SEPTEMBER 2023 NEWS

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Best of the blogs, September – on Science-Based Medicine,

Scott Gavura:

Discussed misrepresentation in labeling of fish oil supplements. “The primary and most important finding of this audit of fish oil product labels was that they showed a diversity of structure/function claims, which are not supported by robust evidence.”

David Gorski:

Wrote “Cancer quack Stanislaw Burzynski continues to prey on cancer patients in 2023.” “This year, cancer quack Dr. Stanislaw Burzynski turned 80. Unfortunately, he doesn’t seem to be slowing down charging patients with advanced cancer huge sums for false hope.”
Posted “Health misinformation now has powerful allies.” “Misinformation and conspiracy theories about health had long been a growing problem before the pandemic, but it took COVID-19 to get the government and researchers to take it seriously. Now, a new report in The Washington Post adds to previous reporting from multiple sources describing how allies of misinformation—and not just health misinformation—are striking back under the guise of defending ‘free speech’.”

On Respectful Insolence, “Orac”:

Wrote “Vitamin D: COVID-19 quacks embrace more general quackery.”

Edzard Ernst:

Reported on a study of “The effects of yoga, naturopathy, and conventional medical treatment in managing low back pain.” “This is a remarkably poor study. Its flaws are too numerous to account for them all here…Altogether, this study is, I think, a good example for the fact that poor research often is worse than no research at all.”
Posted “Chronic non-specific low back pain: comparing cognitive functional therapy and movement system impairment (MSI)-based treatment.” “I must admit that I am not fully convinced. Firstly, the study was not large and we need – as the authors state – more evidence. Secondly, I am not sure that the results show CFT to be more effective that MSI. They might merely indicate 1) that the bulk of the improvement is due to non-specific effects (e.g. regression towards the mean, natural history of the condition, placebo) and 2) that CFT is less harmful than MSI.”
Posted “Pediatric care by chiropractors borders on child abuse.” “The American Chiropractic Association Council on Chiropractic Pediatrics (CCP) announced a new diplomate education program focused on pediatric care…I think the evidence is quite clear: chiropractic has nothing to offer for ill children that other, properly trained healthcare professionals would not do better…THE BEST A CHIROPRACTOR CAN DO FOR A SICK CHILD IS TO REFER IT TO A COMPETENT DOCTOR – A DOCTOR OF MEDICINE, NOT CHIROPRACTIC!”
Wrote “Homeopathic remedies are placebos, and the positive effects some patients experience are not due to the remedy.” A study of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) was discussed.
Posted “No good evidence that spinal manipulations influence various biochemical markers.” Inflammatory markers and cortisol levels were discussed.
Discussed a study of curcumin for functional dyspepsia. Since it is difficult to blind studies with curcumin, “the much-lauded effect of curcumin might just be due to placebo and curcumin might be entirely useless.”
Posted “Death by homeopathy.” A study of severe liver injury due to homeopathic remedies noted that “The use of mother tinctures, insufficient dilution, poor manufacturing practices, adulteration and contamination, and the presence of direct hepatotoxic herbals were the reasons for toxicity. Physicians, the public, and patients must realize that Homeopathic drugs are not ‘gentle placebos’.” Ernst noted other ways in which homeopathy can be harmful: “the homeopaths can do harm through their often wrong advice in health matters; homeopathy erodes rational thinking.”
Discussed a review of mind body exercise for cognitive function. “It seems to me that the umbrella review hides the crucial fact that many of the primary studies had major flaws, e.g. in terms of: lack of randomisation, lack of blinding…To state that mind body exercises should be promoted for ‘healthy aging’ borders on the irresponsible, in my view…I strongly suspect that a proper review of the primary studies of mind body exercise with a critical evaluation of the quality of the primary studies would lead to dramatically different conclusion.”
Posted “Craniosacral therapy for headache disorders: a systematic review and meta-analysis.” “I find it strange that researchers seem so frequently unable to formulate their conclusions clearly… I suggest something along the following lines: A critical evaluation of the existing RCTs [randomized controlled trials] failed to find convincing evidence that CST is an effective treatment for headache disorders.”
Wrote “Homeopathy: an ongoing public health failure.” An article by Public Citizen on FDA regulation of homeopathic drugs was discussed.
Posted “Craniosacral therapy and acupuncture for chronic migraine: the sense and nonsense of case reports.” “Case reports are particularly valuable if they enable and stimulate others to do more research on a defined and under-researched issue (e.g. an adverse effect of a therapy). Case reports like the one above do not do this. They are a waste of space and tend to be abused as some sort of indication that the treatments in question might be valuable.”
Discussed blood electrification. “Vis a vis so much nonsense, I am almost speechless. I did try to find any credible publications that might back up the multitude of claims made above. Needless to say, I was not successful.”

On McGill Office for Science and Society:

Jonathan Jarry:

Discussed blue-blocking glasses. “Take-home message: Evidence for blue light harming our eyes comes from cell and animal studies, not human studies, and there is no consensus on whether a lifetime accumulation is a risk factor for age-related macular degeneration. The sun emits blue light and is much brighter than any of our electronic devices, yet the blue light from it is not a public health concern. Blue-blocking glasses that use clear, colourless lenses only block a small percentage of blue light. There is an absence of good evidence to recommend blue-blocking glasses and blue-blocking intraocular lenses for cataract surgery. The problems blamed on blue light can be solved by doing the following: dimming lights and relaxing before bed, staring at distant objects regularly when at the computer, and putting on sunscreen before heading outside.”
Wrote “A trampoline to detox is a bad idea.” “Take-home message: Trampolining or rebounding is the practice of bouncing on a trampoline in an attempt to help your lymphatic system do its job of removing so-called toxins from the body. Detox in the context of wellness is an unscientific idea, and there is no evidence to show that using a trampoline improves the flow of lymph in the body. Unlike claims found on the Internet, trampolining is not likely to be safer than running or jogging, as the types of injuries sustained while trampolining tend to be more serious.”
Posted “Magnesium supplements for sleep may not work like a dream.” “The bottom line is that there is no good evidence that supplementing with magnesium will improve your sleep. There are only mechanistic inferences and anecdotes.”

Joe Schwarcz:

Discussed EMMA, “the dietary supplement claiming to solve digestive woes.” “EMMA is one of the thousands of dietary supplements that are promoted without sufficient evidence and hope to snare people who believe in the ‘natural is better’ myth and are seduced by references to supposed ancient wisdom…it is deceptively marketed because no proof is offered for the claim that the product ‘targets bacterial overgrowth, parasites and pathogens while strengthening the microbiome’.”

September - Nikolaidis and Margaritelis published “Free radicals and antioxidants: appealing to magic” (Trends Endocrinol Metab. 2023 Sep;34(9):503-504 Abstract). “In biology, there are no good or evil molecules. There is limited or no evidence to support the consumption of antioxidants or (super)foods rich in antioxidants, for the intended purpose of an antioxidant effect, because there is risk of interfering with free radicals and deoptimizing the regulation of fundamental processes.”

September – Robert Bartholomew and Robert Baloh wrote “The rise and fall of 'Havana Syndrome'.” “Instead of letting the evidence drive their beliefs, people too often let their beliefs drive the evidence. This resulted in people seeing what they wanted to see. When you add politics and lawyers to the mix, that helps to explain why it has taken over six years to resolve.”

September 8 – As described in Consumer Health Digest, “Authors affiliated with the Program on Regulation, Therapeutics, and Law (PORTAL) of Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School have criticized two bills in Congress that would make it harder for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) to limit coverage of FDA-regulated products under Medicare Part B.” The Article is “Protecting Medicare’s discretion to say no to unproven therapies” (Daval et al. JAMA. 2023 Sep 26;330(12):1133-1134).

September 12 – William London published “How the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH) misleads consumers about choosing 'complementary health practitioners'.” “’6 Things to Know When Selecting a Complementary Health Practitioner’ is an advisory that misleads consumers about how they can improve their health. It fails to guide them to make intelligent, informed decisions about health care. It also fails to warn that ‘complementary health’ is often a euphemism for quackery. The advisory is an indication of how misguided NCCIH’s mission is.”

September – Beth Mole wrote “Toddler poisoned after eating deadly plant mislabeled as diet supplement.” Tejocote products marketed for weight loss were found to contain oleander.

September 21 – Stuart Vyse provided an updated critique of the Mozart effect. A new meta-analysis confirmed that there is no evidence of benefits from listening to Mozart’s music.

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