Just as clothing styles come in and out of fashion, diagnoses go through fads as well. While this is rarely true of diagnoses issued by traditional healthcare practitioners, health-related Internet sites (particularly those promoting alternative medicine) and some practitioners of alternative medicine may be susceptible to these diagnostic trends. One such fad diagnosis is lactose intolerance, which is sometimes blamed for everything from hyperactivity to joint pain.
Lactose Intolerance: A Diagnostic Fad
Health Highlights – March 6th, 2009
Health Highlights is a biweekly summary of particularly interesting articles from credible sources of health and medical information that we follow & read. For a complete list of recommeded sources, see our links page.
- How distractible are you? The answer may lie in your working memory capacity | Cognitive Daily
Dave Munger pays attention to a recent study on memory capacity and mental focus.
- Genetics of Cancer Resistance | Dr Shock MD PhD
Dr Shock reviews fundamental concepts in genetics and highlights a study providing alternative explanations for cancer resistance.
- Why Does My Child Need a Flu Shot? | Doctor David’s Blog
Dr. David Loeb covers recent flu-related news and discusses a study on drugs designed to treat influenza. His advice: prevent the flu with a flu shot.
- FDA OKs First Human Trials of Embryonic Stem Cells – Geron Biotech | The Medical Quack
Barbara Duck reports that the Federal Drug Administration has approved the first human trials of embryonic stem cells to treat a small group of spinal cord injury patients.
- How to make EBM easy to swallow: BMJ PICO | Laikas MedLibLog
Cliff Notes for evidence-based medicine? Shamsha Damani reports that the British Medical Journal (BMJ) will be publishing summaries for published research articles.
- Reality Deniers | Science-Based Medicine
Homeopaths deny chemistry, acupuncturists and chiropractors deny anatomy, energy therapies deny our understanding of physics and energy – they all deny the validity of the scientific method.
Health Highlights – February 10th, 2009
Health Highlights is a biweekly summary of particularly interesting articles from credible sources of health and medical information that we follow & read. For a complete list of recommeded sources, see our links page.
- Colours affect mental performance, with blue boosting creativity | BPS Research Digest
Which color do you like: red or blue? The BPS Research Digest blog reviews a recent study that assesses the contrasting effects of the colors red and blue on mental performance.
- State of Health In the United States, 2008 | Open Medicine Blog
Dean Giustini examines the 20 specific health indicators proposed by the Institute of Medicine to measure the overall health and well-being of Americans.
- Probiotics | Science-Based Medicine
Dr. Mark Crislip provides an exposition on the science and spin of probiotics.
- How to Find a Good Doctor … An Expert Doctor Tells You How | ThePatientReport.com
The Patient Report.com documents a New York Times article that provides a quick education on how to search for a doctor.
- How Alternative Medicine Fails Us | Sciencebase Science Blog
David Bradley asks to a pharmaceutical science expert to comment on a post criticizing an herbal remedy and reader comments.