oracknows | October 16, 2011We humans like control. Actually, we need to feel as though we are in control. Perhaps that's why, when we aren't in control--can't be in control, for whatever reason--we instinctively seek ways of being more in control, or at least of feeling as though we are in control. I've often wondered if providing the illusion of control is part of the reason for the appeal of quackery alternative medicine, or, as it's become known these days, "complementary and alternative medicine" (CAM) or "integrative medicine" (IM). That, and the human need for certainty.
Think about it, taking cancer (my…
oracknows | October 14, 2011You might have noticed that I'm a bit late today. There's a reason, and I bet you know what it is. Yep, yet another grant deadline. As usual, that means I didn't have time to produce my usual dose of not-so-Respectful Insolence. That doesn't mean I can't do some good, though, as yesterday the Bat Signal went up with a call for help. Remember SANEVax? (Oh, no. Not them again!) In case you've forgotten, SANEVax is the anti-vaccine group that specializes in Gardasil fear mongering, having come to my attention with an incredibly silly variation of the toxin gambit in which they tried to scare…
oracknows | October 13, 2011I had a really busy grant writing day today, and my brain is fried. What that means is that, even though there are some things that I could write about that would be really cool (as in studies), I'm just too tired to do it as I write this. So, as I settle down to my nightly ritual, I wondered what I could write about. Certainly, it had to be something amusing and something that doesn't take too much effort for me to take on. Given that blogging is a marathon and not a sprint, there are times for really applying myself and times for slumming.
This is a time for slumming. Tomorrow might be too…
oracknows | October 11, 2011Remember SaneVax?
Before I encountered SaneVax, I hadn't realized that anti-vaccine groups specialized, at least not to this degree. Oh, sure, I remember that Generation Rescue used to specialize in fear mongering about mercury in vaccines, at least before it changed its tune to "too many, too soon." However, SaneVax takes anti-vaccine specialization to another level with its laser-like focus on the HPV vaccine as the source of all evil.
Most recently, SaneVax made a name for itself with a gambit so outrageously stupid, so unrelentingly brain dead, that it amazed even me, and I've seen a lot…
oracknows | October 10, 2011After having been saddened (and distracted, at least from a blog standpoint) by the death of Steve Jobs for the last few days, I think it's time to get back to the normal sorts of stuff I blog about. Not that discussing medical issues related to celebrities in the news isn't one of the normal sorts of things I blog about here, but I usually don't do it for three or four days in a row. On the other hand, sometimes I do blog about vaccines several days in a row. Usually, these sorts of runs of vaccine blogging come about when a particularly idiotic confluence of anti-vaccine idiocy hits the…
oracknows | October 9, 2011I debated a while about whether I should take this particular post on. It's not because there isn't a lot of fodder there deserving of that special form of not-so-Respectful Insolence that only Orac, in his usual inimitable fashion, can provide. There most definitely is. The problem, as is sometimes the case when I get on a roll, is that it represents going back to a topic that I've already covered very recently. In fact, it's a topic I've already covered twice, namely Steve Jobs and the insulinoma that ultimately killed him. Last week, I reposted what I wrote about him back in 2009 after he…
oracknows | October 6, 2011It's been a mere two days since Steve Jobs died. Although it hasn't yet been revealed what his specific cause of death was, it's a good bet that Jobs' death was due to a recurrence of his pancreatic cancer, first diagnosed in 2003, for which he underwent surgery in 2004 and ultimately a liver transplant in 2009. It's a history that I outlined yesterday (at least up to the time the original posts were written) by reposting two posts I wrote about his liver transplant back in 2009. But a funny thing has happened since then, and that's that Jobs has become a flashpoint in an argument that has…
oracknows | October 6, 2011
Another day, another grant. Well, not exactly. We have a visiting professor in town, and I have to give a talk at our department research retreat today. Between going out to dinner, working on the talk, and working on the grant, another day has passed without new Insolence. Bummer. But that pales in comparison to having learned last night while at dinner that Steve Jobs has passed away. Apple fanboy I may be, but I was surprised at how much the news saddened me. It did, however, make it easy to figure out what post(s) I would rerun today. In 2008 and 2009 I did a series of posts about…
oracknows | October 5, 2011After a near all-nighter working on a grant and another day and night to try to get a talk together that I have to give tomorrow, somehow Insolence, Respectful or not-so-Respectful, fell by the wayside, at least for today. Nothing like two hours' sleep followed by a full day of work. It's a good thing I don't have clinic or the OR today. Of course, if I did, I wouldn't have pushed myself the way I did last night. I do have to admit, however, that this video I came across over at Runolfr's place cracked me up. We really do need a Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy:
I wonder what the Guide says…
oracknows | October 4, 2011He's ba-ack.
Has it really only been two weeks? A mere two weeks since everybody's favorite advocate of The One Quackery to Rule Them All promised the woo-friendly readers of the "health" section of that wretched hive of scum and quackery, The Huffington Post that he would "provide further specific evidence of the unscientific attitude and actions from those individuals and organizations who are leading the campaign against homeopathy." Like pretty much every skeptic who's made any sort of name for himself, no matter how minor, in having fun taking down the pseudoscientific nonsense known as…
oracknows | October 3, 2011Yes, it's that time of year again. Time to get my flu shot.
So that's just what I did yesterday. I decided to brave that evil, toxin-laden, mercury-infused nastiness, all in order to protect myself and my patients against influenze. As you might recall, last year, when I was off to get my flu vaccine, I pointed out that our cancer center required the flu vaccine for all employees who deal with patients, whatever their capacity, from physician to nurse to medical aide to receptionist. Refuse to get the flu vaccine, and you get to wear a mask any time you are in teh presence of a patient. It's…
oracknows | October 2, 2011I've been harshly critical of the entire concept of "integrative medicine" (IM), which has over the last few years nearly supplanted the former term used for non-science-based medicine or medicine based on prescientific ideas represented as though it were scientific medicine, "complementary and alternative medicine" (CAM). Indeed, just last month I pointed out how IM is far more about marketing than it is about science or medicine, and over the last few years I've been particularly harsh on the concept of "integrative oncology," which is actually being promoted as a legitimate "subspecialty"…
oracknows | September 30, 2011I've gotten into quite a few arguments over whether there is more anti-science nonsense on the right or the left lately. Actually, none of these arguments have been on the blog, mainly because I tend not to relish getting into discussions that are far more weighted towards politics than actual science or medicine. Still, sometimes I see something that leads me to think about venturing into the minefield of science and politics. This has been particularly true ever since the campaign for the Republican nomination has shifted into high gear and Michelle Bachmann's recent descent even further…
oracknows | September 29, 2011Yesterday, I came across a concept that I had never considered before (or even heard of before). In fact, it's a concept that took me by surprise. Basically, it's an application of a concept to a problem that I never considered applying the concept to before--probably with very good reason. Basically, it's a guy named Michael Slattery writing about The Wisdom Of The Crowds And Sangamo's Phase II B Clinical Trial Results.
I've never been convinced that there is a such thing as the "wisdom of crowds." Certainly, the numerous examples throughout history of mob behavior and downright idiotic…
oracknows | September 28, 2011People wonder why scientists involved in controversial areas are reluctant to address the public. Courtesy of our favorite band of anti-vaccine bloggers at the anti-vaccine propaganda blog Age of Autism, we see yet another reason why. Yes, AoA's resident attack poodle Jake Crosby decided to disrupt the Q&A session of a public talk (videocast here) by the editor-in-chief of BMJ, Fiona Godlee:
Throughout the question and answer session, I patiently waited my turn, until finally called on by Dr. Glass (you can view the exchange on the 54:00 of the NIH Videocast):
"Yeah? Introduce yourself…
oracknows | September 27, 2011I concluded last week with the dismantling one of the more bizarre stories I've seen spun by the merry band of anti-vaccine propagandists over at Age of Autism. As you might recall, Mark "Not a Doctor, Not a Scientist" Blaxill had teamed with Dan "Where are the Autistic Amish?" Olmsted (or, as I call them, B&O) to produce what was at that time a five part "epic" of pseudoscientifically and enthusiastically confusing correlation with causation. I'm referring to what they called "The Age of Polio," a title that made me wonder if B&O are terminally without imagination in that they seem…
oracknows | September 27, 2011For some reason, when it comes to so-called "complementary and alternative medicine" (CAM) therapies, acupuncture gets a pass. Homeopathy, for example, is based on ideas so inherently ridiculous that they quite properly attract the scorn of skeptics and advocates of science-based medicine everywhere, stating, as it does, that diluting a remedy to nonexistence makes it stronger, but only if you shake vigorously between each serial dilution step. The same is true of reiki, which, as I've said time and time again, is nothing more than faith healing based on Eastern mystical beliefs rather than…
oracknows | September 25, 2011When you've been at this blogging thing as long as I have, it's possible to be shocked at how long you find yourself commenting on the same story. As I approach the end of the seventh year of Insolence, both Respectful and not-so-Respectful, I find these "senior blogging moments" popping up from time to time. One such story is that of a young man named Abraham Cherrix. I first learned of Cherrix back in June 2006, when, a few months after having been diagnosed with Hodgkin's lymphoma at age 15, Cherrix, supported by his mother, decided that he didn't want to take any more chemotherapy and…
oracknows | September 23, 2011I've been following the anti-vaccine movement for nearly a decade now, first as a regular on the Usenet newsgroup misc.health.alternative and then, beginning almost seven years ago, blogging away. Along the way, somehow I stumbled into the role of countering the pseudoscience, misinformation, and nonsense promoted by the anti-vaccine movement. It's dangerous misinformation, too. For instance, in the U.K., misinformation claiming that the MMR vaccine somehow contributes to autism, a lie based on the work of Andrew Wakefield, has led the MMR uptake rate there to plummet. As a result measles,…
oracknows | September 21, 2011Perhaps the biggest bête noire for me is the infiltration of quackademic medicine into academic medical centers; so whenever I see particularly egregious examples, it gets my fingers twitching over the keyboard, ready to lay down some not-so-Respectful Insolence. So it was last Friday when I happened across an article published nearly two years ago in The Hospitalist entitled Growth Spurt: Complementary and alternative medicine use doubles, which began with this anecdote:
Despite intravenous medication, a young boy in status epilepticus had the pediatric ICU team at the University of…