Cell Phones and Behavior
Cell phones continue to be a focus of epidemiological studies and public concern, despite the fact that so far there is no compelling evidence of any health risk from cell phones. Concerns are likely to be sparked anew with the report of a study linking cell phone use to behavioral problems in children. The study, by Divan, Kheifets, Obel, and Olsen, is...
SBM 1000th Post
I have the pleasure of announcing that this is the 1000th post of Science-Based Medicine. The first post introducing the blog was on January 1st 2008 – almost three years ago. We have published steadily since then, and this post marks number 1000. I would like to take this time to thank the many regular contributors and editors who have added to...
Cloned Beef
The controversy over the human consumption of meat and dairy products from cloned cows continues. The UK Advisory Committee on Novel Foods and Processes, after reviewing the evidence, concluded that there was no substantial difference between meat and dairy from cloned cows compared to conventional cows. However, food products from cloned animals and their offspring remain banned in Europe. Use of offspring...
Homeopathy and the Selling of Nonspecific Effects
One of the core features of science (and therefore science-based medicine) is to precisely identify and control for variables, so that we know what, exactly, is exerting an effect. The classic example of this principle at work is the Hawthorne effect. The term refers to a series of studies performed between 1924 and 1932 at the Hawthorne Works. The studies examined whether...
Vitamin E and Stroke
One of the recurrent themes of science-based medicine is that any medical intervention that can plausibly cause physiological benefit can also plausibly cause physiological harm. There is no such thing as “it can’t hurt.” Sometimes the risk may be minuscule – but we should never assume that it is zero. Being “natural” or “holistic” or being blessed with some other alleged marketable...
A Shot in the Dark Revisited
Twenty five years ago Barbara Loe Fisher and Harris Coulter wrote the book DPT: A Shot in the Darksuggesting the pertussis vaccine caused significant neurological damage. More than two decades on, the science has changed but the book has not.
Blog Discussion with an SBM Critic
Over the last couple of days I have been engaged at NeuroLogica in a discussion with a fellow blogger, Marya Zilberberg who blogs at Healthcare, etc. Since the topic of discussion is science-based medicine I thought it appropriate to reproduce my two posts here, which contain links to her posts. A Post-Modernist Response to Science-Based Medicine I receive frequent commentary on my...
SBM Host Change
Tonight (Friday Night) we will be moving SBM to a new faster host. This will improve the performance of SBM, which has been sluggish recently, and give us the ability to increase our resources as needed as SBM continues to grow. Comments posted between Friday night and approximately Sunday morning may be lost in the gap as the location of the new...
Pharmaceutical Company Contact and Prescribing
In my group practice, the Yale Medical Group, drug-company sponsored lunches and similar events have been banned. This is part of a trend, at least within academic medicine, to create some distance between physicians and pharmaceutical companies, or at least their marketing divisions. The justifications for this are several, and are all reasonable. One reason is the appearance of being too cozy,...
What’s The Harm?
Any promoter of science-based medicine often faces the question – what’s the harm? What is the harm if people try treatment modalities that are not based upon good science, that are anecdotal, or provide only a placebo benefit? There are generally two premises to this question. The first is that most “alternative” placebo interventions are directly harmless. The second is that direct...