Late night with John Counsell, May 17, 2012
We discuss my reasons for posting this and how patient access to care and their doctor will suffer
Late night with John Counsell: Losing Family Doctors thanks to McGuinty's health care decisions Play Now | Play in Popup | DownloadHere is the official document from the OMA outlining the future death of family practice. For those of you that are not physicians on this list, you WILL lose your doctor if this stuff goes through. When you read the section on negation, this means that your doctor will have to pay for ALL of [...]
Martin Robbins of the Guardian provides a sad yet humourous and true representation of the state of most science reporting.
Madely Health Headlines Commentary for March 22, 2010
Source:
Pure maple syrup good for health
Comment: Big surprise that the Federation of Quebec Maple Syrup Producers are jumping all over this. The report does not involve human testing and cannot make any association with claims of anti-cancer, anti-bacterial and anti-diabetic properties. Further, even if we were to assume that it did contain these compounds, what dose would be necessary? How much maple syrup would you have to consume each day to provide a long-term health benefit? What would be the effect of the extra calories with respect to weight gain and the subsequent problems therein?
Enjoy maple syrup for its taste but let’s not justify its use for its medicinal properties and beware of marketers who are salivating over slapping health claims on the labels. For the moment, it is great tasting sugar. That is all that can be said.
Dr. Yoni Freedhoff outlines in an article written in this month’s CMAJ how Health Canada is pushing a policy that will allow fortification of foods with vitamins and minerals without any evidence that it will improve public health. Moreover, there is a real risk of overconsumption of said additions to our food supply that can [...]
Ottawa Citizen journalist Dan Gardner castigates, and rightly so, how Olympic athletes sell out to corporations for oodles of cash without any consideration for the potential harm to public health outcomes. His column can be read here.
Madely Health Headlines Commentary for February 3, 2010
Comment:
This is a story that we have covered extensively over the years on Sunday House Call. An excellent synopsis can be heard in our interview with Guardian columnist Dr. Ben Goldacre here.
I hold the some of the media just as responsible as Dr. Wakefield for this fiasco by sensationalizing news, promoting fear, and misrepresenting risk to peddle their stories. They are thus complicit in this MMR hoax. To see them react with such gusto against Wakefield and his research now that this paper has been completely retracted from publication epitomizes hypocrisy. They have learned nothing from their shameless behaviour and poor science reporting.
Source:
Lancet retracts study linking vaccine to autism
Reference:
The Lancet, Early Online Publication, 2 February 2010
Retraction—Ileal-lymphoid-nodular hyperplasia, non-specific colitis, and pervasive developmental disorder in children
Following the judgment of the UK General Medical Council’s Fitness to Practise Panel on Jan 28, 2010, it has become clear that several elements of the 1998 paper by Wakefield et al1 are incorrect, contrary to the findings of an earlier investigation.2 In particular, the claims in the original paper that children were “consecutively referred” and that investigations were “approved” by the local ethics committee have been proven to be false. Therefore we fully retract this paper from the published record.
Thanks to my friend and webmaster Brigitte Pellerin, I am now the proud owner of this app that provides quick access to my daily Health Headline hits with CFRA’s Steve Madely and access to all the audio interviews from my Sunday House Call Show.
Madely Health Headlines Commentary for January 11, 2010
Source:
Air Canada ordered to create nut-free buffer zones
A CFRA web poll asked this question and I discussed this with Steve Madely. This is a continuation of our discussion from last week.
Madely Health Headlines Commentary for January 8, 2010
Source:
Air Canada ordered to create nut-free buffer zones
Comment:
This is a classic illustration of poor risk evaluation. There is no information available in this article to help me answer the basic questions when examining a health claim.
How many people suffer anaphylactic reactions on airplanes that require emergency treatment? How many have died? What is the incidence of these occurrences?
Has there been any evidence to show what the risk reduction would be with setting this policy? Will there be any subsequent evaluation to look at outcomes? And if the outcome demonstrates little to no reduction of risk or incidence, will there be a push to rescind this edict?
Have proactive measures by people who have nut allergies prior to boarding the plane been sufficient to prevent anaphylaxis?
This is a classic illustration of the precautionary principle eloquently discussed by this man.
An exerpt from the website Junkfood Science illustrates this point.
Food allergy deaths have only been tracked by the CDC since 1998, using death certificates coded using ICD-10 classifications (the 10th edition of the International Statistical Classification of Diseases). ICD-10 hasn’t yet been universally adopted, which makes the accuracy of its figure unreliable. It reports that of 2.5 million deaths among all ages in the U.S. in 2005, 11 people died from a food allergy in 2005, with the number from peanuts unknown.
Perhaps the most accurate population data on peanut-related deaths among children comes from the UK. Its national death statistics and pediatric surveillance system has recorded death statistics for nearly all children and it reported that only one child, a 15-year old, died from a peanut allergy between 1990 and 2000.
An interview on CTV’s Canada AM on December 29, 2009.
Here are the stories.
1) Obseity surgery can reverse type 2 diabetes for some
One of the wonders of science is how an action based on initial assumptions, hypotheses and theories can lead, at times, to unexpected and indeed beneficial consequences. When these consequences have the potential to affect the lives of millions of people, the research obviously takes on added significance.
The treatment of obesity via bariatric or gastric bypass surgery does help many to lose significant weight. Many of these people have type 2 diabetes. They have been either using insulin or a combination of oral medications to control the disease. However, the earlier the disease is diagnosed in a person’s life, the more likely they will suffer the myriad of cardiovascular and kidney complications among others. They believe that diabetes is a chronic, progressive incurable disease.
According to surgeon Dr. Richard Stubbs, this belief is wrong. He hypothesizes that type 2 diabetes is a disease of the gut and has evidence to substantiate the claim. Moreover, in diabetic patients who undergo gastric bypass, their type 2 diabetes disappears, in 6 days and never returns
2) Nanosuturing using light to stitch a wound
I am reminded of a scene from the science fiction movie Logan’s Run where a plastic surgeon uses a laser to cut the skin, makes the cosmetic change, and then seals the wound with a laser leaving no scar. Although this seemed an impossible feat of technology at the time, real science has edged closer to it.
Researchers at the Massachusetts General Hospital are using light to “stitch” surface wound openings back together. The process is called nanosuturing or photochemical tissue bonding.
3) Protein responsible for brain cell death after stroke
There are many branches of stroke research from prevention, emergency treatment, to rehabilitation technologies and therapies. When a person suffers a stroke, it is a race to try to minimize the death of brain cells that follow the initial damage and oxygen deprivation.
Scientists at the Krembil Neuroscience Centre, located at Toronto Western Hospital part of University Health Network, have learned in laboratory-based experiments, how to prevent the death of brain cells which would normally die within a few days after the brain is deprived of oxygen (stroke).
The findings were published in the September 8, 2009 online edition in the journal Nature Neuroscience.
4) Bacteriophages kill resistant bacterial infections
Pathogenic or disease-causing bacteria want to survive. To that end, they have complex mechanisms that will allow them, over time, to adapt and resist antibiotic treatments. The pace of new antibiotics being introduced into the market is slowing and other approaches are needed to help fighting difficult to treat infections.
A study by researchers at University College London Ear Institute to be published in the journal Clinical Otolaryngology uses a virus that destroys bacteria. These viruses are called bacteriophages.
5) The Zamboni theory on MS and the Liberation Treatment
CTV’s W5 and medical specialist Avis Favaro reported on this finding earlier this year.. This theory contends that multiple sclerosis patients suffer from blockages in the veins in their necks or the azygous vein down their spine that cause blood to reflux back into the brain and leave the deposits of iron that mark MS.
Zamboni has also found that angioplasty to open these clogged veins can lead to remissions in MS symptoms in some patients.
An excellent review of alternative therapies for the treatment of autism is published in the November 22, 2009 edition of the Chicago Tribune. Please take a gander at how fear is being used to motivate some parents to seek dubious and unvalidated approaches to the treatment of this disorder. In effect, we are witnessing an [...]
Sunday House Call #292 These interviews were to be broadcast this Sunday. I will post them then. With all the information in the news about H1N1 and disease transmission and prevention, there is a body of evidence that is not being recognized as a primary factor in developing approaches to disease control. A McMaster University [...]
It is with great disappointment that I must announce that future editions of Sunday House Call have been cancelled. I would like to thank the listeners who have supported the show and have made those two hours on Sunday a special time for me for the past five and a half years. It was the [...]
Dr. Joe Schwarcz , director, McGill University Office for Science and Society, has written an excellent article about how the H1N1 vaccine and the oncslaught of pseudoscience against evidenced-based medicine and scientific research. He encapsulates the problems with the media trying to acquiesce to all claims, no matter how outlandish, under the aegis of providing [...]
This article by Dr. Ben Goldacre is a testament to how some succumb to the lack of critical appraisal of data. When people take relatively harmless “cures” that is one thing, but this example underscores the immorality and lack of ethical behaviour inherent in all these scams. It varies only by degree.
I just received this email forwarded to me by a chiropractic colleague and friend. He has been steamed about the misinformation and advice being broadcast to the public by certain Ottawa chiropractors. Below, from the Ontario Chiropractic Association is their policy statement on this issue that in short states that vaccine science and recommendations are [...]
The official opposition Federal Liberals are making noise that the numbers do not add up. They claim that the 6.6 million doses the Federal Government claims to have distributed to the provinces is inaccurate. If this was the case they say, we would have vaccinated all high risk groups by now. What they fail [...]
Sunday House Call #288 for November 1, 2009 3:10 When we last spoke to Nadeem Esmail in October 2007 regarding a report on efforts to reduce hospital wait times in Canada, the results were less than stellar.: wait times remained a major problem and barrier for prompt care. The Fraser Institute’s annual report on hospital [...]
It is indeed a rare instance to see criticism of pseudoscience. We tend to see advertorials and glossed over reviews without a modicum of critical thinking. How refreshing to see this article in today’s National Post.
Kudos Mr. Moore.
This article, written by Dr. Noni MacDonald and Dr. Francoise Baylis , answers many of the question you may have about the vaccine. I believe that credible evidenced-based information provided to the public respects what I have witnessed and experienced on my radio show; that no topic is difficult to understand if it is explained cogently and rationally. It also counters fear-mongering and misrepresentation of facts for personal gain.
Here in all it glory is the extreme reaction people have towards those who use science and reasoning to try to protect the public from harm. This article says it better than a few sentences from me. If you have the time please read it.
An Epidemic of Fear: How Panicked Parents Skipping Shots Endangers Us All
