MacDoctor

Red, Red Wine

Jim McVeagh • Jan 12, 2012

• Alcohol,
• Cheating,
• Dipak Das,
• research,
• Resveratrol,
• Sciblogs

A researcher into the benefits of resveratrol, the ingredient in red wine that is thought to have cardiovascular benefits, has been found to be falsifying his results. Dr. Dipak Das is alleged to have fabricated, falsified and manipulated data for several minor published studies of the substance. This is a little weird in itself because there […] Related posts: … Read More

Brain Zap

Jim McVeagh • Jan 07, 2012

• Electroconvulsive Therapy,
• John Read,
• Medical Practice,
• Mental health,
• Psychiatry,
• Psychology,
• research,
• Sciblogs

I have been meaning to blog about this article in Stuff on Electroconvulsive Therapy. As with almost every media article I have every seen on the subject, this one is thoroughly biased against ECT. It is as if journalists cannot resist dredging up the checkered and lurid past of ECT and presenting current ECT practice […] Related posts: … Read More

Check Your Target

Jim McVeagh • Jan 04, 2012

• Alcohol,
• Guns,
• Hazards,
• Hunting,
• Idiots,
• Law Enforcement,
• Morons,
• Sciblogs,
• Society,
• Stupidity

A survivor of a hunting “accident” asks the question “Why are people still being shot?“. The MacDoctor can help with this one. He was an ED doctor for 9 years in Southland, literally the “Happy Hunting Ground” of New Zealand. Of the dozens of shooting incidents he has seen, he has yet to see one […] Related posts: … Read More

Hidden Costs

Jim McVeagh • Jan 02, 2012

• Christchurch,
• Christchurch Earthquake,
• Environment,
• Hazards,
• Medical Practice,
• Mental health,
• Sciblogs

Talking about the death toll from the February killer quake in Christchurch, Professor Mike Ardagh reckons that there will be a number of others who will have died from the quake who are not yet part of this toll. He is thinking mainly of those who succumbed to complications from their injuries or died as […] Related posts: … Read More

On Levels of Evidence

Jim McVeagh • Jan 01, 2012

• Christchurch,
• Christchurch Earthquake,
• earthquake,
• Environment,
• Evidence,
• John Roughan,
• Levels of Evidence,
• research,
• Sciblogs,
• statistics

Yesterday, John Roughan’s column in the Herald was about the people of Christchurch and their need to know “the worst they might face”. He draws his story from the reluctance of the GNS to make comments about the possibility of further strong earthquakes even though they knew there was good scientific evidence that there would […] No related posts. Read More

Vitamyths

Jim McVeagh • Dec 29, 2011

• Breast cancer,
• cancer,
• Diet,
• melanoma,
• Multivitamins,
• research,
• Sciblogs,
• Vitamins,
• Vitamyths

Vi♦ta♦myth [vahy-tuh-mith; Brit. also vit-uh-mith] A factoid about vitamins that is wildly inaccurate or untrue Vitamyths come from both ends of the vitamin spectrum. Those who promote the consumption of vast amounts of vitamins are usually happy to make outlandish claims about their efficacy. This is, in some ways, quite understandable, as it is in [...] Related posts: … Read More

Sugar Sickness

Jim McVeagh • Dec 27, 2011

• Carbohydrate,
• Diabetes,
• Diet,
• Fat Tax,
• Losing weight,
• Obesity,
• Sciblogs,
• Society,
• Stupidity,
• sugar,
• Sugar Tax,
• Tony Falkenstein

New Zealand is, apparently, the third fattest nation in the world according to OECD statistics. Yet fighting the obesity “epidemic” is not rocket science. Apart from the very few people who have some serious metabolic disorder, all that causes obesity is taking in more calories than you burn up. Yes, it is rather more complicated [...] Related posts: … Read More

The Healthy Contraceptive?

Jim McVeagh • Dec 21, 2011

• Christianity,
• Lancet,
• Medical Practice,
• Nuns,
• Oral Contraceptives,
• research,
• Sciblogs

The MacDoctor sees that the Lancet is up to its old tricks again – publishing controversial comments and papers with poor scientific reasoning behind them. You would have thought that almost single-handedly producing the anti-vaccine movement with a poorly researched, bogus article would have taught them some caution, but apparently not. Not yet published in [...] Related posts: … Read More

To Die For

Jim McVeagh • Nov 30, 2011

• Elderly Health,
• Euthanasia,
• Sciblogs

In commenting on the case of Sean Davison - the man who has just been convicted of assisting the suicide of his terminally-ill mother – John Kleinsman (the director of the Nathaniel Centre, the New Zealand Catholic Bioethics Centre) makes the salient point that legalising euthanasia will leave the elderly vulnerable to pressure from family, health professionals [...] Related posts: … Read More

Death of a Brain Cell

Jim McVeagh • Jun 04, 2011

• Brain tumours,
• Cell Phones,
• EM Radiation,
• Interphone,
• media,
• research,
• Safety,
• Sciblogs,
• Stupidity,
• Sue Kedgley,
• WHO

I have to say, I much preferred the WHO when they were only a rock and roll band and not a teeming hive of health BureauPrats*. This week, a meeting of the terminally stupid (otherwise known as the International Agency for Research on Cancer – IARC) issued a statement that flies in the face of logic, [...] Related posts: … Read More