I Speak of Dreams

365 Days of Grace in Small Things

I'd intended to do a daily grace meditation, and then life -- especially the death of my daughter's father -- intervened. Back to doing it again. Every day if I can. Todays' grace: a giggling toddler at the mall.

The Big Pharma Conspiracy Debunked by Thomas Taylor

The Big Pharma Conspiracy (that vaccines somehow cause autism) by Thomas D. Taylor, creator of Midnight in Chicago

Part I

In recent weeks, I have been involved in discussions about whether vaccines cause autism and whether certain treatments for autism are “quack” treatments and therapies.

For the record, I do not believe vaccines cause autism, nor do I believe in many of the other conspiracy theories surrounding autism. And I believe a significant number of autism therapies and treatments are indeed “quack” therapies and “quack” treatments.

“Big money” and/or ”Big Pharma” and/or whoever else is allegedly involved always seem to be the culprit in these conspiracy theories. As if, when a person or company or group of them crosses an arbitrary financial line or exceed a certain profit margin, they have suddenly changed camps or are required to do so by some unspoken law of duplicity.

Part II

There are PETA activists who are 18 years old college students in debt up to their ears with student loans who have been able to infiltrate slaughter houses and expose the atrocities within via video, or via documentation they’ve managed to get from supposedly secure computer records, but not one person in the vaccines-cause-autism camp has been able to produce a video of a secret meeting where government officials and Big Pharma collude against the public, nor have they produced a document that says that any conspiracy theories are actually in operation.

Part III

It is absurd to think that we supposedly have generations of people going to their graves with undocumented and unverifiable wealth hidden somewhere that has gone unnoticed by the IRS or any other revenue authority in any country.

It is ridiculous to think that all these people would have the knowledge not only to participate in this conspiracy without friends, family members, acquaintances, lovers, et al remaining clueless about what’s going on, as well as to have a working knowledge of all tax laws, the most efficient methods for successful money laundering, and more.

Part IV

Do conspiracy theorists mean to suggest with the hundreds of thousands of people involved in all of this, everyone would be able to keep this secret and not tell anyone not in the loop? What possible gain would someone on the lowest level of pay be able to achieve when they could simply break the silence and make millions on a lucrative book deal by telling us all about the alleged conspiracy? Or all book and magazine publishers part of this conspiracy as well?

Part V

Question: Identify the profit and/or benefit to doctors when they make the following pronouncement to a parent: “I’m sorry. There is no medically approved treatment available for autism.”

Answer: Zero.

Now here is what I find interesting. There is a segment of the population generating billions of dollars in revenues from the alleged autism epidemic, and they are using Big Pharma chemicals to do it. Who are these nefarious people? Why, they are quack therapists.

Another take by David Gorski M.D., at Science Based Medicine The Pharma Shill Gambit

Holiday Debriefing

This has been the most soul-nourishing midwinter festival in years.

All Peace and Joy to You and To Yours

We're going up to San Mateo where I'll cook the turkey & etc. 

Whatever your thoughts about divinity,  I wish you all the great peace of the season, and the joy of it too. 

Star of wonder, star of night!
Star of royal beauty bright;
westward leading, still proceeding,
guide us to thy Perfect Light. --"
We Three Kings of Orient Are"

Official Marine Christmas

I'm putting this up to honor our brave men and women in military service, who are far from their families at this time of year. From the bottom of my heart, thanks for all you do.

Doc in the Box put this up last year in 2007. It still makes me laugh.

TO: ALL Marines
FROM: Goode, U. B., Commanding Officer
RE: Operation Order 12-15-04 for: Official Visit of LtGen Santa Claus

1. An official staff visit by LtGen Claus is expected at your house on 25 DEC. The following directives govern activities of all Young Marines, during the visit.

a. Not a creature will stir without permission. This includes warrant officers and mice. Marines may obtain special stirring permits for necessary administrative action through the Battalion S-1. Officer stirring permits must be obtained through the Deputy, Post Plans and Policy Office.

Chiropractic and ADHD: A Randomized Trial -- Very Weak Results

In 2001, Patrick Cristopher Rolland was a candidate for the Master of Technology in Chiropractic  Degree from Technikon Witwaterstrand, South Africa.  His master's thesis was The Effect of Chiropractic Manipulative Therapy on Children With Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder.

The method was to recruit a total of 30 children (ages 6-12 years) previously diagnosed by others ADHD. They were divided evenly into the treatment group and the control group.  During the course of the study, participants continued to receive the therapies and support that were in place prior to the beginning of the study.  The treatment group had n=7 on medication, and the control group had n=4. 

Over the course of the study, there were marked drop-offs in both the treatment group and the control group. The final numbers were n=6 for the control group and n=9 for the experimental group.  Both groups were heavily weighted towards boys, with n=1 girls in each group.  The other, underlying treatments for ADHD were not controlled for, as the treatment group had n=7 on medication, and the control group had n=4.

The difference between the treatment group and the control group was that the treatment group received "Chiropractic Manipulative Therapy" (CMT) and the control group received "placebo Activator Method Chiropractic Therapy"

The outcome of this study is (a) compromised by missing pages from the thesis (my copy skips from page 43 to 51-- including the chapter on discussion  (b) the large drop-off of subjects.

Despite these shortcomings, does this study validate the notion that spinal manipulation or chiropractic care can be a useful adjunct to the management of ADHD in children?

No.  The parents' responses were positive -- but the parents knew that the study subjects were enrolled in the study.  Bias is unavoidable.  The teachers' responses (who presumably did not know the childrens' participation) were unchanged.

State Senator Todd Lamb Devises Way To Limit Abortion In Oklahoma

Via Phayrngula, I learned that Lamb drafted a bill that requires physicians to collect 10 pages of information about every woman requesting an abortion  and  to post that information online. 

The bill was passed in May.  An Oklahoma judge granted a restraining order against the bill.

It's an invasion of privacy and unneccessary.

Online posting of women's abortion information challenged in Oklahoma - CNN.com. "

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in 1969 drafted criteria for vital statistics around abortion to look at infant and maternal mortality in an effort to make the procedure safer. The CDC's guidelines have long been considered the standard and "all the states pretty much follow that," said Elizabeth Nash, who tracks state abortion legislation for the Guttmacher Institute. "You compare the law in Oklahoma to the CDC standard, and you see the law in Oklahoma goes far beyond what has been considered appropriate for vital statistics purposes," Nash said.

Update: The conversation at Pharyngula is fascinating, in part because PZ Myer's daughter Skatje appears not to be opposed to the bill.

Here is the bill itself: Download 1595

Two Quick Notes: Learning Styles and Dyslexia

Learning styles are a beloved trope in schools of education.  But guess what?  There's no valid evidence for them.

Learning Styles: Concepts and Evidence
Harold Pashler, Mark McDaniel, Doug Rohrer, and Robert Bjork
Download PSPI_9_3Download PSPI_9_3_editorial

For more than three decades, the idea that instructional methods should match a student’s particular learning style has been a powerful influence in education. The wide appeal of the notion that, for example, some students best learn visually while others best learn by listening is evident in the vast number of learning-style tests and teaching guides available for purchase and used in schools. But does scientific research really support the learning-styles hypothesis? In a new assessment of the available evidence, authors Harold Pashler, Mark McDaniel, Doug Rohrer, and Robert Bjork conclude that the learning-styles hypothesis has little, if any, empirical grounding.

A large number of studies have purported to show that different kinds of learners (such as “auditory learners” and “visual learners”) learn best when taught in their preferred modality; but the majority of such studies have not used the type of randomized research designs (e.g., classify learners into categories, then randomly assign the learners to use one of several different learning methods and assess effectiveness of the learning methods with a test given to all participants) that would make their findings credible. What psychological evidence does show is that people are inclined to hold false beliefs about how they learn and that they tend to learn and teach others in nonoptimal ways. Among other things, the report has significant implications for instructional approaches, and underscores the need to ensure that teaching methods are informed by sound scientific research, not fad educational theories or intuition.

Dyslexia: Dyslexia defined: New Yale study 'uncouples' reading and IQ over time

Contrary to popular belief, some very smart, accomplished people cannot read well. This unexpected difficulty in reading in relation to intelligence, education and professional status is called dyslexia, and researchers at Yale School of Medicine and University of California Davis, have presented new data that explain how otherwise bright and intelligent people struggle to read.

The study, which will be published in the January 1, 2010 issue of the journal Psychological Science, provides a validated definition of dyslexia. "For the first time, we've found empirical evidence that shows the relationship between IQ and reading over time differs for typical compared to dyslexic readers," said Sally E. Shaywitz, M.D., the Audrey G. Ratner Professor in Learning Development at Yale School of Medicine's Department of Pediatrics, and co-director of the newly formed Yale Center for Dyslexia and Creativity.

Using data from the Connecticut Longitudinal Study, an ongoing 12-year study of cognitive and behavioral development in a representative sample of 445 Connecticut schoolchildren, Shaywitz and her team tested each child in reading every year and tested for IQ every other year. They were looking for evidence to show how the dissociation between cognitive ability and reading ability might develop in children.

The researchers found that in typical readers, IQ and reading not only track together, but also influence each other over time. But in children with dyslexia, IQ and reading are not linked over time and do not influence one another. This explains why a dyslexic can be both bright and not read well.

Canadian Pediatric Society Position Statement: Chiropractic care for children: Controversies and issues

CPS Position Statements: Chiropractic care for children: Controversies and issues.

The statement reads in part:

Parents should be made aware that there is a lack of substantiated evidence for the theory of subluxated vertebrae as the causality for illness in children, and x-rays taken for this purpose expose the child to unnecessary radiation⁵⁶.

Conclusions Chiropractic treatment for children and adolescents is not uncommon. Open and honest discussions with families using or planning to use chiropractic for their children will, hopefully, bring about a rational use of this treatment in selected musculoskeletal conditions for which there is proof of efficacy, and enable parents to make informed choices about this form of therapy. Further, well-designed studies are needed to evaluate the chiropractic belief that musculoskeletal dysfunctions can be located and treated in children with nonmusculoskeletal conditions^10. Ideally, collaborative evidence-based research into chiropractic care for diverse paediatric conditions should define those patients best suited for chiropractic therapy.

Interested parties are urged to read the entire article.

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¹⁰ Durant C, Verhoef MJ, Conway PJ, Sauve RS. Chiropractic treatment of patients younger than 18 years of age: Frequency, patterns and chiropractors’ beliefs. Paediatr Child Health 2001;6:433-8.

⁵⁶ A Statement by the Chairmen of the Departments of Pediatrics of Pediatric Hospitals in Canada. Can J Ped 1995;2:v-vi.

It's OK, We'll Just Start Our Own Peer-Reviewed Journals (Chiropractic Edition)

From the esteemed Dr. Aust:

There seems to be something of a fashion at the moment for making “mash-ups” by splicing ironic subtitles to clips from the brilliant, if harrowing, German movie Der Untergang (Downfall), which deals with the last days in the Berlin in late April 1945....

Today I see, via the Bad Science boys over on Twitter, that the set-up has been “re-cast” again to cover the evidence (!) for chiropractic for infant colic. Definitely a must-view for all those who have been enjoying watching the UK chiropractors make a laughing stock of themselves over the BCA v Simon Singh libel case. A must-view provided you’re not easily offended by four letter words, that is. Or a chiropractor.

Warning -- the subtitles use the f-word. A lot.

What made me snicker at about 2:57 into the clip is...the subtitle "It's OK, we'll just start our own journals"

Ladies and gentlemen:

The Journal of Vertebral Subluxation Research, edited by Matthew McCoy

Journal of Pediatric, Maternal, and Family Health, edited by Matthew McCoy