Vaginal Seeding: To Swab or Not to Swab Your Newborn Baby
More mothers are requesting vaginal seeding, but does the evidence support this potentially risky intervention?
Do anti-inflammatory drugs effectively treat spinal pain?
While anti-inflammatory drugs are commonly used to treat back pain, a new review suggests that they may not provide meaningful benefits to most people.
Russian Academy of Sciences Calls Homeopathy Pseudoscience
That homeopathy is pure pseudoscience is not news. Its basic principles are essentially magic, and the preparation of homeopathic products is indistinguishable from brewing a magic potion. Its two core principles, as the commission states, are a priori dogma - that like cures like, and that diluting substances out of existence leaves behind their magical essence. Science has progressed over two centuries...
Re-thinking Antioxidant Supplementation for Macular Degeneration
After the AREDS trial, people with moderate to severe age-related macular degeneration were advised to take dietary supplements to slow the progression of the disease. But some experts say the trial actually showed supplements don't work, and might even make some patients worse.
Donald Trump versus the FDA: Is the standard of evidence for drug approval actually too low rather than too high?
All of the candidates being considered by President Trump for FDA Commissioner believe that the FDA is too strict in its standards for approving new drugs. In a commentary in Nature last week, two bioethicists argued that, at least in terms of preclinical data, the standard of evidence is actually too low. Which is correct?
Corrigendum: The week in review for 2/5/2017
Drinking hydrogen peroxide kills. Homeopaths don't care if their nostrums kill children. Acupuncture is placebo. But you knew that. Saudi Arabia bans reiki for the damnedest reasons. Eating placentas. And more!
Elemonics – Nothing but a dance and a tune
When it comes to quackery and pseudoscience, Mike Adams of NaturalNews.com has few peers. Amusingly, he thinks he's a scientist, too, and he's at it again.
Board Disciplinary Actions. What Naturopaths Really Do Not Want You To Know
Disciplinary actions against ND's in Oregon by the Board. How to find them and what they are.
Battles over non-medical exemptions to vaccination festering in state legislatures
Bills to eliminate, as well as to add, non-medical exemptions to school vaccination requirements are pending in state legislatures. Some bills make harder to claim an exemption. Others discourage vaccination by requiring “misinformed consent" and weakening public health officials' ability to act.
Communicating with the Locked In (update)
Researchers have made an incremental advance in using imaging and computers to communicate with patients who are completely locked-in. Let's review the state of this technology.