Regarding All That “New Medical Research” You See In the Media . . .

| January 28, 2015

. . . maybe you might want to read this article.

Caveat lector.   Sounds to me like it might be a good idea to talk things over with a medical professional before acting on any odd-sounding ideas you read based on “new medical research”.

Category: Who knows, WTF?

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Cowpill

Everything else is a lie, why not medical articles also.

crewchief guy

gee, i wonder how many global warming “facts” are published this way?

The Other Whitey

I read some of the comments on that story. As soon as somebody brought that up, a lefty troll started screaming that he was “an ignorant fool” for thinking such a thing. Then another one tried to shift it to “‘Big Pharma’ kills people this way!”, so apparently it’s okay to cite this to promote a liberal POV, but God forbid you apply it as a criticism of their favorite cause.

ChipNASA

How about this…..

Scientists compete to sneak Bob Dylan lyrics into journal articles

Five Swedish scientists have admitted they’ve been secretly sneaking Bob Dylan lyrics into their journal articles as part of a longstanding bet to see who can reference Dylan the most before retirement.

http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/2014/10/01/scientists-compete-sneak-bob-dylan-lyrics-journal-articles

pretty amusing 😀 😀

JohnC

It’s not just fake journals that are problematic. Using 5% as the accepted norm for statistical significance, the means that it takes only 14 studies to independently look at the same question — over the entire history of medicine — before it’s probable that one of them will find a falsely significant result. See also: http://xkcd.com/882/

Which is one reason that, even in top-flight, peer reviewed journals, most results, haven’t been, and often can’t be, reproduced. As Dr. John Ioannidis and Daniel Kahneman (among others) have pointed out, there’s much more fame to be gained by overturning existing theory and publishing weird, counterintuitive results than confirming a null hypothesis. Consider the incentives: There’s a cost to not getting published; there’s no cost to getting things wrong.

#ScienceIsHard

NHSparky

We used to do shit like that in college, putting nonsense phrases in the papers we wrote to see if anyone caught it.

Usually, the answer was no. Then again, the profs pulled the same shit on us to see how many people actually read the entire assignment.

NHSparky

And yet my MIL swears by Dr. Oz, the quack.

ChipNASA

WHAT?!?!?

Next thing you’re going to tell me is that Dr Phil isn’t a world-renowned expert psychiatric professional.

/teh horrors 😀

Ex-PH2

Oh, you guys didn’t get the REAL message, did you?

This is how psulie-bou the spandex-clad slobbering gin monkey creates his dribbling drivel: random text generator.

I wondered how he could be so completely dimwitted. Now I know.

B Woodman

I love the authors that he came up with, “Pinkerton A LeBrain” (Spielberg’s “Pinky and the Brain”, a favorite cartoon), and Orson Welles.

Where’s DOt and Whacko when you need them?
HELLOOOOO NURSE!!

Dave Hardin

They should be more specific with the warnings on drugs. I recently tried the Viagra thing and had one of those 4 hour erection episodes. I called the doctor just like they said. We went to the ER and Doc says she is going to be fine in a few days.

Ex-PH2

What!?!? No spew alert???

Again with the no spew alert!!

ChipNASA

(spew alert)

At least you didn’t have to visit the dentist too. 😀 😀

A Proud Infidel®™

*10 COOL POINTS for ChipNASA!!! :mrgreen:

charles w

They need a boner pill that lasts only 4 minutes. Why you may ask? Because that’s all the time I need…..

A Proud Infidel®™

Sounds like one helluva hard problem to tackle!!! 😀

Pinto Nag

“No matter what happens to you, the doctor gets to go home at night.”

Here’s some advice from someone who’s worked in the medical world for over thirty years:

— It’s your body and your health. Don’t EVER be just a passenger, particularly inside a medical facility.

— If you read an article that concerns you, take it to a doctor you trust to discuss it.

— Everyone in the medical community is as human and fallible as you are, and THAT INCLUDES RESEARCHERS. Most of them try to do a good job, but you do find slobs, slackers, criminals, and the occasional pyschopath. Pay attention around them, just like you would out on the street with strangers.

— Medical journals are wonderful, but they are no different than any other type of magazine. You find serious articles, opinion pieces, and science fantasy all rolled into one. Engage your brain filter when reading these articles.

— Only very rarely are you going to find medical research on a condition you have before your doctor does — REDBOOK and HEALTHY LIVING are NOT medical journals!

— And remember the quote at the top. Be suspicious of ANYTHING that someone wants to do to you or put in your body. There are no miracle cures, no pills or surgeries that fix everything. They all come with a price paid in flesh and blood. YOURS.

David

Kinda reminds me of when someone rephrased the John Prine’s “Dear Abby” and used them in a letter to her – she took it seriously and gave a straight advice answer (to get counseling.)

Thunderstixx

I can’t tell you how many people believe the crap that is pushed as “new research” in my stint as an LPN…
The latest I hard was L-Arginine and if you eat these foods and take these pills you can get off your heart meds…
Considering I was on a heart transplant list 4 years ago, I was, shall we say, skeptical at best…
The current Measles mini epidemic, whooping cough and even the resurgence of Polio is because some idiot said that inoculations cause Autism…
Yeah… right…

propsguy

THunderstixx, as a medical professional, you should know, EVERYTHING causes autism and now aspergers.

WHich is the new code for “Kids acting like assholes and parents who won’t discipline them”

Pinto Nag

Yeah, worse than Baskin Robbin for the Flavor of the Month…

Sparks

That’s it! I want my old heart plumbing back. Too many copies of “Popular Mechanics” and “Popular Science” around my cardiac surgeon’s office. 😀

charles w

You need my cardiologist. He has Guns and Ammo and the monthly NRA mag.

Sparks

charles w…Now your doctor and I can see eye to eye! My kind of doc.

Pinto Nag

Do you know which mechanic gets to handle the warranty work?

😉

Sparks

Pinto Nag…he probably leaves his light weight stuff to his PA. Unless, he has to crack my chest again. Then I’m holding him to the 36 months or 3000 miles. 😀

CLAW131

Sparks, how’s that whole deal coming along for you? Are you doing better? We’re all with you,buddy. Hang in there.

Sparks

CLAW131…Thanks for asking. This coming Monday is the six week mark. I’M FREE!!! I CAN DRIVE AGAIN!!! That will help me a lot in the cabin fever department. Still sore as hell in places. Mine was found quite incidentally and so I never had a heart attack or heart or chest pains. But glad it was found that way before I did keel over. Like I said really sore to the touch in places. The incision is starting to itch which is a good sign but the sternum, ribs and all the way round to my back ache pretty well by the end of the day. That’s normal though. Everything got pulled out of place and it takes a long while for it to all adjust back where it’s suppose to be. A pop here, a thunk there in my chest every so often. Biggest thing for me personally is the sternum healing well. I don’t want to have a bad healing now or a year down the road, a non union and have that fixed. Looking for the twelve week mark for that. But I’m positive and I’ve made a lot of changes. Eating very healthy through the day instead of one big meal at night. Walking a lot more than I ever have and it feels good. Lost a lot of weight. I am looking forward to Cardiac Rehab in a few weeks. Three days a week and hour each day to get me in good shape and really test my heart out where they are trained to do it and monitor my EKG right there the whole time, so it’s a safe place to do it. Anyway this has been longer than I started it to be. Thanks again.

CLAW131

OK, thanks for the update. We’re all with you. If you need anything, anything at all, just holler.

Richard

“Truth short folly court why she their balls. ”

Truer words and all that … extracted from the first random words paragraph.

Azygos

Seeing as how it was the Lancet that first published the antivaccine nonsense I’m not sure they qualify as a legitimate Medical Journal.

I deal with this sort of thing everyday when some family member says they read such and such on the internet and why am I not doing X for their loved one. I’d love to be able to bill the authors of these bullshit studies for my time. I’d also like to throat punch Dr Oz and The Doctors. Attention whoring Medical Pimps.

kaf

Look for more of this type of shit now that we have Obamacare. Have you noticed all the new “studies” saying various preventive care procedures aren’t effective? Those are the ones that are going to get all the funding.