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HuckleB
HuckleB's Journal
HuckleB's Journal
June 9, 2012
"...
The study also purports to find that the there was an inverse relationship between education level and vaccine use – college-educated mothers were less likely to vaccinate their children. Further, in the 8 years after the Lancet study this gap increased. This education-gap is also in line with previous research, but needs some explanation. We need to distinguish unvaccinated from undervaccinated, and vaccine non-compliance from vaccine refusal. When looking at the undervaccinated, and specifically those who missed scheduled vaccines, this correlates with lower socioeconomic status and less education. This is in line with a more general pattern – the fewer resources a family has the less likely they are to avail themselves of available health care.
However, if you look at those who refuse or delay vaccines as a deliberate choice, there is a positive correlation with the education level of the parents, especially the mother. This may seem paradoxical at first – higher education leading to bad health care decision making, but actually it makes perfect sense. First, let me say that I am taking as a premise that refusing vaccines is a bad decision. For reference just plug in “vaccine” into the search box on this blog and you can read dozens of articles explaining my position. In short, the evidence overwhelmingly supports the conclusion that vaccines are safe and effective and a net health benefit for the vaccinated. Fears over vaccines causing autism or other neurological damage are based upon soundly refuted pseudoscience. So why, then, the reverse correlation with education?
The typical hypothesis, which is plausible but untested (as far as I know), is that higher education levels leads to greater access to information, specifically on the internet, where vaccine fears have largely been spread. If you are not exposed to misinformation about vaccines then you cannot act on that misinformation.
I also think, however, that this is part of a larger phenomenon – a direct relationship between education level and general acceptance of pseudoscience. Prior surveys have found a correlation between higher levels of education and belief in ghosts, ESP, and alien visitations. Education superficially seems to make us more gullible. However, the interpretation of this result, in light of other psychological research, is different than just gullibility. Access to information is likely part of the reason for the correlation between education and belief. Another factor is likely that as we get smarter we get better at justifying our own beliefs. Having an education can make someone more confident in defending their offbeat beliefs, and better able to defend those beliefs from the skeptics.
..."
---------------
If having an "education" meant that you had learned the scientific process in total, that might be a good thing. But, in this world, it does not mean that. Oddly, "education" sometimes makes people think too much of their own knowledge.
Ugh.
Education and Vaccine Uptake
http://theness.com/neurologicablog/index.php/education-and-vaccine-uptake/"...
The study also purports to find that the there was an inverse relationship between education level and vaccine use – college-educated mothers were less likely to vaccinate their children. Further, in the 8 years after the Lancet study this gap increased. This education-gap is also in line with previous research, but needs some explanation. We need to distinguish unvaccinated from undervaccinated, and vaccine non-compliance from vaccine refusal. When looking at the undervaccinated, and specifically those who missed scheduled vaccines, this correlates with lower socioeconomic status and less education. This is in line with a more general pattern – the fewer resources a family has the less likely they are to avail themselves of available health care.
However, if you look at those who refuse or delay vaccines as a deliberate choice, there is a positive correlation with the education level of the parents, especially the mother. This may seem paradoxical at first – higher education leading to bad health care decision making, but actually it makes perfect sense. First, let me say that I am taking as a premise that refusing vaccines is a bad decision. For reference just plug in “vaccine” into the search box on this blog and you can read dozens of articles explaining my position. In short, the evidence overwhelmingly supports the conclusion that vaccines are safe and effective and a net health benefit for the vaccinated. Fears over vaccines causing autism or other neurological damage are based upon soundly refuted pseudoscience. So why, then, the reverse correlation with education?
The typical hypothesis, which is plausible but untested (as far as I know), is that higher education levels leads to greater access to information, specifically on the internet, where vaccine fears have largely been spread. If you are not exposed to misinformation about vaccines then you cannot act on that misinformation.
I also think, however, that this is part of a larger phenomenon – a direct relationship between education level and general acceptance of pseudoscience. Prior surveys have found a correlation between higher levels of education and belief in ghosts, ESP, and alien visitations. Education superficially seems to make us more gullible. However, the interpretation of this result, in light of other psychological research, is different than just gullibility. Access to information is likely part of the reason for the correlation between education and belief. Another factor is likely that as we get smarter we get better at justifying our own beliefs. Having an education can make someone more confident in defending their offbeat beliefs, and better able to defend those beliefs from the skeptics.
..."
---------------
If having an "education" meant that you had learned the scientific process in total, that might be a good thing. But, in this world, it does not mean that. Oddly, "education" sometimes makes people think too much of their own knowledge.
Ugh.
June 7, 2012
What?
Read up to learn about lives saved and hospitalizations avoided via the varicella vaccine.
http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/index.php/varicella-vaccination-program-success/
And to cover the others: http://jama.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?volume=298&issue=18&page=2155
Please educate yourself. Pushing such a meme seems to be unethical, IMO.
April 6, 2012
In 2009 Harvard anthropologist Richard Wrangham offered a novel theory on the evolution of humans: Homo erectus could not have evolved nearly two million years ago without consuming cooked food. No way, he argued, could raw food have provided the calories necessary for the development of the human brain. Its digestion alone requires too much energy. But cooked food changed everything. It's much easier to digest, freeing up energy to fuel our brains, not our guts. "The extra energy gave the first cooks biological advantages," he wrote. "They survived and reproduced better than before. Their genes spread. Their bodies responded by biologically adapting to cooked food, shaped by natural selection to take maximum advantage of the new diet. There were changes in anatomy, physiology, ecology, life history, psychology and society."
But there was one small problem with Wrangham's theory: Cooking food requires fire, and the oldest unequivocal evidence for human control of fire only ("only"
dates to 400,000 years ago. No fire, no cooking. The few archaeological sites in Africa, Asia, and Europe with trace fire evidence dating back to 700,000 to 1.5 million years ago are open air, meaning wildfires cannot be ruled out, or are inconclusive for other reasons.
Now a new paper published this week provides what the authors call "unambiguous evidence in the form of burned bone and ashed plant remains" that "burning events" occurred in Wonderwerk Cave, an archaeological site in South Africa, one million years ago. The archaeologists -- led by Francsco Berna of Boston University -- have been working in the cave, "an approximately 140-m-long phreatic tube," since 2004.
..."
Thus, we have another nail in the coffin of another fad diet:
Stop Using Cavemen as an Excuse for Your Fad Diet
http://jezebel.com/5899319/stop-using-cavemen-as-an-excuse-for-your-fad-diet
Cooking: The 1-Million-Year-Old Technology
http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2012/04/cooking-the-1-million-year-old-technology/255455/In 2009 Harvard anthropologist Richard Wrangham offered a novel theory on the evolution of humans: Homo erectus could not have evolved nearly two million years ago without consuming cooked food. No way, he argued, could raw food have provided the calories necessary for the development of the human brain. Its digestion alone requires too much energy. But cooked food changed everything. It's much easier to digest, freeing up energy to fuel our brains, not our guts. "The extra energy gave the first cooks biological advantages," he wrote. "They survived and reproduced better than before. Their genes spread. Their bodies responded by biologically adapting to cooked food, shaped by natural selection to take maximum advantage of the new diet. There were changes in anatomy, physiology, ecology, life history, psychology and society."
But there was one small problem with Wrangham's theory: Cooking food requires fire, and the oldest unequivocal evidence for human control of fire only ("only"
dates to 400,000 years ago. No fire, no cooking. The few archaeological sites in Africa, Asia, and Europe with trace fire evidence dating back to 700,000 to 1.5 million years ago are open air, meaning wildfires cannot be ruled out, or are inconclusive for other reasons.
Now a new paper published this week provides what the authors call "unambiguous evidence in the form of burned bone and ashed plant remains" that "burning events" occurred in Wonderwerk Cave, an archaeological site in South Africa, one million years ago. The archaeologists -- led by Francsco Berna of Boston University -- have been working in the cave, "an approximately 140-m-long phreatic tube," since 2004.
..."
Thus, we have another nail in the coffin of another fad diet:
Stop Using Cavemen as an Excuse for Your Fad Diet
http://jezebel.com/5899319/stop-using-cavemen-as-an-excuse-for-your-fad-diet
February 14, 2012
Acupuncture Revisited
http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/index.php/acupuncture-revisited/
Some very good reading for open minds.
Acupuncture and history: The “ancient” therapy that’s been around for several decades
http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/index.php/acupuncture-and-history-the-ancient-therapy-thats-been-around-for-several-decades/Acupuncture Revisited
http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/index.php/acupuncture-revisited/
Some very good reading for open minds.
February 14, 2012
"...
It may be trivially true that TCM has a long history, but it is hard to ignore that the placement of this statement at the beginning of a scientific article implies an argument from antiquity – that TCM should be taken seriously because of this long history. I would argue that this is actually a reason to be suspicious of TCM, for it derives from a pre-scientific largely superstition-based culture, similar in this way to the pre-scientific Western culture that produced the humoral (Galenic) theory of biology.
The next line is an admission that TCM is largely based on anecdotal information, described as the “precious experience” of life. This is a point that is often overlooked or not understood by proponents but central to the scientific/skeptical position – what is the value and predictive power of “precious experience” in developing a system of medicine?
I maintain that there are many good reasons to conclude that any system which derives from everyday experience is likely to be seriously flawed and almost entirely cut off from reality. Obvious short term effects, the lowest hanging fruit of observation, are likely to be reliable. Uncontrolled observation is a reasonable way to discover which plants, for example, are deadly poisons. This is likely to produce some false positives but few false negatives, which is fine for survival.
Other obvious effects, like nausea, diarrhea, and psychedelic effects are also easy to discover. Similarly it was probably obvious that people need to eat, breathe, and drink in order to stay healthy and alive. But records of pre-scientific thinking about health and disease shows that little else was.
..."
------------------
Can we please get back to discussing health care via the scientific method?
What Is Traditional Chinese Medicine?
http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/index.php/what-is-traditional-chinese-medicine/"...
It may be trivially true that TCM has a long history, but it is hard to ignore that the placement of this statement at the beginning of a scientific article implies an argument from antiquity – that TCM should be taken seriously because of this long history. I would argue that this is actually a reason to be suspicious of TCM, for it derives from a pre-scientific largely superstition-based culture, similar in this way to the pre-scientific Western culture that produced the humoral (Galenic) theory of biology.
The next line is an admission that TCM is largely based on anecdotal information, described as the “precious experience” of life. This is a point that is often overlooked or not understood by proponents but central to the scientific/skeptical position – what is the value and predictive power of “precious experience” in developing a system of medicine?
I maintain that there are many good reasons to conclude that any system which derives from everyday experience is likely to be seriously flawed and almost entirely cut off from reality. Obvious short term effects, the lowest hanging fruit of observation, are likely to be reliable. Uncontrolled observation is a reasonable way to discover which plants, for example, are deadly poisons. This is likely to produce some false positives but few false negatives, which is fine for survival.
Other obvious effects, like nausea, diarrhea, and psychedelic effects are also easy to discover. Similarly it was probably obvious that people need to eat, breathe, and drink in order to stay healthy and alive. But records of pre-scientific thinking about health and disease shows that little else was.
..."
------------------
Can we please get back to discussing health care via the scientific method?
February 1, 2012
"...
I exhibited a “qualified impairment in social interaction,” specifically “failure to develop peer relationships appropriate to developmental level” (I had few friends) and a “lack of spontaneous seeking to share enjoyment, interests, or achievements with other people” (I spent a lot of time by myself in my room reading novels and listening to music, and when I did hang out with other kids I often tried to speak like an E. M. Forster narrator, annoying them). I exhibited an “encompassing preoccupation with one or more stereotyped and restricted patterns of interest that is abnormal either in intensity or focus” (I memorized poems and spent a lot of time playing the guitar and writing terrible poems and novels).
The general idea with a psychological diagnosis is that it applies when the tendencies involved inhibit a person’s ability to experience a happy, normal life. And in my case, the tendencies seemed to do just that. My high school G.P.A. would have been higher if I had been less intensely focused on books and music. If I had been well-rounded enough to attain basic competence at a few sports, I wouldn’t have provoked rage and contempt in other kids during gym and recess.
The thing is, after college I moved to New York City and became a writer and met some people who shared my obsessions, and I ditched the Forsterian narrator thing, and then I wasn’t that awkward or isolated anymore. According to the diagnostic manual, Asperger syndrome is “a continuous and lifelong disorder,” but my symptoms had vanished.
Last year I sold a novel of the psychological-realism variety, which means that my job became to intuit the unverbalized meanings of social interactions and create fictional social encounters with interesting secret subtexts. By contrast, people with Asperger syndrome and other autism spectrum disorders usually struggle to pick up nonverbal social cues. They often prefer the kind of thinking involved in chess and math, activities at which I am almost as inept as I am at soccer.
..."
-----------------------
A very interesting read.
NYT Column: I Had Asperger Syndrome. Briefly.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/01/opinion/i-had-asperger-syndrome-briefly.html?src=me&ref=general"...
I exhibited a “qualified impairment in social interaction,” specifically “failure to develop peer relationships appropriate to developmental level” (I had few friends) and a “lack of spontaneous seeking to share enjoyment, interests, or achievements with other people” (I spent a lot of time by myself in my room reading novels and listening to music, and when I did hang out with other kids I often tried to speak like an E. M. Forster narrator, annoying them). I exhibited an “encompassing preoccupation with one or more stereotyped and restricted patterns of interest that is abnormal either in intensity or focus” (I memorized poems and spent a lot of time playing the guitar and writing terrible poems and novels).
The general idea with a psychological diagnosis is that it applies when the tendencies involved inhibit a person’s ability to experience a happy, normal life. And in my case, the tendencies seemed to do just that. My high school G.P.A. would have been higher if I had been less intensely focused on books and music. If I had been well-rounded enough to attain basic competence at a few sports, I wouldn’t have provoked rage and contempt in other kids during gym and recess.
The thing is, after college I moved to New York City and became a writer and met some people who shared my obsessions, and I ditched the Forsterian narrator thing, and then I wasn’t that awkward or isolated anymore. According to the diagnostic manual, Asperger syndrome is “a continuous and lifelong disorder,” but my symptoms had vanished.
Last year I sold a novel of the psychological-realism variety, which means that my job became to intuit the unverbalized meanings of social interactions and create fictional social encounters with interesting secret subtexts. By contrast, people with Asperger syndrome and other autism spectrum disorders usually struggle to pick up nonverbal social cues. They often prefer the kind of thinking involved in chess and math, activities at which I am almost as inept as I am at soccer.
..."
-----------------------
A very interesting read.
January 30, 2012
Also see:
The unconscionable consequences of conscience exemptions
http://ncronline.org/blogs/grace-margins/unconscionable-consequences-conscience-exemptions
Catholics hear protests of Obama health ruling at Mass
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/01/30/us-catholics-contraception-idUSTRE80T06K20120130
Catholics rally against Obama contraception mandate
http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/on-faith/catholics-rally-against-obama-contraception-mandate/2012/01/30/gIQAEZbscQ_story.html
Bishops out of touch with masses on birth control coverage
http://www.desmoinesregister.com/article/20120130/OPINION04/301300010/Bishops-out-of-touch-with-masses-on-birth-control-coverage
The story appears to be everywhere.
See Post 18...
http://www.democraticunderground.com/101439146#post18Also see:
The unconscionable consequences of conscience exemptions
http://ncronline.org/blogs/grace-margins/unconscionable-consequences-conscience-exemptions
Catholics hear protests of Obama health ruling at Mass
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/01/30/us-catholics-contraception-idUSTRE80T06K20120130
Catholics rally against Obama contraception mandate
http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/on-faith/catholics-rally-against-obama-contraception-mandate/2012/01/30/gIQAEZbscQ_story.html
Bishops out of touch with masses on birth control coverage
http://www.desmoinesregister.com/article/20120130/OPINION04/301300010/Bishops-out-of-touch-with-masses-on-birth-control-coverage
The story appears to be everywhere.
January 29, 2012
"Facing an epidemic of whooping cough that led to the deaths of 10 infants in 2010, California public health officials launched a massive vaccination effort and public awareness campaign about the disease.
And on Tuesday, they announced the payoff: no deaths in 2011, a first in two decades. The number of whooping cough, or pertussis, cases also plummeted from about 9,154 in 2010 to 2,795 in 2011, according to the California Department of Public Health.
In Los Angeles County, the number of cases dropped from 1,395 in 2010 to 520 in 2011. Four of the deaths in the state occurred locally.
"Controlling an outbreak is huge," said Dr. Gil Chavez, deputy director of infectious diseases for the state. "It really happens in a partnership."
..."
---------------------
FYI.
Vaccination program credited in fight against whooping cough
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-whooping-cough-20120125,0,5035953.story"Facing an epidemic of whooping cough that led to the deaths of 10 infants in 2010, California public health officials launched a massive vaccination effort and public awareness campaign about the disease.
And on Tuesday, they announced the payoff: no deaths in 2011, a first in two decades. The number of whooping cough, or pertussis, cases also plummeted from about 9,154 in 2010 to 2,795 in 2011, according to the California Department of Public Health.
In Los Angeles County, the number of cases dropped from 1,395 in 2010 to 520 in 2011. Four of the deaths in the state occurred locally.
"Controlling an outbreak is huge," said Dr. Gil Chavez, deputy director of infectious diseases for the state. "It really happens in a partnership."
..."
---------------------
FYI.
January 29, 2012
What's the best car/vehicle on the market today, dollar to value?
Here are my candidates:
Hyundai Elantra
Chevrolet Equinox
Ford Focus
Chevrolet Cruze
What would you add to the list of candidates?
What's your winner!?
January 20, 2012
"Proposed changes in the definition of autism would sharply reduce the skyrocketing rate at which the disorder is diagnosed and might make it harder for many people who would no longer meet the criteria to get health, educational and social services, a new analysis suggests.
The definition is now being reassessed by an expert panel appointed by the American Psychiatric Association, which is completing work on the fifth edition of its Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, the first major revision in 17 years. The D.S.M., as the manual is known, is the standard reference for mental disorders, driving research, treatment and insurance decisions. Most experts expect that the new manual will narrow the criteria for autism; the question is how sharply.
The results of the new analysis are preliminary, but they offer the most drastic estimate of how tightening the criteria for autism could affect the rate of diagnosis. For years, many experts have privately contended that the vagueness of the current criteria for autism and related disorders like Asperger syndrome was contributing to the increase in the rate of diagnoses — which has ballooned to one child in 100, according to some estimates.
The psychiatrists’ association is wrestling with one of the most agonizing questions in mental health — where to draw the line between unusual and abnormal — and its decisions are sure to be wrenching for some families. At a time when school budgets for special education are stretched, the new diagnosis could herald more pitched battles. Tens of thousands of people receive state-backed services to help offset the disorders’ disabling effects, which include sometimes severe learning and social problems, and the diagnosis is in many ways central to their lives. Close networks of parents have bonded over common experiences with children; and the children, too, may grow to find a sense of their own identity in their struggle with the disorder.
..."
FYI...
New Definition of Autism Will Exclude Many, Study Suggests
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/20/health/research/new-autism-definition-would-exclude-many-study-suggests.html?_r=1&src=me&ref=general"Proposed changes in the definition of autism would sharply reduce the skyrocketing rate at which the disorder is diagnosed and might make it harder for many people who would no longer meet the criteria to get health, educational and social services, a new analysis suggests.
The definition is now being reassessed by an expert panel appointed by the American Psychiatric Association, which is completing work on the fifth edition of its Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, the first major revision in 17 years. The D.S.M., as the manual is known, is the standard reference for mental disorders, driving research, treatment and insurance decisions. Most experts expect that the new manual will narrow the criteria for autism; the question is how sharply.
The results of the new analysis are preliminary, but they offer the most drastic estimate of how tightening the criteria for autism could affect the rate of diagnosis. For years, many experts have privately contended that the vagueness of the current criteria for autism and related disorders like Asperger syndrome was contributing to the increase in the rate of diagnoses — which has ballooned to one child in 100, according to some estimates.
The psychiatrists’ association is wrestling with one of the most agonizing questions in mental health — where to draw the line between unusual and abnormal — and its decisions are sure to be wrenching for some families. At a time when school budgets for special education are stretched, the new diagnosis could herald more pitched battles. Tens of thousands of people receive state-backed services to help offset the disorders’ disabling effects, which include sometimes severe learning and social problems, and the diagnosis is in many ways central to their lives. Close networks of parents have bonded over common experiences with children; and the children, too, may grow to find a sense of their own identity in their struggle with the disorder.
..."
FYI...
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