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The NFL and Brain Injury
Last week I wrote about traumatic brain injury (TBI). By coincidence, the BMJ just published a study looking at a type of TBI called chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), which is caused by repeated head injuries over a long period of time, even those not severe enough to cause an acute TBI. They were looking specifically at former NFL football players, because that...
Preventing Traumatic Brain Injury
Traumatic brain injury (TBI) affects tens of millions of people worldwide each year with about 5 million deaths. For those who survive there is often permanent neurological impairment. TBI is therefore a serious public health issue that needs to be addressed. The largest international study of TBI was recently published in Nature Medicine, providing some insight into how best to approach the...
Trump’s Frontal Assault on Vaccines
On Monday, Donald Trump signed an executive order full of antivax goals. It's a frontal assault on vaccines.
AI And Pseudoscience
We have to deal with artificial intelligence (AI). We cannot simply dismiss it or criticize it, and we certainly shouldn’t just embrace it without significant skepticism. But I feel it is necessary for any science communicator to do their best to become AI-literate – even if AI itself is not your field of communication. AI now touches everything. For example, increasingly people...
Negative Health Effects of Vaping
When vaping was first introduced it was marketed mainly as a safer alternative to smoking and as a potential smoking cessation method. But increasingly people who have never smoked are vaping, and now the concern is that vaping is more of a pathway into smoking than one out of it. According to the CDC, about 30% of all adults who vape have...
NYT Article on Rapid Prompting Method
This is one of those stories that will not go away, and a recent NYT article is fresh evidence of that. The title is: An Autism Breakthrough, or an Illusion? The Fight Over Assisted Spelling.” I always approach such articles cautiously, bracing myself for the cringing experience of reading a non-expert butcher such topics in depressingly predictable ways. This article was not...
WHO And The Death of Evidence-Based Medicine
I have long been critical of the World Health Organization’s promotion of dubious treatment methods under the banner of “traditional medicine”. It now has a global strategy to promote what is calls “traditional, complementary and integrative medicine” (TCIM). In my opinion (shared by at least some others) the document is a master class in how to promote medical pseudoscience with the language...
Using Phone Apps to Track Symptoms
It is easy to forget how much of an impact the smartphone has had on our daily lives and our society. About 91% of Americans own a smartphone, which means most of us are walking around with a device in our pockets that is a computer, communicator, camera, GPS locator and has access to virtually the world’s store of human knowledge. The...
Stem Cell Therapy for Autism
If you are a parent of a young child with autism (especially level 2 or 3, requiring significant support), the promise of a cure or even an effective treatment is irresistible. This is exactly why there needs to be science-based regulatory standards – to protect vulnerable patients and their loved-ones. RFK Jr., however, wants to weaken these protections – even removing from...
The Baloney Protection Act
We have had to endure a great deal of interference from government in the conduct of institutions that should be governed by science and evidence. I’m sorry to report – here is one more. Senators Mike Lee (R-UT) and Tommy Tuberville (R- AL) have recently introduced a bill that would limit the FDA’s ability to regulate the blatant pseudoscience of homeopathy. This...