Denialism

Category: Medicine

  • Migraines prevent breast cancer!!!!!!!

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    MarkH
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    When reporting on science, reporters and editors like sexy stories. Since most science isn’t particularly sexy, there’s usually a hook. If you can squeeze “risk” and “cancer” into a headline, an editor sees good headline. What I usually see is a sensationalist article that is going to get it very wrong. One of the questions…

  • Choosing a medical specialty

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    MarkH
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    It’s that time of year, 4th year medical students (like me – kind of) are choosing their future careers and starting to interview all over the country in their residency programs of choice. I’ve been notably quiet – subsumed in work, study and applications – but I am catching up on writing about the clerkships…

  • Allergies of the first kind—type I hypersensitivity explained in context

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    MarkH
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    If you have kids you have probably been exposed to the idea that more kids have food allergies these days. Well, the data seem to bear this out. There are several hypotheses about why this is so, but not a lot of data. Rather than engage in speculation, I’d like to wade back into the…

  • Antibiotic-associated colitis—a difficile problem

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    MarkH
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    It’s that time of year again—the time of year when everyone gets the sniffles, and everyone wants an antibiotic. Even folks who know better, who know intellectually that an antibiotic isn’t going to fix their viral illness still harbor a strong suspicion that it just might help—and it couldn’t hurt, right? Well, I’ve got two…

  • Why good medicine requires materialism

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    MarkH
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    I don’t like to repost, but Steve Novella has some great pieces up right now, and this is directly related. –PalMD s I’ve clearly demonstrated in earlier posts, I’m no philosopher. But I am a doctor, and, I believe, a good one at that, and I find some of this talk about “non-materialist” perspectives in…

  • Man-cow hybrids: has the time finally come?

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    MarkH
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    In a little over a week, Michigan voters will be asked to vote on Proposal 2. The proposal is very simple. It is a constitutional amendment that makes Michigan a less hostile place for human embryonic stem cell (HESC) research. It forbids state or local government from passing laws that are more restrictive than federal…

  • My irony meter just exploded

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    MarkH
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    How stupid do you have to be for Jenny McCarthy to legitimately toss the epithet back at you? This question may seem unanswerable, but in this case, McCarthy may have gotten it half right regarding Dennis Leary. The headline at MSNBC delcares: McCarthy calls Leary ‘obviously stupid’ I don’t know much about Leary, but like…

  • So what’s the good news?

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    MarkH
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    This thread needed to be moved up for obvious reasons. Have at it. –PalMD I’ve been writing quite a bit about “questionable” illnesses, shameless quacks and the like, but there are reasons that people seek out odd diagnoses and cult doctors. They feel crappy, and they haven’t yet found someone who can make them feel…

  • Why should I trust you?

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    MarkH
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    On call one night as a medical student, I was presenting a case to my intern. As I recounted the patient’s ER course, the intern stopped me and said, “Pal — trust no one.” That sounded a little harsh to me, but the intern was nice enough to explain further. “Look, you’re going to be…

  • Tissue is the issue–revised version

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    MarkH
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    NB: images in this post are thought to be in the public domain, but were not well labeled, so if you feel they have been posted without proper attribution, please email me or leave a comment. Thanks. Also, this is a revision of a post from yesterday which I’ve pulled secondary to ethical concerns. I’ve…