Month: March 2018

Macular Degeneration, Genes, and Grandma’s Vitamins: To test or not to test?

Is genetic testing necessary to optimize treatment for patients with a potentially blinding eye disease? The stakes are high and the answer depends on which of the two feuding, financially-conflicted groups you believe. In the end, the best evidence wins!

/ March 30, 2018

Direct Primary Care Agreements and Chiropractors: A bad deal for patients

Chiropractors are not "primary care physicians" and shouldn't be allowed to pretend otherwise by entering into "direct primary care" agreements with their patients.

/ March 29, 2018

Augmented Reality in Medicine

Augmented reality has the potential to revolutionize how physicians access data while caring for patients, whether in the operating room or clinic.

/ March 28, 2018

Dr. Joel Fuhrman Sells Useless Iodine Test

Joel Fuhrman is selling an overpriced iodine urine test that is not valid for testing individuals. Patients may be led to believe they are iodine deficient when they are not. Iodine supplements on the market vary widely including orthomolecular doses, and they make unsupported claims that mislead customers.

/ March 27, 2018
Hallwang Clinic

The deadly false hope of German alternative cancer clinics

We at SBM have written about German cancer clinics that offer a combination of cancer quackery, some real medicine, plus unproven experimental therapies, all at a high cost, both financially and in false hope. Finally, an exposé of these clinics has been published. What these clinics are doing is even worse than even we had feared.

/ March 26, 2018

A Woman Dies from a Severe Allergic Reaction After Live Bee Acupuncture Session

A woman in Spain has died from a severe allergic reaction after a session of live bee acupuncture. With low plausibility, the potential for fatal outcomes, no evidence to suggest that benefits outweigh even minor side effects, and lots of dead bees, this is an intervention that should be avoided.

/ March 23, 2018

PSA Screening for Prostate Cancer

PSA testing is controversial. A new study finds that PSA screening for prostate cancer offers no survival benefits.

/ March 22, 2018

Music for ADHD?

In a recent "Ask Me Anything" on Reddit, the CEO of Brain.fm claimed his company's music can improve concentration and help with ADHD. At the very least I see such claims as highly implausible, and not something we can conclude from the existing basic science research. I have no problem with doing clinical research, and maybe we might learn something about how...

/ March 21, 2018

The Ethics of CAM: More Harm than Good?

A new book examines the ethics of Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM). Ernst and Smith demonstrate that CAM is inherently unethical and does more harm than good.

/ March 20, 2018
World Health Organization

ICD-11: A triumph of the “integration” of quackery with real medicine

ICD-10 is an a standardized system of alphanumeric codes for diagnoses maintained by the World Health Organization used throughout the world for billing, epidemiology, research, and cataloging causes of death. Its successor, ICD-11, is nearing completion, and unfortunately appears to be taking the "integration" of traditional medicine to a whole new level by integrating quack diagnoses with real diagnoses.

/ March 19, 2018