Chiropractor Breaks Baby’s Neck – A Risk vs Benefit Analysis
It is unfortunately that individual dramatic cases are often required to garner public and regulatory attention toward a clear problem. The Australian press is reporting: Melbourne paediatrician Chris Pappas cared for a four-month-old baby last year after one of her vertebrae was fractured during a chiropractic treatment for torticollis – an abnormal neck position that is usually harmless. He said the infant...
Answering Our Critics, Part 2 of 2: What’s the Harm?
Last week I posted a list of 30 rebuttals to many of the recurrent criticisms that are made by people who don’t like what we say on SBM. I thought #30 deserved its own post; this is it. At the end, I’ve added a few items to the original list. What’s the harm in people trying CAM? Science-based medicine has been criticized...
Obamacare, the Oregon Experiment, and Medicaid
Tomorrow, as mandated by the Patient Protection and the Affordable Care Act (PPACA, often called just the Affordable Care Act, or ACA, or “Obamacare”), the government-maintained health insurance exchanges will open for business (that is, assuming the likely government shutdown doesn’t stop them temporarily). We here at SBM have written about the ACA quite a few times, but I would like to...
You Get What You Pay For
I will be giving a free talk entitled Acupuncture: A Science-Based Evaluation of a Popular SCAM to the Bay Area Skeptics on Wednesday, October 2 at 7:30 pm. Information at the Bay Area Skeptics site on how to get to the La Peña Cultural Center, 3105 Shattuck Avenue, Berkeley. A wonderful time will be had by all. Well, those who drink first.
Separating Fact From Fiction in the Not-So-Normal Newborn Nursery: Pacifiers and Nipple Confusion
My first “real world” employment after completing residency was as a full-time newborn hospitalist in Houston. After spending three years in Space City, often rounding on as many as 30 newborn infants in the Level 1 and Level 2 units each day at the county hospital, I feel as if I’ve probably about seen it all when it comes to the nursery....
A closer look at Dr. Oz’s 15 Superfoods
I’m sure I’m not the only health professional that bites their tongue whenever a patient starts a question with “I heard on Dr. Oz that…” More often than not, I have expectations to realign, and some assumptions to correct. I could easily devote all my posts to simply correcting information presented on the Dr. Oz show. But given I’m blogging here biweekly,...
Candida and Fake Illnesses
While Big Pharma has been accused of inventing diseases, alternative medicine is the real champion of this practice. Compromised immunity can lead to overgrowth of the fungus Candida albicans, but this doesn't happen in people with intact immune systems, and it doesn't lead to the vague, unrelated symptoms described as "systematic candidiasis" by alternative medicine proponents.
Answering Our Critics, Part 1 of 2
Some people don’t like what we have to say on Science-Based Medicine. Some attack specific points while others attack our whole approach. Every mention of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) elicits protests in the Comments section from “true believer” users and practitioners of CAM. Every mention of a treatment that has been disproven or has not been properly tested elicits testimonials from...
Obesity, cancer, and chemotherapy
In medicine, particularly oncology, it’s often the little things that matter. Sometimes, however, the “little things” aren’t actually little; they just seem that way. I was reminded of this by a story that was circulating late last week in the national media, often under titles like “Obese cancer patients often shorted on chemo doses”, ”Are obese people with cancer getting chemotherapy doses...
What are words for? On Vaccination.
Do you hear me Do you care Do you hear me Do you care My lips are moving and the sound’s coming out The words are audible but I have my doubts That you realize what has been said You look at me as if you’re in a daze It’s like the feeling at the end of the page When you realize...