The “ interstitium ” : Interesting science versus PR spin and pseudoscience
Last week, the media were awash with reports of the "interstitium," which was dramatically described as a hitherto undiscovered "organ," a narrative that was definitely a triumph of PR over science that went beyond what even the investigators claimed in their paper. Worse, the investigators themselves even speculated that their discovery could "explain" acupuncture and other kinds of alternative medicine, thus providing an opening for quacks to run wild with their discovery, something I expect to see very soon.
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Source: Respectful Insolence - April 3, 2018 Category: Surgery Authors: Orac Tags: Biology Cancer Complementary and alternative medicine Integrative medicine Science acupressure acupuncture collagen complementary and alternative mediciner featured interstitium lymphatic system Neil Theise quackery Rebecca Wel Source Type: blogs
I ’m a doctor but I didn’t mean to be a drug pusher
I never wanted to be a drug pusher. A career in medicine was the opposite — healing in place of harming. However, I knew something was wrong when a detective asked to speak to me about one of my patients. My patient, addicted to Vicodin, had committed several acts of fraud and theft in desperate attempt to satisfy her needs. Her arrest was the final step in a long, slow unraveling of a happy and productive life. I was not just a witness to this painful process; I was an active participant. As her primary care physician, I helped fuel her addiction and shared in the responsibility.
When the history of the opiate epidemic ...
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - March 25, 2018 Category: General Medicine Authors: < a href="https://www.kevinmd.com/blog/post-author/kevin-haggerty" rel="tag" > Kevin Haggerty, MD < /a > Tags: Physician Pain Management Primary Care Source Type: blogs
Bee venom acupuncture: Deadly quackery that can kill
Bee venom acupuncture is a form of apitherapy (treatment with bee products, such as venom, honey, or pollen) in which bee venom is injected along acupuncture points, often by actual bees. It also recently resulted in the death of a woman from anaphylactic shock. Basically, the use of bee venom acupuncture cannot be justified because it has no proven benefits and is potentially deadly.
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Source: Respectful Insolence - March 23, 2018 Category: Surgery Authors: Orac Tags: Medicine Popular culture Quackery Skepticism/critical thinking acupuncture anaphylactic shock apitherapy bee pollen bee venom bee venom acupuncture featured Goop Gwyneth Paltrow Source Type: blogs
What ’ s more quackademic medicine than Harvard ’ s acupuncture course? Maybe Duke ’ s reflexology course!
Quackery has thoroughly infiltrated medical academia in the form of "integrative medicine." So what's worse than Harvard offering an acupuncture course? It might be Duke offering a reflexology and reiki course.
The post What’s more quackademic medicine than Harvard’s acupuncture course? Maybe Duke’s reflexology course! appeared first on RESPECTFUL INSOLENCE. (Source: Respectful Insolence)
Source: Respectful Insolence - February 23, 2018 Category: Surgery Authors: Orac Tags: Medicine Pseudoscience Quackery Skepticism/critical thinking acupuncture Duke Integrative Medicine Duke University featured Harvard University quackademic medicine reflexology Source Type: blogs
Quackademic medicine versus being “ science-based ”
A couple of weeks ago, I was interviewed by the a reporter from the Georgetown student newsletter about its integrative medicine program. It got me to thinking how delusion that one’s work is science-based can lead to collaborations with New Age “quantum” mystics like Deepak Chopra. "Integrative medicine" doctors engaging in what I like to refer to as quackademic medicine all claim to be "evidence-based" or "science-based." The words apparently do not mean what integrative medicine academics think they mean.
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Source: Respectful Insolence - February 19, 2018 Category: Surgery Authors: Orac Tags: Bad science Cancer Clinical trials Complementary and alternative medicine Integrative medicine Pseudoscience Quackery acupuncture Aviad Haramati Chopra Center Deepak Chopra featured Georgetown University Hakima Amri homeopathy Source Type: blogs
House Holds Hearing on Opioid Crisis
Discussion at the hearing largely focused on the desire to pass bipartisan legislation to address the opioid crisis as well as to determine best practices to identify over-prescribers and reduce instances of fraud.
Opening Statements
Chairwoman Lynn Jenkins opened the hearing by highlighting statistics regarding rising opioid related overdose death rates in her home state of Kansas. She went on to state that the “immense cost opioids impose on society” have caused a loss of productivity and put undue burden on the U.S. economic system. To lessen this burden, Jenkins stressed the importance to provide Medicare, specif...
Source: Policy and Medicine - February 15, 2018 Category: American Health Authors: Thomas Sullivan - Policy & Medicine Writing Staff Source Type: blogs
Expert advice on how to quit smoking
Okay, everyone knows smoking is bad for you, the number one cause of preventable death in the US and the world, a direct cause of lung and heart disease and cancer… et cetera. So let’s get right down to the nitty-gritty: quitting smoking is tough. What can people do to quit?
To answer this question, I spoke with my colleague Nancy Rigotti, MD. Dr. Rigotti is director of the Massachusetts General Hospital Tobacco Research and Treatment Center. She has extensively researched nicotine and tobacco, evaluated public policies on tobacco, contributed to US Surgeon General’s Reports, and authored clinical guidelines on smoki...
Source: Harvard Health Blog - February 8, 2018 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Monique Tello, MD, MPH Tags: Health Heart Health Lung disease Prevention Smoking cessation Source Type: blogs
The Academic Consortium for Integrative Medicine and Health: Exaggerating the evidence for acupuncture to make it appear to be more than an elaborate placebo
The Academic Consortium for Integrative Medicine and Health is a group dedicated to promoting "integrative medicine" in medical academia that has, unfortunately, been very successful over the last two decades. Recently, it published a report that promotes acupuncture as a tool to combat the opioid epidemic Let's just put it this way. The ACIMH exaggerates the evidence rather obviously.
The post The Academic Consortium for Integrative Medicine and Health: Exaggerating the evidence for acupuncture to make it appear to be more than an elaborate placebo appeared first on RESPECTFUL INSOLENCE. (Source: Respectful Insolence)
Source: Respectful Insolence - February 7, 2018 Category: Surgery Authors: Orac Tags: Complementary and alternative medicine Integrative medicine Pseudoscience Quackery Academic Consortium for Integrative Medicine Academic Consortium for Integrative Medicine and Health acupuncture Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality Source Type: blogs
Quackademic medicine triumphant (yet again): A defense of acupuncture on the Harvard Health Blog that misses the point
If you want yet another piece of evidence that quackademic medicine, where once science-based medical schools embrace quackery, is triumphant, is needed, look no further than a fallacy-filled blog post on the Harvard Health Blog in defense of acupuncture.
The post Quackademic medicine triumphant (yet again): A defense of acupuncture on the Harvard Health Blog that misses the point appeared first on RESPECTFUL INSOLENCE. (Source: Respectful Insolence)
Source: Respectful Insolence - February 1, 2018 Category: Surgery Authors: Orac Tags: Clinical trials Integrative medicine Pseudoscience Quackery Skepticism/critical thinking acupuncture acupuncture points Carolyn Bernstein featured Harvard Health Blog Harvard Medical School Helene Langevin quackademic medicine Source Type: blogs
Blood Vessel on a Chip to Study Angiogenesis and Test Anti-Cancer Drugs
Scientists at the Institute of Industrial Science, the University of Tokyo, have developed a blood vessel on a chip. The device makes it simpler to study angiogenesis, the process of new blood vessel growth. In addition, the technology could aid researchers in developing new anti-cancer drugs that act by inhibiting angiogenesis in tumors.
Angiogenesis is a therapeutic target for some anti-cancer drugs. Inhibiting blood vessel formation in tumors can slow their growth and is a promising therapeutic strategy. However, testing new angiogenesis-inhibiting drugs can be a challenge, and animal models are frequently required.
“...
Source: Medgadget - January 31, 2018 Category: Medical Devices Authors: Conn Hastings Tags: Cardiology Genetics Medicine Source Type: blogs
More on the funding of acupuncture quackery by Medicaid
A few weeks ago, I described how acupuncture advocates appeared to have successfully snookered the Ohio Medicaid program into funding the quackery that is acupuncture for Medicaid recipients. Now, they're poised to go beyond Ohio
The post More on the funding of acupuncture quackery by Medicaid appeared first on RESPECTFUL INSOLENCE. (Source: Respectful Insolence)
Source: Respectful Insolence - January 29, 2018 Category: Surgery Authors: Orac Tags: Clinical trials Integrative medicine Politics Pseudoscience Quackery acupuncture featured Medicaid Ohio Oregon Vermont Source Type: blogs
Acupuncture for headache
It is easy to ridicule a 2000-year-old treatment that can seem closer to magic than to science. Indeed, from the 1970s to around 2005, the skeptic’s point of view was understandable, because the scientific evidence to show that acupuncture worked, and why, was weak, and clinical trials were small and of poor quality.
But things have changed since then. A lot.
Thanks to the development of valid placebo controls (for example, a retractable “sham” device that looks like an acupuncture needle but does not penetrate the skin), and the publication of several large and well-designed clinical trials in the last decade, we ha...
Source: Harvard Health Blog - January 25, 2018 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Helene Langevin, MD Tags: Complementary and alternative medicine Headache Health Pain Management Source Type: blogs
More “ auricular ” acupuncture: Our veterans deserve science-based medicine, not quackery
Over the last several years, the Veterans Health Administration has been increasing the amount of quackery being offered in VA hospitals and clinics. This time around, it's auricular acupuncture.
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Source: Respectful Insolence - January 11, 2018 Category: Surgery Authors: Orac Tags: Medicine Politics Pseudoscience Quackery acupuncture auricular acupuncture battlefield acupuncture featured Veterans Administration Veterans Health Administration Source Type: blogs
The next frontier in “ integrative medicine ” : Getting Medicaid to fund quackery
Naturopaths are not the only relentless quacks seeking to bend government to legitimize their quackery. Acupuncturists are now working to get Medicaid to fund acupuncture services. They are succeeding.
The post The next frontier in “integrative medicine”: Getting Medicaid to fund quackery appeared first on RESPECTFUL INSOLENCE. (Source: Respectful Insolence)
Source: Respectful Insolence - January 3, 2018 Category: Surgery Authors: Orac Tags: Complementary and alternative medicine Politics Popular culture Pseudoscience Quackery acupuncture featured Jared West John Kasich Medicaid Ohio Vermont Source Type: blogs
How to treat dry eyes
How common are dye eyes?The prevalence of dry eyes has been estimated to be 5-30% percent in persons aged 50 years and older, 7% of US adult population has been diagnosed with dry eye disease. The prevalence increases with age (2.7% in those 18 to 34 years old vs. 19% in those aged 75 years and older). Prevalence is higher in women than men (9% versus 4%).What are the risk factors for dry eye disease?- Advanced age- Female gender- Hormonal changes (primarily due to decreased androgens)- Systemic diseases (eg, diabetes mellitus, Parkinson disease)- Contact lens wear- Systemic medications (antihistamines, anticholinergi...
Source: Clinical Cases and Images - Blog - January 2, 2018 Category: Universities & Medical Training Authors: noreply at blogger.com (Ves Dimov) Tags: Ophthalmology Source Type: blogs
