palmd
Posts by this author
December 23, 2009
Human beings are an interesting mix of fragility and hardiness, and we have a tendency to overestimate both traits. We also tend to be somewhat over-confident in our own ability to make sense of patterns. This combination of traits often blinds us to the real magnitude of risks we encounter every…
December 21, 2009
Multiple sclerosis (MS) is fascinating illness that can range from mild annoyance to debilitating nightmare. The frightening nature and unclear cause of the disease makes it a magnet for questionable medical therapies (i.e. quackery). A piece published last week in (surprise!) the Huffington Post…
December 17, 2009
I was listening to Tell Me More yesterday and was drawn into the story.
The host interviewed Michael Crawford, a DC-based activist. He attempted to debunk the idea that black communities are strongly anti-gay marriage. They played a clip of former DC mayor Marion Barry explaining how he…
December 16, 2009
C'mon, Times, it's not like you're some kind of penny-ante operation. You've got at least modest resources, you know like the internet and telephones to call up experts. Right?
I don't know whether it's a lack of resources, laziness, or ignorance that allows pieces like this one into the paper…
December 16, 2009
Oral Robers, a man infamous for his televangelism and faith healing, died yesterday. The coverage of his life helps remind me why I'm a skeptic. There are many wonderful skeptical bloggers out there---I'm not one of them. Sure, I aim a skeptical pen at improbable medical claims, but my posts…
December 15, 2009
One of my favorite publications is the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR). It's put out weekly by the CDC and allows for rapid communication of emerging or interesting health trends. This week the CDC is reporting an extraordinary death rate from influenza in American Indians/Native…
December 14, 2009
After reading the Canadian Association of Naturopathic Physician's idiotic flu handout I decided to see what our American naturopaths had to say about flu. It's not good. The most effective way to prevent influenza is through vaccination. Good hand hygiene probably helps. Nothing else really…
December 14, 2009
Over at Skeptic North there has been an ongoing discussion about naturopathy. Since it looks like naturopaths are going to get prescribing privileges in Ontario, it's reasonable to subject their practice to some pretty intense scrutiny. One naturopath left some interesting comments about…
December 11, 2009
I guess I hadn't realized how attached people are to their holiday greetings. There are a number of comments that deserve some examination here, at least if you have any interest in living comfortably in a multi-cultural society. Since it's my blog, I get to yank the comments out of context and…
December 11, 2009
One of the blogosphere's best known skeptics hit a milestone today. Orac at Respectful Insolence has now been fighting ignorance for five years. That's like, oh, about 30 in blog years. Why don't you go over there and wish him a happy blogiversary. He deserves it. Folks like Orac who publicly…
December 10, 2009
It's not always easy to figure out that you are not normative. If you grow up in an ethnic enclave, when you're young you probably think everyone is black/Spanish-speaking/Korean. When I was a little kid one of my parents' friends remarried. I remarked on how the new wife was Jewish. My mom…
December 10, 2009
Human medicine advances in the way much of science does. People make systematic observations, form plausible hypotheses, and collect data. One of the more important questions in medicine is how people are affected by certain exposures. When that exposure is a medicine, we prefer data from double…
December 8, 2009
Some time ago I issued a naturopath challenge in which I invited naturopaths to analyse a typical primary care problem. Today, I'd like to issue a broader challenge.
With health care reform in the works, it would be wise to look north (or in my case, south) to our Canadian neighbo(u)rs, but not…
December 8, 2009
My kid is growing, and I'm of course ambivalent about it. It's not that she's becoming some sort of giant---she's still a tiny little thing, but now she picks up books and starts reading them. When she does, I usually start shouting excitedly, but she reminds me that I'm not allowed to be excited…
December 7, 2009
A common theme in alternative medicine is the "One True Cause of All Disease". Aside from the pitiable naivete, it's implausible that "acidic diet", liver flukes, colonic debris, the Lyme spirochete, or any other problem---real or imagined---can cause "all disease" (in addition to the fact that…
December 5, 2009
I wanted to sleep in this morning, but somehow it's tough to change gears that quickly. I don't normally get up too early---6:30---but I really felt like sleeping in. I made it to 7:00. That early, I have the house to myself, so I brewed up a pot of some killer new coffee that Dr. Free-Ride sent…
December 4, 2009
When Major Nidal Malik Hasan opened fire on his comrades at Ft Reed, he gave no indication of his motives, other than a generic shout of "God is great!" Generally we think of terrorist acts as involving a conspiracy rather than the actions of an individual, but the difference is unlikely to matter…
December 3, 2009
He looked sick---really sick. He was sitting on a stretcher in an ER bay, flushed, breathing a bit quickly, but his youth seemed to compensate for the acuity of his illness, and he didn't feel nearly as bad has he looked. His fever was 104, his systolic blood pressure was in the 90s, his heart…
December 2, 2009
Remember the Zicam debacle? To catch you up, Zicam has been promoted for years as a "homeopathic cold remedy". It is of course neither. Since it contains measurable amounts of zinc, it isn't "homeopathic", and since there is no cure for the common cold, it's not a remedy. In addition to having…
December 1, 2009
Today, the 21st annual World AIDS day, comes at a time when AIDS has become an everyday fact of life. Conservative estimates have over 33 million people living with HIV world-wide with an adult prevalence of 0.8%. This is a common disease, but its distribution is unequal. Due in part to economic…
November 30, 2009
In medicine we use all of our senses to evaluate patients. If I open up an abscess and I'm overwhelmed by the smell of rotted cheese, I can be pretty sure the abscess started as a sebaceous cyst. If I hear a "whooshing" sound over the abdomen in a smoker, I look more closely for an aortic…
November 30, 2009
The struggle to promote the scientific practice of medicine and the fight against pseudo-science and quackery just got a big boost. The newly-announced (but long in the making) Institute for Science in Medicine was launched this morning with an inaugural press release calling attention to quackery…
November 28, 2009
I have in front of me a weathered copy of Cecil's Textbook of Medicine from 1947. It belonged to my father, who graduated from medical school in the 1940s. Even then, it was known that pneumoccus, a common bacterium, can live harmlessly in the nose and throat and only sometimes causes disease.…
November 27, 2009
A news item this week profiles a northeast naturopath who is using thermal imaging to screen for breast cancers. This is a frightening development. The news about conflicting mammogram recommendations has women wondering what the right approach really is. The question in the new USPSTF…
November 27, 2009
I live about ten miles due north of "Canada's automotive capital". We often look across the straits to the medical system in Ontario, one in which all citizens have a provincial insurance card. We see how everyone has access to care---or at least some care. I've treated many Canadian patients…
November 25, 2009
We already know about the Huffington Post's war on science and its shameless publication of snake oil ads disguised as journalism. Now, Mark Hyman, an evangelist for the cult known as "functional medicine", is giving even more bad flu advice (and shilling for his books).
He begins his blathering,…
November 25, 2009
Those of you who gave to DonorsChoose will find an email in your inbox with a gift card. This is free money for you to donate to any project you wish. It represents matching funds from Hewlett-Packard, so don't let it go to waste.
Next, commenting. I keep a very open comment policy, since…
November 24, 2009
One of the most frightening symptoms of advanced cancer is "cachexia", or severe, unintentional weight-loss and wasting. It's a terrible prognostic sign, and the only truly effective treatment is removal of the cancer. Treatment of this syndrome has the potential to improve quality of life in…
November 23, 2009
Today over at Science-Based Medicine, Dr. Novella has a review of the so-called "biomed" movement in autism treatment. Anyone should be able to understand the desperation of parents with sick kids, but grief can lead to very bad decisions. As physicians, one of our jobs is to guide people away…
November 21, 2009
The latest Skeptics' Circle is up at Beyond the Short Coat.
The Giants' Shoulders #17 is also up at scibling Eric Michael Johnson's place. Go and read!\