All posts by Steven Novella

Founder and currently Executive Editor of Science-Based Medicine Steven Novella, MD is an academic clinical neurologist at the Yale University School of Medicine. He is also the host and producer of the popular weekly science podcast, The Skeptics’ Guide to the Universe, and the author of the NeuroLogicaBlog, a daily blog that covers news and issues in neuroscience, but also general science, scientific skepticism, philosophy of science, critical thinking, and the intersection of science with the media and society. Dr. Novella also has produced two courses with The Great Courses, and published a book on critical thinking - also called The Skeptics Guide to the Universe.

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  • Founder and currently Executive Editor of Science-Based Medicine Steven Novella, MD is an academic clinical neurologist at the Yale University School of Medicine. He is also the host and producer of the popular weekly science podcast, The Skeptics’ Guide to the Universe, and the author of the NeuroLogicaBlog, a daily blog that covers news and issues in neuroscience, but also general science, scientific skepticism, philosophy of science, critical thinking, and the intersection of science with the media and society. Dr. Novella also has produced two courses with The Great Courses, and published a book on critical thinking - also called The Skeptics Guide to the Universe.

Detecting Consciousness in the Vegetative

People in a vegetative state, usually as a result of brain trauma or anoxia (lack of oxygen) by definition have no signs of conscious awareness or activity. The definition, therefore, is based largely on the absence of evidence for consciousness. Of course, arguments based upon the absence of evidence are only as compelling as the degree to which evidence has been properly...

/ November 6, 2013

Lorenzo’s Oil: Hollywood versus science

Lorenzo Odone, son of Italian economist Augusto Odone, was diagnosed at age 5 with a horrific genetic disease, X-linked adrenoleukodystrophy (X-ALD), which is usually a death sentence by age 10 or so. As portrayed in the movie Lorenzo's Oil, the story of the Odones is a typical Hollywood cliche of a plucky family badgering scientists, finding a "brave maverick scientist" to synthesize...

/ October 30, 2013

The CAM Worldview

Harriet has written some excellent recent posts about how to talk to CAM (complementary and alternative medicine) proponents, and answers to common CAM fallacies. I have written about this myself numerous times – we deal with the same logically-challenged claims so often that it’s useful to publish standard responses. In fact, I often wonder about the seeming uniformity of poor arguments put...

/ October 23, 2013

Monochloramines in Tap Water

I recently had a clogged drain requiring the services of a plumber. While discussing the details of the job, he took out brochures and a “fact sheet” prepared by his company explaining that my city tap water was going to kill me. Fortunately, they could provide a solution – a home-wide water filtration system. The plumber seemed naively sincere, and genuinely fearful...

/ October 16, 2013

The End for CCSVI

A new study published in The Lancet provides the most definitive evidence to date that chronic cerebrospinal venous insufficiency (CCSVI), a hypothetical syndrome of narrowed veins draining the brain that some believe is the true cause of multiple sclerosis (MS), is not associated with MS. In a science-based world, this study would be yet one more nail in the coffin of this...

/ October 9, 2013

Chiropractor Breaks Baby’s Neck – A Risk vs Benefit Analysis

It is unfortunately that individual dramatic cases are often required to garner public and regulatory attention toward a clear problem. The Australian press is reporting: Melbourne paediatrician Chris Pappas cared for a four-month-old baby last year after one of her vertebrae was fractured during a chiropractic treatment for torticollis – an abnormal neck position that is usually harmless. He said the infant...

/ October 2, 2013

Candida and Fake Illnesses

While Big Pharma has been accused of inventing diseases, alternative medicine is the real champion of this practice. Compromised immunity can lead to overgrowth of the fungus Candida albicans, but this doesn't happen in people with intact immune systems, and it doesn't lead to the vague, unrelated symptoms described as "systematic candidiasis" by alternative medicine proponents.

/ September 25, 2013

Quantum Neurology

As the resident neurologist on SBM, my ears always prick up when I come across a new neurology-based scam, and my colleagues often send such items my way. In addition the word “quantum” has become a standard marketing term of alt. med quackery. So how could I resist taking a bite out of “quantum neurology”? One might think (if one were a...

/ September 18, 2013

Everything Causes Cancer

It’s likely you know someone who has bought into the notion that nutrition is everything, the source of all health and the cause of all illness. Nutrition is very important, to be sure, but it is only one of many possible causes of disease, and if you live in a Western industrialized nation you probably have adequate nutrition. The notion, however, that...

/ September 11, 2013

MMR and Autism Rises from the Dead

One of the tactics of snake-oil salesmen is to fearmonger about mainstream medical practices so as to scare potential customers into their clutches. A common target of such fearmongering is vaccines. Vaccine are an easy target – they are generally required by the government to some degree, and involve sticking small children with needles and injecting them with a cocktail that parents...

/ September 4, 2013