medicine
denialism | September 10, 2007Who needs privacy concerns if RFID causes cancer. The small implantable microchips that have generated concern from privacy experts and readers of revelations alike have now been associated with sarcoma formation in animals.
A series of veterinary and toxicology studies, dating to the mid-1990s, stated that chip implants had "induced" malignant tumors in some lab mice and rats.
"The transponders were the cause of the tumors," said Keith Johnson, a retired toxicologic pathologist, explaining in a phone interview the findings of a 1996 study he led at the Dow Chemical Co. in Midland, Mich.…
oracknows | September 9, 2007I don't know why, but I found this endlessly fascinating. Just click on one, and watch what happens. Do it again, and it gets even more complicated.
Well, it's good for a few minutes' diversion, anyway.
oracknows | September 9, 2007Kevin Leitch informs me that DAN/ARI are asking people to leave a message for Andrew Wakefield.
Yes, that Andrew Wakefield, the man who almost single-handedly started a scare over the MMR vaccine, the man who was paid by lawyers and was either so clueless, careless, and/or dishonest (take your pick) that the lab where he did his research where he "found" measles RNA sequences in the guts of autistic children didn't do even the most basic controls to eliminate false positives.
Not surprisingly, essentially all the messages are nauseatingly supportive and full of praise. Here's a sample:
Thank…
oracknows | September 7, 2007Hot on the heels of the first Orac-free Skeptics' Circle in two years, amazingly, another Skeptics' Circle is coming around the pike far faster than I would have expected. This time around, it will be hosted by a most able blogger, Brent Rasmussen over at the very prominent skeptical blog, Unscrewing the Unscrutable. Brent's hosted once before, but that was over two years ago. I'm glad to have him back hosting and hope that he doesn't take such a long time before hosting yet again. In any case, Brent's posted instructions for submitting your best skeptical blogging to his edition of the…
oracknows | September 7, 2007
I debated about whether to do Your Friday Dose of Woo this week.
I really wasn't sure if I was up to it. As regular readers know, I was on vacation in London during the last week in August. Unfortunately, I returned to the news of a death in the family on my wife's side, making the last few days a seriously saddening time. I even tried to keep blogging through it as a release to take my mind off of things, but, as the last two days showed, I reached the point where that didn't work anymore. I guess it's a good thing there's still quite a bit of stuff to be mined from the old blog archives…
denialism | September 7, 2007The Washington Post reports on the apparent jump in suicide rates since antidepressants got a black-box warning in 2004 after some reports suggested an increased suicide rate in youths after the initial prescription.
The article here (goddamn WaPo still can't figure out how to link anyone but themselves) shows a disturbing correlation:
METHOD: The authors examined U.S. and Dutch data on prescription rates for selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) from 2003 to 2005 in children and adolescents (patients up to age 19), as well as suicide rates for children and adolescents, using…
grrlscientist | September 6, 2007tags: researchblogging.org, mental health, suicide, depression, bipolar disorder, SSRIs, selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, antidepressants, FDA black-box warning
Prozac.
Image: Tom Varco
After a 2003 report linking selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, or SSRIs, with increased suicide rates among children and teen agers was published, the use of this class of antidepressants in these age groups has decreased dramatically. This led to a change in labeling in 2003 that warned that use of the medications could increase suicidal thoughts and behavior among youths. Sadly, this 'black…
oracknows | September 6, 2007Due to a death in the family, I have to go back into the vaults of the old blog for some more reposts. Regular blogging should resume in a day or two. This particular post first appeared on January 13, 2006.
A couple of days ago, I took a bit of issue with Kevin, MD for an off-handed remark he had made welcoming us academic physicians "to the real world" in response to an article about how demoralized and depressed young academicians have become due to the increasing encroachment of financial pressures and demands to generate more clinical income. I gently pointed out to him that we have been…
oracknows | September 6, 2007Due to a death in the family, I have to go back into the vaults of the old blog for some more reposts. Regular blogging should resume in a day or two. This particular post first appeared on February 1, 2006.
Here's something I wish there was more of, the criminal prosecution of quacks when their quackery results in the death of a patient:
A man who called himself a naturopathic doctor is scheduled to stand trial for the death of one of his patients starting Tuesday in Jefferson County District Court in Golden, Colo.
Brian O'Connell, 37, was charged with manslaughter after he unsuccessfully…
oracknows | September 5, 2007Due to a death in the family, I have to go back into the vaults of the old blog for some more reposts. Regular blogging should resume in a day or two. This particular post first appeared on January 11, 2006.
I sort of feel as though I was being picked on over the last couple of days, while I've been a bit preoccupied. No, not me personally, but academic physicians in general. Actually, it's a bit lonely being an academic physician with a laboratory and a practice blogging. I have yet to encounter another one, although there are plenty of doctors who blog, as any brief perusal of my right…
oracknows | September 5, 2007Due to a death in the family, I have to go back into the vaults of the old blog for some more reruns. Regular blogging should resume in a day or two This particular post first appeared on June 16, 2005.
One of the overarching themes of this blog has been skepticism in the claims of alternative medicine. Consequently, a recurring type of post has been the debunking of some claim or other made by the proponents of alternative medicine. Sometimes debunking these claims is like shooting fish in a barrel, allowing for humorous play with the concept, and sometimes the claims are a bit harder to…
oracknows | September 4, 2007While I've been having a little fun with homeopathy today, I thought I'd show you just one other thing about the Royal London Homeopathic Hospital. Directly in front of the hospital, I noticed some words on the street. After taking a closer look, I was shocked and horrified. Take a look for yourself:
If you can't tell what all of the lettering says, it reads:
AMBULANCES ONLY KEEP CLEAR
It's an ambulance spot right in front of the Homeopathic Hospital. I really hope that these are only elective transports. I can't imagine emergency transports to a homeopathic hospital. Well, actually, I can…
oracknows | September 4, 2007A couple of weeks ago, before I went on vacation, the BBC aired a two-part documentary by Richard Dawkins entitled The Enemies of Reason. Part One dealt primarily with the paranormal and various New Age phenomena, while Part Two, which aired mere days before my London trip, dealt squarely with alternative medicine in an uncompromising fashion. One key segment of Part Two discussed the bizarre magical thinking that is known as homeopathy. Although I quibbled a bit about certain aspects of how Dawkins presented homeopathy, overall I thought it was the best deconstruction on video of the…
clock | September 3, 2007Drug rep creates stir with details on tricks of his trade
Drug reps are carefully trained to target a physician with tactics suitable to his or her personality, according to a recently published article co-authored by a former Eli Lilly and Co. detailer, Shahram Ahari, MPH. He says detailers come armed with an array of techniques aimed at changing the physician's prescribing behavior. Here are the tactics Ahari used with physicians, depending on their disposition.
The paper came out in April, but I have not noticed much reaction to it on medblogs. Will this new interview stir the pot now?
oracknows | September 3, 2007John is sick and tired of antievolutionists. Who can blame him? As he points out, they are utterly immune to evidence or reason:
I was wrong. Very wrong. Information isn't what makes people change their minds. Experience is, and generally nobody has much experience of the facts of biology that underwrite evolution. The so-called "deficit model" of the public understanding of science, which assumes that all they need is more information, is false.
I could also point out that this is the very reason that alternative medicine to this day so regularly trumps scientific, evidence-based medicine in…
oracknows | September 2, 2007An excellent op-ed article by Michael Fitzpatrick characterizes quite well the hysterical fear based on no evidence that Andrew Wakefield and his accomplices started in the U.K. over the MMR vaccine and the unfounded claim that it causes autism and bowel disorders:
The rise of a combination of extreme scepticism towards established sources of authority in science and medicine and anxiety about environmental threats to our wellbeing has led many to put their faith in self-proclaimed mavericks and alternative healers and charlatans. The recent outbreaks of measles, which resulted last year in…
j7uy5 | September 1, 2007
There may be another crisis brewing in health care finance.
In the early 2000's, health insurance premiums were
increasing by ~10% per year. The increase in premiums was
greater than the increase in health care costs.
Why would insurance premiums go up faster than health care costs?
It is because health insurance companies make most of their money from
investments (
href="http://www.govexec.com/story_page.cfm?articleid=29450&ref=rellink">1).
In the early 2000's, their investments (along with everyone
else's) were not doing so well.
Of course nobody knows if the sturm und…
grrlscientist | September 1, 2007tags: cancer, smokers, pets
Maybe this will surprise you but, having worked in cancer research for a few years, it isn't surprising to me to learn that secondhand smoke can cause cancer in your pets as well as in people. I mean, this just makes sense, ya know?
However, according to a study study done by the Tufts College of Veterinary Medicine, some of the nuances of this cancer risk might be unexpected. For example, of all pets, cats living with smokers are three times more likely to develop oral cancers (also known as squamous cell carcinoma) because they lick carcinogens from their fur…
oracknows | September 1, 2007Vacation time! While Orac is off in London recharging his circuits and contemplating the linguistic tricks of limericks and jokes or the glory of black holes, he's rerunning some old stuff from his original Blogspot blog. This particular post first appeared on June 3, 2005. Enjoy!
Grrr.
I was browsing one of my favorite science blogs, Pharyngula, enjoying PZ's evisceration of a clueless creationist foolish enough to resurrect once again that long-debunked hoary old creationist canard that evolution is somehow not consistent with the Second Law of Thermodynamics, when I saw this in the…
oracknows | September 1, 2007I hadn't been planning on doing any serious pieces to intersperse within the reruns of old posts while on vacation. Despite the impression some have gotten from my Random Observations posts about London and Britain, we've had an absolutely wonderful time the last week and are sorry to see it end. (Although I understand that I might have ruffled a few feathers when I complained about restaurant service, who would have thought that a post about how polite and friendly Londoners seem to us or an intentionally silly post about our failure to have seen any squirrels in London would have ruffled a…