a new study on pasta and an article on our broken health care system: what’s the link?
By Now, Most People Recognize that America has a Broken Health Care System Writing for MedPage Today, medical doctor David Nash recently published an article titled Our Broken Healthcare System: How Scared Should We Be? Toxic Political Atmosphere, Entrenched Status Quo Discourage Serious Discussion. After mentioning a book about that oxymoronical mess we call EVIDENCE-BASED […]
is your physician a paid spokesperson for the pharmaceutical industry?
Might Your Doctor Be A Paid Spokesperson for the Pharmaceutical Industry? “We believe that it is imperative that we continue to actively challenge our business model at every level to ensure we are responding to the needs of patients and meeting the wider expectations of society. GSK today set out plans to evolve the way […]
25 years of evidence based medicine part ii: what we can learn about ebm from the cholesterol / statin debate / debacle
The Cholesterol / Statin Debate: A Microcasm of the Debacle that is Evidence-Based Medicine “I take issue when conventional doctors claim that evidence-based medicine supports the use of statin drugs in treating/preventing heart disease. In fact, evidence-based medicine, when studied objectively, would reveal that statin drugs should not be prescribed for either treating or preventing […]
attention md’s: the thought police are at the door
FOLLOW THE LINKS BETWEEN FASCIA RESEARCH, MAINSTREAM MEDICINE, AND THE NEW THOUGHT POLICE Writing for MedPage Today, Dr. David Rettew, a pediatric psychiatrist and Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Pediatrics at the University of Vermont, wrote a recent article titled Rogue Doctors and Boundaries: How Far Outside the Mainstream Should Healthcare Professionals be Permitted to […]
trust evidence-based medicine? how could you in light of the brand new study from the british medical journal?
BRAND NEW STUDY FROM BMJ REVEALS THE CORRUPTION IN ACADEMIC MEDICINE A brand new study from the British Medical Journal (Collaboration Between Academics and Industry in Clinical Trials: Cross Sectional Study of Publications and Survey of Lead Academic Authors) has proved what we already knew — that industry-funded studies are being controlled at virtually every […]
conclusions about evidence-based medicine 25 years in
COVERING UP EVIDENCE OF THE GREAT EVIDENCE-BASED MEDICINE COVERUP: PART I “The idea of Evidence Based Medicine (EBM) is great. The reality, though, not so much.” Nephrologist Jason Fung from an April issue of Medium (The Corruption of Evidence Based Medicine — Killing for Profit) Last July, the Lancet published a scientific article, Progress In Evidence-Based Medicine: A […]
when money talks; cochrane walks
THE WORLD’S PREMIERE MEDICAL REVIEW ORGANIZATION (COCHRANE) IS UNDER FIRE FOR BIAS “I found recent examples (2007 to 2012) of serious crimes committed by each company. The crimes included marketing drugs for off-label uses, misrepresentation of research results, hiding data on harms, and Medicaid and Medicare fraud. Doctors were often complicit in the crimes, as […]
invisible & abandoned studies rule the day in europe as well as u.s.
INVISIBLE AND FLYING UNDER THE RADARINVISIBLE AND ABANDONED STUDIES ACCOUNTFOR HALF OF ALL EUROPEAN MEDICAL RESEARCH How could I get paid to do research for BIG PHARMA, yet never end up on their bad side (like a CHRIS EXLEY, a HUGH FUDENBERG, or a DEAN BURK)? In other words, how could I make sure […]
government declares yet another war on ill health: welcome to the war on heart attacks
THE CDC’S BRAND NEW WAR AGAINST HEART ATTACKS Various organizations within our government (CDC, FDA, and even though it’s not “our” government, the WHO, etc, etc) are always declaring war on some health issue or another. There’s been the ongoing WAR ON CANCER, including Joe Biden’s imprudent “MOONSHOT“. There’s the never-ending war against acute childhood […]
why you should care about the definition of “wellness care”
WHAT IS WELLNESS CARE? IT JUST DEPENDS WHO YOU ASK “Today, approximately 177,000 Americans will visit a doctor, even though they have absolutely no symptoms. The annual health exam is a venerable tradition, stretching back to the late 19th century—those heady days of medicine when doctors overestimated their own ability to cure disease, and badly […]
still more financial conflicts of interest in cancer research
IT’S A SHAME THAT SICK PEOPLE CAN NO LONGER BE SURE WHO TO TRUST Financial Conflicts of Interest Just a few days ago, the current issue of JAMA Oncology published a study called Financial Conflicts of Interest Among Oncologist Authors of Reports of Clinical Drug Trials. It’s yet another example of why EVIDENCE-BASED MEDICINE should be renamed […]
are far too many americans really getting too much medical care?
ARE YOU RECEIVING TOO MUCH MEDICAL CARE? A RECENT CONFERENCE SUGGESTS IT’S LIKELY My hero @garyschwitzer at Too Much Medicine Conference. His @HealthNewsRevu exposes how crap media hype fails to report:1)Costs2)Harms3)Scope of benefits4)Quality of evidence5)Alternate optionsMedia PR has contributed to overtreatment. Only media truth can cure it. #TMMA recent tweet from Dr. Allen Frances, Professor […]
american medical care can be a wolf in sheep’s clothing
AMERICAN MEDICAL CARE: THE WOLF IN SHEEP’S CLOTHING “Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves.” Mathew 7:17 “Politicians are more concerned with ‘issues’ than ‘principles,’ but talk as though the two nouns have the same meaning.” Tom Clancy from Clear and Present Danger “There are […]
evidence-based medicine: anything but evidence-based
IS EVIDENCE-BASED MEDICINE REALLY EVIDENCE BASED? I HAVE THIS BRIDGE IN BROOKLYN…. “It is an old maxim of mine that when you have excluded the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth. There is nothing like first-hand evidence.” Sherlock Holmes The great British detective Sherlock Holmes was all about the evidence, which always […]
what is g.r.a.s. and why should it go bye bye?
GENERALLY REGARDED AS SAFE: WHY GRAS IS AN OUTDATED CONCEPT Sixty years ago this past January, our very own TRUST-US FDA created something known as the Food Additives Amendment of 1958, which revolved around something known as the “Delaney Clause,” which stated, “the Secretary of the Food and Drug Administration shall not approve for use […]
more financial shenanigans in the medical research industry
WANT TO MAKE SOME REAL MONEY AS A PHYSICIAN? GET YOURSELF ON A COMMITTEE THAT CREATES MEDICAL GUIDELINES “AstraZeneca today confirmed that the American College of Cardiology (ACC) and American Heart Association (AHA) have released a treatment guideline on the duration of dual antiplatelet therapy. Brilinta (ticagrelor) is now preferred over clopidogrel (Plavix) for the […]
when it comes to scientific oversight, you’re on your own
SCIENTIFIC OVERSIGHT FOR PEER-REVIEWED RESEARCH IS SO BAD THAT EXPERT SAYS IT NO LONGER MATTERS Writing for MedpageToday a few days ago (Does Journal Peer Review Matter Anymore?), Dr. Milton Packer, a cardiologist and academic currently at Baylor, did a good job of explaining just how desperate the situation really is concerning scientific oversight of […]
taking on the recent heart association study on nutritional supplements and heart disease
HAVING HEART PROBLEMS? DON’T TRUST THE NEWEST STUDY FROM THE AMERICAN COLLEGE OF CARDIOLOGY! “The authors concluded that author’s self-declared financial conflicts of interest and source of funding do not seem to impact outcomes in major cardiovascular clinical trials.” From the February 2013 issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology (Authors’ Self-Declared […]
un / who says it’s “time to deliver” on solutions for non-communicable diseases
WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION SAYS NOT ENOUGH BEING DONE TO HALT NCD’S (NON-COMMUNICABLE DISEASES) The WHO (World Health Organization) is the medical arm of the United Nations. Yesterday they published their recommendations for solving the world’s health problems in a paper called Time to Deliver. What are they wanting member nations to deliver on? The WHO […]
new evidence on the evidence-based medicine front
EVIDENCE-BASED MEDICINE? RESEARCH IS RARELY AS “EVIDENCE-BASED” AS WE’RE LED TO BELIEVE A year or so ago I was asked to be part of a mastermind group of diverse people and professions. Honestly, it’s a group that frequently leaves me feeling like the village idiot or class dunce. There are world class athletes as well […]