Category: Science and Medicine
Doctors Are Not “Only Out to Make Money”
There’s an old joke about the doctor whose son graduates from medical school and joins his practice. After a while the son tells his father, “You know old Mrs. Jones? You’ve been treating her rash for years and she never got better. I prescribed a new steroid cream and her rash is gone!” The father responds, “You idiot! That rash put you...
Motivations
We received the following letter: Your blog, the SBM page, has come up for me several times in my research. I’m an RN trying to research cancer treatment, for myself, I am the patient. I’m also a licensed massage practitioner with a 30 year history using “alternative” or “complementary” medicine successfully to treat myself for various things. When your blog has come...
You can’t beat the common cold, and that’s a fact
The common cold is very, very common, with a lot of treatments proposed to control its symptoms or shorten its course. Most don't work.
More evidence that routine multivitamin use should be avoided
If scientific evidence guides our health decisions, we will look back at the vitamin craze of the last few decades with disbelief. Indiscriminate use is, in most cases, probably useless and potentially harmful. We are collectively throwing away billions of dollars into supplements, chasing the idea of benefits that have never materialized. Multivitamins are marketed with a veneer of science but that...
5 out of 4 Americans Do Not Understand Statistics
Ed: Doctors say he’s got a 50/50 chance at living. Frank: Well there’s only a 10% chance of that Naked Gun There are several motivations for choosing a topic about which to write. One is to educate others about a topic about which I am expert. Another motivation is amusement; some posts I write solely for the glee I experience in deconstructing...
Separating Fact From Fiction in the Not-So-Normal Newborn Nursery: Vitamin K Shots…..
In August, news emerged from Vanderbilt University that four cases of a rare bleeding condition seen in young infants had been diagnosed since February. Three of these infants suffered intracranial hemorrhages, requiring surgical intervention to evacuate the blood and save their lives, although there will almost certainly be neurological and developmental repercussions down the road. The fourth child presented with gastrointestinal bleeding...
You be the judge
Jann Bellamy recently recapped her experience attending a meeting sponsored by her local Healing Arts Alliance. As you re-read her article pay particular attention to the language used by the Alliance to describe themselves and the treatments they offer. For me, there is one word that really stands out. It is emblematic of the attitude of the complementary and alternative medicine community....
A Rational Approach to Managing Acute Pain in Children
Pain is one of the most common reasons for a parent or caregiver to seek medical attention for their child. Children experience pain for a wide variety of reasons, many that are similar to if not exactly the same as causes of adult pain, but historically pediatric patients have been grossly undertreated. I am 37-years-old and, sadly, if I had undergone a...
Do vitamins prevent cancer and heart disease?
The US Preventive Services Task Force has released an update on vitamin and mineral supplements to prevent heart disease and cancer. The evidence was not good and did not support taking vitamins as "nutritional insurance."
Irritated by the Skeptical Inquirer. Again.
I have a confession. I have been interested in issues skeptical since high school when I came across a copy of the Zetetic at Powells. In the pre-digital era I had a complete library of Zetetic-Skeptical Inquirers (SI) that a decade ago was tossed in the recycle bin along with a similar collection of MacWorlds. I have been interested in skepticism a...