medicine
denialism | March 31, 2008The Independent has yet another hysterical article about the potential link between cell phones and brain cancer. And I've been asked, what are we seeing here? Is this the early reporting of a potential public health threat? Or is it just more nonsense from a newspaper that wouldn't know good science if it sat on it's head? Both Ben Goldacre and I have felt the need to take on some piece of nonsense from the Independent, and their previous writing on "electrosmog", a repeatedly disproven piece of crankery, diminishes their credibility on this issue.
And guess what else diminishes their…
sb admin | March 30, 2008Sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) are frighteningly common, as highlighted by a study released by the CDC earlier this month. The U.S. is in a unique position: few countries have the resources we do to prevent and treat STDs, and few countries squander such resources so effectively.
Let me give you a brief front-line perspective.
One of the hats I wear is that of a teaching physician at a large U.S. hospital, supervising resident physicians as they take care of their own patients. After hours, we see walk-ins, and that's where the STD fun really begins. For whatever reason, I see STDs…
oracknows | March 29, 2008Nasal drone Ben Stein, as you would be hard-pressed not to know if you are a regular reader of ScienceBlogs, is hosting what looks to be a truly execrable crap-fest called Expelled!: No Intelligence Allowed. The movie basically consists of two themes: (1) Whining about "intellectual oppression" by those evil "Darwinists" directed against any valiant "intelligent design" creationist or anyone else who "questions" Darwin and (2) lots of blaming the Holocaust and other atrocities (but mainly Hitler and the Holocaust) on "Darwinism," replete with lots of shots of Nazis, Ben Stein clumsily emoting…
oracknows | March 28, 2008I tell ya, I get sick for a few days, and the antivaccination cranks come out of the woodwork. This time around, it's über-crank Vox Day entering the fray (or, as I like to call him Vox "hey, it worked for Hitler" Day). We've seen him in action before. Be it using the example of Nazi Germany as a reason why we could, if we so desired, round up all the illegal immigrants in the country and eject them, labeling women as "fascists" who shouldn't have the right to vote, or falling hook, line, and sinker for an evidence-free antivaccination claim, when it comes to an inflated opinion of his own…
oracknows | March 28, 2008I have good news and bad news for you.
First, the good news. The devastating death crud that has kept me in its grip for nearly a week now appears to be receding. For the first time, "whining" or not, I start to see the light at the end of the tunnel. Whether it's due to PalMD's kind offer of Pranic Healing or not, I don't know, but things are on the mend.
And now the bad news. There will be no Friday Dose of Woo this week. The reason is simple. My mucus-laden head continues to pound, and my hacking cough continues to put me into an ill mood. This makes it very difficult to attain and…
oracknows | March 27, 2008Today is the first day where I'm starting to think that the worst is past, as far as the death crud that's had me in its grip since last weekend goes. It's possible, of course, that the virus could just be toying with me, giving me a false sense of hope, but I'll remain optimistic. In the meantime, since I still don't have the energy right now to do what I do best (at least not in the lengthy doses of not-so-Respectful Insolence that you've come to know and either love or hate), I give you the next best thing: Panda Bear, MD's take on "alternative medicine" promotion by the American Medical…
oracknows | March 25, 2008Sadly, the death crud continues apace, although at a low enough level that I feel I can eke out a brief post, mainly because it relates to what I've been saying all along about a group blog that I tend to dislike. Both Shifting Baselines and DrugMonkey have pointed out that Huffington Post blogger David Sloan Wilson has asked if it should have a science section. As part of the article, he offers the "only" argument why not:
The only argument against creating a "Science" section, as far as I can see, is that it would be B-O-R-I-N-G. Sure we should know about science, and we should also eat our…
purepedantry | March 25, 2008Virginia Postrel has this fascinating piece in the Atlantic about why hospitals should be designed to be more attractive -- not just the drab taupe to which we have become accustomed:
Thank God for intravenous Benadryl, which knocks me out in just a few minutes. The cancer treatment is state-of-the-art, but the decor is decidedly behind the times.
Over the past decade, most public places have gotten noticeably better looking. We've gone from a world in which Starbucks set a cutting-edge standard for mass-market design to a world in which Starbucks establishes the bare minimum. If your…
oracknows | March 25, 2008The annoying death crud that has gripped me continues apace. Fortunately, I happen to have a rather interesting guest blog post that I've had lying around a while, and now seems like the perfect time to use it. It comes from Dr. Arnon Krongrad, an expert in prostate cancer and minimally invasive surgery. I'm publishing it because he has a rather interesting observation about the use of supplements and how it may contribute to the development of aggressive prostate cancer. Here is Dr. Krongrad's contribution:
What would you pay to have erections? Would you pay with your life? A report from…
terrasig | March 24, 2008Last week we spent some time discussing the shortcomings of the generic vs. brand name drug debate, focusing on an example of non-bioequivalence between the antidepressant Wellbutrin XL and its generic competitors.
Three days later, I then received an e-mail from one John Procter about a movement to get Washington to move forward on the approval of lower-priced generic biotechnology drugs now that original branded products are facing patent expiration. One source indicates that a $20 billion market value of biological products will be coming off patent by 2015. The US FDA has been reluctant…
sb admin | March 24, 2008Teaching facts is easy. Medical students eat facts like Cheetos, and regurgitate them like...well, use your imagination. Ask them the details of the Krebs cycle, they deliver. Ask them the attachments of the extensor pollicis brevis, and they're likely to describe the entire hand to you. Facts, and the learning of them, has traditionally been the focus of the first two years of medical school. The second two years deals with putting facts into action. Teaching medical students and residents is very different from being a school teacher, something with which I have first-hand knowledge…
denialism | March 24, 2008One of the problems with medical education is that while you are intellectually trained to deal with medical problems and emergencies, actual experience with how to respond to emergent clinical situations is difficult to teach and usually only comes with experience. Further, real clinical experts make medical decisions almost by reflex. You see this in medical school that while you as a medical student have to actively think about what is going on in any given situation, medical experts act more by pattern recognition and have an instant reflexive response to clinical situations. And how…
sb admin | March 23, 2008I'm trying to understand "morgellons syndrome". Based on Morgellons Research Foundation reports, there are a lot of people out there who believe they have this so-called disease. But what is it? I decided to dig deeper on the research end of things. I went to the MRF website, and to MedLine, looking for something, anything, to help me find out more about this problem. I must report that the science doesn't look good for the morgie boosters.
First, there has been little legitimate research on morgellons as such. The CDC is doing an epidemiologic study to determine what, if anything, may…
oracknows | March 21, 2008If you ever have any doubt at the sheer level of unscientific fearmongering and lunacy antivaccinationists like to foment, all you have to do is head to the comments section regarding the David Kirby article in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that I deconstructed yesterday. Given that the Age of Autism site linked to it to send its ravening horde of antivaccinationists to descend upon the unsuspecting editors there, I feel that balance demands that I send my ravening hordes there to provide a modicum of counter-argument. (Well, I would send my ravening hordes if I actually had any; instead,…
oracknows | March 21, 2008Sometimes a topic demands to be included in my little Friday bit of hubris and tweaking. Usually when that happens, it's obvious because somehow the topic is synergistic with what's been going on during the preceding week on the ol' blog, in the same way that herbalists claim that all the various compounds and contaminants somehow produce a synergistic therapeutic effect. Wait a minute. That's not such a good example, mainly because woo-meisters usually make this claim without much in the way of evidence, and the examples of true synergism between components of an herbal remedy are few and…
ddobbs | March 21, 2008Some great stuff I've come across, lack time to blog on, but would hate for you to miss:
In On being certain, neurologist and novelist Robert Burton, who writes a column at Slate Salon, looks at the science of what makes us feel certain about things -- even when we're dead wrong about them. His book on the subject, which I read in advance copy a while back, is fascinating fun reading. The most startling (and disorienting) finding he describes is that, from a neurocognitive point of view, our feeling of certainty about things we're wrong about is pretty much indistinguishable from our…
sb admin | March 20, 2008Continuing my series from WhiteCoat Underground, here is the latest influenza update.
While still widespread, numbers are finally starting to drop. I'm ready to drop myself. It's been a terrible season---the worst I've ever seen. This is probably due, at least in part, to this year's flu vaccine missing some unanticipated strains.
For those of you out there who don't "believe in" flu shots, remember that vaccination isn't a religion. The anti-vaccination forces are, however, rather cult-like. Here's some info for you.
Influenza is a serious illness, and vaccination can prevent or reduce…
sb admin | March 20, 2008Last updated 09 October 2008
When writing on medical topics, a few issues are important to address directly, conveniently laid out by the Health on the Net Foundation.
Medical authority and complementarity, or, "I'm not your doctor"
We don't give advice here. Our posts represent our own opinions, thoughts, etc. and no one else's. Neither our hospitals, partners, universities, nor anyone else has approved of anything we write. The information in our posts is intended for discussion purposes only and not as recommendations on how to diagnose or treat illnesses. Our writings do not claim to…
grrlscientist | March 20, 2008tags: Alzheimer's Disease, Terry Pratchett, research, fund raising, medical research
Thanks to one of my readers, I just learned that atheist and writer Terry Pratchett, author of the bestselling Discworld novels, has been diagnosed with a rare form of Alzheimer's disease. He has donated half a million pounds (approx $1 million) to Alzheimer's research and appeared in the media highlighting the low levels of research funding that Alzheimer's disease receives. As a result, millions of loyal readers from around the world have responded and are helping to match Terry's donation. If you would…
sb admin | March 20, 2008Hello?
(tap tap)
Hello?
(tap)
Is this thing on?
OK. I think it's working.
Wow. I mean, wow. Someone seems to have accidentally dropped the keys to denialism blog on my desk, so now I'm in ur blogz, messing with ur words and stuff.
That's really the only logical explanation. I mean, how else could I, a lowly Doctor of Medicine in a dreary Midwestern town, end up writing on Sb?
I guess I owe you an explanation...
You see, I was meddling where I didn't belong minding my own business, blogging in my spare time, when suddenly, people started reading what I wrote (and not immediately ctrl-alt-…