Woo
gregladen | January 12, 2009A study recently published by Irva Hertz-Picciotto and Lora Delwiche of the M.I.N.D. Institute, UC Davis, addresses the question of an apparent rise in the frequency of diagnosed autism in California.
This study is quickly becoming the focus of attention as the various factions with an interest in autism square off on assessing its validity. In the mean time, the study itself is rather modest in what it attempts and what it concludes.
Let's have a look.
To date, there are three kinds of explanations given for this rise in Autism rate:
1) There is some artifact in the system such as…
sb admin | November 19, 2008So, America is changing. We have an African American president. The Latino population continues to grow. How can the alternative medicine community adjust to this demographic shift? What are they to do?
I'm glad you asked! It turns out that immigrants are palomas ripe for the plucking. Now, we've talked about the ethics of alternative medicine, and how "meaning well" is not exculpatory. If you promote quackery, it's wrong, even if you believe your own drivel.
One of the worst types of drivel is naturopathy. This "specialty" advertises itself as "medicine-plus", but really it's "healing-…
sb admin | October 28, 2008I don't like to repost, but Steve Novella has some great pieces up right now, and this is directly related. --PalMD
s I've clearly demonstrated in earlier posts, I'm no philosopher. But I am a doctor, and, I believe, a good one at that, and I find some of this talk about "non-materialist" perspectives in science to be frankly disturbing, and not a little dangerous.
To catch you up on things, consider reading one of Steve Novella's best posts ever over at Neurologica. While you are there, you can also follow his debate with neurosurgeon Michael Egnor, the latest guru of mind-body dualism.
To…
sb admin | October 6, 2008Yes, I'm still migrating posts from the old blog, but don't worry, I'll run out eventually. --PalMD
So maybe homeopathy (the use of water to treat disease) isn't strong enough for you. Maybe isn't doesn't have that certain...je ne sais qois...um...that sizzle. I have the solution for you! Just add another oxygen molecule!
Water Pl+s!® is another miracle cure "they" don't want you to know about!
OK, I made that name up. Actually, it's just hydrogen peroxide (H2O2 to water's H2O). One of my residents clued me in to hydrogen peroxide woo. Apparently it's quite popular in altie circles…
omnibrain | September 11, 2008Let me first start by saying that if your doctor tells you that praying is your last hope of your loved ones survival GET A NEW DOCTOR. Now that I've said that let me show you part of this ridiculous article from CNN's medical correspondent, who is clearly in the wrong specialty of journalism (don't they have a religion or faith section?!)
Christopher was just a few days old and had a rare blood infection and fungal meningitis, a brain infection.
"I could tell in their eyes they had no hope for my son," Gorman said. "They told me to prepare for his death. They told me he might not make it…
sb admin | August 28, 2008It's no secret that I have no respect for Joe Mercola. Every time I read one of his promotional emails or make a visit to his website, I see more fantastic claims. Usually, I don't see blatant lies...until now...
This guy likes to claim that he's in the woo-peddling business to help people...it's not about profit. This is clearly untrue. But other than his dissembling about his motives, I've never really checked his site for lies in particular...just silly, illogical falsehoods.
Today I got an email from Joe:
Why I Believe You Should Take Action NOW to Help Remove Potential Toxins from…
choofnagle | August 21, 2008by the San Francisco Chronicle for giving a lot of uncritical coverage to a pet psychic in "Marla Steele makes pet talk a two-way street." This "psychic" discusses Reiki (and the ability to do it from a distance--"energy broadcasting"), among other thing. And here's the reporter's hardball question:
What do you say to skeptics? I completely appreciate people's skepticism. I first heard about animal communication from a coworker at Nordstrom's who was paying $100 to talk to a pet psychic in Oregon about her German Shepherd. I always listened politely to her stories, but secretly thought she…
omnibrain | August 13, 2008So... my girlfriend studies categories and concepts and her adviser wanted her to show a video for her first year project. Of course I went out to youtube and tried to find something sensible since I'm procrastinating right now on my psych 100 syllabus - and of course I found something absolutely ridiculous (hey... it IS youtube). Here is how to categorize all the Alien Species that have been wandering around the earth since our first contact with our galactic overlords at Roswell:
sb admin | August 10, 2008To wear the mantle of Galileo, it is not enough to be persecuted: you must also be right.
--Robert Park
I used to spend a lot of time on the websites of Joe Mercola and Gary Null, the most influential medical cranks of the internets (to call them "quacks" would imply that they are real doctors, but bad ones---I will no longer dignify them with the title of "quack"). I've kept away from them for a while in the interest of preserving my sanity. Unfortunately, Orac reminded me this week of the level searingly stupid and dangerous idiocy presented by these woo-meisters.
In light of this, it…
sb admin | July 1, 2008I hadn't realized that Vermont has passed a law requiring insurers to cover naturopathic care.
We've covered extensively the quackery that is naturopathy, but really, if a patient chooses to see a quack, it's their business. But with health care costs soaring, requiring insurers to pay for voodoo is a rather bad idea. Already, many plans cover chiropractic, another unproven treatment. Throwing more health care dollars at more unproved and disproved treatments will help no one (except the quacks who have boat payments to make).
There are many causes of high costs of health care: we…
sb admin | June 12, 2008My little post on naturopathy was more controversial than I had anticipated. Some of the commenters gently (and otherwise) suggested that I should learn more about the subject, so I've been doing a little reading. Here are the basic questions: what is naturopathy, and what might it have to offer that "conventional" medicine lacks?
One of the first places I visited was the website for Bastyr University, which is often cited as having the most prestigious naturopathic program. Their website posts a definition of naturopathy (all emphasis mine):
Naturopathic medicine is a distinct profession…
sb admin | June 10, 2008First, thank you for all the wonderful comments on yesterday's post. I never really know which posts are going to rake in the comments---my favorites are usually the quietest, and some of my quickies bring 'em in by the dozen. According to my uber-seekrit data, I've had two unique visitors to my naturopath post. As erv would say, "UR DOING IT RONG!11!!"
Anyway, I would like to thank my commenters on that post. Even those of you who I think are terribly wrong were at least civil.
I'd love to address all of the issues raised in the comments but I'm far too lazy busy at the moment, but I'd…
sb admin | June 9, 2008I guess it's not just doctors watching this one---an alert reader and a fellow SciBling both picked up on this one. Apparently, in my neighboring state of Minnesota (really, check the map), home to Greg Laden, PZ Myers, and lutefisk, doctor wannabes have legislated themselves into "doctorhood". You see, there is this entity called a "naturopath", or "naturopathic doctor", which is some sort of shaman that likes to think that if you study woo long enough, it becomes science.
OK, OK, I'll settle down, but let's examine this "naturopath" thing. You see, to be a real doctor, you must attend…
omnibrain | May 19, 2008boingboing gadgets has uncovered the most brilliant brain game ever. Not only does this enhance your cognitive abilities with use, it can enhance your emotional intelligence! wow!
Through mindless manipulation of pretty colors and funny shapes you too can be Dr. Phil!
Since I don't think I've had my quota of !!!!'s here are a few more to direct you to the original boingboing post: !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
sb admin | April 29, 2008As 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 it around, and you feel better---and all without drugs! What could it hurt, right?
With any medical or physical intervention, things can go wrong, sometimes horribly wrong. For example, when I treat someone with an ACE inhibitor, I run the risk of causing a serious drug reaction. But the benefits…
sb admin | April 29, 2008This 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 further claims are complete and utter bullshit. Many chiropractors practice ethically, and recognize the correct scope of their abilities...many do not.
Adapted from RationalWikiChiropractic is the theory and practice of correction of "vertebral subluxation processes" to treat and cure disease. It…
sb admin | April 24, 2008Here 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 non-existent illness to genetically modified (GM) foods. And what abuses of logic does he use to create this connection?
He starts with the classic "begging the question". The entire first section of his article simply assumes that Morgellons exists as some sort of unique pathology. On what…
sb admin | April 23, 2008Certainly 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 colleague of mine ran into a friend who had lost a lot of weight and said, "You're OK, aren't you?" As an internist, when I see dramatic weight loss, my first thought is cancer, not a wildly successful new diet. But all of us overweight types wish there were an easy way.
There isn't. A friend of mine…
omnibrain | April 7, 2008A number of people have noticed that after getting transplants their personality changes - and not only that- their personality changes to reflect the donors personality....though she was born and raised in Tucson, she never liked Mexican food. She craved Italian and was a pasta junkie. But three years ago, all that changed for Jaime Sherman, 28, when she underwent a heart transplant at University Medical Center, after battling a heart defect since birth. "Now I love football, baseball, basketball. You name it, I follow it," said Sherman, a psychology student at Arizona State University. "And…
goodmath | February 18, 2008 A bunch of us today are trying to point out some incredible
hypocrisy and downright despicable slime being spewed by the idiots
who want to blame autism on vaccines.
The blame-vaccines crowd likes to use publicity stunts to try to
build up their case. It's the only tactic left to them, because study after study after study has shown that there is no correlation - not just no causal link, but no correlation at all - between vaccines and autism. There's no science on their side; no evidence; nothing but anecdotes.
So they milk the anecdotes for everything they're worth. Jenny McCarthy…