Year: 2008
Wyeth vs. Levine: Should Drug Label Standards Be Determined By Juries?
It is with some degree of trepidation that I enter the fray on the Wyeth vs. Levine case. I’ve been watching the media frenzy about the lawsuit with interest – mostly because (for the first time in a while) I think that the pharmaceutical company is in the right on this one – and that most journalists (and even medical journal editors)...
Rainman – Link Between Precipitation and Autism
A new study published in the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine shows a positive correlation between counties in California, Oregon, and Washington with greater precipitation and a higher incidence of autism. While the results of this study are interesting, it needs to be put into proper context. Also of note, the authors had presented early results from this data previously. Correlation...
Why we don’t prescribe bark for cancer
My valued colleague, Dr. Antonio Baines, recently invited me to speak for his graduate course in Toxicology. Dr. Baines’ course is one of the most highly-regarded graduate classes at North Carolina Central University for M.S. students in Biology and Pharmaceutical Sciences. Antonio asked that I discuss the pharmacology and toxicology of herbal and non-botanical dietary supplements but pretty much gave me free...
Circumcision: What Does Science Say?
There are no compelling scientific arguments for or against neonatal circumcision. Benefits and risks are, scientifically speaking, small. However, the nonscientific arguments for and against circumcision are loud, and often irrational.
“Urban Zen” and homeopathy at Beth Israel Medical Center, or: Dr. Gorski destroys his chances of ever being invited to join the faculty at BIMC or the Albert Einstein College of Medicine
I guess I never really wanted to work in Manhattan anyway. At least, that’s what I keep telling myself. I mean, why on earth would I want to? What’s the attraction? Living in the heart of it all, all those shows and all those amazing cultural activities, all those world-class restaurants? Being close to Boston, Philadelphia, and other cool East Coast cities,...
Another take on those “50 Facts About Homeopathy”
You may recall that a week ago fellow SBM blogger Mark Crislip did a truly amusing takedown of an article by a homeopath purporting to provide us with 50 Facts About Homeopathy that supposedly validate the efficacy of this most amazing form of quackery. Not surprisingly, others wanted to get in on the fun, given how outrageously ridiculous and riddled with numerous...
How State Medical Boards Shoot Themselves (and You) in the Foot
This is almost the final entry (for now) in a series of posts about the pitfalls of regulating physicians who peddle quackery.† In previous entries we’ve seen how quacks have portrayed an illegal and pseudoscientific treatment, intravenous hydrogen peroxide, as legitimate; how a physician who practiced that and other dubious methods eluded definitive regulatory sanctions for years; examples of quacks banding together to...
Science Fiction Writing Contest – At Medgadget.com
Attention science fiction buffs: it’s time to put pen to paper (er… keys to keyboard) and create a fictional account of some aspect of the future of medicine. This is Medgadget’s third annual science fiction writing contest. You could win a Palm Tungsten E2 handheld with Epocrates loaded on it – and the glory that only this honor can bestow. Please go...
Functional Medicine – New Kid on the Block
What is functional medicine? An indecipherable babble and descriptive word salad.
Knowledge Versus Expertise: The View From Consumer Land
“The internet, in democratizing knowledge, has led a lot of people to believe that it is also possible to democratize expertise.” – SBM Commenter, yeahsurewhatever I’ve spent the last few years of my life in Internet “Consumer Land,” doing what I can to bring accurate health information directly to patients. Of course, I have been surprised by the push-back, and the demand...