Essential Oils in the Ambulance by Steven Novella

“[U]sing essential oils to treat minor pain. This is now a new front on the struggle against the infiltration of pseudoscience into medicine. Similar to acupuncture, it represents a fundamental failure of medical education.

The goal of any science-based system, which medicine should be, is to have clear and valid procedures for reliably answering basic questions – in the case of medicine, questions about safety, efficacy, and fundamental issues of biology and mechanism of action. In short we need to be able to adequately address the question – is this phenomenon real, and what exactly is it?

Promoters of snake oil (whether naïve or intentional) fail at this basic task. They have also discovered the weak points in the medical system where they can infiltrate. This is where the failure of medical education comes in, because it should be obvious to any trained health professional that these interventions are not scientific. We should be holding the line against pseudoscience, and then educating the public about what is legitimate and what isn’t. Instead, far too many health care providers become deceived themselves and then promote pseudoscience. Then the entire system starts to crumble as we see a proliferation of specialists, journals, products, and services in the mainstream based on bad science.

…Doctors should know enough science to see through all this, and many do, but unfortunately many cannot. They combine terrible science with personal anecdotes and then use their professional status to lend credence to pseudoscience, and become the gateway for the infiltration of this pseudoscience into our profession.”

The full article is here.

Why Bogus Therapies Seem To Work by Barry L. Beyerstein

“[I]ndividual testimonials count for very little in evaluating therapies. Because so many false leads can convince intelligent, honest people that cures have been achieved when they have not, it is essential that any putative treatment be tested under conditions that control for placebo responses, compliance effects, and judgmental errors.

…If the practitioner claims persecution, is ignorant of or openly hostile to mainstream science, cannot supply a reasonable scientific rationale for his or her methods, and promises results that go well beyond those claimed by orthodox biomedicine, there is strong reason to suspect that one is dealing with a quack. Appeals to other ways of knowing or mysterious sounding ‘planes,’ ‘energies,’ ‘forces,’ or ‘vibrations’ are other telltale signs, as is any claim to treat the whole person rather than localized pathology.

To people who are unwell, any promise of a cure is especially beguiling. As a result, false hope easily supplants common sense. In this vulnerable state, the need for hard-nosed appraisal is all the more necessary, but so often we see instead an eagerness to abandon any remaining vestiges of skepticism. Erstwhile savvy consumers, felled by disease, often insist upon less evidence to support the claims of alternative healers than they would previously have demanded from someone hawking a used car. Caveat emptor!”

The full article is here.

Study of the Therapeutic Effects of Intercessory Prayer (STEP) in Cardiac Bypass Patients: A Multicenter Randomized Trial of Uncertainty and Certainty of Receiving Intercessory Prayer by Herbert Benson, et al.

“Our study had 2 main findings. First, intercessory prayer itself had no effect on whether complications occurred after CABG. Second, patients who were certain that intercessors would pray for them had a higher rate of complications than patients who were uncertain but did receive intercessory prayer.”

The full paper is here.

Acupuncture Doesn’t Work by Steven Novella

“…after decades of research and more than 3000 trials, acupuncture researchers have failed to reject the null hypothesis, and any remaining possible specific effect from acupuncture is so tiny as to be clinically insignificant. In layman’s terms, acupuncture does not work – for anything.”

The full article, including the attached paper, can be found here.

Lifetime Prevalence Rates of Sleep Paralysis: A Systematic Review by Brian A. Sharpless and Jacques P. Barber

“Sleep paralysis (SP) is characterized by a discrete period of time during which voluntary muscle movement is inhibited, yet ocular and respiratory movements are intact and ones sensorium remains clear. These episodes can occur when falling asleep or upon awakening, and are most likely to happen when individuals sleep in a supine position. Some of the more notable aspects of SP are the vivid hypnogogic (sleep onset) or hypnopompic (sleep offset) hallucinations that often accompany episodes. These potentially frightening experiences have been interpreted in a number of culturally-specific contexts, with variegated spiritual and supernatural explanations ranging from witchcraft and malevolent spirits to extra-terrestrials. Contemporary medical explanations for the genesis of SP are not so colorful, with sleep studies locating SP’s genesis in a perseveration of REM activity into normal sleep transitions.”

The full article is here.

The Nobel Disease: When Intelligence Fails To Protect Against Irrationality by Candice Basterfield (et al)

Full article is here.

Crystal Healing: Stone-Cold Facts About Gemstone Treatments by Elizabeth Palermo

The full article is here.