December 17th, 2009 by Harriet Hall, M.D. in Better Health Network, News, Quackery Exposed, Research
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An article written by 4 chiropractors and published on December 2, 2009 in the journal Chiropractic and Osteopathy may have sounded the death knell for chiropractic.
The chiropractic subluxation is the essential basis of chiropractic theory. A true subluxation is a partial dislocation: chiropractors originally believed bones were actually out of place. When x-rays proved this was not true, they were forced to re-define the chiropractic subluxation as “a complex of functional and/or structural and/or pathological articular changes that compromise neural integrity and may influence organ system function and general health.” Yet most chiropractors are still telling patients their spine is out of alignment and they are going to fix it. Early chiropractors believed that 100% of disease was caused by subluxation. Today most chiropractors still claim that subluxations cause interference with the nervous system, leading to suboptimal health and causing disease. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Science-Based Medicine*
November 2nd, 2009 by Happy Hospitalist in Better Health Network, True Stories
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I learned recently that Happy’s hospital was one of a growing number of hospitals nationwide banning children from entry during the pandemic H1N1 flu to protect their patients. But where is the science that says it works?
Hospitals nationwide are making up their policies as they go along.
The result? Huge variation. The large Stanford University Hospital in California on Monday barred anyone under 16 from visiting, while the small Central Vermont Hospital turned away the under-12 crowd. Other hospitals have settled on 14 or 18.
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*This blog post was originally published at A Happy Hospitalist*
November 2nd, 2009 by David Kroll, Ph.D. in Better Health Network, Quackery Exposed
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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.”
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*This blog post was originally published at Terra Sigillata - PostRank (PostRank: All)*
October 10th, 2009 by David Kroll, Ph.D. in Better Health Network, News
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The tweet came just about an hour ago announcing the well-deserved and much-predicted award of the 2009 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine to Elizabeth Blackburn, Carol Greider, and Jack Szostak for their work on “how chromosomes are protected by telomeres and the enzyme telomerase.”
I wrote about this team and their accomplishments three years ago when the won the Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research, considered the “American Nobel.”
I said then: Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Terra Sigillata*
September 29th, 2009 by David Kroll, Ph.D. in Better Health Network, News
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As state university systems are making budget cuts and furloughing professors while have to expand course sections to meet burgeoning enrollment, one solution may be to tap the expertise of retired professors in the area.
The Research Triangle area of North Carolina, home to over a dozen colleges and universities, is also home to at least 600 retired professors.
This morning, Eric Ferreri of the Raleigh News & Observer, one of the best higher-ed reporters in the biz, reports on the offers from very accomplished profs who want to give back to their community and the relative lack of response from the big universities:
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