Denialism

Category: Medicine

  • Smokers—what should we do with them?

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    MarkH
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    We sometimes treat them like second-class citizens. Or do we? Certainly smokers hate it when we force them out into the cold for a butt. Here in Michigan, we’re thinking about restricting smoking in a lot of public places. There benefits are supposed to accrue to three groups: the smokers themselves, their co-workers who are…

  • Denialists’ harvest—the AIDS body count in South Africa

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    MarkH
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    As a physician, few things frustrate and sadden me as much as preventable deaths. I see it all the time—the guy who kept putting off his colonoscopy and was later diagnosed with metastatic colon cancer, the woman who put off coming to the doctor with her breast lump until it broke through her skin, the…

  • NCCAM: the not-even-wrong agency

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    MarkH
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    The National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM) is a government agency tasked with (among other things), “[exploring] complementary and alternative healing practices in the context of rigorous science.” In this space we have talked about NCCAM quite a bit, but I have to admit that I don’t think about them very much. The…

  • What does your health insurance cover?

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    MarkH
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    For many Americans, it’s open enrollment time, the period your employer give you to make changes in your health insurance coverage. You may not understand your insurance very well, but you have to understand this one important fact: your health care providers know even less about your insurance than you do. Most doctor’s offices have…

  • Ginkgo does not prevent dementia, or “I can’t remember what NCCAM is good for”

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    MarkH
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    Here’s a question for you: is there, or should there be, any difference between studies of “alternative” and non-alternative medicine? I’ve argued before that there is no such thing as alternative medicine. So why do we need a separate agency to study “alternative” medicine? The National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine seems to be…

  • Se Habla “woo-woo”

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    MarkH
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    So, America is changing. We have an African American president. The Latino population continues to grow. How can the alternative medicine community adjust to this demographic shift? What are they to do? I’m glad you asked! It turns out that immigrants are palomas ripe for the plucking. Now, we’ve talked about the ethics of alternative…

  • And now for something completely different

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    MarkH
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    I’m trying a new thing. I think it would be nice to have a place where medical professionals, and those who wish to see how those professionals are thinking, can have frank discussions about medicine, altmed, etc. In support of this, I’ve created a new forum. The idea is to enhance discussions about medicine, medical…

  • Abdominal adiposity and risk of death, or “belly fat’ll kill ya’”

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    MarkH
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    Last week’s New England Journal of Medicine gave us some remarkable news, via the JUPITER Trial, adding additional evidence to the pile of articles on the cardioprotective effects of statins. This article is getting lots of press, which is great, but I’d hate to see this week’s edition of the Journal get lost. Specifically, there’s…

  • Why male circumcision and female genital mutilation are not morally equivalent

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    MarkH
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    NB: Believe it or not, I actually had to close comments, the first time I’ve ever had to do it. They had become so offensive without any useful content that it’s no longer worthwhile to keep it going. Sorry. I have repeatedly vowed to stay away from this topic, but in defense of my colleague,…

  • Stop the RFK Jr. appointment NOW

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    MarkH
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    I would beg everyone who reads the scienceblogs and cares about science to contact the transition team in the Obama administration as Orac has requested. It should be clear by now to readers of this blog that pseudoscience is not a problem of just the right. The left wing areas of pseudoscience are just as…