November 11th, 2009 by Harriet Hall, M.D. in Better Health Network, Book Reviews, Quackery Exposed
Tags: Alternative Medicine, CAM, Complementary And Alternative Medicine, Family Medicine, Pharmaceuticals
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That’s the title of a new book by Melvin H. Kirschner, M.D. When I first saw the title, I expected a polemic against conventional medicine. The first line of the Preface reassured me: “Everything we do has a risk-benefit ratio.” Dr. Kirschner took the title from his first pharmacology lecture in medical school. The professor said “I am here to teach you how to poison people.” After a pause, he added, “without killing them, of course.”
He meant that any medicine that has effects has side effects, that the poison is in the dose, and that we must weigh the benefits of any treatment against the risks. Dr. Kirschner has no beef with scientific medicine. He does have a lot of other beefs, mainly with the health insurance industry, the pharmaceutical industry, and alternative medicine. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Science-Based Medicine*
November 8th, 2009 by David Kroll, Ph.D. in Better Health Network, News, Quackery Exposed
Tags: Cialis, Erectile Dysfunction, FDA, PDE5, Stiff Nights, Supplements, Urology, Viagra
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I should probably create a new blogpost category just for erectile dysfunction dietary supplements adulterated with authentic or synthetic analogs of prescription phosphodiesterase-5 (PDE5) inhibitors (e.g., Viagra, Cialis).
However, FDA has already created a page for this earlier this year after dozens of companies have been identified as putting real drugs into their erectile dysfunction products.
Do the brains behind these companies not realize that FDA is now monitoring every erectile dysfunction supplement for all manner of PDE5 inhibitors?
Apparently not: Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Terra Sigillata - PostRank (PostRank: All)*
November 5th, 2009 by Steve Novella, M.D. in Better Health Network, Quackery Exposed
Tags: Behavioral Optometry, Charlene Werner, Homeopathy, Illiteracy, Pseudoscience
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Charlene Werner is getting a lot of attention she probably did not anticipate or desire. She is the star of a YouTube video in which she explains the scientific basis of homeopathy. Before you watch it, make sure you are sitting down, relax, and brace yourself for an onslaught of profound scientific illiteracy combined with stunning arrogance. For those with more delicate constitutions I will give you the quick summary:
Einstein taught us that energy equals matter and light, but because matter can be condensed down to a very small space if you remove all the empty space between the elementary particles (I am paraphrasing to make her statements minimally coherent), we can mostly ignore matter. Therefore energy is light, and we are all made of energy – not matter (or at least so little matter, you can ignore it). Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Science-Based Medicine*
November 3rd, 2009 by Dr. Val Jones in Health Policy, News, Opinion, Quackery Exposed
Tags: Amy Wallace, Christian Science, LA Times, National Press Club, Newsweek, Paying For Prayer, Phil Davis Melinna Giannini, Snake Oil, War On Science, Wired Magazine
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Today the LA Times described a bizarre and troublesome healthcare reform bill provision that would require Medicare to pay for Christian Science Prayer as a medical treatment:
…a little-noticed provision in the healthcare overhaul bill would require insurers to consider covering Christian Science prayer treatments as medical expenses.
The provision was inserted by Sen. Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah) with the support of Democratic Sens. John F. Kerry and the late Edward M. Kennedy, both of Massachusetts, home to the headquarters of the Church of Christ, Scientist.
The measure would put Christian Science prayer treatments — which substitute for or supplement medical treatments — on the same footing as clinical medicine. While not mentioning the church by name, it would prohibit discrimination against “religious and spiritual healthcare.”
Of course, I had warned about this very thing over a year ago on KevinMD’s blog – something I wish the LA Times had picked up on then. Read more »
November 2nd, 2009 by David Kroll, Ph.D. in Better Health Network, Quackery Exposed
Tags: Amy Wallace, Anti-vaccination, Journalism, Science, Vaccines, Wired
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One of the most engaging and clearly-written pieces of science journalism over the last year or so was published in Wired magazine last week. Amy Wallace’s, “An Epidemic of Fear: How Panicked Parents Skipping Shots Endangers Us All,” is part interview with rotavirus vaccine developer, pediatric infectious disease physician, Dr Paul Offit, and description of the anti-vaccination movement in the United States.
Wallace’s work is the centerpiece a collection of smaller articles providing science-based information about vaccination that also refutes common anti-vaccination myths including “How To Win An Argument About Vaccines” and “The Misinformants: Prominent Voices in the Anti-Vaccine Crusade”.
Wired’s follow-up discussion of the issue includes, “A Short History of Vaccine Panic,” for those of us who “have a day job” and not enough time to read Paul Offit’s 2008 book, “Autism’s False Prophets.”
Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Terra Sigillata - PostRank (PostRank: All)*
