Denialism

Category: Medicine

  • I get questions…

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    MarkH
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    I frequently get questions by email or by comment. If it’s simple, I might fire off an answer. If it’s about a personal medical problem, I either don’t answer, or send a standard disclaimer to seek medical care. If it’s a really interesting question, I blog. Today, I blog. The question regarded the ubiquitous commercials…

  • What should smokers be scared of?

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    MarkH
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    This comes up every day. Everyone’s afraid of the big “C”, and they should be. Smoking increases a person’s risk of dying of lung cancer by about 12-20 times (whatever that means, but it’s significant). And while cancer may be scary, other diseases are just as bad. Lung cancers attributable to smoking cause about 125K…

  • Scene III, wherein we move on to more important things

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    MarkH
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    What could be more important than a good old-fashioned flame war? I’ll get to that in a moment, so please stick with me. The recent imbroglio between some of our doctor bloggers and non-physician scientists got me thinking (so it couldn’t be all bad). As a quick summary, PhysioProf of the DrugMonkey blog used an…

  • DROP THAT CELL PHONE NOW!!!11!!!

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    MarkH
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    DROP YOUR CELL PHONE NOW!!!!111! (don’t send me the bill for the replacement) I’m sure others will cover more of the scientific details, but science aside, we should examine why today’s statement on cell phones out of Pittsburgh is so ridiculous. Setting aside the lack of data connecting cell phones and health problems, this is…

  • The end of ignorance

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    MarkH
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    The folks at bloggingheads.tv whoring for some link love sent me an interesting link. They had a talking heads session (“diavlog”—damn, that’s hard to say) between John Horgan and some other guy (sorry, “Some Other Guy”). Horgan is the guy who brought us The End of Science, a book which was more widely criticized than…

  • No right answers

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    MarkH
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    I take care of my own patients in the hospital. I say that because it is not a given for internists. For a number of reasons, many having to do with time management and money, most internists utilize hospitalists, internal medicine docs who specialize in the care of hospitalized patients. Taking care of patients in…

  • Feministe on Gardasil

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    MarkH
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    Complementing Pal’s essay on Gardasil yesterday is our buddy la Pobre Habladora guest blogging on Feministe. Which, I think, brings us to a new angle on anti-vax denialism because as Pal mentions, the motivations behind harping on Gardasil are different than the usual nonsense. Gardasil, to everyone’s dismay, has become intertwined with sexual politics in…

  • Swallowing nutrition myths hook, line, and sinker

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    MarkH
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    I’m starting to worry about health coverage in the NY Times. Lawrence Altman is a great health reporter, and I like one of Michael Pollan’s pieces in particular, but the Times also has a bunch of those blog-thinggies, and one of the writers has disappointed me before. Oops, she did it again…

  • Medicare cuts—a bad thing

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    MarkH
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    Look, I know no one is weeping for doctors and their complaints about payment cuts, but you should at least be concerned, and here’s why. Some doctors are rich…very rich. Most are not. Medical education is largely financed with debt, and primary care doesn’t pay all that much. Small practices work on narrow margins, and…

  • I love careless stupidity

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    MarkH
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    Sometimes things just fall into your lap. This evening I was working on a different piece, and not getting very far, when an email arrived in my in-box. You see, when you write for the 21st most influential science blog, you get a lot of unsolicited mail (OK, fine…I get spam in my blog-related inbox.…