Autism One: The yearly antivaccine autism “biomed” quackfest begins
In the world of the anti-vaccine underground, there is one time of the year that looms large. Over the last few years, this time has generally come right around the end of May, usually coinciding with the Memorial Day weekend and the unofficial beginning of the summer vacation season here in the U.S. I’m referring, of course, to Autism One, which blights...
The story of Andrew Wakefield in pictures
I’ve blogged a lot about anti-vaccine hero Andrew Wakefield over the years. The story has become long and convoluted, and to tell it takes a lot of verbiage, even by my standards (or those of Kimball Atwood). However, I’ve found a good resource that tells the tale of Andrew Wakefield and his misdeeds in a highly accessible form: The question at the...
Epiphany
The Institute of Medicine report is a frequent ‘rebuttal’ to science based/real medicine. The argument is usually phrased something to the effect that since medicine can be dangerous, SCAM’s are legitimate. Of course, one does not follow the other. It is the equivalent of saying since you are old, bald and pudgy, I am young, have a full head of hair, and...
Upcoming Talk: Why Do We Make Bad Health Care Decisions?
For SBM readers in the Toronto area, I’ll be speaking on Friday, May 28, at the Centre for Inquiry on how science advocates can help support better health decisions: Despite the dramatic improvements in the extent and quality of our lives, largely owing to modern medicine, our current health care system has fostered a backlash, manifested in part by the emergence of...
Naturopathy for allergies
Naturopathy is an unusual chimera. It is basically a collection of old fashioned medical superstitions presented under a veneer of highly speculative, quasi-scientific assertions. But given its popularity, it is important, from time to time, to evaluate specific claims made by this particular non-science-based belief system. A reader informed me that he was advised to seek the advice of a naturopath for...
“Medical Voices” on vaccines: Brave, brave Sir Robin…
Antivaxers and other pseudoscientific cranks love to challenge science advocates to public debates. It's rarely worth the effort, and I, for one, do not debate cranks. Here's an amusing story of one such challenge, and what happened when the antivaxers making it didn't get the response they expected.
New Data on Cell Phones and Cancer
This is a science and medicine story we have been following for a while – out of personal and scientific interest, and the need to correct confused or misleading new reporting on the topic. Are cell phones linked to an increased risk of brain cancer or other tumors? New data is reassuring. David Gorski and I have both written on this topic....
Alcohol and Pregnancy
We know that drinking alcohol during pregnancy can cause birth defects; the government-mandated warnings on alcoholic beverage labels constantly remind us of that fact. But toxicologists remind us that the poison is in the dose: what is the dose of alcohol that causes birth defects? Heavy drinking can cause fetal alcohol syndrome, but there is no evidence that light to moderate drinking...
The latest chapter in the seemingly never-ending saga of dichloroacetate as a cancer treatment
The road from an idea to a useful drug is a long one, and in cancer it is often particularly long. One reason is that to be able to tell whether a given treatment is effective against cancer often takes several years at a minimum, in order to determine if patients receiving the new treatment are surviving their disease longer than those...
Snake oil for snakebites (and other bad ideas)
Spring is here. I don’t say that because of the warmer weather, the blooming tulips in my back yard, or the current effect of the earth’s axial tilt on the Northern hemisphere. No, in my somewhat warped world of the pediatric ICU seasons are marked by illnesses and injuries with an annual rhythm. Fall begins with a spike in cases of bronchiolitis,...