Category: Science and Medicine

KA at U Minnesota and Michigan State

I’ll be giving a talk, “Homeopathy and Skepticism,” to skeptical students this Thursday, Oct 27, at the University of Minnesota (7:00 PM at MCB 3-120) and this Friday, Oct. 28, at Michigan State University (7:00 PM at Holmes Hall 106). Here is the abstract: Homeopathy is an extraordinary popular delusion that has persisted for more than 200 years. It is now a...

/ October 25, 2011

Cranial Osteopathy in Dentistry

Editor’s note: Having just submitted a major grant on Friday and then having had to turn around and head to an NIH study section meeting today in Bethesda, I just didn’t have the time to produce something up to the usual standards of SBM for today. (And, being managing editor, I should know what’s up to the usual standards of SBM; what...

/ October 17, 2011

Crislip and Atwood at Boston Skeptics in the Pub, Wednesday, 10/19

Look here for details. We’ll talk about acupuncture for not too long, and then hang out and drink. Hope to see you there! KA

/ October 16, 2011

Dummy Medicine, Dummy Doctors, and a Dummy Degree, Part 2.2: Harvard Medical School and the Curious Case of Ted Kaptchuk, OMD (cont. again)

“Strong Medicine”: Ted Kaptchuk and the Powerful Placebo At the beginning of the first edition of The Web that has no Weaver, published in 1983, author Ted Kaptchuk portended his eventual academic interest in the placebo: A story is told in China about a peasant who had worked as a maintenance man in a newly established Western missionary hospital. When he retired...

/ October 14, 2011

The Prostrate Placebo

I seem to be writing a lot about the urinary tract this month. Just coincidence, I assure you. As I slide into old age, medical issues that were once only of cursory interest for a young whippersnapper have increasing potential to be directly applicable to grumpy old geezers. Like benign prostatic hypertrophy (BPH). I am heading into an age where I may...

/ October 7, 2011

Statistical Errors in Mainstream Journals

While we frequently on SBM target the worst abuses of science in medicine, it’s important to recognize that doing rigorous science is complex and mainstream scientists often fall short of the ideal. In fact, one of the advantages of exploring pseudoscience in medicine is developing a sensitive detector for errors in logic, method, and analysis. Many of the errors we point out...

/ October 5, 2011

The wrong way to “open up” clinical trials

Science-based medicine rests on twin pillars that are utterly essential to the development of treatments that are safe and efficacious. Both of these pillars depend on science, but in different ways. The first of these is, of course, the basic science that provides the hypotheses to test about the mechanisms behind the diseases and malfunctions that plague the human body. This basic...

/ October 3, 2011

Understanding and Treating Colic

Parenting an infant can be totally overwhelming. One of the earliest challenge many face is learning to deal with periods of intractable crying. I often speak with sleep deprived parents when they’re looking for something — anything — to stop their baby from crying. They’ve typically been told by friends of family that their baby must have “colic” and they’ve come to...

/ September 29, 2011

Recycle

Like most people who grew up after April 22, 1970, I think it is important to be as environmentally responsible as possible.  Like many I fail miserably much of the time, but at least I feel guilty about it.  Recycling offers the opportunity to feel good about my environmental impact with little effort, since the garbage collection infrastructure in Portland makes recycling...

/ September 23, 2011

Some Encouraging Backlash Against Nonsense

One of the themes of SBM is that modern health care should be based upon solid scientific ground. Interventions should be based on a risk vs benefit analysis using the best available scientific evidence (clinical and basic science). As an extension of this, the standard of care needs to be a science-based standard. Science is (or at least should be) objective and...

/ September 21, 2011