Year: 2013

iPhone radiation

No, carrying your cell phone in your bra will not cause breast cancer, no matter what Dr. Oz says

Dr. Oz continues promoting quackery, this time fearmongering that cell phone radiation causes breast cancer if a woman keeps her phone in her bra.

/ December 16, 2013

5 out of 4 Americans Do Not Understand Statistics

Ed: Doctors say he’s got a 50/50 chance at living. Frank: Well there’s only a 10% chance of that Naked Gun There are several motivations for choosing a topic about which to write. One is to educate others about a topic about which I am expert. Another motivation is amusement; some posts I write solely for the glee I experience in deconstructing...

/ December 13, 2013

The Council on Chiropractic Education Straightens Up?

Three years ago, we reported that the Council on Chiropractic Education (CCE) was deeply embroiled in a heated dispute among various chiropractic factions over its new accreditation standards for chiropractic colleges. In a June, 2012 update of that post, we found the CCE still deeply embroiled in a heated dispute among various chiropractic factions over new accreditation standards for chiropractic colleges. Current...

/ December 12, 2013

Measles Spike in US

The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) announced in a recent press release the data for 2013 so far shows 175 confirmed cases of measles in the US. This is about three times the usual rate of 60 per year since endemic measles was eradicated in the US, and is the most in the last decade other than 2011, which saw 222 cases....

/ December 10, 2013

Chiropractic Reform: Myth or Reality?

The recent uproar about the chiropractor who was accused of breaking an infant’s neck has provoked renewed discussions about the role of chiropractors, not only in the care of children, but in general. We have addressed chiropractic many times on this blog. While spinal manipulation therapy (SMT) is an effective option for treating certain types of low back pain, chiropractors typically do...

/ December 10, 2013

An update on the case of Sarah Hershberger: Parental rights trump the right of a child with cancer to live

Sarah Hershberger, an Amish girl with leukemia, is refusing chemotherapy, and her parents are supporting her. Unfortunately, it looks as though the State of Ohio will let this child die.

/ December 9, 2013

Separating Fact From Fiction in the Not-So-Normal Newborn Nursery: Vitamin K Shots…..

In August, news emerged from Vanderbilt University that four cases of a rare bleeding condition seen in young infants had been diagnosed since February. Three of these infants suffered intracranial hemorrhages, requiring surgical intervention to evacuate the blood and save their lives, although there will almost certainly be neurological and developmental repercussions down the road. The fourth child presented with gastrointestinal bleeding...

/ December 6, 2013

Beyond the flu shot: A closer look at the “alternatives”

Once again, it’s influenza season. The vaccine clinics are open, and the hysterical posts about the vaccine’s danger are appearing in social media. There’s familiarity to all of this, but also a big new change – at least in Canada, where I am. Pharmacists can now administer the vaccine. And it’s completely free to anyone in Ontario (where I am), so the...

/ December 5, 2013

The Seralini GMO Study – Retraction and Response to Critics

Elsevier has announced that they are retracting the infamous Seralini study which claimed to show that GMO corn causes cancer in laboratory rats. The retraction comes one year after the paper was published, and seems to be a response to the avalanche of criticism the study has faced. This retraction is to the anti-GMO world what the retraction of the infamous Wakefield...

/ December 4, 2013

The Skeptics for the Protection of Cancer Patients need your help

We at SBM don’t normally ask our readers for much, if anything, other than to read and for the subset of you who like to be active in the comments to have at it. However, given the story of Stanislaw Burzysnki, which I’ve been covering with frequent blog posts for over two years now, how could I not listen to the appeal...

/ December 4, 2013