palmd | May 21, 2009OK, that's an exaggeration, but I'll explain. First, some colleagues and I have been talking about two related issues: how to continue to build readership, and what attracts or repels certain groups of readers. I love my readers and commenters, but are there things I could be doing to attract more readers? And what would I be willing to do?
For example, if I started promoting quackery, I could not only build my readership, but make ass-loads of money. This I will not do. I might also attract people to my blog who currently are turned off to it. But if promoting quackery is what it takes…
palmd | May 20, 2009I've been reluctant to write about the Daniel Hauser case. I don't even want to imagine what his parents are going through. If you're not a parent, I can't explain it to you, so you'll have to trust me---having a kid with a life-threatening illness can drive you to do the unimaginable.
And what Daniel's parents have chosen to do is nearly unimaginable, but until you've been there, judgment must be tempered by compassion. But that compassion is only for the parents and the patient, not for those who are supporting their horrible decisions.
The basics
Daniel is 13 year old boy with…
palmd | May 18, 2009Blogging requires a thick skin. So does life, so I don't get personally worked up about shit that happens on line. But some things do piss me off.
Chapter One: Blinded by...
I wrote a little piece about the Obama/Notre Dame flap. I wanted to look beneath the putative reasons for the protest (abortion). Some of my readers would not allow that. There were a few types of stupid responses:
The non sequitur: "I didn't bother to read but abortion is BAD."
The burningly stupid analogy: "If you let Obama speak, the terrorists win!!!"
The Reading Comprehension Fail: "Don't accuse me of teh…
palmd | May 18, 2009In relation to my recent bits about Jenny McCarthy and her antivaccination nonsense, reader Isabel asks the following:
I've been following this discussion for awhile, PalMD, and while I agree that JM sounds like a nut, and while I feel sorry for her kid for being stuck with her as a mother, it's hard for me to see her as the evil force she is being portrayed as.
For starters, through no fault of her own, she's obviously not particularly bright, which makes it hard to take her seriously, in either a positive or negative way. She seems like countless other neurotic women who are desperate for…
palmd | May 17, 2009So, President Obama is getting an honorary degree and giving a commencement address at the University of Notre Dame, and some folks aren't too happy about that. Why? The stated reasons is his support of limited abortion rights. Let's examine why this stance is hypocritical and nonsensical, then examine the real reasons for the protests.
Beliefs of a speaker
Notre Dame has a reputation as a good university, and I'm quite certain that classes on campus include ideas not part of official Catholic belief. I'm willing to bet that not every student, professor, and employee hold to every letter…
palmd | May 15, 2009People who identify themselves as having "morgellons" syndrome claim to have fibers and parasites emerging from their skin. As my commenters have pointed out, it's a rather simple task to evaluate such samples in a laboratory. If "morgellons" "researchers" wish to illuminated this "novel" "disease" (I just wanted to see how many scare quotes I could squeeze in), then where are the case series or other published data?
A PubMed search reveals no published research on the topic---not even case studies. The Morgellons Research Foundation website, however, has a "research" section. Of what…
palmd | May 14, 2009I've decided I love Jenny McCarthy's Oprah-blog. It's like watching a mad scientist---you know he's gonna blow something up, but still, those Tesla coils have a beautiful inutility. Her latest piece is truly a monument to stupidity, and if she really keeps this up, I'll never run out of blog-fodder.
It's called "Poop Stories", and it's about, well, Jenny's poop, so pull on those hip-waders and let's go take a look.
I don't know why I've always loved talking about poop, but to me it is a great tool in detecting what's wrong in our bodies.
Heh heh. She said "tool".
I continuously monitor…
palmd | May 14, 2009I really didn't mean to get dragged back in to the Morgellons controversy. Really. But I made a flippant comment on a recent post, and here I am. Let me put down some brief thoughts here:
1) There exists a loosely affiliated group of people who are suffering from diverse and (to them) unexplained symptoms, and they have named these "Morgellons".
2) The public voices of these people are dominated by people who come off as being nuts. This is not the fault of the sufferers.
3) The suffering is real---the is the clearest truth.
4) The science to date does not support any new and unusual…
palmd | May 13, 2009I love my commenters. Some of them are really, really smart. I'd like to share an exchange with you, but first the context.
Morgellons syndrome is a label created by an American woman to describe a group of people who all believe they have mysterious fibers coming out of their skin. I've posted a bit on this before, but basically, there is not evidence of a discrete disease entity here, other than, perhaps delusions of parasitosis.
When these fibers and sores are examined by reputable medical authorities, they are invariably bits of environmental fluff, such as clothing fibers. There are…
palmd | May 13, 2009Sorry I'm short on content right now. It's really busy around here and I don't want to torture you with reposts. Stay tuned.
palmd | May 11, 2009Apparently not much. From her new Oprah-fied blog:
If I can really do it I will officially have a diet that looks like this...
No wheat
No dairy
No refined sugar
No caffeine
No alcohol
No smoking
No yeast
I can forgive simple category errors, like putting smoking in the diet column. I'm certainly curious why she feels the need to eliminate the rest of these things. Here are possible justifications:
Wheat: gluten, mostly in wheat products, must be avoided if you have celiac disease.
Dairy: best to avoid if you have lactose intolerance. Rare instances of severe milk-protein allergies.…
palmd | May 10, 2009Libel law in the UK seems very odd to Americans, with our emphasis on free speech. But, hey, we've had our own country for two hundred and almost two score years now, and I'm happy to report that, at least over here, we can still call a quack a quack. But in England, you can't even allude to it. Here's what happened. Simon Singh, a British reporter who tends to take the side of truth in science wrote the following:
The British Chiropractic Association claims that their members can help treat children with colic, sleeping and feeding problems, frequent ear infections, asthma and prolonged…
palmd | May 9, 2009I had this great idea for my PalCast today, but I have a cold and my voice is squeaking like a twelve-year-old boy, so I'm just going to have to write. I woke up a little early---I love mornings. I opened up the back door to listen to the wind blowing through the new leaves, to the birds, and to my coffee maker. It was perfect peace---until the game started up at the nearby high school. The PA carries right into my family room. That's what happens when you don't get up early enough. You start with being able to imagine you are sitting alone in a meadow and rapidly find you are actually…
palmd | May 8, 2009I can't tell if it is a trend yet, but it seems there has been a bit of a decrease in the outright quackery published in the Huffington Post lately. But that doesn't mean it's disappeared, and the poor quality of the writing more than makes up for the decreased quantity.
Case in point: Why We Overreacted to an Ordinary Flu, by Philip Slater, a sociologist with no medical education (a point that becomes evident very quickly). For example:
In an online newsletter recently some mad housewives were sharing tips on how best to triple-wash and triple-sterilize their countertops. What on earth…
palmd | May 7, 2009In a recent post, Dr. Free Ride made some excellent points about conflict of interest and medical professionalism (emphasis mine):
What I find more interesting, and problematic, here is [the authors'] unexamined premise that it is a bad thing that medical experts have a certain kind of monopoly. Indeed, their monopoly is recognized by the state: you can't practice medicine without being properly trained and licensed.
Because of their specialized training, physicians and medical scientists have an expertise that arguably puts them in a better position than the state to promulgate disease…
palmd | May 5, 2009I recently had a pleasant, brief email exchange with Kris Newby, the producer of the latest medical advocacy pic, Under Our Skin. There's been a number of similar movies lately, mostly about quacky cancer therapies. This one is apparently much better made, and follows the controversy regarding "chronic" Lyme disease.
I'd heard an interview about the movie on Diane Rehm, and was rather unnerved by it. It sounded like a typical I-drank-the-Kool-Aid-now-I'm-gonna-make-a-movie kind of thing. Still, I haven't written about it, because I haven't seen the movie. That's going to change. Kris…
palmd | May 4, 2009My recent rantings about the Huffington Post have been picked up by both the Left and the Right.
How funny is that?
palmd | May 4, 2009The news broke this weekend about the unholy alliance of Elsevier and Merck to publish a fake medical journal. You can read the details from the links at the bottom of this page. We all agree that creating deceptive, fake medical information is a "bad thing". What worries me, however, is what the "other side" will make of this.
What we have in science-based medicine is a method that works. It is, by far, the best way we have to approach the study and treatment of human health and diseases. But like all systems, there are and will always be problems. The strength of the system, though…
palmd | May 4, 2009I haven't forgotten about you, gentle readers, but I just got back to town after a week of vacation and it turns out there was this "swine flu" thing going on while I was gone and now I have to explain to everyone in the world why they probably don't have the flu and why they probably don't need tamiflu "just in case".
palmd | May 1, 2009Remember the Quack Miranda Warning? You know, the magic phrase that makes all the crappy and dangerous medical advice you're about to give OK?
Well, look what HuffPo's doing:
Author's note: This swine flu story on alternative and complementary medicine is not meant to replace anything you hear from you doctor, the WHO or the CDC, but is meant to show you some natural ways to enhance your overall wellness in addition to any medication you may need either to prevent or treat the flu.
Heh. Shit wrapped in gold foil smells just the same as shit in a brown bag tied with twine.