Month: May 2015
As in 2014, “right-to-try” laws continue to metastasize in 2015
Last year, I did several posts on what I consider to be a profoundly misguided and potentially harmful type of law known as “right-to-try.” Beginning about a year and a half ago, promoted by the libertarian think tank known as the Goldwater Institute, right-to-try laws began popping up in state legislatures, which I likened to Dallas Buyers Club laws. Both Jann Bellamy...
Lyme Testimony
As the saying goes, when you do not have the facts, argue the law. This tried and (?) true approach was successful in New York where a law was passed protecting those who are, shall we say, creative in treating patients with Lyme and ‘chronic’ Lyme. The bill protects those from investigation of misconduct: based solely on treatment that is not universally...
ACA: Six Key Elements of A Modern Chiropractic Practice Act
In February, 2015, the American Chiropractic Association House of Delegates ratified “Six Key Elements of A Modern Chiropractic Practice Act.” For what it’s worth, this means that the “Six Elements” are part of the official “Public Policy” of the ACA. 1. “Chiropractic Physician” and “Chiropractic Medicine” as the Regulatory Terms of Licensure. 2. Scope of Practice Determined by Doctoral and Post-Doctoral Education,...
HPV Vaccine Compliance
There are few home-runs in medicine. Most of our choices have some sort of trade-off – drugs have side effects, interventions have risks, and many treatments have marginal benefits. Sometimes, however, medical science hits one out of the park and develops a treatment that is safe, effective, cost effective, and convenient. Any dispassionate view of the evidence can only lead to one...
Homeopathy and the UK’s National Health Service
Homeopathy is arguably the silliest form of alternative medicine: the published studies show no evidence of anything beyond nonspecific contextual effects, and the underlying premise is incompatible with the existing body of scientific knowledge. Homeopathy has increasingly been questioned or denounced by organizations in several countries, most recently in FDA hearings in the US. I recently spoke at the QED conference (Question,...
The measles vaccine protects against more than just the measles
One of the disadvantages of writing for this blog is that sometimes I feel as though I spend so much time deconstructing bad science and pseudoscience in medicine that I’m rarely left with the time or the opportunity to discuss some interesting science. Of course, even when I do that, usually it’s in the context of that very same bad science or...
“Science.” You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.
I’ve discussed on many occasions over the years how antivaccine activists really, really don’t want to be known as “antivaccine.” However, if there’s one thing that rivals how much antivaccinationists detest being called “antivaccine,” it’s how much they detest being called antiscience. To try to deny that they are antiscience, they will frequently invoke ridiculous analogies such as claiming that being for...
Separating Fact from Fiction: The “Magic” of Epigenetics?
Every few years, it seems, a new concept emerges as the favorite go-to means of marketing unproven and highly implausible approaches to health care. Explanations of the proposed healing properties of homeopathic remedies incorporating quantum mechanics immediately comes to mind as an example of this phenomenon. Or how proponents of the most absurd treatments will just add “Nano” to anything and claim...
Activated charcoal: The latest detox fad in an obsessive food culture
Our diet is either the cause of, or solution to, all of life’s problems. I’m paraphrasing a great philosopher. We just can’t seem to let food be food. Today each ingredient we eat seems to be demonized or glorified. Gluten is the latest evil. It used to be fat. At some point in the past, it was MSG. Or it’s a superfood,...
Vitamins and Cancer Risk
Vitamins have been promoted as a general panacea, as well as a means of preventing cancer. In reality, high doses of vitamins may even cause cancer.