Reporting back on my Grand Rounds experience at FSU
I'm no Neil deGrasse Tyson, but I think my talk at Florida State University went pretty well.
Defining what a “physician” is
It takes more than a stethoscope and a white coat to be a physician. A generous dose of reality and a lot of training are also required.
Dummy Medicine, Dummy Doctors, and a Dummy Degree, Part 2.3: Harvard Medical School and the Curious Case of Ted Kaptchuk, OMD (concluded)
A Loose End In the last post I wondered if Ted Kaptchuk, when he wrote the article titled “Effect of interpretive bias on clinical research,” had understood this implication of Bayes’s Theorem: that interpretations of most scientific investigations are exercises in inverse probability, and thus cannot logically be done without consideration of knowledge external to the investigation in question. I argued that...
Collagen: An implausible supplement for joint pain
I’m one of those odd people that enjoys distance running. I end up spending a lot of time in the company of other runners. And when we’re not running, we’re usually griping about our running injuries. As the cohort that I run with ages, the injuries are getting more prevalent. Besides the acute conditions, the chronic problems are starting to appear. Our...
Premature Claims for Neurotrophic Factors
Scientific medicine is not easy. By this point we have largely picked the low hanging fruit, and continued improvements are mostly incremental and hard won. In order to get the most out of our limited research dollars, and optimize medical practice with the safest and most effective treatments, we need to use all available scientific evidence in the proper way. That is...
Weight Loss Customers Are Being Hoodia-Winked
I first wrote about Hoodia in my “SkepDoc” column in Skeptic magazine (Vol. 13, No. 1, 2007). The following is adapted from that column with an update from new research revealing that it doesn’t work and that it causes worrisome side effects. I first heard of Hoodia in 2006, when a radio ad informed me that it was the new miracle weight...
The Greater Good: Pure, unadulterated anti-vaccine propaganda masquerading as a “balanced” documentary
The Greater Good purports to be a film that provides a balanced look at the benefits and risks of vaccines. It is nothing of the sort. It is pure, unadulterated antivaccine propaganda that uses emotionally manipulative anecdotes to promote pseudoscience.
Pox parties taken to the next (illegal) level
Normally, we don’t post on weekends on this particular blog, mainly because most of our readership visits during the week and we don’t have enough bloggers to cover the weekend reliably anyway. However, occasionally something happens that’s so bizarre, so worrisom that we can’t wait until Monday. I don’t even care if I’m late to the party after Tara, Mike the Mad...
Random Flu Thoughts
Influenza is a serious disease (not an upset tummy). The vaccine is an imperfect, yet still valuable tool in preventing deaths due to influenza. Get your 'flu shot!
Spinal Fusion: Chiropractic and Subluxation
A spirited exchange about chiropractic arose in response to a recent post proposing “The Cure” for the legalization of implausible and unproven diagnostic methods and treatments. Some comments pointed to the implausibility of the chiropractic “subluxation” and the lack of robust evidence of efficacy/effectiveness for spinal manipulation, as well as the difficulty of understanding what exactly “chiropractic” is, or does, that distinguishes...