Food and Health Through the Lens of Entertainment: Funny You Should Think That!

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A little plug for the show I’m hosting in a week. It’s all about science… and entertainment!

A show of comedy, reason, and alcohol. FUNNY YOU SHOULD THINK THAT! is a monthly event (intelligently) designed to make you laugh and think. Moutons No More takes to the stage with amazing guests to talk pseudoscience, lambast religion, and get you to think more critically. It’s like the Rolls Royce of Skeptics in the Pub and just what Montreal need. Come for the show; stay for the conversation.

This month, we take a skeptical look at nutrition and health! It’s the return of a FYSTT crowd favourite: the comedy quiz show! Regular panelist Andrew Cody is joined by comedians Brad MacDonaldKuba Kierlanczyk, and returning guest JP the Apostate! We’re uniting comedy talent from Montreal, New York City, and Toronto to talk about food! We will slaughter you with laughter and take a bite out of pseudoscientific nonsense! Then, Jonathan brings to the stage Dr. Christopher Labos, cardiologist and medical journalist, to reveal a brand-new Moutons No More project as the two talk about natural health products. By the end, you will ask yourself, “Who knows what’s inside if it’s natural?”

You know the  drill:

6:00 – 7:00: Come and order food and drinks, relax, talk with us, while something skeptical, rational, and entertaining plays on the stage television.

7:00 – 8:30: Moutons No More entertains you like no others with its show.

8:30 – midnight: Stick around as long as you want and talk! FYSTT is more than a show: it’s also a place to come and talk to other like-minded and on the cusp-of-being-like-minded individuals.

Pay what you can. We always ask for donations to help us keep this the best skeptical show in town.

To RSVP through Facebook: search for “Funny You Should Think That!” in the search bar and you’ll find the event.

To RSVP through Meetup: go to http://www.meetup.com/Moutons-No-More/ and scroll down until you find the event.

On Twitter, use #FYSTT.

“Funny You Should Think That!” is best enjoyed surrounded by friends, so spread the word around and make it a group outing!


Watch: How Vaccines Work

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The Patient Education Office of the McGill University Health Centre has just released a video to educate the public on the importance of vaccination. And who guides us through the mechanism of action of one of our most effective public health measures? Dr. Christopher Labos… in cartoon form.

If you like the video, please send it to your friends and family. You don’t need a Ph.D. to understand it; this is meant to be understood by the population at large.

And damn you, Dr. Labos, for getting drawn before me. I’m calling Matt Groening.


Read: Why Fight a Losing Battle (Using a Faded Sweater Instead of a Cape and Cowl)

I have interviewed Dr. Christopher Labos on the topic of integrative medicine for my podcast, Within Reason. A cardiologist by training, he is studying to become a medical journalist. Like me, he has a passion for bringing scientific facts to the public in spite of the tidal wave of misinformation that washes us all up every day. He has written a piece for the blog BoringEM on why he fights the good fight:

“And every so often you do something that you’re really proud of. I just finished writing up a story for the National Post, not published yet, about how Health Canada regulates natural health products. I spent weeks researching the story, conducting interviews and poring through the pages and pages of regulations Health Canada published.

“Not many people would see that as fun, but I do. And that’s fundamentally the point I want to make here.”

You can read the whole article here. Although I can’t say too much at this time, he and I are working on a very exciting project that we hope to announce in the coming months. Watch this space!


Listen: Dr. Christopher Labos and I on the Rise of Integrative Medicine

This month, Within Reason tackles a scientific topic, so I can publicize it here! Woohoo!

Would you like a side of magic with your chemo? Disproven folk remedies used to be the domain of snake oil salesmen; now, they are being integrated into university health centres. Jonathan speaks to Dr. Christopher Labos, a public science educator and cardiologist, on this worrying trend. Where is the line between feel-goodery and wishful thinking? The recent case of Makayla Sault highlights the harm caused by magic’s new veneer of respectability. Back in the studio, Andrew Cody returns to the podcast, flanked by Anna af Hallstrom, to discuss laundry balls, foot detox, and child abuse. Are our panelists hopeful for the future of science-based medicine?

You can listen to the podcast (for free) at http://withinreason.podbean.com.

If you prefer iTunes, search for “Within Reason” and look under “Podcasts”!

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Listen: First Nations “Medicine” on White Coat, Black Art

@NightShiftMD, Dr. Brian Goldman, tackled the issue of First Nations’ right to choose traditional treatments for themselves and their children with, I believe, the correct balance between respect and the need to ask tough questions. You can hear his conversations on the subject in the latest episode of CBC’s White Coat, Black Art.

We are weaning ourselves off of paternalistic medicine, in which medical doctors were deified and their decisions obeyed to the letter. The type of participatory medicine which is replacing it elevates the patient to the level of a dignified decision-maker who requires information and guidance to make an enlightened decision that will affect his or her health.

But what of children?

If an adult chooses to refuse chemotherapy to pursue pseudomedical homeopathy or Reiki, the most cynical of critical thinkers might mutter “social Darwinism” under their breaths. However, when these believers in disproven nonsense need to make medical decisions regarding their children, what is the role of the State?

Dr. Goldman spoke to Dr. Nadine Caron, a surgical oncologist at the University of Northern British Columbia, a First Nations woman herself, and someone who feels that there is more to medicine than evidence.

When boldly asked by Dr. Goldman about the lack of scientific evidence for First Nations “medicine”, she displayed the sort of relativism that readers of this blog will be familiar with by now. “I think there is other ways, uh, where you can garner knowledge and wisdom, and the aboriginal ways of knowing are simply different. And it’s so important to say that they are not wrong; they’re different.”

This relativistic nonsense leads medical practitioners like Dr. Caron to claim that patients need to find the treatment that “works for them”. The problem is that most patients aren’t doctors. Most patients aren’t scientists. Most patients do not understand what a clinical trial is, why placebo controls are important, what the peer review process brings to the table, and how to judge whether a published study is robust or just plain baloney. I’m glad Dr. Caron provides information to her patients, but a science education is not possible within the confines of a public healthcare system.

Some of her aboriginal patients refuse surgery and opt instead for traditional First Nations remedies. Dr. Goldman formulated the tough question that was on my lips: “Can you share the outcomes of any of these patients?” The three examples that popped into Dr. Caron’s mind showed a balance that I don’t suspect the full numbers would reach: one changed her mind and had surgery, one died, one is still alive.

How could conventional medicine fail First Nations patients? Dr. Caron states that few clinical trials test chemotherapeutic drugs, for instance, in First Nations individuals. What if they don’t work as well as they do in the Caucasians often recruited for these trials? The solution to the problem, of course, is not to resort to magical nonsense but to conduct further studies on First Nations patients. There are genetic factors that can affect a patient’s response to treatment. Throwing Western medicine out the window and replacing it with millennia-old wishful thinking is not the logical answer.

I’ve previously written about why Western medicine is not relative. Traditional remedies often either lack rigorous testing or have been thoroughly disproved. The ethical question that I am left with, at the end of this episode of White Coat, Black Art, is what should the State do with children whose parents refuse Western medical treatment.

Should these sick children be taken away from their parents and forced to undergo chemotherapy, with all of its (temporary) side effects? Is refusing treatment for your child in this context equivalent to neglect? Is foregoing chemotherapy and administering traditional herbs that fly in the face of evidence abuse? What is the cost of saving a child’s life if you traumatize him or her by separating the child from his or her parents?

There’s no doubt in my mind that replacing a Western medical treatment with a 90% chance of success for disproven herbal remedies is wrong. It is not different but simply wrong. But is the State forcing a child to undergo this treatment against the parents’ will right or wrong?

Comments below.


Western Medicine Is Not Relative

A couple of weeks ago, the McGill Daily, a student newspaper aimed at the McGill University student body, published a mind-bogling article entitled “Decolonizing healthcare”. In it, its author clumsily argues that medicine is culture and that White people should stop imposing our beliefs in diagnostic tools and validated medical treatments on other ethnic groups.

My rebuttal appears in the rival paper, The Prince Arthur Herald. Here is an excerpt:

“However Dahm is not interested in accuracy; she has chosen the Postmodern Horse of Marginalization and is riding it highly and mightily. Her thesis is that medicine is culture. By imposing their medical knowledge to indigenous people, Western physicians are guilty of colonialism.

“I am happy to report that science-based medicine is not culture. It is based on a system of knowledge that has proved its mettle and that puts forward hypotheses that are falsifiable. Medical doctors do not care that drinking an infusion of a rare indigenous flower was once reported by a shaman to alleviate symptoms of the flu; not because they are culturally insensitive, but because this claim is an anecdote and this infusion should be trialled before being prescribed.”

You can read the full thing here.

Thanks to Chad Regan for bringing the PA Herald to my attention and to Andrew Cody for his love of logical fallacies.


Listen: A Patient Cracking the Case of Evidence-Based Medicine

Another great episode of the CBC radio show White Coat Black Art with @NightShiftMD.

Beth Daley Ullem, former case cracker at McKinsey & Company, remembers how she shopped for the right hospital to take care of her unborn son. Absolutely fascinating.

All patients should have access to the data that Beth had, but that’s unfortunately not the case.

Listen to the podcast here.


Listen: Dr. Brian Goldman’s Soft Take on Alternative Medicine

Dr. Brian Goldman (@nightshiftmd), host of a great CBC radio show called White Coat Black Art that dares to pull back the curtain on the hidden world of medical practice, seems to be the latest victim of integrative medicine (IM). This IM movement has been gaining traction with Western physicians and medical institutions: many North American hospitals now include complementary and alternative treatments alongside evidence-based medicine. The world-famous Mayo Clinic in Rochester has done it; our own Jewish General Hospital has done it as well.

In a recent mini-podcast for the CBC show, Dr. Goldman was being interviewed on Dr. David Gorski and Dr. Steven Novella’s paper in Trends in Molecular Medicine entitled “Clinical trials of integrative medicine: testing whether magic works?”.  While he seemed to agree with the authors that treatments like homeopathy and Reiki have no plausible mechanism and have not been shown to work, my “hmm” alarm went off a few times when I noticed that Dr. Goldman kept saying, “the authors of the study show”, “the authors say”, “the authors claim”, etc.

At the end of the interview, Dr. Goldman, in a most irritating fashion, seemed to contradict himself:

“When there were calls in the past for more studies [...], I thought it was plausible to wait and see. These days, I think, that attitude holds less and less appeal. I think anyone who is considering alternative medicine should ask tough questions about scientific evidence and, and I–I’d turn a 180 degrees if I don’t get good answers that this is safe and that it’s–it’s active, that it’s doing something beneficial.”

A few seconds later (italics mine):

“But if you are determined to use alternative treatments, then do them with Western medicine in addition–in a complementary way, not an ‘either/or’ thing. [...] Be safe, do both, and hopefully you’ll find an enlightened family doctor or specialist who will entertain both.

You can listen to the whole interview here.

White Coat Black Art is one of my favourite podcasts. I think Dr. Goldman has shown remarkable drive and passion in bringing controversial topics in medicine to light. However, this is an instance where I think the IM movement is just too appealing. I don’t think physicians who “entertain both” are “enlightened”. I consulted with a Western physician a few years back when I wanted to “do both”, one last hurrah for wishful thinking before I became the staunch rationalist I would like to think I am today. This doctor did not agree to monitor my liver enzymes while I indulged in unproven Chinese herbs. He educated me and set me straight: he questioned my reasoning. That is being an “enlightened” physician.

Thank you, Dr. Tischkowitz. You did the right thing.

Dr. Goldman? How much negative evidence do you need to take a stronger stance? Enough of the wishy-washy stuff around alternative medicine. If it had been proved to work, it would be medicine. Let’s spend government money in more promising treatment modalities.


Read: The Med Student Who Wants to Bring Down Dr. Oz

A very interesting read. Some physicians have had enough of Dr. Oz’s pseudoscience and its effect on their patients.

“‘Dr. Oz has something like 4-million viewers a day,’ Mazer told Vox. ‘The average physician doesn’t see a million patients in their lifetime. That’s why organized medicine should be taking action.’

“Last year, Mazer brought a policy before the Medical Society of the State of New York—where Dr. Oz is licensed—requesting that they consider regulating the advice of famous physicians in the media. His idea: Treat health advice on TV in the same vein as expert testimony, which already has established guidelines for truthfulness. I asked Mazer about what inspired the policy, and what became of his efforts.”
You can read the full article on Vox.com.

It’s All in Your Head: A Statement on Which Both Christian Scientists and I Can Agree

Out of curiosity, I ask the woman I have been speaking to for a minute about the “Science” in “Christian Science”. She approached me at the end of the talk because the presenter had asked everyone in the room to introduce oneself to a stranger and talk about one’s inner qualities.

I don’t remember if this particular woman got around to enumerating her inner qualities, but I do remember her talking to a fellow attendee before the talk started. She was saying she has only had good tenants in the building she owns. Of course, she immediately added, she prayed for this to happen.

The reason this particular Christian sect claims to be scientific is because it purports to have uncovered Jesus’ laws, truths so powerful and immutable, they are said to be scientific.

I am reminded of something the speaker said earlier. “The body can’t resist great ideas.” Mine is. Or perhaps it’s not such a great idea to begin with.

I was not familiar with Christian Science before attending this lecture but, as a scientist myself, the bait was particularly tempting. Now armed with a free copy of their “holy” book—Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy—, an issue of the Christian Science Sentinel, and a handy pamphlet which answers many common questions—such as whether or not this is a cult—, I feel more knowledgeable already. Almost enlightened.

Before I delve into the medical reasons why Christian Science is particularly dangerous and one of the more “cracked” of pseudosciences, let’s explain what it’s all about.

Christian Science claims the Judeo-Christian god is all around us and that it’s only a question of tuning our mind to his frequency to feel his everlasting love. So far, so Christian. I asked the landlady with the heavenly tenants why she chose this particular denomination of Christianity as opposed to the tens of thousands of others. Her answer?

It’s the only one that can physically heal you.

***

The speaker’s name is Ginny Luedeman. She is impeccably dressed and looks like most people’s idea of a sweet and wise grandmother who is still sharp enough to argue with you. She also knows how to keep people’s interest for an hour. She uses no technology except for the hotel’s microphone as she relates the story of her difficult childhood. Poor family. Alcoholic father, who abandoned his family when she was 15. Pregnant and married at 16. Ended up a hard rock singer, “playing in concert with The Grateful Dead, Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, The Rolling Stones”, and more, and doing drugs to find creativity.

While overdosing on LSD, she cracked open a Bible at a random page and saw, “Thou shalt not commit adultery.” She did not know the meaning of the word. She repeated this twice, always landing on the same page. The third time, the word “adultery” appeared darker than before, as if some supernatural being was communicating with her. She started a conversation with the Big Guy Upstairs and dedicated her life to him. She claims her acid trip stopped right there and then and she was filled with warmth. That must have been the first time LSD caused someone to hallucinate and to experience a range of profound emotions.

She is now a Christian Science teacher who regularly gives seminars. She claims her positive attitude in life has actually healed members of her family: her mom went from dirt poor to starting a successful business and her deadbeat father gave up alcohol after hitting rock bottom, calling her up to ask if she had been responsible for this. The psychic healing claims may be laughable, but the stealth bomb she drops casually in the middle of it all is not: “I had what was evidence of a cancer dissolve.” The claim jettisoned, she moves on, but the damage to her audience of church-going elders is probably already done. She also claims she had a bump on her thumb and started to experience pain in her hands, like her grandmother who probably had arthritis. She prayed it away in eight months. With Christian Science, wishful thinking can cure you.

***

Make no mistake: there is nothing scientific about Christian Science. Using faith to claim the existence of rigorous divine laws is not rational but profoundly unscientific. And the plural of anecdote has never been data.

In the July 22 & 29, 2013 issue of Christian Science Sentinel, I read about how Christian Science can heal mental illness. The proof offered to the curious reader? It’s in the Bible. Jesus used to permanently heal all kinds of diseases (“[…] cases of lameness, blindness, deafness, as well as insanity…”) and lucky for Mary Baker Eddy, she rediscovered Jesus’ methods. The treatment? “It is rather about vehemently refusing to acknowledge anything as real but the law of goodness.” I would challenge the author on this. Ignoring a tumour will not make it go away.

Imitating Ginny Luedeman, I open my copy of Science and Health, the Bible companion of Christian Scientists, at random pages. I find nonsense that could set one on a dangerous path.

Page 150: “The doctrine that man’s harmony is governed by physical conditions all his earthly days, and that he is then thrust out of his own body by the operation of matter,—even the doctrine of the superiority of matter over Mind,—is fading out.” Sorry to burst your bubble, Mary Baker Eddy of 1875, but materialism has not faded out in the intervening years.

Page 114: “Christian Science explains all cause and effect as mental, not physical.” This seems to be the very driving force behind the movement and its appeal to people at the worst moment of their lives. In relating the story of her Biblical acid trip, the speaker said, “Suffering makes you really receptive.” That, it does, Ginny. That, it does.

Page 164: “But all human systems based on material premises are minus the unction of divine Science. Much yet remains to be said and done before all mankind is saved and all the mental microbes of sin and all diseased thought-germs are exterminated.”

The pamphlet I picked up at the talk is insidiously clear on the Church’s state regarding modern medicine. Next to the question, “Do you go to doctors?”, the answer is, “It’s up to each individual, but the norm is reliance on treatment by prayer in this Christian system of healing.” You may choose to go to a “doctor”, but you won’t be a real Christian Scientist until you pray the injury away, including a broken leg. “Some may have a doctor set the bone, but many others have seen bones set and mended by prayer alone.” This is where this particular religion goes from mind-embalming balderdash to dangerous quackery.

Ian Lundman (diabetes). Terrance Cottrell, Jr. (suffocation). Amy Hermanson (diabetes). Matthew Swan (meningitis). Nancy Brewster (cancer). Andrew Wantland (diabetes). Robyn Twitchell (peritonitis). These are some of the names of children who have died because their Christian Scientist parents or guardians either failed to seek treatment for their medical condition or intervened in a dangerous way, thinking they were curing them.

You can choose to live in a fantasy world but, sooner or later, the real world comes and bites you in the rear. Or your children’s rear.

***

So how did Ginny’s “evidence of a cancer” go away if not through scientific prayer?

There are many explanations for this and other claims of miraculous healings, such as can be found in the back pages of the Christian Science Sentinel.

A misdiagnosis is certainly not unheard of. Medicine is not perfect: doctors make mistakes.

Then there is the twisting of information, à la telephone game, in which a doctor states a fact to an overly anxious, scientifically illiterate patient, who proceeds to understand something else.

Spontaneous remission is also known to occur in certain cases. While scientists don’t currently have an explanation for them, the God-of-the-gaps argument is not a valid one. Throughout history, our increased understanding of the world has never, not once, included the realization that magic or the supernatural are real.

Acute injuries, such as a Sentinel reader’s arm and shoulder pain which arose after a backpacking trip, usually resolve themselves thanks to the miraculous power of… our physical bodies to heal themselves. Muscle strains generally go away on their own.

And let’s not forget that people lie.

But if you prefer to be convinced by a song, have this one on me: “Thank You God” by Tim Minchin.

And remember that “Christian Science” is a dangerous oxymoron.