Categories
Cancer Medicine Politics

Blowing smoke over secondhand smoke

“What do you think about second hand smoke?” he asked me. I sensed ulterior motives behind the question, but I wasn’t sure. I suspected that he was just looking for an argument. “It’s bad,” I joked. “Some have told me that the studies don’t show any health problems from second hand smoke,” he replied. “I’m […]

Categories
Antivaccine nonsense Autism Medicine Quackery Science

Paul Offit is not a “denialist”

I’m afraid I must reluctantly take fellow SB’er Mark Hoofnagle to task here, because he appears to have allowed himself to get a bit carried away when it comes to throwing around the label of “denialist.” In an otherwise excellent takedown of some really bad propaganda in the Wall Street Journal editorial page, he did […]

Categories
Complementary and alternative medicine Friday Woo Medicine Quackery Skepticism/critical thinking

Your Friday Dose of Woo: Hydration, hydration, hydration, always hydration

Cool cool water. Yes, that’s what I really needed earlier this week, as the temperature almost hit 100° F in my neck of the woods. There’s nothing like it after walking through the sauna-like conditions and losing my precious bodily fluids in the form of sweat. After all, I wouldn’t want to get dehydrated, would […]

Categories
Clinical trials Medicine Politics Skepticism/critical thinking

Tagged to “fix” the NIH

It looks as though I’ve been tagged by Drug Monkey, who apparently thinks that I might have something worth saying about the state of the NIH and its peer review system, about which the NIH is presently soliciting comments, as pointed out to me by Medical Writing, Editing, & Grantsmanship. Why Drugmonkey might think this […]

Categories
Pseudoscience Skepticism/critical thinking

The perpetuation of bad arguments

I thought I’d take a bit of a break for a change of pace. At the risk of falling flat on my face, I’m going to wander far afield from the usual medical and biological topics of this blog into an area that I rarely say much about. The reason is an incident that happened […]