Absurd medical claims
palmd | May 13, 2009I love my commenters. Some of them are really, really smart. I'd like to share an exchange with you, but first the context.
Morgellons syndrome is a label created by an American woman to describe a group of people who all believe they have mysterious fibers coming out of their skin. I've posted a bit on this before, but basically, there is not evidence of a discrete disease entity here, other than, perhaps delusions of parasitosis.
When these fibers and sores are examined by reputable medical authorities, they are invariably bits of environmental fluff, such as clothing fibers. There are…
palmd | May 11, 2009Apparently not much. From her new Oprah-fied blog:
If I can really do it I will officially have a diet that looks like this...
No wheat
No dairy
No refined sugar
No caffeine
No alcohol
No smoking
No yeast
I can forgive simple category errors, like putting smoking in the diet column. I'm certainly curious why she feels the need to eliminate the rest of these things. Here are possible justifications:
Wheat: gluten, mostly in wheat products, must be avoided if you have celiac disease.
Dairy: best to avoid if you have lactose intolerance. Rare instances of severe milk-protein allergies.…
palmd | May 10, 2009Libel law in the UK seems very odd to Americans, with our emphasis on free speech. But, hey, we've had our own country for two hundred and almost two score years now, and I'm happy to report that, at least over here, we can still call a quack a quack. But in England, you can't even allude to it. Here's what happened. Simon Singh, a British reporter who tends to take the side of truth in science wrote the following:
The British Chiropractic Association claims that their members can help treat children with colic, sleeping and feeding problems, frequent ear infections, asthma and prolonged…
palmd | May 8, 2009I can't tell if it is a trend yet, but it seems there has been a bit of a decrease in the outright quackery published in the Huffington Post lately. But that doesn't mean it's disappeared, and the poor quality of the writing more than makes up for the decreased quantity.
Case in point: Why We Overreacted to an Ordinary Flu, by Philip Slater, a sociologist with no medical education (a point that becomes evident very quickly). For example:
In an online newsletter recently some mad housewives were sharing tips on how best to triple-wash and triple-sterilize their countertops. What on earth…
palmd | May 5, 2009I recently had a pleasant, brief email exchange with Kris Newby, the producer of the latest medical advocacy pic, Under Our Skin. There's been a number of similar movies lately, mostly about quacky cancer therapies. This one is apparently much better made, and follows the controversy regarding "chronic" Lyme disease.
I'd heard an interview about the movie on Diane Rehm, and was rather unnerved by it. It sounded like a typical I-drank-the-Kool-Aid-now-I'm-gonna-make-a-movie kind of thing. Still, I haven't written about it, because I haven't seen the movie. That's going to change. Kris…
palmd | May 4, 2009My recent rantings about the Huffington Post have been picked up by both the Left and the Right.
How funny is that?
palmd | May 1, 2009Remember the Quack Miranda Warning? You know, the magic phrase that makes all the crappy and dangerous medical advice you're about to give OK?
Well, look what HuffPo's doing:
Author's note: This swine flu story on alternative and complementary medicine is not meant to replace anything you hear from you doctor, the WHO or the CDC, but is meant to show you some natural ways to enhance your overall wellness in addition to any medication you may need either to prevent or treat the flu.
Heh. Shit wrapped in gold foil smells just the same as shit in a brown bag tied with twine.
palmd | April 30, 2009The time is now. The gauntlet of idiocy rests at our feet. Shall we turn and walk away, or shall we bend down, pick it up, and accept the challenge? What? What's that you say? Turn from the forces of darkness?
ARE WE NOT WO/MEN?!?
We must not turn from the task before us. The Huffington Post has spit in the eye of reason, and worse, has aided in the proliferation of horridly deceptive health news, thinly-disguised infomercials, and frankly dangerous lies.
We have nothing left but our honor, and our honor demands vendetta.
Now, before you start sharpening your knives, I'm actually asking…
palmd | April 29, 2009Pursuant to my policies, I am reprinting an email, with identifying details redacted. I thought it would make for a nice conversation.
A few comments first. The tone and intent of the letter is, I would say, very nice. The content, however suffers from all kinds of being wrong, and contains great examples of common logical fallacies (don't forget to point them out!). Still, thank you very much for writing.
http://scienceblogs.com/whitecoatunderground/2009/04/naturopath_challen…
I don't expect any kind of acknowledgement, actually I frankly expect you'll just hit the delete key with the…
palmd | April 29, 2009Here at ScienceBlogs we have a (very) informal agreement to try to avoid profanity-laden titles. Personally, they don't bother me at all, but I can see the point---there are lots of folks who probably don't want their feed reader to pop up with what I'm about to say.
What the FUCK hath swine flu wrought????
I warned you that swine flu would bring out the charlatans. In the course of hours to days, a virtual zombie army of immoral, idiotic, evil fucking quacks has risen to fan your fears and take you cash.
It's really hard to overstate this, but the people who engage in this fact- and…
palmd | April 28, 2009Minnesota's dimwitted gift to humanity, Rep. Michelle Bachmann (R--but did you have to ask?) had this to say regarding swine flu (H/T Steph Z):
I find it interesting that it was back in the 1970s that the swine flu broke out then under another Democrat president Jimmy Carter. And I'm not blaming this on President Obama, I just think it's an interesting coincidence.
Leaving aside that it was Gerald Ford who presided over the last pandemic, if you are a real American, you will answer this question:
What is so fucking interesting about it?
palmd | April 28, 2009We have a lot to cover today, but first things first: the Big Question. If you'll cast your memory way back (thanks, Van) you'll remember that a good question to ask altmed followers is the one of abandonment: what would it take for them to abandon a modality? Well, the answers are in, and the one's who answered just didn't get it. For example:
[T]he question was: "Can you please give specific examples of alternative medicine theories and modalities that have been abandoned because they have been found to be ineffective?"
The short and honest answer to this is no-- I cant. But my reason…
palmd | April 25, 2009I used to teach at a hospital downtown. While on rounds, I'd often ask my residents and students where they were born, and get answers such as, "Alabama", "Kerala, India", "Damascus, Syria". Inevitably, they'd ask me where I was born, and I'd point to the floor and say, "Right here".
"You mean in Michigan?"
"No," I'd explain, "I mean right here in this hospital."
So I have a certain pride about my hometown. I like Detroit, and although I, like many others born there, don't live in the city, I always hope for a recovery. So it saddens me whenever I see news stories that paint my natal…
palmd | April 24, 2009The other day, I wrote about the fake health experts at the Huffington Post. Prominent among them is "Dr" Patricia Fitzgerald. Now, we already talked about how writing a health piece in a major media outlet and using the title of "Dr" can be deceptive; the reader is likely to assume you are a medical doctor. In Fitzgerald's case, she isn't anything resembling a medical doctor, or even a health expert.
Like many of HuffPo's so-called health experts, she's selling something. While I'm all for capitalism, she presents herself as something she is not---a legitimate doctor. Let's examine what…
palmd | April 23, 2009It's no secret that I think the Huffington Post is an teeming den execrable pseudoscientific snakes. Still, when it comes to fanning the vaccination manufatroversy, they are really off the deep end. Take the latest piece of dreck on Jenny McCarthy, GoD (Google Doctorate). It's written by the infamous "Dr." Patricia Fitzgerald, and this is where I get cranky. Worse than all the drivel spouted by Jenny is HuffPo giving their imprimatur of authority to Fitzgerald. Let me 'splain.
Look, there's a lot of ways to legitimately gain the title of "doctor". The most common are to go to a…
palmd | April 23, 2009Orac isn't known for his sound bites. He tends to write pieces which, in the blogosphere, might be considered rather long, and for good reason---he has a lot to say, and he says it well. But sometimes there is a gem of insolence that is so apt, it must be reshared:
But what really makes this analogy so brain dead is that it was the very epidemiological methods that have so consistently failed to find any correlation between vaccines and autism that led scientists to realize that smoking is strongly correlated with cancer. Jim [Carrey], while accepting the epidemiology linking tobacco smoke…
palmd | April 22, 2009Yes, that's right, the Huffington Post, that broadsheet of blarney, that tabloid of medical trumpery has done it. Not content to risk our mental health by lending legitimacy to all kinds of pseudoscientific charlatans, they just let Jim Carrey write a piece on vaccines and autism. Yes, the boyfriend of uber-fukwit Jenny McCarthy has drunk her Kool Aid, but that's no surprise. I'll leave a good fisking to others, because a few of the commenters showed signs of higher cortical function, and this deserves some coverage.
Take this one for example:
I think Jim and Jenny McCarthy are instilling…
palmd | April 22, 2009Just when you think the Huffington Post can't get any more inane and idiotic, just when you think your synapses might be starting to heal, they come out with another post that simply makes your ears bleed.
Sure, HuffPo regularly comes down on the side of superstition, for example in the vaccine manufactroversy; and sure, they sometimes veer into the lane of deceptive medical infomercials. But I sort of held out hope that they wouldn't resort to hosting potential fraud.
Fraud, you say? Well, not clearly. But, just as we in the Midwest know that when the sky turns that certain shade of…
palmd | April 21, 2009Overheard from the 210th annual emergency meeting of the Society for Evidence-Free Healing.
Chair: The meeting will come to order.
Some Dude: Seconded.
Chair: Um, I'm the Chair. I don't need a "second".
Some Other Dude: That sounds like an oppressive application of the dominant paradigm.
Chair: Fine, fine. Would anyone object coming to order? No? Thank you very much.
While it may seem to many of you that we have made great strides in having our ancient, holistic healing methods given an official stamp of approval (and perhaps Medicare reimbursement) we have some very troubling…
palmd | April 20, 2009A colleague of mine asked a great question: if you have one question to ask a booster of so-called alternative medicine in a public forum, what should it be? I'll give you my answer below the fold, then open the thread to see what you think.
My answer: "Can you please give specific examples of alternative medicine theories and modalities that have been abandoned because they have been found to be ineffective?"
I have information that some other skeptical doctor-bloggers seem to agree with this. Why? Why not ask, "can you give me specific evidence of a proven alternative theory/modality…