I am delighted to report that the College on Problems of Drug Dependence has joined the science blogosphere. The CPDD Community Website is a new effort of the Media Relations Committee and intends to be:

a moderated Blog open to comment by CPDD members and invited contributors.

The email notification I received indicates that the comments and the blog will be open to the public so no worries, they are just planning to moderate* the content.

The initial offerings include:

A comment from the new editor of the College’s journal, Drug and Alcohol Dependence on changes to the journal.

A link-heavy update on the proposed NIDA-NIAAA merger.

A response to the McCain-Coburn attack on drug abuse research included in their mid-summer sneer at ARRA projects.

A general post on the politics of substance abuse research.

And what’s this? Little old us in the blogroll? Awwwww.

Well done, CPDD, well done.

[my CPDD related posts are here]
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*I’ll work on ‘em DearReader, don’t worry.

CPDD.org
CPDD Facebook
Drug and Alcohol Dependence

Read the comments on this post…

A chemical analysis of the bones of ancient Nubians shows that they were regularly consuming tetracycline, most likely in their beer….

Read the rest of this post… | Read the comments on this post…

I am delighted to report that the College on Problems of Drug Dependence has joined the science blogosphere. The CPDD Community Website is a new effort of the Media Relations Committee and intends to be:

a moderated Blog open to comment by CPDD members and invited contributors.

The email notification I received indicates that the comments and the blog will be open to the public so no worries, they are just planning to moderate* the content.

The initial offerings include:

A comment from the new editor of the College’s journal, Drug and Alcohol Dependence on changes to the journal.

A link-heavy update on the proposed NIDA-NIAAA merger.

A response to the McCain-Coburn attack on drug abuse research included in their mid-summer sneer at ARRA projects.

A general post on the politics of substance abuse research.

And what’s this? Little old us in the blogroll? Awwwww.

Well done, CPDD, well done.

[my CPDD related posts are here]
__
*I’ll work on ‘em DearReader, don’t worry.

CPDD.org
CPDD Facebook
Drug and Alcohol Dependence

Read the comments on this post…

A chemical analysis of the bones of ancient Nubians shows that they were regularly consuming tetracycline, most likely in their beer….

Read the rest of this post… | Read the comments on this post…

If you’re a physician, there comes a certain point in your career when you start caring a lot more than you did about the next generations of physicians in the training pipeline. While you’re in the middle of training, you are the next generation; besides, you’re too worried about just getting through medical school, residency, and Board certification to be all that concerned about those behind you in the pipeline, anyway. Then, when you’re early faculty, you’re concerned about establishing yourself, getting your career on track, and, if you’re in academics, getting promoted. True, physicians who aren’t interested in education wouldn’t be in academics in the first place, but most of us tend to be far more concerned about resident education, because these are the people who will be replacing us one day in our own specialties. At some point, however, one starts wondering about the next generation of doctors that will not just be replacing one’s own specialty, but will be becoming the next generation of primary care doctors, internists, and other specialties aside from one’s own. Part of this interest in self-interest. After all, we’re all getting older, and aging physicians will need doctors too. More importantly, though, most physicians like to think that their profession is improving and that the next generation of physicians will surpass the present generation, thus insuring continued improvements in the science and art of medicine. We like to see our generation leaving a legacy of improved patient care and part of that legacy is the training of medical students.

Unfortunately, I have seen what may be the future of American medicine, and now I’m very concerned. Dr. R. W. has shown it to me. The American Medical Student Association (AMSA), an organization that should be committed to advocacy of the finest training and the best scientific medicine, is deep into promoting woo among medical students.

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One of the reasons I cringe when people put yoga into the exercise category is because I feel doing so fails to recognize yoga for the positive effects it has on the mind, body, and emotions. Some people’s medicine chests are filled with pain relievers, sleep aids, anti-depressants, and so on. Mine is filled with yoga, pranayama, and meditation. Yoga may not cure all that ails me, but it sure does come close.

The Yoga-Mood Connection

If you suffer from mood swings and/or anxiety, you might want to consider yoga over exercise. Recent studies suggest that yoga may be superior to other forms of exercise in its positive effect on mood and anxiety. Click here to read more about this study and the findings.

Healing Yoga for Neck and Shoulder Pain — Interview with Carol Krucoff

Just last month, I reviewed the book, Healing Yoga for Neck and Shoulder Pain. Author Carol Krucoff talks more about this topic in her interview on the Healthy You Radio Network. If you’re suffering from neck and shoulder pain and/or stiffness, either listen to the interview or buy the book.

My Yoga Therapy Hero — Gary Kraftsow

One of my first experiences of yoga therapy was with Gary Kraftsow. I can still remember thinking “THIS isn’t yoga,” in the middle of a 25-minute practice only to finish thinking “Ah, THIS is yoga.” Yep, there’s no doubt about it — once you get a taste of the breadth and depth of yoga, there’s no going back. If you’d like to sample therapeutic yoga, I highly recommend Gary’s DVDs: Viniyoga Therapy for the Upper Back, Neck, and Shoulders and Viniyoga Therapy for the Low Back, Sacrum, and Hips. Gary was also interviewed on Healthy You Radio Network, and you can listen to the archive here.

Simple Yoga for Lower Back Pain

If you’ve overdone it in the garden this summer or you’re feeling stiff upon getting out of bed, try these simple yoga postures for lower back pain from Maya Fiennes:

A Cautionary Tale

As with all good things — too much can harm rather than help. The same is true for yoga. If you have chronic pain and you’re hoping that yoga will help, it’s important to listen to your body and proceed with caution. This article offers some helpful tips for making sure that your yoga practice doesn’t aggravate your pain.

Free Yoga from Eoin Finn

If you’d like to download two free yoga practices from Blissologist and Yogi Eoin Finn — one 20 minute and one 40 minute practice — click here. Both practices offer a nice, well-rounded flow that will loosen you up and get your blood and energy flowing.

Free Yoga from MyYogaOnline.com

Just in case you missed it in my last post, the folks over at MyYogaOnline.com are offering free yoga in honor of Yoga Month. The classes are available through the month of September. Click here to access them. 

While I don’t suggest that yoga replace traditional therapies, I sure do think that it’s a perfect compliment.

Namaste!

Add them to the long list of species being exterminated on the altar of sympathetic magic.

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Add them to the long list of species being exterminated on the altar of sympathetic magic.

Read the comments on this post…

A few days ago, I posted a response to another physician who was not happy with me, no, not happy with me at all. What made him unhappy was the vociferousness with which I criticized the creeping infiltration of woo that is insinuating itself into medical school curricula and expressed dismay at the threat that I see to evidence-based medicine (EBM) from it. He interpreted this vociferousness as “anger,” but in reality it is more frustration, a dismay that was exacerbated by his defense of including unproven therapies in his practice. I did not respond so harshly somuch because I think that in his specific case his use of acupuncture does harm, but rather because of the attitude behind it, an attitude that can (and in too many cases does) open the door to less benign forms of woo.

At the risk of turning this into the Solo Practitioner rebuttal blog, I thought I’d have one more go at it because of one further comment he made. SP’s misguided analogy does, almost in spite of itself, bring up a a difficult issue, although I resent it a bit that he did so in the context of labeling me and those who have little tolerance for woo as “fanatics”:

Let’s talk about false hope. Apparently “conventional” medicine is immune from providing this to its patients; however, a study a few years ago found that less than 50% of terminally ill patients with cancer at one of the nation’s leading cancer centers, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, were approached with discussions about end-of-life issues, such as a DNR (Do Not Resuscitate) order and a Living Will. Furthermore, most of the therapies used for terminal cancer patients at MSKCC are not EBM, because there hasn’t been enough time to study the efficacy of these therapies, or perhaps because these “conventional” doctors have decided that there is little “harm” that can be done with potentially toxic chemotherapy if the person is going to die anyway (as long as the patient consents to a potentially toxic, life-threatening treatment. But what would make a patient consent to such an unproven treatment? Could it be that it provides some hope of a cure?). It seems these doctors believe that they can try experimental, unproven therapies because these patients come to them from other referral centers where their cancers were determined untreatable. These patients are coming for another answer and for HOPE. So are these doctors at MSKCC “quacks” for slipping outside the confines of EBM to try to help the terminally ill? According to Orac, it sounds like no other medicine should be practiced other than EBM.

“Sorry, you’ve got Stage IV Ovarian CA, go home, get your affairs in order and die, because there are no evidence-based treatments that work,” is perhaps what they should tell their patients. That way we’re all living in realityland. How is it ok for “conventional” medicine to expose these patients to harmful, toxic treatments that are unproven? It doesn’t stand up according to Orac’s arguments.

Logical fallacies piled on top of nonsequiturs piled on top of straw men. These have to be dealt with before we get to the issue that he brings up almost by accident, namely the ethics of clinical trials in which terminally ill cancer patients are enrolled.

Read the rest of this post… | Read the comments on this post…

A few days ago, I posted a response to another physician who was not happy with me, no, not happy with me at all. What made him unhappy was the vociferousness with which I criticized the creeping infiltration of woo that is insinuating itself into medical school curricula and expressed dismay at the threat that I see to evidence-based medicine (EBM) from it. He interpreted this vociferousness as “anger,” but in reality it is more frustration, a dismay that was exacerbated by his defense of including unproven therapies in his practice. I did not respond so harshly somuch because I think that in his specific case his use of acupuncture does harm, but rather because of the attitude behind it, an attitude that can (and in too many cases does) open the door to less benign forms of woo.

At the risk of turning this into the Solo Practitioner rebuttal blog, I thought I’d have one more go at it because of one further comment he made. SP’s misguided analogy does, almost in spite of itself, bring up a a difficult issue, although I resent it a bit that he did so in the context of labeling me and those who have little tolerance for woo as “fanatics”:

Let’s talk about false hope. Apparently “conventional” medicine is immune from providing this to its patients; however, a study a few years ago found that less than 50% of terminally ill patients with cancer at one of the nation’s leading cancer centers, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, were approached with discussions about end-of-life issues, such as a DNR (Do Not Resuscitate) order and a Living Will. Furthermore, most of the therapies used for terminal cancer patients at MSKCC are not EBM, because there hasn’t been enough time to study the efficacy of these therapies, or perhaps because these “conventional” doctors have decided that there is little “harm” that can be done with potentially toxic chemotherapy if the person is going to die anyway (as long as the patient consents to a potentially toxic, life-threatening treatment. But what would make a patient consent to such an unproven treatment? Could it be that it provides some hope of a cure?). It seems these doctors believe that they can try experimental, unproven therapies because these patients come to them from other referral centers where their cancers were determined untreatable. These patients are coming for another answer and for HOPE. So are these doctors at MSKCC “quacks” for slipping outside the confines of EBM to try to help the terminally ill? According to Orac, it sounds like no other medicine should be practiced other than EBM.

“Sorry, you’ve got Stage IV Ovarian CA, go home, get your affairs in order and die, because there are no evidence-based treatments that work,” is perhaps what they should tell their patients. That way we’re all living in realityland. How is it ok for “conventional” medicine to expose these patients to harmful, toxic treatments that are unproven? It doesn’t stand up according to Orac’s arguments.

Logical fallacies piled on top of nonsequiturs piled on top of straw men. These have to be dealt with before we get to the issue that he brings up almost by accident, namely the ethics of clinical trials in which terminally ill cancer patients are enrolled.

Read the rest of this post… | Read the comments on this post…