Genomics, Evolution, and Pseudoscience

Cooch is a distraction. The dangerous one is McDon...

2010-09-02T17:21:26.930-07:00

Cooch is a distraction. The dangerous one is McDonnell. Never, never, never trust a religious conservative who looks sane.

Take for example, a western medical doctor cannot ...

2010-09-01T09:43:59.232-07:00

Take for example, a western medical doctor cannot even relieve the sufferings of a diabetic patient. Prescribing metformin and insulin are the two most common treatments. There is scientific data to prove that metformin and isulin reduces sugar level. Does that cure the patient? Is the patient free from the medication? NO! Does the doctor benefits? Yes by constant patient consultation. Does the pharmaceutical companies benefits? Yes by more income through sales of drugs. Does the patient benefits No! (http://diabetes.emedtv.com/metformin/metformin-dangers.html)

The treatment can be compared to killing flies that linger around a pile of poop and not getting rid of the poop! The flies eventually going to come back again. To me that sounds like pseudoscientific treatments too! LOL!

To The Lorax and Anonymous: I think placebo effect...

2010-08-28T02:28:51.657-07:00

To The Lorax and Anonymous:
I think placebo effect is a really interesting public health issue. It's clear and scientifically proven that placebo can be effective for a variety of conditions, but how can it be used in a medically "legitimate" way? I always wonder how many placebo "practitioners" (especially in alternative medicine and psychiatry) know that they are essentially using placebo but can't say it.

It is really too bad that you remain blind to any ...

2010-08-26T10:12:59.149-07:00

It is really too bad that you remain blind to any studies that have a positive result from use of acupuncture. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez/15611487

Is only one amongst many. I agree, at this point there are not a large amount of well done studies available in the english language. If you can possibly step away from your preconceived notions of that which does not fit into your world view, you may actually remember what medicine is supposed to be about...the patient. If it is working for hundreds of thousands of people around the world, do you think that there just might be something to it beyond "magic"? Just a thought, do you also hold the belief that love is not real? I don't think you'll find a "good" study out there that meets your golden standards, so....

I thought the positive effect of acupuncture was r...

2010-08-24T11:56:47.880-07:00

I thought the positive effect of acupuncture was related to the needles' ability to dilate or constrict blood vessels around the pain site (much like caffeine or painkillers, only without the long-term side effects of addiction, re-bound headaches, etc.) I don't think you need qi to explain the impact of acupuncture - perhaps qi was the mechanism used to explain the treatment to superstitious peasants and other individuals who didn't/couldn't understand the physical workings of the sub-dermal body??

Acupuncture = risk

2010-08-24T02:13:22.813-07:00

Acupuncture = risk

The fact remains that some patients "benefit" from...

2010-08-23T09:38:45.490-07:00

The fact remains that some patients "benefit" from the placebo effect. So I suggest in cases where competent doctors have basically no idea why a patient is suffering some pain, they can recommend a placebo treatment at a placebo clinic (obviously it would be named something to help the patient suspend disbelief). Also, we can "train" some unemployed individuals how to place toothpicks on the skin for a fee of $10/treatment (the fee may need to be increased to help the patient feel like they are actually paying for something great). Also, every placebo clinic will need a machine that goes "Ping". This benefits the patient at least psychologically, frees up doctors to actually treat patients, and provides jobs to people looking for jobs.

Don't stress related hormones correlate with pain?...

2010-08-23T09:18:25.217-07:00

Don't stress related hormones correlate with pain?

Anonymous: I haven't seen a single study reporting...

2010-08-23T08:14:19.138-07:00

Anonymous: I haven't seen a single study reporting a positive benefit for acupuncture over placebo that is well done. There are studies in low-quality journals that report some positive results, but the better studies contradict them. There are studies showing irrelevant things (as I point out in my blog) such as changes in various stress-related hormones, but these don't show any benefit for acupuncture, despite the claims of some acupuncture proponents.

You said: Without getting into the details (most ...

2010-08-23T08:08:36.251-07:00

You said:

Without getting into the details (most of these studies are poorly done), it’s no surprise that sticking needles into the skin causes a physiological effect.

Do you feel there are studies that show positive benefit to accupuncture that are well done?

The real shame is that there is no legitimate way ...

2010-08-22T20:33:25.525-07:00

The real shame is that there is no legitimate way to use placebo effect. In order for accupuncture(or a sugar pill) to work you have to misdirect the subject to make them believe. Something doctors should not do.
As someone with chronic back pain, I would love it if simply being jabbed with a couple of toothpicks would make me more comfortable. I also think it would be cool if there were really werewolves. Oh, well.

on a related note 37% of americans believe in haun...

2010-08-22T08:41:16.943-07:00

on a related note 37% of americans believe in haunted houses:

http://www.gallup.com/poll/17275/onethird-americans-believe-dearly-may-departed.aspx

Overfishing isn't only about the amount of fish th...

2010-08-20T06:47:23.570-07:00

Overfishing isn't only about the amount of fish that get fished but also about fishing policies. http://www.ted.com/talks/enric_sala.html is a good talk about the topic.
According to it we can fish as much as we do presently if we just move to protect a sizable area (25%) of the ocean from fishing and let fish regrow in those areas.

Actually, it's not "ironic" that the Chinese still...

2010-08-18T18:12:27.074-07:00

Actually, it's not "ironic" that the Chinese still use snake oil.

Pointless, yes, but not ironic. Much like gsk's pointless underwater lab complete with fake scientists staring into scopes. This kind of ad should be banned.

in 1970, i came down with a malfunction that was i...

2010-08-15T14:32:15.068-07:00

in 1970, i came down with a malfunction that was incurable, the doctors at the time said they couldn't' help me, so i turned to alternative healing.
that didn't' help me either, but at 59 years old, the doctors tell me my insides have the stats of a 30 yr old.
alternative medicine works, but only if you try it. its easy to throw rocks and insults at a subject you have no knowledge of.
and yes i go to and use doctors. but i go to them for the same reasons that others go to psychics, "to tell me what i already know about myself".
thanks for reading this.

Now that swine flu turned out to not be anything n...

2010-08-11T23:19:31.465-07:00

Now that swine flu turned out to not be anything near a pandemic, are you going to take back your fearmongering about the disease? Or do you still stand by it? I'm just wondering as one of many thousands (millions?) of people who never got a swine flu vaccine and never got swine flu.

I didn't write that farmed fish are "more mercury ...

2010-08-11T12:23:50.813-07:00

I didn't write that farmed fish are "more mercury and toxin free" than wild salmon - go back and read it. What I wrote is that wild fish are known to have mercury contamination - this is particularly a problem for large fish such as tuna and salmon. As for farmed fish, some farmed salmon have been reported to have mercury while other farms do not. (For example, a 2008 Canadian study found mercury in both wild and farmed salmon, but at higher levels in the wild salmon.) The solution to this is better fish farming techniques - not abandoning farming and going back to a reliance on wild fish.

The last commenter attributed other beliefs to me that are simply made up, so I won't bother to address those.

For an article which presumes to debunk perception...

2010-08-10T12:26:32.270-07:00

For an article which presumes to debunk perception errors based on science, your writing is certainly chock full of massive errors and omissions.
1. You omit the concern cited in the papers you are referencing about the increased levels of growth hormone in the genetically modified salmon.
Perhaps you're aware that the massive increase in growth hormone in our food is leading to large increases in PUBERTY AMONG 7 YEAR OLD GIRLS IN THE USA? Hmmmm? http://www.cbs12.com/news/puberty-4727923-girls-age.html
2. You are completely wrong about farm fish being more Mercury and toxin free than wild salmon: (http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/short/303/5655/226)
3. As your hero, Donald Rumsfeld, would say, these are only the "known knowns". The biggest reason to not create and sell these gigantic Frankenfish is that evolution has shown that there are long term reasons for fish being the size, shape, and hormonal makeup that they are. Monsanto has demonstrated with its use of genetically engineered plants that in the long run, naturally bred plants and animals are cheaper, healthier, and safer than these kinds of 'stuck on stupid', 'one hammer' approaches being driven by clueless Harvard MBA's that are getting jobs as CEOs running companies about which they have zero hands on experience, zero long term concern, and zero accountability for the consequences of poisoning our food supply and our environment with this kind of crap.

Frankenfish are NOT about "saving the wild salmon". The ARE about increasing the size of the paychecks of a CEO and his executives. Period. If these people gave a crap about saving wild salmon, they would advocate reversing the trends that have truly decimated salmon populations: destruction of wild rivers, poisoning of rivers with phosphates and pesticides, and unregulated overfishing.

This article is, in its entirety, a red herring (pun intended).

While I applaud skepticism and pragmatism, I'm not...

2010-08-09T21:40:29.691-07:00

While I applaud skepticism and pragmatism, I'm not sure that this blog post furthers those goals. (I do appreciate you repeating the very important message that we're fishing our oceans to death, however!)

This post implies that mercury may be less in farmed fish. This is, last I heard, false (http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/short/303/5655/226)

Also, the first commenter is correct that ocean farming of salmon has some pretty intense localized ecological problems.

Land-based, "closed" farms are an ecologically friendly alternative to ocean-based salmon farms. However, the vast majority of farmed salmon is the bad kind, not the good kind.

Now, as for these GMO salmon, give me one of these land-farmed super fish and I will eat the hell out of it.

I cannot tell you how refreshing it is to read int...

2010-08-09T13:21:35.195-07:00

I cannot tell you how refreshing it is to read intelligent unbiased commentary from someone who not only understands the science, but is not afraid to dispute the lies, misinformation, and/or disinformation disseminated by activists such as Hauter and Kimbrell. The goal of activists like them is to confuse the technically unsophisticated consumer with lies and/or misinformation in hopes that the consumer will be scared away from embracing exciting new technologies that benefit mankind. People like Hauter believe that all of mankind can be fed by shopping at Whole Foods, and indirectly people like Hauter & Kimbrell will be responsible for millions dying of starvation because they were deprived of revolutionary food producing technology by a bunch of food luddites.

Farming animals in general is bad for the local en...

2010-08-09T06:02:40.255-07:00

Farming animals in general is bad for the local environment. Especially when it is scaled up to produce thousands of animals such as in fish farms.

Furthermore the large scale of farming needs disease control using antibiotics.
Large scale farming of any kind of animal has the great potential to stimulate pathogens to develop resistance with effects on the human population. For example, most dutch pig farmers are not allowed in hospitals anymore in the NL since they carry the MRSA bacteria. They are treated with extra care, a lot of extra care when they are sick.

It's not the toxins that are dangerous for us humans. It's the antibiotics we need to do large scale farming efficiently, that makes future farming such a nice breeding ground for pathogens.

Future salmon will be tasty indeed.

nickloman - thanks for the clarification on resten...

2010-07-26T14:31:00.370-07:00

nickloman - thanks for the clarification on restenosis. There are many studies of fish oil and I didn't want to try to summarize them all (or even a few). My main point is that Glaxo has cleverly created a "drug" from a supplement, allowing them to cash in, with the help of professionally-produced advertisements. Fish oil probably does have benefits if you eat it instead of less healthy oils (such as palm oil, for example), but no one needs to buy Lovaza to get those benefits.

I agree with the sentiments of the article but fee...

2010-07-26T06:13:20.195-07:00

I agree with the sentiments of the article but feel I have to correct your definition of restenosis. This meta-analysis focuses on patients with high cardiovascular risk who have undergone interventional procedures. Restenosis refers to subsequent narrowing of a coronary artery which has previously been opened by balloon angioplasty or stenting.

And I'm really not surprised fish oils don't help much in this risk group.

Otherwise, keep up the good work!

You can also lower triglycerides by taking a stati...

2010-07-24T14:58:08.107-07:00

You can also lower triglycerides by taking a statin.

I just want to clarify that that meta-analysis was in patients at high risk of cardiovascular events. So the results do not apply to all patients, only to those at high cardiovascular risk. Even though the reduction in total mortality was not significant, the Bayesian confidence interval pretty much ends at one, which means that there is a high probability that there is at least a small reduction in total mortality. I was puzzled as to why heart attacks and strokes were not endpoints, but I only read the abstract so that may be explained in the paper.

I agree with you that OTC fish oil pills or eating oily fish are probably just as good as the prescription product.

Although fish oil lowers triglycerides, I don't know whether lowering triglycerides with fish oil has been shown to reduce the risk of cardiovascular events. You would have to do a trial of people with high trigs who are also on a statin, since statins are standard of care for people at high cardiovascular risk, and see whether the fish oil added any benefit to the statin.

Anon: two quick responses; first, the GAO said the...

2010-07-18T14:58:08.485-07:00

Anon: two quick responses; first, the GAO said they have notified the FDA about the pesticides so that FDA could take "appropriate action". Presumably the FDA will now do something (but maybe not). Second, DSHEA prevents the FDA from regulating supplements for safety or efficacy, so it is not the FDA's fault - they are prevented by statute from doing anything. The FDA is far from perfect, but this is one case where we can't blame them.