In a trial of Pain Reprocessing Therapy (PRT), 2/3 of patients with chronic low back pain reported significant pain relief with psychotherapy that helped them reconceptualize the pain as nondangerous. Impressive if true, but flaws in research design make the study untrustworthy. I don’t usually get my medical information from Reader’s Digest, but when I read
Loren Pankratz’s book Patients Who Deceive covers the whole spectrum of different kinds of deception. It is well written, informative, and entertaining, with case examples that read like detective stories. As Dr. House says on the TV series, “Everybody lies”. Doctors know their patients can’t always be trusted to provide a complete and accurate history. For one
Nugenix Total T is one of many so-called testosterone boosters on the market. Vague claims, insufficient evidence. The commercials insult my intelligence. They show men on a golf course commiserating with each other about how their performance had gone downhill since the good old days of their youthful manhood, and some telling others how Nugenix
The father of nonverbal autistic child believes videos constitute proof that other children with autism can communicate by by pointing to letters on a board held by a facilitator to spell out words. He is wrong. I get a lot of email inquiries about questionable treatments, and when I explain that there is little or
An aromatherapy room spray was contaminated with bacteria that caused melioidosis, resulting in deaths and serious sequelae. Buyers were misled. When cases of melioidosis were diagnosed in four patients in four different states, doctors were puzzled. Melioidosis, infection with the bacterium Burkholderia pseudomallei, is typically associated with exposure to soil and water in tropical and subtropical environments, and
It’s common knowledge that Prince Charles is a persistent and outspoken champion of alternative medicine, but the full story has never been told until now. Edzard Ernst reveals all the shocking details in this unauthorized biography. The shocks come from Charles’ own words, which Ernst quotes extensively. It is beyond ironic that Charles’ supporters were
In 1747, one of the first controlled clinical trials in the history of medical science involved vitamin C, but the researcher had no idea what a vitamin was: vitamin C wasn’t discovered until 1912. Scurvy, a disease caused by vitamin C deficiency, was rampant in the British Royal Navy, disabling and killing more sailors than
I have long been skeptical of the diagnosis of multiple chemical sensitivity (MCS). Here’s what I wrote about it four years ago in an article in Skeptic magazine: An episode of ABC’s Nightline news show about Dr. Rea’s controversial diagnoses and treatments aired in 2009. I was appalled by the interviews with a patient diagnosed by Dr. Rea as sensitive to almost everything
Magic Mind claims to be the world’s first productivity drink. It seems to me an increase in productivity should be easy to prove. If your widget factory produces 1,000 widgets a day you could do a controlled study comparing workers who used Magic Mind to workers who used a placebo. If the output increased to 1,500
[This article is also available in English. Thanks to Pensar for this Spanish translation.] Vuity es un nuevo colirio que se vende bajo receta. Un artículo de Scientific American dice: “Estas gotas podrían reemplazar sus anteojos para leer”. ¿Podrían realmente? ¿Como puede ser? ¿Realmente funcionan? Más o menos, más o menos… para algunas personas… durante unas horas…
