Best of the blogs, May – on Science-Based Medicine, Jann Bellamy:
discussed the regulation of cannabidiol (CBD). “While hinting that there may be an avenue forward for CBD-containing dietary supplements and foods, the FDA is making clear it will not tolerate companies illegally selling CBD products that claim to prevent, diagnose, treat, or cure disease...”
posted “FDA should pull the plug on thermography.” “So, if thermography is not effective as a screening tool ‘for any medical condition’ even ‘when used . . . with another diagnostic test,’ why should it retain its Class I clearance for use as adjunctive diagnostic screening for breast cancer detection or any other disease or condition?”
James Coyne:
described how the journal PLOS One “published a clinical trial that was essentially a poorly-disguised advertisement for an unproven product.” The product “supposedly treats fibromyalgia, but also pain, dementia, Parkinson’s disease and more with just SOUND: basically just listening to a 40hz tone.”
Scott Gavura:
posted “CAM and cancer: Who uses CAM, and why?”
David Gorski:
discussed antivaccination claims promoted by Del Bigtree and ICAN concerning the MMR vaccine.
wrote “The NORI protocol: An unproven fruit-based nutritional treatment for cancer sold by a self-proclaimed ‘expert’.”
posted “Chronic Lyme disease: Fake diagnosis, not fake disease.”
Harriet Hall:
wrote “SmartJane Test of Vaginal Health: Clever Marketing, Questionable Science.” “The uBiome company’s SmartJane test claims to use state-of-the-art DNA sequencing technology, machine learning, artificial intelligence, statistical genetics, algorithms, and other proprietary innovations so women can assess their own vaginal health.”
posted “Treating Mental Illness with Nutrition: The Walsh Protocol.” “The Walsh protocol is basically just an updated version of a decades-old questionable approach called orthomolecular psychiatry. It is gussied up with recent science, with references to epigenetics, heavy metal overloads, and methylation. It might impress some readers as cutting-edge science but is really little more than lipstick on a pig.”
Samuel Homola:
wrote “The Yoke of Chiropractic: Vertebral Subluxation Doctrine.” “As a belief system that is not subject to critical thinking, subluxation-based chiropractic care will continue to hinder the development of chiropractic as a science-based specialty.”
David Weinberg:
posted “Patients blinded by stem cell therapy: an update.”
On Respectful Insolence, “Orac”:
had three posts on the antivaccination movement. The May 3 post was “The violent rhetoric of the antivaccine movement intensifies.” On May 8 he posted “RFK Jr.: So antivaccine that even his family calls him out on it.” The May 31 post was “Antivaccine physicians like Dr. Lawrence Palevsky should all lose their medical licenses.” “Basically, if a physician is antivaccine, you can, with a high degree of confidence, be sure that antivaccine quackery is not the only form of quackery that that physician is practicing.”
wrote “Paddison Program: Dietary quackery for rheumatoid arthritis.”
posted “Noa McAdams: Another story of "parental rights" to choose quackery versus the rights of a child with cancer.”
wrote “Mao triumphant: The World Health Organization officially embraces traditional Chinese medicine quackery,” a followup to previous posts on the WHO’s adoption of TCM disease classifications.
Edzard Ernst:
posted twice on chiropractic. The May 2 post was “A truly pitiful statement by the ‘Canadian Chiropractic Association’ about the safety of chiropractic.” The May 16 post discussed a trial of spinal manipulative therapy for older adults with chronic low back pain. Ernst concluded, “the new findings are a very clear verdict: exercise is preferable to SMT in the treatment of LBP.”
had two posts on reiki. On May 10 he discussed a feasibility study on reiki for pain relief in pediatric patients undergoing stem cell transplantation: “...it is high time to stop researching such implausible nonsense.” The May 22 post was entitled “‘Reiki distant healing’ … has now been scientifically proven !?!?”
discussed so-called "medical kidnapping," in which children are taken from their parents in order to secure necessary medical treatment.
posted “'Biofield tuning': a new and fantastic SCAM” [so-called alternative medicine]. The method involves “Holding an activated tuning fork in the area of a traumatic memory or another difficult time period.”
discussed adverse effects of acupuncture.
asked: “Fibromyalgia - can any type of SCAM treat the ‘root cause’ of this (or any other) condition?”
posted “Danshen, an effective treatment for cancer?” Danshen is a traditional Chinese herbal remedy. Although a review concluded that it was beneficial, Ernst listed “a few points to explain why the conclusions of the Chinese authors are nonsense.”
wrote “Glucosamine supplements might reduce cardiovascular risks.”
discussed sophrology, “a non medication-based method which involves both the body and mind. It combines relaxing the muscles, increasing awareness of breathing and positive thinking.” Despite its popularity in France, Ernst finds no good evidence of effectiveness.
rebutted the claim that elderberry is useful for treating influenza.
listed 10 ways in which so-called alternative medicine causes harm.
discussed a paper on the adverse effects of Kampo, the traditional Japanese herbal medicine.
May - Jones, Campbell, and Hart reviewed “Laboratory tests commonly used in complementary and alternative medicine” (Ann Clin Biochem. 2019 May;56(3):310-325 Abstract). “Many have little or no clinical utility and have been widely discredited, whilst others are established tests that are used for unvalidated purposes.” Jann Bellamy and Edzard Ernst discussed the paper.
May – Vyse wrote “National Down Syndrome Society Promotes Communication Pseudoscience” (Skeptical Inquirer. 2019 May/June;43(3):28-30). The society “offered a free public webinar on facilitated communication (FC), a thoroughly discredited method most often used with people who have autism.”
May – three reviews dealt with acupuncture. Zhang and others concluded that “Acupuncture is effective in improving functional communication in post-stroke aphasia” (Wien Klin Wochenschr. 2019 May;131(9-10):221-32 Abstract). Hsieh et al. concluded that “Acupuncture therapy improves health-related quality of life in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease” (Complement Ther Clin Pract. 2019 May;35:208-18 Abstract). Zhang and others concluded that “acupuncture seems to be an effective therapy for Bell's palsy” (Medicine (Baltimore). 2019 May;98(19):e15566 Paper); “However, the results should be interpreted cautiously, because of the poor quality and heterogeneity of the included studies.”
May – A review of electroacupuncture for stroke (Wei et al. J Stroke Cerebrovasc Dis. 2019 May;28(5):1388-99 Abstract) concluded that “EA has a positive effect on alleviating pain, improving limb dysfunction, and promoting activities of daily living.”
May – Boyer and others analyzed “Promotion of Testing for Celiac Disease and the Gluten-Free Diet Among Complementary and Alternative Medicine Practitioners” (Am J Gastroenterol. 2019 May;114(5):786-91 Abstract). “Of 232 marketing claims made by these complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) clinic websites, 138 (59.5%) were either false or unproven” News story.
May – Trexler et al. reviewed “Acute Effects of Citrulline Supplementation on High-Intensity Strength and Power Performance” (Sports Med. 2019 May;49(5):707-71 Abstract). They concluded that “The effect size was small (0.20), and confidence intervals for each individual study crossed the line of null effect. However, the results may be relevant to high-level athletes, in which competitive outcomes are decided by small margins.”
May – A review of wet cupping, a method from traditional Chinese medicine, for hypertension found that “no firm conclusions can be drawn and no clinical recommendations made” (Lu et al. Clin Exp Hypertens. 2019;41(5):474-80 Abstract).
May – Sanford and other reported that about 30% of cancer patients using complementary and alternative medicine “did not disclose the use of CAM to their physician” (JAMA Oncol. 2019 May 1;5(5):735-737 1st paragraph).
May 7 – Chen wrote “The birth-tissue profiteers.” “Unscientific methods, deceptive marketing, price gouging and disregard for patients’ well-being were rampant across the amniotic stem cell therapy industry…Amniotic stem cell products are made solely from tissues related to childbirth, not from embryonic cells. The scientific consensus is that they may be able to turn into a limited range of tissue types — namely bone, fat and cartilage — but they can’t turn into liver, heart or brain cells, for example. Even if such a transformation were possible, scientists don’t know how it could happen or what would trigger it. Until this regenerative capacity is proved, some researchers say, these birth-tissue cells shouldn’t be called stem cells at all.”
May 8 – “Maryland Attorney General Brian E. Frosh is warning consumers to be suspicious of representatives of companies that purport to offer ‘free’ DNA testing to check for cancer. The DNA testing scam is a new twist used by scammers to trick people into giving away their health insurance information for the purpose of committing identity theft and fraud.”
May 13 – Grady and Abelson published “Stem cell treatments flourish with little evidence that they work.”
May 14 – A large prospective study in Britain found that use of glucosamine supplements for arthritis pain appeared to be associated with a lower risk of heart disease (Ma et al. BMJ. 2019 May 14;365:l1628 Paper).
May 14 – An FDA News Release was entitled “FDA warns manufacturers of products labeled as homeopathic for putting consumers at risk with significant violations of manufacturing quality standards.”
May 18 – Pilkington and Mwesigwa wrote “US pastor runs network giving 50,000 Ugandans bleach-based 'miracle cure'.” The so-called “miracle mineral solution” was claimed to cure “cancer, HIV/Aids, malaria, and most other diseases.” (see also May 21 item below)
May 20 – “Walmart is committing wide-scale consumer fraud and endangering the health of its customers through its sale and marketing of homeopathic medicines, the Center for Inquiry (CFI) alleges in a lawsuit” Press release. Jann Bellamy discussed the story on Science-Based Medicine.
May 21 – Zadrozny wrote “Parents are poisoning their children with bleach to 'cure' autism. These moms are trying to stop it.” The mothers infiltrate Facebook groups that promote the dangerous practice. “Orac” discussed the story on Respectful Insolence.
May 30 – The FDA sent a warning letter to R3 Stem Cell, which “offers unapproved stem cell products to treat a variety of diseases and conditions, such as Lyme disease, diabetes, Parkinson’s disease, stroke, kidney failure and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS)” Press release.
Best of the blogs, June – on Science-Based Medicine, Jann Bellamy:
discussed infusions of "young blood" promoted by Ambrosia Health.
Scott Gavura:
reported on lactation cookies. “…seeing a business opportunity, a large industry has developed that targets women at this vulnerable time. Products that are promoted to assist with lactation may not be supported by robust evidence of effectiveness or safety for either the mother or the infant.”
David Gorski:
posted “Dubious for-profit stem cell clinics: Co-opting ClinicalTrials.gov as a marketing tool.”
Harriet Hall:
discussed lab tests from EverlyWell. “EverlyWell’s tests don’t make sense. Most of them are not medically indicated, and in the few cases where a test might be indicated, patients would be better off consulting their physician. Some of the tests, like IgG for food sensitivities, are known to be useless and are contraindicated. Others are questionable and not supported by evidence.
wrote “Juice Plus+: Good marketing, not good science.” “Juice Plus+ may reassure scientifically naïve customers so they won’t have to worry about their diet. At a cost of around $500 a year, I don’t think it’s a prudent investment.”
posted “Can a One-Minute Cure really heal virtually all diseases?” The “cure” is hydrogen peroxide.
Clay Jones:
wrote “No. ‘Big Data’ Does Not Support Chiropractic Care for Infants.” “Conclusion: Just another worthless collection of anecdotes.”
Steven Novella:
complained that the World Health Organization, “in its latest International Classification of Diseases (ICD-11), has chosen to include a chapter on Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) diagnoses.”
David Weinberg:
wrote “Patients Blinded by Stem Cell Therapy: FDA (and consumers) win a legal victory!
On Respectful Insolence, “Orac”:
had three posts concerning antivaccination efforts. The June 14 post was “Jessica Biel: The latest celebrity comes out.” On June 19 he discussed the “rebranding” of Generation Rescue and its association with marketing of dubious products. On June 21 he posted “Bernard and Lisa Selz (and Albert Dwoskin): Name and shame wealthy donors funding antivaxers.”
posted “Katie Britton-Jordan: Sadly, vegan diets don’t cure cancer.” “It’s the story of another breast cancer patient who probably didn’t have to die of her disease but did anyway because she chose to forego effective, science-based surgical and medical care and instead opted for quackery.”
wrote “William Shatner: New celebrity pitch man for dubious anti-aging stem cell treatments?”
discussed the banning of Mike Adams from Facebook.
posted “Has Google finally adjusted its algorithm to deprioritize quack content? Dr. Mercola thinks so.”
Edzard Ernst:
wrote twice about chiropractic. The June 13 post was “More chiropractic delusions about infantile colic.” On June 19 he wrote “The majority of patients having manual therapy for back or neck pain report adverse events.”
posted “Matcha tea: the new SCAM [so-called alternative medicine] to scam the gullible consumer?”
wrote “A suspect homeopathy paper has been withdrawn. Does that mean it was fraudulent?”
commented on “Integrative medicine for the US military. A letter from Wayne Jonas.” “Wayne fails to provide the slightest evidence that his concepts amount to more than wishful thinking…I simply do not believe that adding a few unproven therapies to our routine healthcare and wrapping the mixture into politically correct platitudes will improve anything. This cannot work from a theoretical standpoint and, crucially, there is no empirical evidence that it does improve anything else but the income stream of charlatans.”
posted “Tian Jui for allergic rhinitis – one of the worst studies I have seen for a long time.” In Tian Jui, “Herbal patches are applied on the selected acupoints or the diseased body part.” Discussing the paper, published in Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine, Ernst wrote: “I often hesitate whether or not to discuss the plethora such frightfully incompetent research. The reason I sometimes do it is to alert the public to the fact that so much utter rubbish is published by incompetent researchers in trashy (but Medline-listed) journals, passed by incompetent ethics committees, supported by naïve funding agencies, accepted by reviewers and editors who evidently do not do their job properly.”
June – Skeptic Magazine included Harriet Hall’s column, “Laser Therapy: Hope or Hype and Hokum?” (“The use of therapeutic lasers by veterinarians and medical doctors is not warranted by the existing scientific evidence.”) Also, Bleske-Rechek and others wrote “Therapeutic Touch Redux: Twenty Years After the ‘Emily Event,’ Energy Therapies Live on Through Bad Science.”
June – Sahebkar-Khorasani and others reviewed herbal medicines for suppressing appetite (Complement Ther Med. 2019 Jun;44:242-52 Abstract). “One study on the Meratrim formulation which contained the Sphaeranthus indicus flower heads extract and Garcinia mangostana fruit, revealed longer-term evidence; while 6 studies on Ilex paraguariensis, Spinacia oleracea, Phaseolus vulgaris, Secale cereale, Sorghum bicolor and Plantago showed short-term evidence for suppressing appetite…Despite some methodological concerns in the included studies, there is promising evidence for suppressing appetite with herbal medicines that needs to be confirmed in long-term clinical trials with adequate sample size and higher methodological quality with more attention to safety, effective dose and side effects.”
June – A review of the effects of royal jelly found that it “did not beneficially affect markers of glycemia” (Mahboobi et al. Complement Ther Med. 2019 Jun;44:235-41 Abstract).
June – Dupont and others reviewed “The role of omega-3 in the prevention and treatment of sarcopenia” (Aging Clin Exp Res. 2019 Jun;31(6):825-36 Paper). They concluded that “there is growing evidence for a beneficial effect of omega-3 PUFAs supplementation in sarcopenic older persons, which may add to the effect of exercise and/or protein supplementation.”
June – David and Cunningham reviewed “Echinacea for the prevention and treatment of upper respiratory tract infections” (Complement Ther Med. 2019 Jun;44:18-26 Abstract). They wrote, “Our review presents evidence that echinacea might have a preventative effect on the incidence of upper respiratory tract infections but whether this effect is clinically meaningful is debatable. We did not find any evidence for an effect on the duration of upper respiratory tract infections…users of echinacea can be assured that echinacea preparations are safe to consume in the short term however they should not be confident that commercially available remedies are likely to shorten the duration or effectively prevent URTI.”
June – A review concluded that “the practice of yoga seems to facilitate motor learning, to increase body awareness and to decrease pain” (Rivest-Gadbois and Boudrias. Complement Ther Med. 2019 Jun;44:129-42 Abstract).
June 3 – Naturopathic critic Britt Hermes reported that she had prevailed in a defamation lawsuit against her by Colleen Huber, a promoter of alternative cancer treatments. Edzard Ernst discussed the case.
June 3 – The FDA issued a “Statement on warning for women of childbearing age about possible safety risks of dietary supplements containing vinpocetine.” “Dietary supplements containing vinpocetine are often marketed for uses that include enhanced memory, focus, or mental acuity; increased energy; and weight loss. Scientists who have studied the effects of vinpocetine on pregnant animals concluded that vinpocetine decreased fetal weight and increased the chances of a miscarriage.”
June 4 – NBC News reported that “FDA wins case against Florida stem cell clinic that harmed three women's vision.” “…The federal judge ruled that the FDA has the authority to regulate treatments provided by U.S. Stem Cell Clinic and U.S. Stem Inc., which claim stem cells derived from a patient's own fat cells can treat conditions ranging from Parkinson’s disease to pulmonary fibrosis.”
June 7 – Corso and others reviewed “The effects of spinal manipulation on performance-related outcomes in healthy asymptomatic adult population” (Chiropr Man Therap. 2019 Jun 7;27:25 Paper). They found that spinal manipulative therapy did not enhance performance. Edzard Ernst discussed the findings in a post entitled “ Chiropractic, osteopathy: Yet another lucrative claim turns out to be bogus.”
June 7 – Vitale and Getzin published “Nutrition and Supplement Update for the Endurance Athlete” (Nutrients. 2019 Jun 7;11(6). pii: E1289 Paper). They concluded that “Nitrates may help reduce oxygen cost and improve time to exhaustion…Studies are mixed however, and nitrate may preferentially benefit non-elite recreational athletes. Antioxidants may help an athlete who has already peaked in terms of training adaptation, where the main goal is facilitating recovery and earlier return to competition in multi-stage events.”
June 7 – Stephen Barrett posted a revised version of “Don't Pay or Contract in Advance for Chiropractic Visits at a ‘Discount’ Price.”
June 8 – Knoll wrote “Smash the Wellness Industry.” “I could recognize wellness culture for what it was — a dangerous con that seduces smart women with pseudoscientific claims of increasing energy, reducing inflammation, lowering the risk of cancer and healing skin, gut and fertility problems. But at its core, ‘wellness’ is about weight loss.” Steven Novella commented on Science-Based Medicine. “So yes, the ‘wellness’ industry is a snake-oil industry, specifically targeting women and exploiting cultural pressure to be thin. But this is just the tip of a very large and very old iceberg of quackery.”
June 9 – Stephen Barrett posted “A Skeptical Look at ALCAT Testing” on Quackwatch. “The Antigen Leukocyte Antibody Test…analyzes the responses of the patient's white blood cells (leukocytes) when incubated with extracts of foods and other test substances. Proponents claim that the test can detect otherwise hidden allergies and ‘intolerances’ and that avoiding the alleged offenders can lead to improved health. This article explains why the scientific community is skeptical.”
June 10 – Skeptical Raptor published an updated article, “MTHFR gene and vaccines – what are the facts and myths.” “There is clearly no peer-reviewed and published evidence of any danger to children with the MTHFR gene mutation being at risk from vaccines, despite widespread internet rumors and myths to the contrary.”
June 10 – Mole published “Facebook bans health and conspiracy site Natural News.”
June 14 - Xie and others reviewed “The effects of acupuncture on pregnancy outcomes of in vitro fertilization” (BMC Complement Altern Med. 2019 Jun 14;19(1):131 Paper). “Our analysis finds a benefit of acupuncture for IVF outcomes in women with a history of unsuccessful IVF attempt, and number of acupuncture treatments is a potential influential factor. Given the poor reporting and methodological flaws of existing studies, studies with larger scales and better methodologies are needed to verify these findings.”
June 14 – Zadrozny reported “Fake science led a mom to feed bleach to her autistic sons — and police did nothing to stop her.”
June 17 – Smith published “Jessica Biel says she supports vaccines — which is exactly what anti-vaxxers say.” “Cloaking anti-vaccine beliefs in the rhetoric of civil and religious liberties does not sound overtly anti-science. But I don’t believe them, and neither should you.”
June 17 – Miller and Bloom wrote “FDA must do more to protect consumers from ‘outright fraud’ of dietary supplements.”
June 18 – Fourcade published “France’s 200-Year-Old Love Affair With Homeopathy Is Under Siege.”
June 19 – An article by Reynolds was entitled “An anti-aging pill? Think twice.” “The diabetes drug metformin, sometimes taken to slow aging, may blunt the health benefits of exercise.”
June 20 – Merlan wrote “Everything I Learned While Getting Kicked out of America's Biggest Anti-Vaccine Conference.”
June 25 – Fu and others published “Characteristics and Scope of Training of Clinicians Participating in the US Direct-to-Consumer Marketplace for Unproven Stem Cell Interventions” (JAMA. 2019 Jun 25;321(24):2463-4 Abstract). Only 19% of companies “that marketed stem cells for nonorthopedic indications had physicians practicing within their scope of training…”
June 25 – The FDA issued “warnings to companies selling illegal, unapproved kratom drug products marketed for opioid cessation, pain treatment and other medical uses” News release. “’We have issued numerous warnings about the serious risks associated with the use of kratom, including warnings about the contamination of kratom products with high rates of salmonella that put people using kratom products at risk, and resulted in numerous illnesses and recalls…we also found high levels of heavy metals in kratom products. Despite our warnings, companies continue to sell this dangerous product and make deceptive medical claims that are not backed by science or any reliable scientific evidence,’ said Acting FDA Commissioner Ned Sharpless, M.D.”
Addition to earlier pages
July, 2018 – Rahimi and others reviewed “The Effects of Beta-Hydroxy-Beta-Methylbutyrate Supplementation on Recovery Following Exercise-Induced Muscle Damage” (the supplement is known as HMB) (J Am Coll Nutr. 2018 Sep-Oct;37(7):640-9 Abstract). The results indicated effectiveness.
November, 2018 – Bolland, Grey, and Avenell reviewed “Effects of vitamin D supplementation on musculoskeletal health” (Lancet Diabetes Endocrinol. 2018 Nov;6(11):847-58 Abstract). “Our findings suggest that vitamin D supplementation does not prevent fractures or falls, or have clinically meaningful effects on bone mineral density. There were no differences between the effects of higher and lower doses of vitamin D. There is little justification to use vitamin D supplements to maintain or improve musculoskeletal health.”
March, 2019 – Grams wrote “Homeopathy - where is the science? A current inventory on a pre-scientific artifact” (EMBO Rep. 2019 Mar;20(3). pii: e47761 First page). “The almost unanimous view of the scientific community is that the basic assumptions on which homeopathy rests are either refuted or implausible.”
April 10, 2019 – Hviid and others published “Measles, Mumps, Rubella Vaccination and Autism: A Nationwide Cohort Study” (Ann Intern Med. 2019 Apr 16;170(8):513-520 Paper). This large study (more than 600,000 children) followed up a previous study by the same group and addressed some of the criticisms of the earlier study. Once again, the results were unequivocal that vaccination is not linked to autism.