Tag: meta-analysis

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.

The Red Meat Controversy
A new paper flies in the face of current recommendations and concludes we simply don't know the health risks of eating red and processed meat.

PLOS ONE, peer review, and a “crappy” acupuncture study
Meta-analyses can sometimes suffer from the "GIGO problem" (garbage in, garbage out). The publication of a "crappy" acupuncture "network meta-analysis" for acupuncture and chronic constipation illustrates the GIGO problem on steroids and reveals a problem with peer review.

Afterword. Chiropractic and The New York Times. Is the newspaper TRYING to prove Trump right?
The New York Times had to go an publish "For Bad Backs, It May Be Time to Rethink Biases About Chiropractors" right after my Friday extravaganza, "Spinal Manipulation and the JAMA Meta-Analysis: An Analysis of Fuel. Sigh. Doody [sic] Calls.

Spinal Manipulation and the JAMA Meta-Analysis: An Analysis of Fuel.
Association of Spinal Manipulative Therapy With Clinical Benefit and Harm for Acute Low Back Pain: Systematic Review and Meta-analysis. It is even worse than I thought it would be.

Acupuncture’s Big Myth
The great acupuncture myth? No spoilers from me. Read the entry or skip to the penultimate paragraph to find out.

The rise and inevitable fall of Vitamin D
It’s been difficult to avoid the buzz about vitamin D over the past few years. While it has a long history of use in the medical treatment of osteoporosis, a large number of observational studies have linked low vitamin D levels to a range of illnesses. The hypothesis that there is widespread deficiency in the population has led to interest in measuring...

Organic vs Conventional Meat and Milk
Two recently published meta-analyses, one on meat and another on milk, conclude that levels of polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) and omega-3 fatty acids are higher in the organic versions of both. This is being widely reported as evidence that organic meat and milk is healthier, but a closer look at these two studies shows a different picture. The organic false dichotomy I...
Influenza Eye Roll
I don’t know the best metaphor. What comes around goes around. The more things change, the more they say the same. Sisyphus. Whack-A-Mole. So what to do when the same old same old rears its head yet again? There are 2,545 posts on this blog, and I suppose I could just point to prior posts. But a blog entry that consists of...

“Electromagnetic hypersensitivity” and “wifi allergies”: Bogus diagnoses with tragic real world consequences
"Electromagnetic hypersensitivity" and "wifi allergies" are two names given to a nonexistent medical condition in low energy electromagnetic fields like wifi are blamed for a variety of health conditions. This is a story in which the parents' insistence that their teenage daughter, who had posted threats to commit suicide on social media, had this condition appears to have interfered with seeking mental...