medicine
oracknows | October 8, 2006The latest installment of Pediatric Grand Rounds has been posted at Emergiblog. This time around, all hail Mickey!
clock | October 7, 2006Pediatric Grand Rounds, Volume One, Edition Thirteen, is up on Kim's Emergiblog.
j7uy5 | October 6, 2006This is outside my area of expertise, so I won't comment on this, other
than to say that it pretty much speaks for itself. The
article is from the journal Pediatrics.
href="http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/cgi/content/abstract/118/4/1664">No
Evidence of Persisting Measles Virus in Peripheral Blood Mononuclear
Cells From Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder
D'Souza Y, Fombonne E, Ward BJ.
Division of Infectious Diseases, McGill University Health Center,
Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
OBJECTIVES: Despite epidemiologic evidence to the contrary, claims of
an association between…
oracknows | October 6, 2006I've said it before, and I'll say it again: There's a reason that I don't get seriously into blogging about politics that much, and this week reminded me why bigtime. For one thing, political bloggers are a dime a dozen, meaning that you have to be really, really good to distinguish yourself from the chattering hordes. (Or you have to be rabidly right or left wing.) Also, I like to think that I've carved out a nice unique niche in the blogosphere for myself in the world of skepticism, critical thinking, and the debunking of quackery. Were I to wander too far astray from those topics that my…
j7uy5 | October 6, 2006This is
another one of those pilot studies that may or may not go
anywhere. Even if it doesn't it might contribute to our
theoretical understanding of major depression.
One nice thing about it is that
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scopolamine" rel="tag">scopolamine
is old; presumably, it is not very expensive. That attraction
is offset, though, by the fact that the pilot study used intravenous
scopolamine.
One
interesting aspect of this study is that scopolamine is an
ingredient in nightshade, jimson weed, mandrake, and henbane.
It blocks a family of cholinergic receptors:…
clock | October 5, 2006Bill Bailey reports that an organization called 'Screening for Mental Health' offers free screenings for Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD). But then, they push drugs on people they "diagnose". The only problem - SAD is not treated with drugs!!! It is a circadian disorder, treated with light therapy and behavioral therapy. Quacks!
oracknows | October 5, 2006Abel Pharmboy has posted the second part of his series about the use of botanicals, specifically curcumin, for cancer, and how the altie crowd misrepresents what can be achieved. Basically, the dose of curcumin that would be required to have any effect is so high that, as Abel put it, you'd have to "shovel" it in.
oracknows | October 5, 2006Over the last week or so, several of my fellow ScienceBloggers made predictions about who would win the Nobel Prize in Medicine/Physiology. The prize, as we know now, was awarded to Andrew Fire and Craig Mello for their discovery of RNA interference (known as RNAi, for short). I also share some of Jake's questioning as to why Greg Hannon or Tom Tuschl, both of whom played a role in discovering RNAi and making the early advances in the field, were shut out. Whatever the reasons, this particular award is of great interest to me because it's the first Nobel Prize awarded for a discovery that was…
j7uy5 | October 5, 2006Imagine what kind of money you could make, if you had a $15,000 device
that could slow the progression of Alzheimer disease. The
following clip is from a Medscape news article. (Free
registration is required to view it, but that is better than the
original journal article, which requires a subscription.)
Vagus
Nerve Stimulation Shows Promise as Alzheimer Disease Treatment
By Will Boggs, MD
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) Sept 28 - Vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) is
safe and beneficial for some patients with Alzheimer disease, according
to a report in the August Journal of Clinical Psychiatry…
oracknows | October 4, 2006Change of Shift, the nursing blog carnival, has beenposted at Emergiblog.
j7uy5 | October 4, 2006N-[4(2-Amino-4-hydroxy-pteridin-6-ylmethylamino)-benzoyl]-L(+)-glutamic
acid is the name of a vitamin. Since the full name is a bit
awkward, it is more commonly known as folic acid, or
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Folate">folate.
The common name is derived from the Latin word for leaf (follium).
It is a B-vitamin, necessary for metabolic steps involving the transfer
of single carbon atoms. It is needed in the replication of
DNA, which obviously is rather important. The need is
greatest when there is a lot of cell division.
In the 1980's it became apparent that relative…
clock | October 3, 2006No, not (just) that part - your brain. A new study shows that a single dose of Viagra makes symptoms of sleep apnea worse. And sleep deprivation resulting from sleep apnea may be one of the reasons why you may need Viagra in the first place. What a vicious circle! What a conundrum! Sleepdoctor has the goods.
oracknows | October 3, 2006Abel explains, in the first part of a promised series.
This is a topic I've been meaning to write about for a long time but somehow never got around to it. Abel explains nicely the barriers to drug absorption, distribution, and activity and why it's very bad science for alties to try to extrapolate from studies of cells cultured in dishes to humans. In fact, toxicity to cultured cancer cells correlates only weakly with efficacy in an actual human, thanks to many of the factors Abel explains.
I would also point out that I'm involved as a coinvestigator in the evaluation of a drug that actually…
oracknows | October 3, 2006I knew there was a reason that I don't often blog about politics, and yesterday reminded me of it. Maybe I should have just launched another enthusiastic debunking of the distortions and outright false information put out by antivaccination advocates like Dawn Winkler. Instead, I thought it might be educational to return to a topic that I haven't revisited in a while, so-called HIV/AIDS "dissidents." These cranks resemble antivaxers in their fast-and-loose approach to and cherry-picking of the data, along with some outright misrepresentations of studies.
They're at it again.
This time around…
j7uy5 | October 2, 2006This is from the journal Menopause. The
link goes to the abstract; a subcription is required for full access.
It is a pilot study with results that are not robust enough
to use in routine clinical decision-making, but it does indicate a
possible benefit to supplementation of venlafaxine (Effexor) with HRT
in depressed postmenopausal women.
href="http://www.menopausejournal.com/pt/re/menopause/abstract.00042192-200613020-00011.htm;jsessionid=Fg9ZyB1TT5h1lKGn52MG1XLKMd3v4rT7knF02TDQV2jRY25S6tvX%211096339265%21-949856144%218091%21-1">Menopause
2006 Mar-Apr;13(2):202-11.
Efficacy of…
oracknows | September 29, 2006Earlier this week, I thought that I had identified this week's woo target. I told myself that this was it, that this was the one for this week. I even started writing it the other day, because, as much as I try to get this thing done early, somehow I always seem to be writing it at 11 PM Thursday nights. I thought this week would be different.
I was mistaken.
The reason that I was wrong was because I came across a link that was so amusing, so full of outrageously concentrated woo, that I just couldn't restrain myself from throwing my old topic to the wayside (well, not exactly; I can always…
clock | September 29, 2006Revere has an update on the campaign to free the Tripoli Six.
Declan Butler is keeping up with the news on his blog and collecting blog responses on Connotea.
Injection is a documentary film about this case. You can see the trailer or download the whole movie. Then, blog about it. And urge your readers to use this mailing list to put pressure on the Libyan government.
j7uy5 | September 29, 2006These two things might be connected. The Washington
Post reported yesterday on the findings of a CDC report on
emergency room preparedness. The Economic Policy Institute
reported on further erosion in health insurance coverage.
href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/27/AR2006092701831.html?referrer=scienceblogs.com">Crowded
ERs Raise Concerns On Readiness
By Christopher Lee
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, September 28, 2006; Page A11
Emergency rooms at many hospitals are routinely stretched to the
breaking point, raising concerns that they…