JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2017 NEWS

Best of the blogs, January – on Science-Based Medicine, Jann Bellamy discussed “Chiropractic Internist: A ‘specialty’ to avoid”: “The ‘chiropractic internist’ is the creation of an industry association which promotes chiropractors as ‘primary care physicians.’ After 300 hours of instruction in a hotel conference room, they claim they can treat ‘anything that a medical doctor can’.” She also described how “Junk science helps homeopathic remedy company win class action.” Mark Crislip wrote about an investigation finding that “80%...of Chinese biomedical research is fabricated.” He feels that that the percent of fabrication likely is even higher for traditional Chinese medicine. Meanwhile, as David Gorski reported, the Chinese government is increasing its efforts to integrate traditional Chinese medicine into its healthcare system, in part to help promote China’s “soft power.” He dealt with one of the "Myths integrative medicine sells us: ‘We never advocate alternative medicine without conventional medicine’,” focusing on the book N-of-1, by Glenn Sabin. A series of posts dealt with the Cleveland Clinic. David Gorski (Jan. 9 and writing as “Orac” Jan. 10) described “antivaccine misinformation” posted by the Medical Director of the clinic’s Wellness Institute, “facilitated by a culture of pseudoscience.” Later, Steven Novella (Jan. 18) and Orac (Jan. 18) described how the CEO and President of the Cleveland Clinic, in response to media backlash, “doubled-down on the Cleveland Clinic’s embrace of quackademic medicine and pseudoscience.” Gorski also discussed "'Detox': Ritual purification masquerading as medicine and wellness.” Detox was also discussed by Steven Novella (Jan. 4). Harriet Hall explained how “The claims of health benefits from pink Himalayan sea salt are not supported by a shred of evidence.” A study supposedly showing the benefits of acupuncture for infantile colic was found to be highly flawed by Steven Novella (Jan. 25), Clay Jones (Jan. 27), Orac (Jan. 19), and Edzard Ernst (Jan. 16). Novella characterized it as having “poor rigor and questionable results…There is still no reason to recommend acupuncture for colic in infants.” Kevin Klatt noted that “The Accreditation Council for Education in Dietetics is planning on changing the accreditation standards for requirements Registered Dietitians to include integrative and functional nutrition as core components…the curriculum of an entire medical profession is currently set to adopt language associated with practitioners who promote dangerous pseudoscientific thinking about health.”

On Respectful Insolence, “Orac” refuted the idea that reiki and distance healing are supported by quantum physics. He discussed claims by acupuncturists that the Wikipedia page on acupuncture is biased; Edzard Ernst (Jan. 3) also provided comments. He criticized the increasing use of alternative medicine in the VA medical system: “Our veterans deserve real medicine, not fake medicine.” Several other posts by Orac are noted above.

Edzard Ernst criticized a study supposedly showing benefits of prayer as a medical therapy, as well as the journal that published it (Evidence Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine) (“utter trash”). He provided a rebuttal to claims by the Acupuncture Now Foundation that it is a myth that acupuncture is nothing more than placebo. Mark Crislip also commented on Science-Based Medicine (Jan. 6). Ernst discussed the alkaline diet: “there is no evidence that the Alkaline Diet is effective for the prevention or treatment of any disease, particularly not cancer.” He also commented on a study showing no benefit of acupuncture for pain, as well as a study showing no benefit for homeopathy for hyperthyroidism in cats.

January – An editorial by Solomon (Headache. 2017 Jan;57(1):143-146 Paper) discussed a Cochrane review concluding a small beneficial effect of acupuncture in reducing headache, compared to sham acupuncture. He feels that this could be due to differences in the physiological stimuli between the two situations, and that any benefits of acupuncture are due to placebo effects.

January – Chien, Odonkor, and Amorapanth discussed kratom, a plant-derived product used for pain relief (Pain Physician. 2017 Jan-Feb;20(1):E195-E198 Abstract with link to full text (pdf file)). “Although the Food and Drug Administration has banned its use as a dietary supplement, Kratom continues to be widely available and easily accessible on the internet…” Its use has been associated with severe symptoms, ranging from hallucinations and depression to seizures, liver damage, coma, and death.

January – Chaibi and others published a placebo-controlled study showing that chiropractic spinal manipulation therapy had no benefit for migraine (Eur J Neurol. 2017 Jan;24(1):143-153 Paper). H. Hall discussed the paper on Science-Based Medicine.

January 3 – Salzberg wrote “Fake Medical Journals are Spreading, and They Are Filled With Bad Science.” He focused on journals specializing in acupuncture and other aspects of traditional Chinese medicine, based on pre-scientific superstitions with “no basis in medicine, physiology, or biology.”

January 3 – A Cochrane Review examined benefits of yoga for various aspects of quality of life for breast cancer patients (Cramer et al., Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2017 Jan 3;1:CD010802 Abstract). It was concluded that “Moderate-quality evidence supports the recommendation of yoga as a supportive intervention for improving health-related quality of life and reducing fatigue and sleep disturbances when compared with no therapy, as well as for reducing depression, anxiety and fatigue, when compared with psychosocial/educational interventions.” Edzard Ernst discussed the findings.

January 5 – K. Knibbs published an Article critiquing Dr. Joseph Mercola and his website (Mercola.com). “For 19 years, Mercola.com has profited off of scaring people away from evidence, away from science.”

January 9 – According to an FTC Press release, “The Federal Trade Commission and New York State Attorney General have charged the marketers of the dietary supplement Prevagen with making false and unsubstantiated claims that the product improves memory, provides cognitive benefits, and is ‘clinically shown’ to work…In fact, the complaint alleges, the marketers relied on a study that failed to show that Prevagen works better than a placebo on any measure of cognitive function.”

January 10 – An article by R. Robbins in STAT tells how a dietary supplement maker was unsuccessful in suing researcher Pieter Cohen for defamation. Cohen had published research showing a dangerous illegal ingredient in the supplements.

January 12 – Shin and others reviewed acupuncture for alcohol use disorders (Evid Based Complement Alternat Med. 2017;2017:7823278 Paper). They concluded that “Although our analysis showed a significant difference between acupuncture and the control intervention in patients with alcohol use disorder, this meta-analysis is limited by the small number of studies included.”

January 22 – In a Story by K. Guerra, gynecologists critiqued the idea that jade eggs placed in the vagina have health benefits. This has been promoted on Gwyneth Paltrow’s Goop website. Not only are the claims unsupported, but the practice could lead to dangerous bacterial infections. Edzard Ernst discussed this and other claims by Paltrow.

January 27 – An Article by A. Aciman discussed the lack of effective regulation of pseudoscientific alternative medicine products in the U.S. “It is not because the FDA refuses to evaluate these substances; rather it is because because [sic] the alternative medicine industry is protected by various laws that make sure the FDA does not have the authority to evaluate their products.”

January 27 – Previously the FDA warned against possible harmful amounts of belladonna in homeopathic teething tablets (see our Sept. 30, 2016 news item). Laboratory tests by the FDA confirmed the presence of the poison in some products Press release. Edzard Ernst commented on the developments. (See also Feb. 21 item below.)

January 28 – An Article by K. Jaeger described how marketers of essential oils promote them as effective for numerous health conditions, despite FDA warnings.

January 30 – Fink, Eder, and Goldstein reported that Betsy DeVos, since confirmed as Secretary of Education, invests in Neurocore, a group of “brain performance centers” Story. “But a review of Neurocore’s claims and interviews with medical experts suggest its conclusions are unproven and its methods questionable. Neurocore has not published its results in peer-reviewed medical literature. Its techniques — including mapping brain waves to diagnose problems and using neurofeedback, a form of biofeedback, to treat them — are not considered standards of care for the majority of the disorders it treats, including autism. Social workers, not doctors, perform assessments, and low-paid technicians with little training apply the methods to patients, including children with complex problems.”

January 31 – Kohn and Paudyal reviewed complementary and alternative medicine for asthma (Eur Respir Rev. 2017 Jan 31;26(143) Paper). They concluded, “This review does not provide sufficient evidence to recommend any of the included CAM compounds for asthma. However, it also does not demonstrate that they are ineffective and suggests a need for further, higher quality RCTs with validated outcome measurement tools and formal safety assessments.”

Best of the blogs, February – on Science-Based Medicine, Jann Bellamy discussed how “Via the magic of Legislative Alchemy, chiropractic lobbyists are trying to convince state legislators to expand chiropractic scope of practice so they can rebrand as primary care physicians.” Mark Crislip discussed spinal manipulation for back and neck pain: “chiropractic manipulation has no foundation in basic science, its placebo effects are minimal and transient at best, it is dangerous, costly, and time consuming for the patient…” Harriet Hall discussed the AREDS Trial, dealing with antioxidant supplements for macular degeneration. “After the AREDS trial, people with moderate to severe age-related macular degeneration were advised to take dietary supplements to slow the progression of the disease. But some experts say the trial actually showed supplements don’t work, and might even make some patients worse.” She discussed dietary supplements for diabetes, focusing on an the herbal blend Glucopure: “There is preliminary evidence that some herbs lower blood sugar by a modest amount, but it would be foolish to think they could replace conventional treatment of diabetes.” She reviewed Daniel and Tana Amen’s book The Brain Warrior's Way. “Much of the advice in this book is mainstream medical advice, and there are helpful practical hints…The problem is that the good advice is inextricably mixed with false information and misleading statements, and with detailed recommendations that are not supported by science.” Steven Novella discussed a study of acupuncture for prevention of migraine: poor blinding “easily explains the small effect size in subjective outcome in this study.” Edzard Ernst also found the study unconvincing. Like Novella, he noted that “the study originates from China, a country where virtually 100% of all acupuncture studies produce positive (or should that be ‘false-positive’?) findings and data fabrication has been reported to be rife.”

On Respectful Insolence, “Orac” discussed a review of complementary and alternative medicine for premature ejaculation; “there’s nothing much in this review article to suggest that alternative medicine helps PE.” He discussed a highly flawed study supposedly showing how contaminated vaccines are. “The investigators think that what they found is that vaccines are contaminated with all sorts of inorganic metals. What they really found is that the amount of inorganic contamination is so low as to be biologically irrelevant. In fact, what they found is that vaccines are incredibly pure products.” He also had a followup post responding to criticisms by the researchers. In a related post, he discussed how nanoparticles are now being blamed for many diseases. Two posts dealt with antivaccine claims put forth by Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. On Feb. 10 he critiqued a paper supposedly showing a connection between vaccines and brain disorders: “Basically, it’s bad epidemiology and statistics carried out by mostly non-epidemiologists and non-statisticians.” On Feb. 16 he discussed a challenge by Kennedy and Robert De Niro to prove that thimerosal in vaccines is safe. The title of his Feb. 14 post was “The American College of Physicians integrates quackery with medicine in its recommendations for managing back pain.” He wrote, “people don’t notice the part about how weak the evidence is for therapies like acupuncture.” He criticized a paper supposedly showing benefits of homeopathy for healing after breast cancer surgery: “this is about as negative a study as can be imagined…Once more, here we have a pseudoscientific and unethical clinical trial that shows…nothing.”

Edzard Ernst analyzed claims that homeopathy has been successful in dealing with epidemics. He discussed a review of chiropractic for shoulder problems. Ernst felt the reviewers should have been more forthcoming in stating that there is no good evidence in support of chiropractic; moreover, there was inadequate discussion of possible adverse events. Feb. 16’s post was entitled “Upper neck manipulations (by chiropractors) regularly cause serious harm. Why are they still used?” He refuted points made by Harald Walach in an article entitled "The future of homeopathy," as well as claims by Dana Ullman that homeopathy is effective for lead poisoning.

February – A study by Herriman and others (Pediatrics. 2017 Feb;139(2). pii: e20161257 Paper) found that “Health food store employees frequently recommend creatine and testosterone boosters for boy high school athletes,” even though the American Academy of Pediatrics has recommended against use of these products. The authors recommended that “pediatricians should inform their teenage patients, especially athletes, about safe, healthy methods to improve athletic performance and discourage them from using creatine or testosterone boosters. Retailers and state legislatures should also consider banning the sale of these products to minors.”

February – A study by Owens and others (Med Sci Sports Exerc. 2017 Feb;49(2):349-356 Abstract) found that high-dose supplements of vitamin D, as used by some sports teams, can have detrimental effects.

February – Anheyer and others reviewed herbal medicines for children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (Complement Ther Med. 2017 Feb;30:14-23 Abstract). They concluded that “Low evidence could be found for Melissa officinalis, Valeriana officinalis and Passiflora incarnata. Limited evidence could be found for pine bark extract and Gingko biloba. The other herbal preparations showed no efficacy in the treatment of ADHD symptoms.”

February – A cohort study of more than 5000 individuals in the Canadian Study of Health and Aging (Basambombo et al., Ann Pharmacother. 2017 Feb;51(2):118-124 Abstract) concluded that “use of vitamin E and C supplements is associated with a reduced risk of cognitive decline.”

February – A review by Thandar and others (Br J Dermatol. 2017 Feb;176(2):330-343 Abstract) concluded that “There is currently insufficient evidence of efficacy for any topical herbal extract in AE [atopic eczema]. Many studies had methodological flaws and even those showing efficacy were single trials with small patient cohorts.”

February 6 – Stephen Barrett revised his article, “A Skeptical Look at Low Level Laser Therapy” on Device Watch. “At this writing, the bottom line appears to be that LLLT devices may bring about temporary relief of some types of pain, but there's no reason to believe that they will influence the course of any ailment or are more effective than standard forms of heat delivery.”

February 7 – As reported in a Story by L. Dearden, “The Russian Academy of Sciences has become the latest body to declare homeopathy has ‘no scientific basis’ and endangers people who believe it to be effective… the Commission Against Pseudoscience and Falsification of Scientific Research described the ‘treatments’ as pseudoscientific, saying that attempts to verify their success had failed for over 200 years.” The U.S. F.D.A. and Australia’s National Health and Medical Research Council have also recently declared homeopathy unscientific.

February 7 – After a 2016 settlement, the Federal Trade Commission began sending refunds to purchases of Mercola indoor tanning systems Press release. “According to the FTC’s complaint, the defendants claimed that their Mercola brand D-Lite, SunSplash, and Vitality indoor tanning systems are safe, that research proves indoor tanning does not increase the risk of melanoma skin cancer, and that its systems can reverse the appearance of aging. The FTC’s complaint alleged that these claims are false and not supported by science.”

February 12 – An article by P. Offit attacked the use of Miracle Mineral Solution for treatment of autism. In addition to being worthless in treating autism, the product can produce severe side effects.

February 16 – Writing for Time, A. Sifferlin described some current life extension approaches. Among those that are questionable are young-blood transfusions, supplements, nootropics (“smart drugs”), and fasting diets.

February 21 – An article by S. Kaplan describes how the FDA received hundreds of adverse events reports (including eight deaths) linked to Hyland’s homeopathic teething products (see Jan. 27 item above). Although homeopathic remedies are often so dilute that they contain little or no active ingredients, these products apparently contained toxic levels of belladonna.