How Jehovah’s Witnesses Are Changing Medicine - The New Yorker

This is one of those mixed feelings type articles.  On one hand, it is excellent "news" that science has advanced enough to accommodate the bizarre beliefs and restrictions of the Jehovah's Witnesses and we will all benefit from said advances.  On the other, why should we?  Because of the children.  And, “But we had to remind ourselves we were respecting his wishes. Patients have the right to determine their care.”

The whole story is an interesting read - and it’s only part one of a three-part series looking at this practice.  Faith-based ban on transfusions do not make any logical sense. But, it’s pretty amazing to see a religion that hurts its own sheeple followers, only to have science swoop in to fix the problem.

In the Book of Acts, the apostle Paul urges congregants to abstain “from things sacrificed to idols, from blood, from what is strangled, and from sexual immorality.” Jehovah’s Witnesses, apparently alone among Christian groups, believe this verse, along with others, prohibits them from accepting blood transfusions, no matter how dire the circumstance. As Joan Ortiz, a Witness in her sixties, recently told me, it’s as much a sin to take a blood transfusion as to have an extramarital affair. In this interpretation of Scripture, those who comply will prosper and enjoy good health. Those who don’t can be cut off from their people and denied resurrection. “Everything about us is carried in our blood,” said Ortiz. “Our personality, our sicknesses, all the good things about us. It’s who we are. It’s our soul.” It should not be mixed, even if life depends on it.

Though Witnesses accept virtually all other medical interventions, the stricture against transfusion can affect their care. Patients may need donor blood when they lose their own blood rapidly, as a result of a car crash or surgery, or when they develop severe anemia—for instance, during cancer treatment. In the past several decades, specialty programs in “bloodless medicine” that cater to Jehovah’s Witnesses have grown up at dozens of hospitals.

Surprisingly, doctors’ experience in these programs has often led them to order blood far less frequently for other patients, as well. Some bloodless medicine experts have also helped lead a national movement calling for more sparing use of transfusion. Donor blood comes with risks for all patients, including the potential for immune reactions and infections. And clinical trials have shown that, for a broad range of conditions, restrictive transfusion practices do not lead to worse outcomes than liberal ones. In recent years, the American Medical Association has listed transfusion as among the most overused therapies in medicine.

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Still, bloodless medicine requires more than surgical skill, as Steinberger himself also stressed. It rests on a myriad of small precautions and coördinated, blood-saving techniques that begin well in advance of surgery. When Ortiz had pre-operative testing done in Florida, on the advice of a nurse who was familiar with Witnesses, she insisted that the phlebotomist use pediatric tubes and draw the minimum amount possible.

How Jehovah’s Witnesses Are Changing Medicine - The New Yorker

Show Notes::Call it what it is,,,BULLSHIT!!

http://neuro-physio.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/stroke.jpg

As some of may be aware of, I recently suffered a stroke to which I am now in recovery.  It's slow going and I am looking at it as a new adventure.

Now I will admit there are many matters I am quite ignorant of because, well, it could never happen to me.  Having a stroke and dealing with the aftermath is one of those issues.  So off to Google I went (actually DuckDuck.go), to find basic information.  And boy was that a trip,,,, Facebook was quite helpful as well, but for another reason, that is the topic of which I am going to rant about.

The internet can kill my friends, and the fact that it is allowed carte blanche boggles my mind; but that is a whole other topic.


So how helpful was FB, well we have this gem "Natural Remedies to Reduce High Blood Pressure in 5 Minutes".   It starts out by stating, "One of the more dangerous diseases of modern age is the high blood pressure which is caused by increased stress, sleeps deprivation, obesity, salty food, smoking and increased consuming of alcohol."

No, no and no!! these are not causes but contributing factors. In "essential hypertension" which 95% of cases a HBP fall, the cause is UNKNOWN.

Might want to get proper medical advise as to what high blood pressure is because "the muscles get really tense, the blood vessels contract and the pressure increases" doesn't even begin to cover it. Your muscles have nothing to do with it.

As you might well guess, it devolves from there.

A second piece of medical woo was shared by a friend of the show with a warning for me to take my BP into consideration.  It was a photo post of the "New Zealand Journal of Natural Medicine" with all sorts of crap plastered on the cover,  In response, I noted, "are they trying to kill their readers?"

Which then led to a third piece of woo, a meme entitled Mind in Action:

Needless to say, I became quite irritated,,, Hell if I was in my old fundie days, I would most likely be dead or severely incapacitated,,, it's bad enough I'm a stubborn ox (it took Deb and friend of the show Dave Foda over three hours to convince me to go to hospital) but people don't need to be pushing this shit,,,

What I posted,,,

I'd be fucking dead if I relied on god,,, quit pushing shit before you kill someone.  Recent stroke survivor saved by science not an imaginary sky fairy.

It was deleted within 24 hrs

As frustrating and galling as this situation is, there is hope.  There are people actively combating this shit.  People like Professor Stephen and Rachel Brown of AoA.  Individuals like our very own Heretic Woman.  But there are many professionals as well who blog daily about the dangers of bad science.  Who take time from their careers as scientists, doctors and researchers to put forth useful, scientifically solid information for the lay public to devour. But the most important group are the ex-woomeisters and that is what I would like to highlight for a moment in closing.

Amongst all the crap I have came across, this article, IT HAPPENED TO ME: Alternative Medicine (And Poor Critical Thinking Skills) Almost Killed Me,

Back home, I tried more alternative medicine for three more years before ending up in the ICU with acute kidney failure and out of control inflammatory bowel symptoms from all of the useless drugs and supplements I was ingesting without proper follow up with a qualified medical professional.

I decided that perfect health wasn’t possible for me, and decided to have the total colectomy. I had not fully transitioned out of my hatred for modern medicine and conspiracy mindset. I had just decided that I didn’t care about being perfect anymore. I just wanted to end the UC flares and eat food again. I agreed to the surgery and all of its risks.

Now I am healthy. Turns out, there’s this thing called a J-pouch, which I now have. I also finally got real help for my mental illness, too. I made friends who don’t moralize food choices and who accept me as I am. I got married to the best person on Earth.

I still have a very complicated relationship with food. Since my surgeries, I’ve allowed myself to eat an unrestricted diet in order to maintain emotional stability and so I ended up gaining a lot of weight.

I’d like to be thinner, but my mental well-being takes precedence. I have to let go of all of those memories of people complimenting me on how great I looked when I was obviously sick and painfully thin. I had to let go of how pious I felt when I was eating “right.”

Someday, I hope to get to a place where I can handle a real healthy lifestyle without conflating determination with obsession. And maybe…someday…women will be allowed to be fat.

http://konfession.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/Religion.jpg

Thankfully I never quite fell into that trap in my younger days.  Yes I was vegan, but not for ethical reason, I just didn't like the taste of animal proteins.  Yes, I dabbled in the woo, but science in the end always won out.  Yes, it is an issue I still struggle with at times and the author of the above offered and explanation of why.

I'm certainly not the first to say this, but alternative medicine is a fundamentalist religion. It is the same sort of victim-blaming, life-shaming, sacrificial culture that my husband dealt with growing up in an evangelical church. We discuss our parallel experiences often. Alternative medicine is a salvation based religion, except that instead of an eternity in heaven, you get perfect health.

Just as we battle religious and political ideology so to must we battle the charlatans of science.  Then maybe, just maybe, we won't have to read about people like Belle Gibson, who according to her mother are allowed to “tell little porky pies”.

Australian health and wellbeing blogger Belle Gibson gained a large online following and was due to release a Whole Pantry app and a book on the basis that she had treated her own terminal cancer by shunning medical treatments in place of a healthy diet and alternative therapies. She encouraged readers to lead healthier lives to beat cancer, rather than accepting medical treatment.

It was revealed earlier this year however that Gibson had never been diagnosed with cancer.

Her mother, Natalie Dal-Bello, has now defended her daughter’s actions in an interview with The Herald Sun. She said: “Belle told a white lie, aged 23-and-a-half. So what?

“Belle is allowed to tell little porky pies. Who the hell doesn’t tell a lie in their life? Nobody complained about Belle when she was helping people and now they want to put her under the microscope.”

Sorry to say Ms. Dal-Bello, most people that tell a lie, don't injure or possibly kill people in the process.

http://images.sodahead.com/polls/004327425/1344575752_junk_science_answer_3_xlarge.png

When you see the junk, whether it be science, medicine or religion, call it out.  Call it for what it is,,,BULLSHIT!!

NeuroLogica Blog » Naturopathic Delusions

I want the public to fully understand what naturopaths are, because I don’t think that they do. This is a situation common to many cults and pseudosciences – there is a superficial layer of reality that represents the public face of the group, largely crafted for marketing purposes, and then there is the deeper layer of utter nonsense that most people don’t see. Homeopathy is a great example. Unless you are a skeptic or true believer, chances are you think homeopathy is some form of herbalism, rather than the magic potions that it is.

Naturopathy is similar. The superficial marketing level presentation of naturopathy is that its practitioners are medically trained and emphasize nutrition, lifestyle, and natural remedies. I attended a lecture at Yale by a naturopath who summarized their training as, “Everything you get in medical school, plus nutrition.” (The first claim is patently wrong, and the second falsely assumes that medical training does not include nutrition.)
The marketing, however, is working. After a recent article about naturopathy we posted on our Facebook page we had this comment:

How can you stop believing whole food, herbs, sunshine, fresh air, good water, exercise and human touch (which are the foundation of naturopathic medicine) are worse for you than allopathic poisons?

Marketing propaganda successfully internalized.

This summary is an absolute fiction on multiple levels. First, there is no such thing as allopathic medicine. That is a derogatory term invented by Hahnemann (the inventor of homeopathy) to denigrate the medicine of his time (which no longer exists). Second, good nutrition and exercise are part of science-based medicine, not a recent invention by alternative gurus. Finally, this bunny rabbits and sunshine image of naturopathy is a fiction.

Naturopathy is pseudoscience from top to bottom. They may throw in some basic nutrition and lifestyle advice, hardly something you need a special practitioner for, but what makes up the core of naturopathy is pure nonsense. The whole “natural” vibe is just the candy coating.

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What is most scary about all of this, and why we have been focusing so much attention on naturopaths, is that they are aggressively seeking licensure in the states that do not already have it, and to expand the scope of their practice. What they want, and what they are increasingly getting, is the right to function as primary care doctors. This would be an utter disaster for health care.

Naturopathic training does not prepare them to be primary care physicians. Their profession is not science-based, does not have a science-based standard of care, and is largely a collection of pseudoscience and dangerous nonsense loosely held together by a vague “nature is always best” philosophy.


NeuroLogica Blog » Naturopathic Delusions

Scientists have opened the blood-brain barrier for the first time

An interesting development in science given the recent controversy surrounding Brittany Maynard.

The blood-brain barrier is a network of cells that separates the brain from the rest of the body, preventing harmful toxins and chemicals in the blood stream from entering the brain tissue. This blocking mechanism makes it very difficult to deliver drugs to the brain for the treatment of neurodegenerative disorders and cancer.

This protective barrier has been opened in animals but never in humans, until now. A medical start-up company CarThera in France, have opened and closed the barrier on demand with the help of an ultrasound brain implant and an injection of microbubbles.

The findings were presented last week at the Focused Ultrasound symposium in the US by Michael Canney, a neuroscientist at CarThera. The study involved the treatment of glioblastoma - the most aggressive form of brain cancer - in four patients. Patients with glioblastoma usually need surgery to remove the tumour, after which they are given chemotherapy drugs to destroy any remaining cancerous cells. The blood-brain barrier becomes leaky when a tumour is present, so a small amount of the drugs are able to enter the brain.

“If more of the chemotherapy drugs could get through, they’d do a better job of killing cancer," Canney told Chris Weller from Medical Daily.

Scientists have opened the blood-brain barrier for the first time

VacciShield: Pixie dust for an imaginary threat « Science-Based Medicine

,,,Instead I’d like to focus on another part of the sCAM spectrum. Here lies a form of sCAM that, in some ways, is even more difficult for me to comprehend. These are products invented, marketed, and sold solely for the treatment or prevention of fictitious diseases or problems that exist only in the realm of fantasy.

A mother-naturopath by the name of Catherine Clinton has identified a little known condition that has launched her career as a producer and seller of one of the newest health-maintaining elixirs. At $27.99 USD for 1.36 ounces, she’s probably doing all right. It’s not a condition, exactly, that her elixir is aimed at. It’s more of a, well, I guess you can call it a state of unsupported peri-vaccination health, or something. In her own words, VacciShield was designed to “fill a gap that we saw in the vaccination process”. To be a little more specific, ND Clinton explains on her company’s website:

I became concerned about vaccinating my son and wanted another option to support him during vaccinations. I looked to the research to see if there was something I could do nutritionally to support health during this vulnerable time. So we created VacciShield to fill a gap that we saw in the vaccination process. VacciShield is designed for infants and kids to help support healthy brain, immune, gastrointestinal and detoxification function during vaccination.

The gap in the vaccination process she refers to is clearly something she found missing from her child’s routine pediatric care. A gap she has identified that, if not filled, places children at risk. At risk from what is not made clear anywhere on the company’s website. But since VacciShield is intended to support healthy brain, immune, gastrointestinal, and detoxifying function, I’m assuming she believes these body systems are at some sort of risk from vaccinations. Actually, it’s pretty clear what she’s referring to by her albeit vague terminology. And the name VacciShield is certainly not ambiguous. It is meant to shield children from the potentially damaging effects of vaccines, while still presumably allowing the benefits of the vaccines to slip through.

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Based on the ingredients she has chosen to include in this product, and the references she cites in support of them, it seems that ND Clinton’s concerns about vaccinating her son are fueled by just about every vaccine myth out there, including Wakefield’s MMR-induced leaky gut-autism myth, the too-many too-soon gambit, the glutathione-deficiency vaccine-induced autism hypothesis, the thimerosal-induced neurotoxicity myth, the intestinal flora dysregulation and autism hypothesis, and probably others all thrown into the mix.


VacciShield: Pixie dust for an imaginary threat « Science-Based Medicine

How Elizabeth Blackwell became the first female doctor in the U.S. | PBS NewsHour

It was a cold, wintry day in upstate, western New York when a 28-year-old Elizabeth Blackwell received her diploma from the Geneva Medical College. As she accepted her sheepskin, Charles Lee, the medical school's dean, stood up from his chair and made a courtly bow in her direction.

Only two years earlier, in October of 1847, her medical future was not so certain. Already rejected at schools in Charleston, Philadelphia and New York, matriculating into Geneva represented her only chance of becoming a medical doctor.

Dean Lee and his all male faculty were more than hesitant to make such a bold move as accepting a woman student. Consequently, Dr. Lee decided to put the matter up to a vote among the 150 men who made up the medical school's student body. If one student voted "No," Lee explained, Miss Blackwell would be barred from admission.


How Elizabeth Blackwell became the first female doctor in the U.S. | PBS NewsHour

Gene therapy partially restores vision in rare blindness disorder | Science | The Guardian

Two men with progressive blindness have regained some of their vision after taking part in the first clinical trial of a gene therapy for the condition.

The men were among six patients to have experimental treatment for a rare, inherited, disorder called choroideremia, which steadily destroys eyesight and leaves people blind in middle age.

After therapy to correct a faulty gene, the men could read two to four more lines on an optician's sight chart, a dramatic improvement that has held since the doctors treated them. One man was treated more than two years ago.

The other four patients, who had less advanced disease and good eyesight before the trial, had better night vision after the therapy. Poor sight in dim light is one of the first signs of the condition.

Gene therapy partially restores vision in rare blindness disorder | Science | The Guardian

Rafael Campo uses his stethoscope to explore rhythms of poetry | Art Beat | PBS NewsHour | PBS

Rafael Campo is a doctor, professor and highly-regarded poet who has just published his sixth book of poetry titled, "Alternative Medicine," which explores the primal relationship between language, empathy and healing.

For Campo, poetry and healing are intricately related.

"To me the patient's voice, the stories they have to tell are absolutely central to the work of healing. ... The poetry of the encounter helps me to think even more effectively and more thoughtfully really about that. I feel like listening to that story and really attuning my ear to the patients voice helps me listen to their heart more clearly ."

A graduate of Harvard Medical School, he teaches there and practices general internal medicine at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston. He is also on the faculty of the Lesley University Creative Writing MFA program.

Campo sees poetry everywhere. "It is in every encounter with my patients. I think healing really in a very profound way is about poetry. When we read a poem, we participate in another narrative. We really get inside another person's head, under their skin and medicine and medical interactions are very very similar you know."

Rafael Campo uses his stethoscope to explore rhythms of poetry | Art Beat | PBS NewsHour | PBS

NeuroLogica Blog » GSK Pays $3 Billion Fine

And this is news how??

NeuroLogica Blog » GSK Pays $3 Billion Fine

In Rat Experiment, New Hope for Spine Injuries - NYTimes.com

“This is a very exciting study, and my first thought is that it is a proof of principle for treating spinal cord injuries from a wide variety of conditions, including cancer and even multiple sclerosis,” said Dr. Vineeta Singh, a neurologist at San Francisco General Hospital and the University of California, San Francisco, who was not involved in the study. “There’s a huge potential to refine this model to mimic more humanlike conditions.”

In Rat Experiment, New Hope for Spine Injuries - NYTimes.com