Category: Commentary
I Got Nothing
Really nothing here from me this week. Go have a beer. Time better spent.
Naturopathic Edumacation: A FAQ
An evaluation of a Naturopathic Education FAQ.
Inoculating – Against Misinformation
A new study confirms what we suspected - you can't just correct misinformation with information, you have to expose the tactics of deception so people can recognize them for themselves.
Faking Peer-Review
A major cancer journal just retracted 107 papers for faking peer-review, bringing the total for that publisher to 450. How did this happen, and how do we prevent it in the future?
Responding to SBM Critics
A response to a critic of SBM, and setting the record straight on our actual positions regarding evidence and the practice of medicine.
Spinal Manipulation for Back and Neck Pain: Does It Work? Annotated.
Spinal Manipulation for Back and Neck Pain: Does It Work? You would think it does if you read the article but not if you actually read the literature.
Positive Psychology and Health
[Editor’s Note: Dr. Gorski is on a brief vacation this week; in his place we offer new guest contributor Michael Booth’s inaugural post. Enjoy!] The belief that positivity can prolong life or improve health seems ubiquitous. It is a claim that is repeated often in popular media, and fills countless pages of self-help books on happiness, thriving, optimism, and so on. But...
The Public’s Love-Hate Relationship with Technology
There are many complex factors driving up the cost of healthcare, but one major factor is increasing medical technology. Often new expensive technologies provide incremental, or even questionable, additional benefits but can dramatically increase the cost of health care. This is especially true of in-hospital treatments. There are also, of course, medical technologies that provide significant benefits, and others that improve our...
Thinking With Your Emotions About Medicine
The mental pathway of least resistance, what psychologists often refer to as the “default mode” of human thought, is to go with our “gut feelings.” We evolved emotions, heuristics, and cognitive biases partly so that we could make quick judgments that are good enough and err on the side of survival. This can be adaptive – if we smell something rotten we...
Mast Cell Activation Disorder – Yes, It’s Real
Mast Cell Activation Disorder is real, but there are a large number of fake diagnoses out there. How do you tell the difference?