medicine
oracknows | November 1, 2011The whole concept of "complementary and alternative medicine" (CAM) and "integrative medicine" (IM), the former of which "complements" science-based medicine with quackery and the latter of which "integrates" pseudoscience-based with science-based medicine. The reason I start out by saying this is to emphasize that CAM/IM is all about using language to persuade that pseudoscience is actually science-based. It's far more about marketing than accurately communicating concepts. In CAM, everything is "holistic," and doctors "care for the whole patient," while "Western medicine" is "reductionistic…
oracknows | October 31, 2011I've been blogging about alternative medicine for nearly seven years and writing about it, either on Usenet or in other forums for several years before. As a result, there are times when I start to think that maybe I've seen it all. And almost every time I start thinking that, I come across something that leaves me scratching my head and either joking about learning something new every day or just scratching my head. This case will be the latter.
Regular readers all know Mike Adams, a.k.a. The Health Ranger. Adams created NewsTarget.com which later evolved into NaturalNews.com, one of the…
oracknows | October 31, 2011I've written quite a bit about Steve Jobs' battle with pancreatic cancer over the years and, more recently, in the wake of his death nearly four weeks ago. The reason, of course, is that the course of his cancer was of intense interest after it became public knowledge that he had cancer. In particular, what I most considered to be worth discussing was whether the nine month delay between Jobs' diagnosis and his undergoing surgery for his pancreatic insulinoma might have been what did him in. I've made my position very clear on the issue, namely that, although Jobs certainly did himself no…
oracknows | October 28, 2011Despite having found my niche long ago in the medical blogosphere as a skeptic and supporter of science-based medicine, not to mention a scourge of quacks and anti-vaccine activists (no little ego mine!), I rarely, if ever, write about obstetrics. It's always been one area of medicine that I've felt least comfortable with. True, there are some areas of O.B. woo, such as home birth ideology that directly contributes to the deaths of babies, and perhaps I should mention such incidence more often. They are, after all, just as egregious an example of ideology triumphing over science and harming…
oracknows | October 28, 2011It's a wonder no one ever thought of this before (at least, not to my knowledge), but Todd over at Harpocrates Speaks has. Over there today, what do we find?
A Quacktion Figureâ¢:
Ever wanted to enjoy the adoration of tens of others? Had an idea for a new product to patent, but had pesky competitors that needed discrediting? Have you ever dreamed of creating a controversy where there was none? Have you thought that violating research ethics would be a quick way to accomplish all this, but never had the narcissistic chutzpah to pull it off?
Well, now you can.
You'll have to click through to…
oracknows | October 27, 2011Oh, geez. Mike Adams is at it again.
I know, I know, saying that Mike Adams has just laid down yet another hunk of napalm-grade--nay, hydrogen-bomb grade--burning stupid is akin to saying that the sun rises in the east and sets in the west, that water is wet, that we need oxygen to survive, or that the moon goes around the earth. It's part of nature and a well-established fact. Even so, sometimes Adams surpasses even himself. Sometimes, when doing so, he even gives me an opportunity to discuss a scientific study and thus look as though I'm actually blogging about peer-reviewed research…
oracknows | October 26, 2011As hard as it is to believe, I've been a physician for 23 years now and a fully trained surgeon for over 15 years. If there's one thing I've learned in that time, it's most doctors really, really don't like to be told what to do. I don't know if part of it comes from all the long years of medical school and residency, with fellowship tacked on for many, during which we're relentlessly told what to do by more senior residents, fellows, and attendings or if it has something to do with the personality traits that lead young people to go into medicine, particularly surgery. It's probably a little…
oracknows | October 25, 2011I usually don't do requests, at least not very often. As selfish as it might sound, I do this blog mainly to amuse myself, which means that I choose whatever topics interest me and write about them. Believe it or not, I'd probably still be doing this even if my readership were 1/100 of what it is. After all, I did it seven years ago before anyone had ever caught on to the glory (and ego) that is Orac. I've just been fortunate in that, for the most part, the topics that interest me enough to write about them are generally interesting enough to a bunch of people every day to read them. That…
oracknows | October 24, 2011As I've said before recently, I have mixed emotions regarding Breast Cancer Awareness Month. On the one hand, I look forward to it because it provides us with a pretext to get out science-based messages about breast cancer and to highlight a lot of the cool science that we do at our cancer center. On the other hand, the quacks see an opportunity in Breast Cancer Awareness Month to spread their message too. That message, not surprisingly, generally involves attacking science-based modalities for the detection and treatment of breast cancer and promoting their "alternative" methods. For example…
oracknows | October 21, 2011A couple of weeks ago, in the immediate aftermath of Steve Jobs' death, I took issue with the claims of a skeptic that "alternative medicine killed Steve Jobs." At the time, I pointed out that, although it was very clear that Steve Jobs did himself no favors by delaying his initial surgery for nine months after his initial diagnosis, we do not have sufficient information to know what his clinical situation was and therefore how much, if at all, he decreased his odds of survival by not undergoing surgery expeditiously. To recap: Did Steve Jobs harm himself by trying diet and alternative…
oracknows | October 20, 2011Yesterday, I congratulated that bane of anti-vaccine movement and great vaccine scientist, Dr. Paul Offit, for having been accepted into the Institute of Medicine. It's a huge honor, and one well-deserved. At the time, I contrasted Dr. Offit, who has ascended to the highest heights of his profession through good science, with Dr. Andrew Wakefield, architect (or at least the most important architect) of the anti-MMR hysteria that gripped the U.K. in the late 1990s that's only now starting to abate, who is reduced to speaking in front of crank physician groups, being feted at anti-vaccine…
pharyngula | October 19, 2011Want to spend an hour cringing and twitching? This is the abridged version of "Cut: Slicing Through the Myths of Circumcision", and you will suffer if you watch it. It is a wasteful, terrible thing to do to a child.
One rabbi interviewed is at least honest about circumcision: "It's painful, it's abusive, it's traumatic, and if anybody does it who isn't in a covenant ought to be put in prison…I do abusive things because I'm in covenant with god." What nonsense. What a wretched excuse for abusing children.
(Warning: lots of shots of babies getting chopped, as well as closeups of adult penises…
oracknows | October 18, 2011Congratulations are in order.
Earlier this week, someone whom I admire has received a well-deserved honor:
The IOM announced the names of 65 new members and five foreign associates today in conjunction with its 41st annual meeting. Election to the IOM is considered one of the highest honors in the fields of health and medicine and recognizes individuals who have demonstrated outstanding professional achievement and commitment to service.
"It is a great pleasure to welcome these distinguished and accomplished individuals to the Institute of Medicine," said IOM President Harvey V. Fineberg…
oracknows | October 18, 2011Normally, these days I greet the month of October with a mixture of anticipation and dread. The anticipation stems from October's position as Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Now that somehow I've managed to have a variety of responsibilities with respect to how breast cancer is managed at our cancer institute, suddenly I find that I'm sometimes called upon to do media appearances, and Breast Cancer Awareness Month is one time we can use to get our message out about breast health and breast cancer detection and treatment, not to mention to highlight for the local media some of the cool research…
oracknows | October 16, 2011We humans like control. Actually, we need to feel as though we are in control. Perhaps that's why, when we aren't in control--can't be in control, for whatever reason--we instinctively seek ways of being more in control, or at least of feeling as though we are in control. I've often wondered if providing the illusion of control is part of the reason for the appeal of quackery alternative medicine, or, as it's become known these days, "complementary and alternative medicine" (CAM) or "integrative medicine" (IM). That, and the human need for certainty.
Think about it, taking cancer (my…
pharyngula | October 15, 2011You've probably heard the story going around that Steve Jobs' death was avoidable, if only he hadn't been so gullible as to steep himself in quack medicine. It turns out, though, that the story is a lot more complicated than that: David Gorski has written the best summary I've seen so far.
In short (because it is Gorski, after all, so it's exhaustively long), there was an element of woo in Jobs' early response. After his pancreatic cancer was first diagnosed, he delayed surgery for 9 months to try out some improbably dietary approaches. It was a massive operation that was strongly recommended…
oracknows | October 14, 2011You might have noticed that I'm a bit late today. There's a reason, and I bet you know what it is. Yep, yet another grant deadline. As usual, that means I didn't have time to produce my usual dose of not-so-Respectful Insolence. That doesn't mean I can't do some good, though, as yesterday the Bat Signal went up with a call for help. Remember SANEVax? (Oh, no. Not them again!) In case you've forgotten, SANEVax is the anti-vaccine group that specializes in Gardasil fear mongering, having come to my attention with an incredibly silly variation of the toxin gambit in which they tried to scare…
oracknows | October 13, 2011I had a really busy grant writing day today, and my brain is fried. What that means is that, even though there are some things that I could write about that would be really cool (as in studies), I'm just too tired to do it as I write this. So, as I settle down to my nightly ritual, I wondered what I could write about. Certainly, it had to be something amusing and something that doesn't take too much effort for me to take on. Given that blogging is a marathon and not a sprint, there are times for really applying myself and times for slumming.
This is a time for slumming. Tomorrow might be too…
oracknows | October 11, 2011Remember SaneVax?
Before I encountered SaneVax, I hadn't realized that anti-vaccine groups specialized, at least not to this degree. Oh, sure, I remember that Generation Rescue used to specialize in fear mongering about mercury in vaccines, at least before it changed its tune to "too many, too soon." However, SaneVax takes anti-vaccine specialization to another level with its laser-like focus on the HPV vaccine as the source of all evil.
Most recently, SaneVax made a name for itself with a gambit so outrageously stupid, so unrelentingly brain dead, that it amazed even me, and I've seen a lot…
oracknows | October 10, 2011After having been saddened (and distracted, at least from a blog standpoint) by the death of Steve Jobs for the last few days, I think it's time to get back to the normal sorts of stuff I blog about. Not that discussing medical issues related to celebrities in the news isn't one of the normal sorts of things I blog about here, but I usually don't do it for three or four days in a row. On the other hand, sometimes I do blog about vaccines several days in a row. Usually, these sorts of runs of vaccine blogging come about when a particularly idiotic confluence of anti-vaccine idiocy hits the…