Results for: homeopathy
Vertebroplasty for compression fractures due to osteoporosis: Placebo medicine
When seemingly science-based medicine turns out to be placebo medicine.
Incorporating Placebos into Mainstream Medicine
Alternative medicine by definition is medicine that has not been shown to work any better than placebo. Patients think they are helped by alternative medicine. Placebos, by definition, do “please” patients. We would all like to please our patients, but we don’t want to lie to them. Is there a compromise? Is there a way we can ethically elicit the same placebo...
The Marshall Protocol
Revised 7/23/09 to correct an error. While there are many taxonomies of alternative medicines, one thing almost all alternative therapies have in common is they are originally the de novo discovery of one lone individual. Working outside of the mainstream, they are the gadflies who see farther because those around them are midgets. Hanneman conceives of homeopathy, the treatment of all disease....
“Lifestyle nutritionists”…Mitchell and Webb strike again
Mitchell and Webb take a shot at lifestyle nutritionists. It's hilarious.
Bibliography for my Talk at TAM 7: Why Evidence-Based Medicine is not yet Science-Based Medicine
As promised at the meeting. Let me know by comment if you think I left anything out.
Does popularity lead to unreliability in scientific research?
One of the major themes here on the Science-Based Medicine (SBM) blog has been about one major shortcoming of the more commonly used evidence-based medicine paradigm (EBM) that has been in ascendance as the preferred method of evaluating clinical evidence. Specifically, as Kim Atwood (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8) has pointed out before, EBM values clinical studies above all...
Medical training versus scientific training
This month I will begin my third year of medical school, after a three-year break for laboratory research. Living alternately in the worlds of med school and grad school has prompted me to reflect on differences between these training programs. [Obvious disclaimer: I have studied at a single institution, and only for five years.] I am enrolled in a dual-degree MD/PhD program. About 120 US medical schools...
Chiropractic – A Brief Overview, Part II
Last week I reviewed the history of chiropractic and discussed issues relating to its underlying claims and treatments for non-musculoskeletal indications. Today I will focus on chiropractic for back pain and similar indications. Manipulative therapy There is evidence to support the very narrow indication of spinal manipulation for the symptomatic management of acute uncomplicated lower back strain. The good news for chiropractors...
The death and rebirth of vitalism
Vitalism was once central to the prescientific ideas about biology but was later abandoned to the enormous benefit of the discipline. These days, many CAM approaches want to bring it back.
Chiropractic – A Brief Overview, Part I
When patients ask me if a chiropractor can help them with their problem, I often think to myself, “OK, do I give them the short answer or the long answer?” The difficulty is often in the fact that chiropractic is a diverse profession and it is difficult to even characterize what a “typical” chiropractor is likely to do. As a chiropractor once...