Results for: opioids
TENS for Pain Relief: Does It Work?
TENS units are used to relieve pain and for other indications. The evidence is not impressive.
FTC settles false advertising suit against low-level light therapy marketer with $22 million judgment
Per a settlement with the FTC, the marketers of Willow Curve, a low-level light therapy device costing hundreds of dollars, will have to stop making deceptive claims that the device treats chronic, severe pain and associated inflammation. Any health claims made for the device must be supported by "competent and reliable scientific evidence".
New Drugs for Sickle Cell Disease: Small Benefit, Large Price
The FDA has approved two new drugs to treat sickle cell disease. They don’t do much, and they are prohibitively expensive.
Legislative Alchemy 2019: Chiropractors seek scope of practice expansion, including authority to prescribe drugs
In 2019, chiropractors continued their push for practice expansion, including prescription privileges, as well as co-opting the opioid crisis to mandate physician recommendations for "chiropractic care".
How can we counter misinformation from “chemo truthers”?
Denial of the benefits of chemotherapy is very prevalent in "natural health" movements. This denial is based on fear mongering, pseudoscience, and conspiracy theories and thus shares many similarities with the antivaccine movement. How can the misinformation spread by "chemo truthers" be countered on social media?
Legislative Alchemy 2019: Naturopaths gain licensure in two states, try for authority to grant vaccination medical exemptions
Thanks to the magic of Legislative Alchemy, Idaho and New Mexico licensed naturopaths as primary care doctors in 2019. Naturopaths are also seeking the authority to grant medical exemptions to vaccination and prescribe drugs in several states.
New Regenerative Medicine Center
Neil Riordan donated big bucks to a school of naturopathy for a Center for Regenerative Medicine named after him. Both Riordan and the treatments offered in his new center are questionable.
More evidence that acupuncture doesn’t work for chronic pain
Acupuncture is a theatrical placebo whose real history has been retconned beyond recognition. A new systematic review of systematic reviews of acupuncture for chronic pain highlights that conclusion and catalogues the many weaknesses in the design of acupuncture clinical trials.
How to make the opioid epidemic worse in Pennsylvania
Two bills are pending in the Pennsylvania legislature - SB 675 aimed at restricting prescription of buprenorphine, and HB 1005 that imposes reporting requirements in cases of suspected drug overdose. Both are a bad idea, and I hope Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf will continue his past trends of vetoing bad bills that will harm his constituents.
New Florida law forces physicians to endorse pseudoscience
A new Florida law forces physicians to endorse chiropractic, acupuncture, and massage as non-opioid alternatives for pain, even if the physician disagrees with that advice.