Absurd medical claims
palmd | March 5, 2009This is a cross-post from Science-Based Medicine. Go there! --PalMD
There are many ways in which cult medicine believers try to insinuate themselves into the health care system. As Dr. Gorski has pointed out, "prevention" is one of their metaphorical feet in the door. The cult medicine literature often says things like, "mainstream medicine is fine for treating acute illness, but what we do is prevention." What they often leave out is the question of what "prevention" means, what the data on prevention is, and how to properly approach prevention. It's likely that one of my co-editors…
palmd | March 4, 2009OK, the title is inaccurate. Kirby is not bound by the same code of ethics as researchers and doctors, so perhaps he's not unethical. But his latest rant in HuffPo encourages unethical behavior. Honestly, I'm getting tired of writing about this guy, but he just keeps bringing the stupid, and something about that just calls out for a response.
So what's so horrible about his latest hunk of drivel? Well, first he starts with a blatant misinterpretation of the truth:
It is not accurate for members of the media to report that the link between vaccines and autism has been "disproven."…
palmd | March 3, 2009The blogosphere is doing a reasonably good job of covering this, but I'm still fuming over Senator Tom Harkin's (D-IA) health care policy hearings. Each morsel of the hearing contains more idiocy than the last. In my attempt to shed some light into Harkin's guano-filled cave, I'm going to examine some of the specific testimony, starting with that of Dr. Dean Ornish.
Medicine today focuses primarily on drugs and surgery, genes and germs, microbes and molecules, but we are so much more than that.
When I hear statements like this, my bullshit detector asplodes. Sure, it's only one sentence…
palmd | March 1, 2009Remember when President Obama said something about returning science to it's rightful place? Well, our new president has a real tough climb ahead of him. The previous administration shoved science aside for political expediency and religious ideology. Now, forces in the president's own party are trying to insert their own quasi-religious beliefs into health care reform, leaving science in a whole different place altogether.
Here's the deal. Some years back, Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA) helped set up the National Center on Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM). The whole idea of…
palmd | February 25, 2009The Autism Omnibus Trial is a conundrum for the infectious disease promotion movement. Still, their ability to pick up the goalposts and run is unmatched, and that is just what David Kirby and Robert Kennedy, Jr. have done in today's Huffington Post.
To review, the recent Omnibus decision looked at a few test cases for the "vaccine causes autism" hypothesis, and tossed them for being inconsistent with reality. This correlates well with what science has to say about the issue.
But of course the overwhelming evidence isn't going to deter these superheroes. They know the answer, and they're…
palmd | February 23, 2009A while back I wrote about a naturopathic "physician" who was specifically preying on the Latino community. This is troubling for a number of reasons, some of which I mentioned. In my zeal to rant about the quackery, I may have not delved deeply enough into some of the other important issues.
For example, Hispanics have rates of diabetes and stroke well above the white Anglo population. These are conditions for which we have very effective science-based treatment. Proper treatment of high blood pressure in diabetics reduces the rate of heart attack and stroke by 35-50%. Proper foot care,…
palmd | February 19, 2009It seems the same questions keep coming up when looking at the cult leaders of the infectious disease promotion movement. When you listen to them preach or read their liturgy you can't help thinking, "dumb, evil, or both?" I think I'm going to vote for "both" when it comes to Deirdre Imus. Her sermon last week in the Huffington Post was so far over the top that my nose is still bleeding from climbing her tower of intellectual excrement.
Her title advises health consumers, "On Vaccinations: Consider the Source and Follow the Money."
I don't know what that means, but Deirdre explains, "…
palmd | February 18, 2009There was a piece of good news on vaccine front this week. The first judgments from the Autism Omnibus Trial were announced, and the special masters (who served as judges) agreed with the rest of the reality-based community in ruling that vaccines do not cause autism. The rulings weren't subtle, using phrases such as "misled by physicians who are guilty, in my view, of gross medical misjudgment". This is the Dover of the "other" ID promotion movement.*
Like any cult, however, the infectious disease promotion movement is unlikely to be persuaded by any level of evidence. This, despite…
palmd | February 7, 2009The movement against vaccination is old---very old. All medical interventions require scrutiny. Like any medical intervention, vaccines require systematic investigation before deployment, and monitoring during their use. Still, vaccines have done more for public health than most Westerners under the age of fifty can imagine.
Inoculation and vaccination have been vilified in many ways, from interfering with the will of God, to being a vast conspiracy to infect [insert ethnic group here] with [insert disease here], to a cause of autism.
There have been "bad" vaccines, and when this has…
palmd | February 5, 2009A delusion is usually defined as "a fixed, false belief". Anyone can be wrong, but to persist in being wrong despite all the evidence is the hallmark of delusional thinking. In their latest senseless rant at HuffPo, infectious disease promoters David Kirby and Robert Kennedy, Jr. cling to thin strands of tainted reality as the gaping maw of insanity opens beneath them.
Of course, delusions are very closely related to lies. The only difference is that liar doesn't believe his bullshit, while the psychotic does. It's hard to know where K and K fall. There latest article, entitled, "Autism…
palmd | February 4, 2009So I was checking out my incomming links on sitemeter and I found a great one. You see, fake diseases alway bring out the wackos.
This is the thing about medical wackos. Not only do they think that they have diseases that no real doctor thinks exists, but they think everyone else must have it, too.
Niels, a guy who I've had to ban before for hostile comment spam, and whose designation on his own board is, appropriately, "Ultimate Member", has this to say about my back woes:
this time, i believe karma has already taught him the lesson he needs to learn (sounds like he has lyme disease...…
palmd | February 2, 2009I gotta admit that I just don't get it. Perhaps it's my overly narrow world-view, or perhaps it's my lack of imagination, but I really don't get it. Let me explain.
I've got this horrid pain in my back and leg. It's searing, aching, gnawing. My foot is numb, but still hurts. It tingles, feels heavy, and it's weak. Sometimes it feels like electricity is jumping through it, sometimes like little worms are crawling in it. Being a curious person, I look for ways to explain this.
I'm sure this horrid crawling feeling could be explained thusly:
Perhaps there are actual worms crawling…
palmd | January 29, 2009A long time ago (in blog years) I wrote a series on alternative medicine over at my old Wordpress blog. It's time to dust off the old post and get back to some basics.
What is alternative medicine, anyway?
That's a great question. I know it is, because I asked it. I get this question almost daily. The secret answer is that there is no such thing as alternative medicine. You don't believe me? Why not--I am a doctor.
There are several ways to define alternative medicine, and sometimes it is contrasted with "complementary medicine". CM refers to treatments that "complement" traditional…
palmd | January 28, 2009It's hard to hide severe back pain. When I stand up, I look like a question mark. The visibility of the problem, combined with the general goodness of my fellow human beings, leads to lots of unsolicited advice. Folks have given me great advice (take some NSAIDs, stretch, and don't lay in bed) and some questionable advice (go to the chiropractor, get some acupuncture). My colleagues and I have written a lot about acupuncture. It's sort of a "gateway CAM", in that it has a patina of plausibility. But the evidence of its efficacy has pointed toward it being an elaborate placebo.
To help…
palmd | January 26, 2009It's true that words matter, and that we who practice real medicine have often let cult medicine practitioners get the linguistic high ground. We've let them get away with calling non-science-based practices "alternative" and "complementary", without really asking, "alternative to what?" or "does it really "complement, or just distract?" We've often ignored language, and when we don't, we are accused of being pedantic, of focusing on "rhetoric" rather than "real" issues. Language is powerful. There is no such thing as "it's just a word".
Language is even more important in the fight…
palmd | January 26, 2009A short time ago, I told you about H. flu, a nasty, but preventable disease. Now, Orac tells us about some unfortunate idiots who chose not to prevent it. Go and read.
palmd | January 22, 2009I've written quite a bit of the need for good health reporting, and I've had the good fortune to talk to some terrific reporters. But bad reporters are easy to come by, which is kind of sad, especially since jobs are getting scarce.
When this article came across my browser, something looked familiar. The Stamford (CT) Advocate has shown up on my blog before. The last time, it was an article about a naturopath preying on immigrants. When I saw a new story pop up, I was sure it would be the same reporter. The article is locked in the archives, so it took some searching, but I eventually…
palmd | January 22, 2009This is just for kicks, and requires a little work. I recently became aware of a dreadful article that I'd love to share with you, but then I thought, "my readers are pretty damned smart; let's see what they have to say first."
The article in question, "External Qi of Yan Xin Qigong differentially regulates the Akt and extracellular signal-regulated kinase pathways and is cytotoxic to cancer cells but not to normal cells" just seems ripe for feeding into the dewooificator. Now, the full text is behind a paywall, and it wouldn't do for me to share my full text copy with you. I certainly can…
palmd | January 21, 2009Nearly a year ago, a young girl was killed by her parents. She was dying of diabetic ketoacidosis, and her parents provided only prayer. They weren't living on some compound under the thrall of some cult leader. They weren't living in a third-world country far from modern medical care. They were living in the middle of Wisconsin, and had access to any care they might need, but while their child suffered, the parents did the equivalent of nothing. This type of situation has been done to death, but since the parents are about to go on trial, let's review the responsibilities of the state…
palmd | January 15, 2009As I sit in my (very narrow) seat on a DC-9 heading for North Carolina, one thing in particular strikes me: I'm really, really pleased that there is no such thing as "alternative engineering". It's not that "allopathic" or "mainstream" engineers never make mistakes---bridges collapse, cars break, computers die---but most of the time, our buildings, tools, and machines work. In fact, they work so well that we rarely think about all the work that has gone into creating them. Still, even when our houses fall down or our toys break, we don't go running for a "new kind" of engineering. We…