Categories
Autism Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Popular culture Quackery

Bleach Enema Karaoke

Long day in the OR yesterday. By the time I got home, believe it or not, I was too beat to deliver one of my characteristic rants full of Insolence and science that my readers all know and love (well, mostly love). Consequently, today’s a perfect day for a quickie. (No, not that kind of […]

Categories
Cancer Medicine Popular culture Skepticism/critical thinking

Medicine if I were a time traveler like The Doctor…

NOTE: Because I’ve been (kind of) relaxing over this holiday period, this is not an entirely new post. It is, however, a significantly expanded and reworked version of a post from nearly four years ago. So if you haven’t been reading four years, it’s new to you, and if you have you might or might […]

Categories
Medicine Politics Popular culture Science

Is "value-based' health insurance really "value-based" or is it just an excuse to make patients pay more?

And now for something completely different… Unfortunately, it’s all too easy to find new woo-filled claims or dangerous, evidence-lacking trends to write about. Heck, I did it just last week. Examining certain other health-related issues from a science-based perspective is more difficult, but I feel obligated to do it from time to time, not just […]

Categories
Biology Cancer Clinical trials Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Popular culture

Supplements: Flushing your money down the toilet in expensive urine

I remember during medical school that more than one of my faculty used to have a regularly repeated crack that the only thing that taking vitamin supplements could do for you was to produce expensive pee. My first year in medical school was nearly thirty years ago now; so it’s been a long time. During […]

Categories
Cancer Medicine Popular culture

Fear mongering over cell phones and cancer by Dr. Oz

These days, Dr. Oz seems to stand for everything I oppose in medicine: Fear mongering, quackery, making claims that he can’t back up with science, and, of course, filthy lucre. On second thought, I’m not against filthy lucre per se. In fact, I wouldn’t mind having some of it myself. However, I also want to […]