JULY 2024 NEWS

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On Science-Based Medicine,

Mark Crislip:

Provided a critical review of pulse diagnosis, a method used in traditional Chinese medicine.

Scott Gavura:

Posted “No benefit to daily multivitamin use.” A 20-year analysis of almost 400,000 generally healthy adults shows that vitamins do not help you live longer.” The paper discussed is Loftfield et al. JAMA Netw Open. 2024 Jun 3;7(6):e2418729. An accompanying commentary by Barnard et al. (JAMA Netw Open. 2024 Jun 3;7(6):e2418965) pointed out that “Not captured in mortality data, however, are potential benefits that do not affect longevity in cohorts of older adults…Mortality analyses also miss important risks.”
Wrote “Magnesium oil: not so magical.” “All the anecdotes and videos about topical magnesium can’t refute physics – magnesium isn’t absorbed through the skin, so any effects attributed to magnesium oil are placebo.”

David Gorski:

Wrote “Paul Marik: disparaging chemotherapy in order to sell cancer quackery.” “Everything old is new once again, as COVID-19 quacks rehash old cancer quack claims that chemotherapy doesn’t work in order to sell their preferred cancer quackery.”
Posted “Access Consciousness: phrenology fused with energy medicine.” “Access Consciousness claims to show how to improve your mental and physical health by touching 32 Access Bars on your scalp…The bottom line is that Access Consciousness, its practitioners’ denials notwithstanding, really is a lot like reiki, craniosacral therapy, therapeutic touch, acupuncture/acupressure, and every other form of ‘energy healing’ nonsense. It’s primarily religious or mystical in nature, requiring the belief in ‘energetics’ or ‘energy fields’ that are manipulated by the practitioner through touching these various points. Like many forms of energy healing, it’s basically faith healing that substitutes New Age mysticism for Christianity as the religion or supernatural belief system undergirding it.” Jonathan Jarry also discussed Access Consciousness on McGill Office for Science and Society. “Take-home message: Access Consciousness and the concept of Access Bars were conceived by a former real estate business owner claiming to channel the ghost of Rasputin. There is no robust scientific evidence showing that ‘running bars’ on someone has any benefit beyond what would be expected of a relaxing head massage. Investigative journalism into the Access Consciousness movement has produced allegations of misogyny, grooming, and sexual assault.”
Wrote “Aaron Siri vs. Stanley Plotkin on post-licensure safety monitoring of vaccines.” “Vaccine scientist Stanley Plotkin coauthored a commentary on vaccine postlicensure studies. Antivax lawyer Aaron Siri tries to spin it as an ‘admission’ that vaccines aren’t safe.”
Posted “Donald Trump bragged that 'right-to-try' has saved thousands of lives. It hasn’t.”

Clay Jones:

Wrote “The saga continues: Australian chiropractors banned from manipulating infants…again?

Steven Novella:

Discussed “Acupuncture and evidence based medicine.” “In brief – acupuncture exploits all of these weakness of EBM. Acupuncture studies mix in variables like ‘electroacupuncture,’ allow study designers to choose acupuncture points ad hoc without any internal consistency, rely heavily on poorly blinded or even unblinded comparisons, and claim that when ‘placebo’ or ‘sham’ acupuncture work as well as ‘verum’ or true acupuncture, that just means that these other forms of acupuncture also work. P-hacking is rife within the acupuncture literature. Further, when looking at studies from China, publication bias is literally 100%. Acupuncture also is almost designed to maximize placebo effects. It is an elaborate ritual, involves an invasive procedure, and involves a lot of hands-on attention and positive encouragement from a practitioner....The plausibility of acupuncture is very low, because there is no known mechanism, and outside of short term pain and nausea reduction, for any medical application of acupuncture there is no plausible even theoretical mechanism. Perhaps most devastating is that, even after extensive research, acupuncturists cannot demonstrate that acupuncture points exist. They cannot even agree on where they are and what they do. In short – scientifically speaking, acupuncture points don’t exist. If that’s the case, than acupuncture itself does not exist. From a basic science perspective, acupuncture fails utterly.”

On Respectful Insolence, “Orac”:

Wrote “Dr. Pierre Kory has gone all-in on anti-statin quackery.” “COVID contrarian turned antivax crank Dr. Pierre Kory has now embraced statin denial quackery. His evolution from COVID contrarian to all-purpose quack is now complete.”
Posted “From DAN! (Defeat Autism Now!) to DNA alteration by vaccines.” “I have long argued that antivax and science denial are inherently conspiracy theories. Indeed, antivax has long been open to cross-pollination of various conspiracy theories, and this is just an example that I’m surprised I hadn’t seen before. I wonder what other strange new combinations I’ll find if I look. In this case, I never would have imagined that DAN! would, years and years later, morph into DNA conspiracy mongering bout vaccines.”
Discussed “Donald Trump and the return of the antivax 'monster shot'.” “Donald Trump called Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. to try to gain his support. During the call, he repeated antivax tropes that he’s been repeating since 2007.”

Edzard Ernst:

Wrote “The effect of reflexology on immunological parameters of people living with HIV: nonsense on stilts!” “The patients in the control group originate from the hospital’s register from the time before reflexology had been introduced in the standard care package. Thus these patients differ in numerous ways from those of the experimental group…The two patient groups are clearly not comparable! This is also shown by the data published in the paper. So why compare them? The only sensible conclusion of this paper is in my view: In an effort to prove that their SCAM [so-called alternative medicine] works, enthusiasts without research expertise often go to great lengths. As a result they mislead us all and do a great disservice to science and medicine.”
Posted “Reiki for the management of multiple sclerosis: Yet another dodgy study produces a false-positive result.” “Anyway, we should ask why this study generated a positive result. The most plausible explanation is that, as the study was not blind, the Reiki healers managed to maximise patient expectation. This, in turn, has generated a placebo response which affected the subjective outcome measures. In other words, Reiki has no specific effect but patients tend to improve because of non-specific effects.”
Wrote “Which portion of a treatment effect is attributable to contextual effects?” “As placebo and other context effects are unreliable, usually short-lived, and not normally affecting the cause of the problem (but merely the symptoms), I would say that those treatments with a very high PCE [proportion not attributable to the specific effects] are of limited value, particularly if they are also expensive or burdened with risks. Of the treatments studied here, I would – based on the current analysis – avoid the following therapies for pain management: mobilization, soft tissue techniques, dry needling, manipulation, taping.”
Asked “Is chiropractic a health cult?”
Posted “Chiropractic: a view from the inside of the cult.” Chiropractor Jay Kennedy is quoted: “I am not proud of the fact I made a lot of money both in practice and as a lying cultist-entrepreneur…when you do seminars as a chiropractor, most states make you sign a waiver stating that you will not disparage Chiropractic or discuss information that minimize the value of Chiropractic. Can you imagine medical seminars or a scientific seminar having such a waiver?”
Wrote “Dale Thompson, an example of a straight chiropractor.” “He is a prime example of a chiro victim of the ‘Dunning Kruger Effect‘. These people have a thin veneer of respectability which allows them to pretend to be veritable ‘know alls’. They remain entirely oblivious to the fact that they have been brain-washed at chiro school and have become a life-time members of a cult unable to see how deluded they truly are. As such they are dangerous, and I feel that the public needs to be aware of the danger.”
Posted “Digital behavioural therapy for fibromyalgia?” “Here is why I have my doubts: The patients treated with digital ACT [acceptance and commitment therapy] knew that they were getting a novel and thus exciting treatment. The patients randomised to the control group, on the other hand, would most likely be disappointed not to receive this therapy. In other words, there were high expectations in the experimental group and disappointment in the control group. In addition, the unmasked researchers would have had the ambition that their innovation would be successful. Thus they would have used verbal and non-verbal communications with the ACT patients to bring about the desired result. It is therefore conceivable – I think even likely – that these factors would add up to generate a false-positive finding, particularly since the endpoint was entirely subjective.”
Discussed “The place of homeopathy in dentistry.” “As the Brazilian authors of the article fail to say it, allow me to do so: The place of homeopathy in dentistry is nowhere! There is no reliable evidence that homeopathy is effective for any of the conditions listed above.”
Wrote “Efficacy of individualized homeopathic medicines in the treatment of sciatica.” “So, homeopathy does not work for sciatica. Surprise, surprise! Why not? Simple: because homeopathy does not work for any condition.”
Posted “The size of the SCAM [so-called alternative medicine] market is predicted to triple within the next 10 years.” “I must admit, I do like these market reports. They never fail to amuse me – for two main reasons: They are as reliable as reading tea leafs. The only reliable info they do provide is that the SCAM proponents’ often-voiced argument, ‘we are very different from BIG PHARMA’ is pure nonsense.”
Wrote “The effects of reiki on pain, functional status, and holistic well-being in patients with knee osteoarthritis.” “The observed outcomes are much more likely caused by the considerable amount of extra attention and treatment time given to the Reiki group, and the results were entirely unrelated to any specific effects of the therapy. So, I feel the need for re-phrasing the conclusions as follows: Reiki is an implausible treatment and the outcomes of this study are unrelated to any alleged specific effects of this therapy.”
Posted “So-called alternative medicine (SCAM) for whooping cough: to be avoided at all cost.” “There are numerous further SCAM-sites that give advice to use this or that SCAM. The recommended treatments all have one thing in common: they do not work to prevent or treat whooping cough.”
Reported “News from Germany: THE PLACE FOR HOMEOPATHY IS IN THE MEDICAL HISTORY BOOKS!” “After two years of heated debate, the Baden-Württemberg Medical Association, Germany, has decided that further training for doctors in homeopathy will be cancelled…The chamber’s evaluation had concluded that there is no scientific evidence showing that homeopathy is effective for any condition. The German Medical Association had arrived at the same verdict and, already in 2022, it had spoken out in favour of the abolition in 2022.”
Asked “Why does the BBC mislead the public on matters related to so-called alternative medicine (SCAM)?” “The BBC article seems to down-play the safety issue related to Ashwagandha. As we have discussed on this blog, Ashwagandha is far from harmless. In fact, Ashwagandha has been shown to be a herb with a high risk of hepatobiliary toxicity as well as heart problems.”
Discussed his own new systematic review and meta-analysis of visceral osteopathy (Ceballos-Laita et al. Int J Osteopathic Med, July 18 Abstract, introduction, and highlights). “For musculoskeletal disorders, the qualitative and quantitative synthesis suggested that VO produces no statistically significant changes in any outcome variable for patients with low back pain, neck pain or urinary incontinence. For non-musculoskeletal conditions, the qualitative synthesis showed that VO was not effective for the treatment of irritable bowel syndrome, breast cancer, and very low weight preterm infants. Most of the studies were classified as high risk of bias and the certainty of evidence downgraded to low or very low.”
Wrote “Acupuncture for smoking cessation? I don’t think so!” “…the therapists were not ‘blind’…This means that the acupuncturists (who had a vested interest in the trial generating positive results) had plenty of opportunity to influence the trial participants via verbal and non-verbal communication. In turn, this means that the observed positive outcome might be due to this influence rather than any postulated effect of acupuncture. But there is a further caveat: the study originates from China…As we have discussed ad nauseam on this blog, Chinese researchers as good as never publish a negative study of acupuncture.”

On McGill Office for Science and Society, Joe Schwarcz:

Asked “Can ‘senolytics’ slow aging?” (video with transcript). Senolytics are “molecules that in theory destroy senescent cells and thereby improve health and possibly reduce aging…There are no published clinical human trials that have documented the benefits of senolytics for the general population. Even if there is a benefit, the question of dosage has to be resolved. Furthermore, there is no clear evidence that senolytics do not affect healthy cells, a possibility depending on the dose. Such unknowns have not stopped supplement producers from promoting various senolytics as ‘groundbreaking’ and as a ‘potential fountain of youth.’ Senolytics may with time turn out to really be age-reducing substances, but that time has not yet come.”
Wrote “Sea moss, chili peppers and broccoli soup.” “I am flooded with dietary advice. That’s what happens as a result of signing up for all sorts of newsletters, blogs, Facebook posts and videos streamed from TikTok and Instagram, an occupational necessity when you are in the business of separating sense from nonsense.”
Posted “Can pills prevent skin damage from the sun?” (video with transcript) There have been a number of clinical trials, “mostly funded by the manufacturer, but they are not compelling. In general, they use a small number of subjects and are not randomized, blinded or placebo controlled. In the largest clinical trial, there was no significant difference in skin damage between subjects who used a sunscreen plus PLE [the South American fern, Polypodium leucotomos] pills and those who used only a sunscreen.”

In Skeptical Inquirer:

Robert Bartholomew wrote “Smoke and mirrors: The 60 Minutes ‘breakthrough’ on Havana Syndrome exposed.” “Based on the assessments by the intelligence community and the results of the National Institutes of Health studies, Havana Syndrome is dead. In fact, it only really existed as a social construct.”
Nick Tiller wrote “From gods to gurus: the evolution of Olympic superstition and pseudoscience.” “Elite sport operates at the extremes, at the intersection of financial incentives and a win at all costs mentality. It’s a dangerous combination where snake oil is an attractive panacea.” Cupping, whole-body cryotherapy, and K-tape are discussed.

July 2 – Paul Knoepfler wrote “Lung Institute stem cell clinic loses class action suit, patients awarded $9M.” “There is no good evidence in my view that stem cells, PRP [platelet-rich plasma], or other similar biologics can help lung diseases…While lawsuits like this latest class action suit and actions by state AGs [attorneys general] can have positive impact, they are no substitute for oversight by the FDA. State medical boards have also generally failed to address stem cell clinic doctors in their states, even after complaints are filed.”

July 15 – Mak and others published “Use of massage therapy for pain, 2018-2023: a systematic review” (JAMA Netw Open. 2024 Jul 1;7(7):e2422259 Paper). “This study found that despite a large number of randomized clinical trials, systematic reviews of massage therapy for painful adult health conditions rated a minority of conclusions as moderate-certainty evidence and that conclusions with moderate- or high-certainty evidence that massage therapy was superior to other active therapies were rare.”

July 15 –Trisha Pasrich wrote “These essential oils have science-backed health benefits.” Essential oils are used in aromatherapy. “From a purely medical perspective, it’s hard to say that many essential oils are doing anything profound. The health claims linked to most varieties, such as citronella, bergamot, rose and sandalwood, are lacking in convincing data from clinical studies. But there is reasonable medical evidence for a few uses, including: Peppermint oil capsules for irritable bowel syndrome. Lavender oil capsules or aromatherapy for sleep and anxiety. Tea tree oil applied topically for acne.”

July 16 – Andrea Love discussed at-home allergy tests. “I want to say unequivocally that at-home allergy tests should never be used for diagnosis. They are not FDA-approved or validated for use. Their methods and results are not accurate and trusting them can lead to harmful consequences…Relying on unvalidated testing methods such as urine tests or finger prick tests for allergies can lead to misdiagnosis, inappropriate treatment, and potentially overlooking other underlying health issues. While these may seem like convenient methods, they are not a replacement for professional expert evaluation and FDA-approved testing.”

July 16 – F. Perry Wilson wrote “Does this 'stem cell' therapy contain any actual stem cells?” A study was described in which procedures used in stem cell clinics were tested. Samples taken from adipose tissue or bone marrow contained few, if any, stem cells.

July 22 – Marcus Banks wrote “Ask teenage boys if they use muscle-building supplements.”

July 29 – Melinda Wenner Moyer wrote “Swish, spit, repeat: is oil pulling good for your teeth?” Oil pulling is a practice from Ayurvedic medicine. There is no evidence that it has any benefits compared to tooth brushing.

Additions to previous months

May 2 – As noted in Consumer Health Digest, “A federal judge in the Southern District Court of New York has accepted a jury’s finding that Quincy Bioscience Holding Company, Inc.; Quincy Bioscience, LLC; Prevagen, Inc.; Quincy Bioscience Manufacturing, LLC; and four other corporate defendants made fraudulent and deceptive statements about the supplement Prevagen and are liable for violating New York’s consumer-protection laws…The OAG [Office of the Attorney General]’s lawsuit asserted Quincy did not have adequate scientific evidence to substantiate claims about Prevagen, including it: (a) improves memory, (b) improves memory within 90 days, (c) reduces memory problems associated with aging, (d) provides other cognitive benefits, including a healthy brain function, a sharper mind, and clearer thinking, and (e) has been ‘clinically shown’ to do each of these things…Prevagen derives its supposed active ingredient from a protein that makes jellyfish glow.”

June 2 – Shah and others published “A systematic review supporting the Endocrine Society Clinical Practice Guidelines on vitamin D” (J Clin Endocrinol Metab. 2024 Jul 12;109(8):1961-1974 Paper). “In children and adolescents, low-certainty evidence suggested reduction in respiratory tract infections with empiric vitamin D. There was no significant effect on select outcomes in healthy adults aged 19 to 74 years with variable certainty of evidence. There was a very small reduction in mortality among adults older than 75 years with high certainty of evidence. In pregnant women, low-certainty evidence suggested possible benefit on various maternal, fetal, and neonatal outcomes. In adults with prediabetes, moderate certainty of evidence suggested reduction in the rate of progression to diabetes. Administration of high-dose intermittent vitamin D may increase falls, compared to lower-dose daily dosing.”

June 21 – Andrea Love posted “Adrenal fatigue: another fake diagnosis.” “Adrenal fatigue is the false belief that our adrenal glands become ‘worn out’ as a result of prolonged, repetitive stress – and the output of key regulatory hormones, like the 'master stress hormone' cortisol, is diminished. Let’s be clear: adrenal fatigue is not a true medical condition.”

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