Separating Fact from Fiction in Pediatric Medicine: Infant Teething
Teething is one of the most common sources of parental concern in the world of pediatric medicine. All children go through it, typically starting at about 6 months of age, and the current list of signs and symptoms attributed to the eruption of teeth in infants is long and varied, with most if not all of them inaccurate if not highly suspect....
Detecting Consciousness in the Vegetative
People in a vegetative state, usually as a result of brain trauma or anoxia (lack of oxygen) by definition have no signs of conscious awareness or activity. The definition, therefore, is based largely on the absence of evidence for consciousness. Of course, arguments based upon the absence of evidence are only as compelling as the degree to which evidence has been properly...
Update: Chiropractic Neck Manipulation and Stroke
Chiropractors frequently manipulate the neck. New evidence suggests that this is not without risks, in some cases of catastrophic outcomes.
The sad saga of an Amish girl with a curable cancer whose parents are refusing chemotherapy in favor of “natural healing”
In Ohio, an Amish girl named Sarah Hershberger is refusing chemotherapy for her leukemia, and her parents are supporting her. Akron Children's Hospital has instituted legal action to ensure that she receives life-saving treatment. As a motley crew of consisting of supporters of alternative medicine and anti-government libertarians are rallying to Sarah's cause. Will this girl receive the life-saving treatment she needs?
Alternative Microbiology
A man of science rises ever, in seeking truth; and if he never finds it in its wholeness, he discovers nevertheless very significant fragments; and these fragments of universal truth are precisely what constitutes science. ~ Claude Bernard. I almost never have to search for material for this blog. The Secret always seems to provide topics. Subject matter appears unbidden out of...
Full of Energy
Want to know what a craniosacral treatment is actually like? How about reiki? What about Eden energy medicine – do you even know what that is? Read on, because this past Sunday afternoon I experienced all three. But first, the why and where. The local Healing Arts Alliance of the Big Bend (which is what they call the area of Florida I...
Lorenzo’s Oil: Hollywood versus science
Lorenzo Odone, son of Italian economist Augusto Odone, was diagnosed at age 5 with a horrific genetic disease, X-linked adrenoleukodystrophy (X-ALD), which is usually a death sentence by age 10 or so. As portrayed in the movie Lorenzo's Oil, the story of the Odones is a typical Hollywood cliche of a plucky family badgering scientists, finding a "brave maverick scientist" to synthesize...
Chiropractic Abuse: An Insider’s Lament
There is a new book critical of chiropractic: Chiropractic Abuse: An Insider’s Lament. The author, Preston Long, DC, PhD, is a chiropractor who says he made a big mistake when he chose chiropractic as a career. He has written an intriguing book explaining his mistake and the experiences that resulted from it during 3 decades as a chiropractor and a critic of...
Chemotherapy doesn’t work? Not so fast… (A lesson from history)
If there’s one medical treatment that proponents of “alternative medicine” love to hate, it’s chemotherapy. Rants against “poisoning” are a regular staple on “alternative health” websites, usually coupled with insinuations or outright accusations that the only reason oncologists administer chemotherapy is because of the “cancer industrial complex” in which big pharma profits massively from selling chemotherapeutic agents and oncologists and hospitals profit...