and from more than a dozen research…
April 23, 2008
One of my duties involves teaching nurse practitioner students. Nursing is quite different from medicine, and many of the linguistic markers of nursing differ significantly from medicine. As more physicians' assistants and nurse practitioners enter the primary care world there will be a bit of a…
April 23, 2008
A new study this month in The Lancet examined the health impact of domestic violence (of women by men). This was a very large WHO-funded study looking at multiple physical and mental health problems in abused vs. non-abused women. This is necessarily an observational study, but appears to be well…
April 23, 2008
Cong. Woolsey's Workforce Protections Subcommittee held a hearing today on OSHA's inadequate enforcement of safety and health standards at large, multiple-facility corporations. Members of the Committee heard the gruesome details of the death of Mr. Eleazar Torres-Gomez in an industrial…
April 23, 2008
The longer fighting in Iraq continues, the more disturbing news we get about the troopsâ mental health.
The latest and most comprehensive study on veteransâ mental health to date (by the Rand Corporation) finds that nearly one in five Iraq and Afghanistan veterans is suffering from depression or…
April 23, 2008
Certainly not! But unfortunately we need to look a little more closely.
It's been a while since I've posted on hard-core woo, and I miss it, so here's a little tip for you: if a diet sounds too good to be true, then it is. Weight loss is very hard, unless you are very sick. In fact, a…
April 22, 2008
The post hoc ergo propter hoc fallacy is one of the great weapons in the arsenal of denialists. The reason it works so well is it makes sense. As my readers know, my daughter is dealing with a nasty respiratory virus. One of the doctors told my wife, who is not a medical professional, that kids…
April 22, 2008
Angry Toxicologist makes a good point about Earth Day:
What's wrong with Earth Day?
The name, for one. Earth day. Protecting mother earth. Saving the environment. What's wrong with these? They're all about the earth. No humans mentioned. For a day that's supposed to highlight the damage we are…
April 22, 2008
by Lindsay Wheeler
Although today's the official Earth Day, I've been reflecting more and more on my own lifestyle and the efficiency with which I live. It started a few months ago, when I was watching the BBC series Planet Earth with my brother, and I found myself almost to the point of tears…
April 22, 2008
Dear Mr. Steenland,
I would contact you using more conventional means, but getting through to even a minor lackey at your company is next to impossible. Thank you in advance for reading this.
I hate your company. They are perhaps the most difficult company I have ever dealt with as a consumer,…
April 21, 2008
One of the hot topics around here lately is authority and anonymity. It's a terribly difficult philosophical question----how can you ever trust a source of information that is second hand? And yet ultimately we all are forced to do it most of the time.
A potent weapon in the denialist arsenal is…
April 21, 2008
For more than two years, the Cook family has waited for answers about the coal-truck crash that took the life of Chad Cook, their son and brother. Their long ordeal began immediately after 25-year old Chad's death, when an MSHA inspector decided that the fatal crash occurred on a public road and…
April 21, 2008
We're heading home from the hospital soon.We've gone from, "Daddy, I don't want to cough anymore...it's too boring," to, "Daddy, do pirates have convertibles?"
But infectious diseases have lots of consequences. I'm starting to get a tickle in my throat and a bit of a cough. I have asthma, and…
April 21, 2008
The front page of yesterdayâs Washington Post provided a stark reminder of the cost of powering the DC region: a scarred and denuded landscape once graced by mountains and wildlife. Mountaintop removal mining (MTR) in West Virginia feeds coal-powered plants that have been demanding more and more of…
April 20, 2008
If the uber-fascist wing of the anti-vaccine movement had any scientific credibility, it wouldn't need to throw around subpoenas. That is what is (still) happening to the author of the Neurodiversty blog (hat tip again to LizDitz).
I'm sitting here in the hospital with my sick daughter. She has…
April 20, 2008
Yesterday my daughter (the one in my picture, but older now) started sneezing---a lot. Allergy season in this part of the country is brutal. We keep a box of kleenex on every flat surface in the house. But this morning she started coughing, and had a low-grade fever, so we knew she was sick, not…
April 19, 2008
Last night I was reading a book to my daughter at bedtime. It was all about a kid who had chickenpox. I looked at my wife and said, "this is a bit outdated."
"So what, it's cute," she accurately replied.
Wow. I hadn't thought about it much lately, but chickenpox in the U.S. is disappearing…