medicine

Apparently 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.…

You might have already see this chart relating obesity to time spent eating in The New York Times: The commentary accompanying the chart goes like so: On Monday, in posting some of the data from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development's Society at a Glance report, I noted that the French spent the most time per day eating, but had one of the lowest obesity rates among developed nations. Coincidence? Maybe, maybe not. Jim Manzi dug deeper into the data and found something very interesting: I recreated the original analysis (minus the inclusion of the OECD average as a data…

That seems the finding of this paper, Familial Aggregation of Survival and Late Female Reproduction: Women giving birth at advanced reproductive ages in natural fertility conditions have been shown to have superior postmenopausal longevity. It is unknown whether improved survival is more likely among relatives of late-fertile women. This study compares survival past age 50 of men with and without a late-fertile sister in two populations: Utahns born in 1800-1869 identified from the Utah Population Database and Québec residents born in 1670-1750 identified from the Programme de recherche en…

Regular readers here know that I really hate to see stories like the one I'm about to discuss, specifically that of 13-year-old Daniel Hauser, a boy with Hodgkin's lymphoma who is refusing chemotherapy based on religion and his preference for "alternative" therapy, whose parents are also supporting his decision. Since I'm a bit behind on this story, its having percolated through the blogosphere for the last three or four days, let me start with a bit of context. If there is one theme that I've emphasized time and time again here, it's science- and evidence-based medicine. That means…

Libel 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…

...because they blog under the shadow of the United Kingdom's insane libel laws. Witness this travesty of a ruling on the libel case against Simon Singh by the British Chiropractic Association, as related by Jack of Kent. I first learned about the UK's exceedingly plaintiff-friendly libel laws when, shortly after I became interested in Holocaust denial, I followed the libel case against Holocaust historian Professor Deborah Lipstadt brought by Holocaust denier David Irving for, well, quite properly calling him a Holocaust denier in one of her books. What makes British libel laws so plaintiff-…

I had this great idea for my PalCast today, but I have a cold and my voice is squeaking like a twelve-year-old boy, so I'm just going to have to write. I woke up a little early---I love mornings. I opened up the back door to listen to the wind blowing through the new leaves, to the birds, and to my coffee maker. It was perfect peace---until the game started up at the nearby high school. The PA carries right into my family room. That's what happens when you don't get up early enough. You start with being able to imagine you are sitting alone in a meadow and rapidly find you are actually…

I know, I know it seems like the proverbial shooting fish in a barrel, but some creature that I can't identify is having a fight somewhere in the neighborhood, freaking out my dog, and now I can't go back to sleep; so why not blog? In any case, I found out last week that Jenny McCarthy is on Twitter as JennyfromMTV. Now, when I first saw it, I thought it had to be a spoof, someone pretending to be Jenny. No one could be as inane as to Tweet things like: Im inside a hyperbaric chamber. This thing makes me feel amazing. About to fly to jersey. Security stole my sugar free jelly out of my purse…

From time to time, when we've talked about people who object to research with animals on ethical grounds, the claim has been made that it is hypocritical for people with these objections to avail themselves of modern medicine. Our drugs and surgical interventions, after all, are typically the result of research that includes animal research. Occasionally, a response like this is made: There is no reason to opt out of the existing treatments, since the animal suffering that went into that research cannot be undone. Given that these past animals suffered, the knowledge produced from their…

I 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…

After having blogged about cancer quackery for more than four years and having spent at least five years before that on the Usenet newsgroup misc.health.alternative seeing virtually all manner of quackery, cancer and otherwise, I thought I had seen it all. Indeed, I thought that there was no form of cancer quackery that I hadn't head about at some point before. I was wrong. Perusing the Skepchick blog the other day I saw a wonderful story related by Masala Skeptic about how a group of skeptics in Mississippi attended a talk by a cancer quack named Robert Dowling, who apparently claims that…

In a recent post, Dr. Free Ride made some excellent points about conflict of interest and medical professionalism (emphasis mine): What I find more interesting, and problematic, here is [the authors'] unexamined premise that it is a bad thing that medical experts have a certain kind of monopoly. Indeed, their monopoly is recognized by the state: you can't practice medicine without being properly trained and licensed. Because of their specialized training, physicians and medical scientists have an expertise that arguably puts them in a better position than the state to promulgate disease…

I should just have a permanent pointer from here to Effect Measure. But as I've not figured out how to do that, here's some more sensible thinking from Revere: No one on the public health side has over reacted. When an outbreak or pandemic is unfolding, you get only one chance. The window is a narrow one. CDC (and WHO) have acquitted themselves well, so far. CDC's daily briefings have been straightforward and informative. The public, understandably, has bounced back and forth from fear to relief and back again. I don't think either pole is avoidable. If the scientists are baffled and…

At White Coat Underground, PalMD considers an article from the Journal of Medical Ethics. The article (L. Johnson, R. B. Stricker, "Attorney General forces Infectious Diseases Society of America to redo Lyme guidelines due to flawed development process," Journal of Medical Ethics 2009; 35: 283-288. doi:10.1136/jme.2008.026526) is behind a paywall, but Pal was kind enough to send me a copy. Pal writes: I have a strong interest in medical ethics, although I'm not an ethicist myself. Still, I'm generally familiar with the jargon and the writing styles. This piece reads like no ethics article I…

Unfortunately, Orac has been feeling a bit under the weather since last night--so much so that he actually did something he rarely does and stayed home from work. But enough with the third person schtick. If I feel better later, maybe I'll post something. Hopefully I'll be back to 100% tonight and can produce the usual Insolence that readers know and expect for tomorrow. Right now I can't say. What I can say, however, that, whatever I post, at least today it won't be about Jenny McCarthy's and J.B. Handley's appearance on The Doctors yesterday. My gastrointestinal status is tenuous enough as…

The other day I wrote about a really nice post someone wrote about a cardiologist with whom I have had a relationship since postdoc years. I also have several physician friends and colleagues IRL and on these interblogs who must constantly be questioned about their motives, their pharma connections, etc. Let me state from this place and time: t There are far more physicians who uphold our idealistic Rockwellian view of them than not. Two years ago, I shared a cab with a doc on his way to a basic and clinical cancer research meeting focused on an organ we both study. Good guy. I might have…

I've noted several times here how more measured heads keep emphasizing that a) we're working on partial information in responding to the current swine flu outbreak and b) new developments may complicate things at any point along the line. Here's a great example of what these folks (like Effect Measure, Crof, and Avian Flu Diary) are talking about. From Reuters : Second strain of flu may complicate picture-study 06 May 2009 15:02:09 GMT By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Editor WASHINGTON, May 6 (Reuters) - A second strain of influenza, one of the seasonal strains, may have mutated and may…

While I'm at it, here are a few other recent posts about modulating our thinking about the swine flu outbreak that is a) so far less horrid than our worst fears and b) still working its way around the globe, as it may well be doing for some time to come. Greg Laden notes that nothing has changed. The Avian Flu Diary first considers, in the wonderfully titled post, "Before We Ride Down and Shoot the Survivors," the editorializing about "panic" ; and then ponders what might change as/if this flu works its work in the southern hemisphere over the coming months. Peter Palese writes on why…

Dr. Deb has posted a map which illustrates: The county-by-county map above shows the percentages of residents who reported "Frequent Mental Distress" (FMD)--defined as 14 or more days of emotional discomfort, including "stress, depression and problems with emotion," during the previous month. Of note, Kentucky was the "saddest" state while Hawaii was the "gladdest". And the map: Strine, T. (2004). Risk behaviors and healthcare coverage among adults by frequent mental distress status, 2001 American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 26 (3), 213-216 DOI: 10.1016/j.amepre.2003.11.002

If there's one thing about the anti-vaccine movement in general and one of its chief mouthpieces for propaganda, the Age of Autism blog, in particular, it's rank hypocrisy. One of the key tenets of anti-vaccine ideology is an unrelenting distrust of big pharma. While that in and of itself would not be entirely unreasonable, given the documented chicanery of that large pharmaceutical companies have indulged in from time to time, but on AoA the crew takes such mistrust beyond reasonable skepticism and straight into tinfoil hat territory. Indeed, "pharma shill!" is one of their favorite cries…