- Worthless Alzheimer’s advice on the internet – “A new NIH-sponsored review of the scientific literature on Alzheimer’s disease has some disappointing news: nothing works…Despite the lack of evidence, plenty of internet quacks are happy to recommend all sorts of supplements to treat Alzheimer’s.” From Max.
- Exploiting psychology in law and advertising – The latest installment in Slate’s series on false memories. From Caitlin.
- Mindreader let off jury duty, officials feared he’d wreck the trial – From Michael and Andrés.
- Infecting a snail: Life cycle of the grossest parasite – “These flatworms live in birds’ rectums, and they give garden snails a glimpse of hell.”
- Cute Animal Friday! Amber sent in these rare twin foals. Look at the adorable schnoz on this baby tapir.
I think the mindreader story is linking to the wrong article.
@jogleby: Fixed, thanks!
Uh, oh, Indignant rant coming on! I’ve been doing Alzheimer’s disease research for 12 years so this stuff makes me bonkers. I recently had lunch with a college friend and her partner who is an accupuncturist/ accupressurist/ reflexologist/herbalist/ all that crap. When she found out what I did, she magnanimously stated “You should look into sage. In herbal medicine we’ve known for years that sage can prevent Alzheimer’s – notice I say ‘prevent’ and not ‘cure’, that’s what we say in CAM.”
I just said mmm-hmmm, bit my tongue bloody and ate my nasty burrito (I know, I’m proud of myself), instead of saying “Oh! How f-ing modest of you! Prevent, huh? We haven’t thought of that, us arrogant ‘cure’-hunting scientists. And to think, thousands of us have been working our asses off for years with billions of dollars of public funds and generous donations and it was so easy this whole time! I’ll have to let everyone know we can stop working and go out for beers. Thanks to ancient wisdom – Mission Accomplished!”
But civility won the day.
@B Hitt: Did you see Morgan Spurlock’s “30 Days”? Great series…he did one on “anti-aging” “medicine” where an ex-athlete approaching middle age goes to one of these “anti-aging” quacks…er, specialists, because he wants to jump-start getting back in shape, and almost winds up in the hospital from the treatments!
(For those not in the field, there is NO recognized board certification or specialty in “anti-aging” medicine, hence my scornful quotation marks. You can be a healthier 40-50-60-year 0ld, but you’re still 40-50-60. You don’t “reverse aging”. You just live healthier at your actual age. OK, mini-rant over.)
And W00T! I contributed a SkepChick Quickie! This made my week! :D
All quack cures and medical pseudoscience pisses me off, but Alzheimers crap pisses me off more than most, since my grandmother died with this awful disease. It’s more personal. And it implies that she could have done something to prevent what happened to her. And it seems to have a genetic component, so I watch my mother closely (she’s getting a bit ‘off’ as she ages) and of course, worry about myself.
Drinking out of aluminum cans as another ’cause’ of Alzheimers is another issue. Wow, I wonder how people got it a century ago?
@geek goddess: Yeah, there’s a lot of FUD out there, especially about aluminum & Alzheimer’s disease (AD), but in a nutshell, aluminum DOES accumulate in the brains of people with AD, but it’s BECAUSE of the disease process and what it does in the brain. Someone who will never get AD could sprinkle aluminum filings on their Rice Krispies every morning and it won’t affect their risk one bit.
But that’s why it’s so pervasive. All people know is that autopsied brains of AD victims had aluminum buildup, and so forget cause and effect, the correlation is what sticks in their brain (along with the aluminum).
From the infected snails article:
(Sigh) I wish we could award a COTW for the article’s writer.
It’s one better. ;-)
@MiddleMan: Did you then see the comments following the article? Folks were _offended_ that the article took a shot at ID. *sigh*
@DataJack: You’re surprised?
Granted, it is a cheap shot, but this is ID we’re talking about…
@MaxH: I haven’t seen that episode but I’d like to.
Similarly, while Aubrey DeGrey’s Methuselah Foundation project is fascinating, his comments about AD whenever I hear him speak are way overly optimistic, bordering on pseudoscience. It makes me question how solid his ideas are about other things that I have less understanding of.
BTW- this is an excellent article but all the comments following it are from pseudoscience nutjobs. Dr. Salzberg deserves better.
omg.
this is relevent because it’s ‘cute animal friday’
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8MUhb00kiXs
so cute omg. i love doggies.
also, some of the commenters crying “animal abuse!!!11!11!” are hilariuos. i wonder how many of those people have had actual experience with dogs. O_o
This kind of lifestyle is pretty common in flatworms.
There are flukes that parasitize deer and other ungulates. The eggs come out through the poop, then when they get wet the next life stage swims around and enter snails through the skin, where they go dormant in the muscles. The snail then get accidentally eaten by deer, and the process starts all over.
The worm story leaves me thinking, I don’t think there is a parasitic worm in existence without a gross life cycle.
@MiddleMan: ((o.o)) OMG, those eyestalks gave me serious wiggins. It’s like a monster out of silent hill or summit. *gouges eyes out*
Also? Poor snail losing his eye stalks. :-(
Yay! The foals were born at my vet school!