September 8th, 2010 by Jeffrey Benabio, M.D. in Better Health Network, Health Tips, Opinion, Quackery Exposed
Tags: Aestheticians, Cosmetic Surgery, Dermatology, Dr. Jeff Benabio, General Medicine, Licensed Healthcare Providers, Medi-Spa, Medical Assistants, Medical License, Medical Procedures in Pursuit of Beauty, Medical Quackery, Medical Qualifications, Medical Spa, Patient Safety, Plastic Surgery, Public Awareness
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True or false:
1. Botox and laser treatments are easy and can be done by an aesthtician or spa staff.
2. A physician must be present at all times in a spa that performs procedures.
3. Chemical or facial peels are safe and can be done in a beauty salon.
(Answer to questions 1-3: False.)
The term “spa” is derived from a town in Belgium where healing waters have been used to promote health since Roman times. “Spa” is now loosely used to describe any relaxing environment or beauty salon where rest, health and beauty are promoted.
At one time it was easy to distinguish among a beauty salon, barber shop and a doctor’s office. Not anymore. As cosmetics has become more medical and medicine has become more cosmetic, the two have met in the ubiquitous Medi-Spa. An establishment labelled a medical spa or medi-spa is generally one where medical procedures are performed or medicines are administered in the pursuit of beauty. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at The Dermatology Blog*
September 3rd, 2010 by GarySchwitzer in Better Health Network, Health Policy, Health Tips, News, Opinion, Quackery Exposed, Research
Tags: Association Vs. Causation, Cause-And-Effect, Evidence-Based Health Media, Fail To Educate Readers, Health Benefits of Coffee Consumption, Health Journalism, Inaccurate Health Reporting, Java, Media Inaccuracy, Misleading Patients, Observational Studies, Prevention Magazine, Science Journalism, Science-Based Evidence, Statistical Association, Super Foods
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The September issue of Prevention magazine inaccurately headlines the story “4 Ways Coffee Cures.” There’s no solid proof that coffee cures anything — unless some of you cure bacon with java, which I don’t want to know about.
What the story (below) did was to try to present a cute little graphic summary of observational studies that show a statistical association between increasing coffee consumption and fewer early deaths, fewer deaths from heart attack, fewer cases of dementia, and fewer cases of type 2 diabetes.
But such observational studies (they actually never cite the source — I’m just giving them the benefit of the doubt that they’re citing observational studies) CAN’T establish cause and effect, therefore it’s inaccurate for the story to use terms like “cure,” “protective,” and “lowers (or reduces or slashes) your risk.” Besides being inaccurate, such stories fail to educate readers. They mislead.
We ask the editors of Prevention to read and understand our guide “Does the Language Fit the Evidence? Association versus Causation.”
*This blog post was originally published at Gary Schwitzer's HealthNewsReview Blog*
September 2nd, 2010 by Joseph Albietz, M.D. in Better Health Network, Health Policy, Health Tips, News, Opinion, Quackery Exposed, True Stories
Tags: A Patient's Death, Anti-Vaccine Movement, Anti-Vaccine Propaganda, Anti-Vaccine Quackery, Dangers of Not Vaccinating, Family Medicine, immunizations, Immunology, Infant Death, Pediatrics, Pertussis Vaccine, Premature Death, Preventable Child Death, Public Awareness, Public Health Initiative, Public Safety, SBM, Science Based Medicine, Tdap Vaccine, Unvaccinated, Vaccine Advocacy, Whooping Cough Epidemic
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I lost a patient this season, an infant, to whooping cough (pertussis). After falling ill, he lived for nearly a month in the intensive care unit on a ventilator, three weeks of which was spent on a heart/lung bypass machine (ECMO) due to the extent of the damage to his lungs. But all our efforts were in vain. The most aggressive and advanced care medicine has to offer couldn’t save his life. The only thing that could have saved him would have been to prevent him from contracting pertussis in the first place.
He was unvaccinated, but that was because of his age. He was part of the population that is fully dependent on herd immunity for protection, and that is exquisitely prone to a life-threatening course once infected. This is a topic we’ve covered ad nauseum, and I’m not inclined to go into greater depth in this post. Suffice it to say his death is a failure at every level. We, both as medical professionals and as a society at large, need to do a better job of protecting our children from preventable diseases. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Science-Based Medicine*
August 30th, 2010 by GarySchwitzer in Better Health Network, Health Policy, News, Opinion, Quackery Exposed
Tags: American Society of News Editors, Conflicts of Interest, Foundation for Informed Medical Decision Making, Gary Schwitzer, Health and Medicine Media, Health Journalism, HealthNewsReview.org, Infuse, John Fauber, Medical Device Companies, Medical Device Safety, Medicine and Patients, Medtronic, Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, Money, Orthopedic Surgery, Patient Safety, Public Health Alert, Revolutionary Medical Advance, Spinal Fusion Product, Treatment for Low Back Pain
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There are many stories journalists could report on about conflicts of interest and questions about evidence in the treatment of low back pain, perhaps especially with spinal fusion. We talked about many of these with journalists from the American Society of News Editors in a workshop at the Foundation for Informed Medical Decision Making in Boston in May.
John Fauber of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel hammers one of these issues, looking at how Medtronic’s Infuse product “went from revolutionary advance to public health alert.”
Here’s his story on MedPageToday: “Spinal Fusion Device: A Bone of Contention for FDA.”
His entire series entitled “Side Effects: Money, Medicine and Patients” is indexed on the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel website. The image below is from the Journal-Sentinel’s online story:
*This blog post was originally published at Gary Schwitzer's HealthNewsReview Blog*
August 23rd, 2010 by GarySchwitzer in Better Health Network, Health Policy, News, Opinion, Quackery Exposed
Tags: Gary Schwitzer, Health Journalism, HealthNewsReview.org, Media Inaccuracy, Media Misinterpretation, Medical Media, Science And The Media, TomScott.com, Warning Labels
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I’ve seen the very clever journalism warning labels pictured and offered on TomScott.com. Many good friends and contacts wrote me about this, some urging HealthNewsReview.org to produce its own — and we may. Of the many great labels offered, this one is perhaps my favorite:
*This blog post was originally published at Gary Schwitzer's HealthNewsReview Blog*
