Prayer Therapy? Are you freakin' kidding me?

Snake oil comes in various forms and shapes, and its salesmen (perhaps I should use the PC term, 'salespersons') are of various hues and creeds. The commonalty between many of them lies in their relentless push to gain mainstream acceptance, which, of course, would mean more funds and more followers. They are not hampered or thwarted by the inconvenient fact that their brands of quackery, often founded on religious/mystical beliefs, are not supported by hard empirical evidence, or indeed, rationality. Undeterred, they plod on, championing superstitions, promoting lies, feasting on the fears, uncertainties and vulnerabilities of disadvantaged people.

Take, for example, the Church of Christ, Scientist, founded by Mary Baker Eddy in 1879 in Boston, which purports to tend to the sick using "Christian Science", a hodge-podge of elements of the Christian faith and severely evidence-challenged practices that combine airy hand-waving and crazy superstitions. According to an article published in the New York Times today, the faith's central scripture, written by Eddy who claimed an inspired understanding of the “science” behind Jesus’ healing method, expressly forbids medical care, and relies instead on Christian Science healing - a form of spiritual healing, based on Eddy's understanding of the Bible. Disappointed that existing Christian churches would not embrace her discovery of the "science" of healing, Mary Eddy created her own church, which trains its practitioners to "help" patients with "transcendental prayer intended to realign the patient's soul with God".

This is wrong on so many different levels.

Does acupuncture work in depression control? Nope.

This past weekend, the New York Times published an article on a study from Stanford University, where the authors apparently found benefit from acupuncture in pregnant women with Major depression. Given the track record of acupuncture (which features a resounding lack of evidence that it works), my skeptical antennae started twitching. I ferreted out the original study in the Obstetrics and Gynecology journal (link to full text here), and read it through thoroughly. This report - of a single randomized clinical trial (RCT) study with less than 150 subjects - claimed that an acupuncture regimen, specifically designed for a particular individual, could significantly reduce depression in that individual. As I suspected, the paper made a whole lot of science-y sounding, but nonetheless vacuous, arguments; their predominant talking point seemed to be that multiple exploratory analyses were done on the observed outcome. This assertion is always suspect; for an RCT, it shouldn't need so many exploratory analyses at the study stage, and the outcome measures should have been determined prior to the initiation of the study. As a friend of mine pointed out, "exploratory analyses" frequency means "fishing expedition", which is what this paper seems to have done in plenty. Unfortunately, the mainstream media coverage of this single study has been far from ideal; the news report has been worded to make it seem like a breakthrough or a major milestone in research, which is the impression the general public is left with - eventually to their detriment.

NIGMS soliciting comments on research training

As a part of its commitment towards research training, the National Institute of General Medical Sciences of the NIH is seeking comments from predocs, postdocs and other interested parties on a strategic planning process focusing exclusively on training and career development. The NIGMS recognizes that as science, the conduct of research, and biomedical workforce needs evolve, it is essential to ensure that the training activities meet current needs effectively and anticipate emerging opportunities, and that they contribute to building a highly capable, diverse biomedical research workforce.

Between March 2 and April 21, you can provide your input at:
http://public.nigms.nih.gov/2010TrainingSP/

Many of their important and coveted training and research awards, such as the Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Awards for postdocs and senior fellows, are highly competitive and geared towards promotion of their mission of generating a scientific workforce in biomedical research. Unfortunately (from my perspective), these awards are often restricted to citizens or non-citizen nationals of the United States or permanent residents. To me, this restriction seems counter-productive, because it excludes a wide group of talented, young and motivated individuals who are from other countries on a visa, but are nonetheless engaged in cutting edge research work in this country. Perhaps merit of the research proposals and research credentials should be the criteria for selection.

I encourage you to put forth your constructive comments at the above website.

A brrrrief Burrrrlington sojourn...

Snowed upon, wet and cold in Baltimore, the missus and I accepted an invitation from a close friend in Burlington, Vermont, to spend the New Year's Eve and the New Year's Day with his family. Did I say 'snowed upon, wet and cold'? Check, check and check. What was I thinking? Not a warm, sunny climate - for sure. [Yeah, S, my brother, remember that we love you. A lot.]

Anyhoo, what we were not prepared for was the massive amount of snow and relentless snowing that we encountered. From 7 a.m. Saturday to 7 p.m. Sunday, a record 32.5 inches of snow fell on the city of Burlington, according to the National Weather Service. It just came on and on and on. From the report:

Nor’easters typically move north along the coast, but strong winds blowing south forced this ocean storm to back up from near Nova Scotia to near Maine.

“What happened in the Champlain Valley, we were under this northerly wind that just didn’t stop,” National Weather Service meteorologist Paul Sisson said. “And what that did was focus the heaviest snow on the eastern part of the Champlain Valley. It’s unusual for something to stay so stationary for such a long time.”

During that time, Burlington remained under the “tail end” of the storm, which usually produces heavy snow, according to National Weather Service meteorologist Scott Whittier said.

Roads were white, fields were white, trees were white with cotton-like snow deposited on the leafless branches; irregularly-shaped mounds of snow stood by the roadside where people had parked their cars. There were icicles formed, like stalactites, from the edge of the roof of houses and stores, and even from the edges of car front and back fenders, wheel wells and so forth. It was surreal. I have never quite seen anything like it. Snowploughs, snow-blowers and snow-shovels were generously employed by denizens of Vermont, but that barely scratched the surface. Towards the end, it seemed that one could jump into one's backyard from the second-floor window and drown in the snow. Road conditions were slippery and dangerous.

Click to embiggen

At the same time, it was good to see that the Vermonters' holiday spirit was not much dampened; we visited the downtown mall at Church street on Saturday, and people were there, enjoying, braving the snow.
------

And now, a visual of the scary, non-stop snow shower on our way home.

Let it snow...

Oh, I know, I know... I usually reserve my blog space to rant about stuff I see... But occasionally, even I am taken in by unplanned diversions, such as the spectacle of a snow storm from our window. It was brilliant - particularly since I was indoors, inside the warm cozy room...



But a part of me couldn't help wondering what happens to those unfortunate people that don't have a roof over their heads; I have seen so many of them in NY city and in Baltimore as well. A heartening report from the New York Times says that the city of New York Reaches Out to Those Who Won’t Come In, where the Department of Homeless Services outreach workers keep checking on homeless people - who refuse to be taken to a shelter - for frostbites and hypothermia, and provide access to medical care if necessary.

Sensationalist Hyperbole from the NY Times, Re vaccine adjuvants

Andrew Pollack is an MIT-trained engineer, who has covered the business and science of biotechnology for the New York Times since 2000. I don't know how qualified he is to comment on aspects of biology and medicine, or indeed how far he understands the topics that he speaks about. But it irritates me greatly when I see sensationalist tripe, such as, "Are Americans obligated to use an unproven vaccine to help protect people in other countries from the flu pandemic?" with which Pollack opens his commentary in yesterday's NY Times - curiously titled, 'Benefit and Doubt in Vaccine Additive' - on the use of adjuvants in vaccines in the United States.

The question is, or rather is meant to be, a loaded one; note the use of the key terms - 'obligated', 'unproven vaccine', and 'protect people in other countries' - that are guaranteed to rouse the rabbles and sit well with the proponents of anti-vaccination lunacy in the US. Let me first take the words that were surely utilized to engender a sense of outrage, and tickle the xenophobia inherent in many of that lunatic fringe: 'obligated', and 'protect people in other countries'.

As far as vaccines are concerned, there is no 'obligation' for the people of this country - but it does make eminently good sense. Consider the case of the influenza virus, which has been has been one of the major causes of morbidity and mortality, especially among young children, since 1918. The commonly circulating strain of the virus (the seasonal 'flu') is not virulent enough to cause mortality, but the virus is able to mutate at a very high rate leading to the emergence of highly virulent strains, which have a range of hosts, including humans, horses, pigs, sea mammals and birds, and more importantly, some of which are able to cross the species barrier (for example, bird to human, avian influenza A H5N1). When a new (mutated) influenza virus appears against which the human population has no immunity, it has the potential of causing a pandemic. Pandemics caused by influenza A viruses in the past have been associated with high morbidity and mortality, as well as loss of livelihood.

It does not take great intelligence to understand that geographical barriers are largely meaningless nowadays, what with the tremendous increase in global travel, urbanization, as well as overpopulation; any epidemic, particularly the ones due to the hypervirulent new influenza strains (including those crossing over from animals) is likely to disseminate globally rather quickly, leading to disease and deaths in large numbers, as we have seen several times in the past few years, making the occurrence of the next pandemic just a matter of time. Therefore, the 'protect people of other countries' argument does not wash at all.

It is a sad, sad world...

We read this stuff - it is always someone else's problem - we feel an appropriate moral outrage and then jump back into our own individual ponds. Life goes on. But some time, some day, I would like to see this atrocity end; some day I would like to find the perpetrators of such atrocities brought to justice, unable to claim clemency in the name of that great facilitator of all social evils, namely, 'culture and tradition'.

A 12 year old Yemeni girl, Fawziya Ammodi, died during a painful childbirth in Amman.

A pre-teen of 12! Just a time when she would have stood at the threshold of high school in India; a time when Indian parents would tell her to be careful about the boys around, when she would enjoy - but not say anything, beyond a look here and a smile there, about - the first attentions of the shy, nerdy boy in her class, when she would giggle with her friends about the gawkiness and immaturity of most the boys around, when she would still be enthralled with tall, dark and handsome heroes and, of course, Nancy Drew.

It would be a very similar experience for a 12-year old vibrant, vivacious girl anywhere in the civilized world. Apparently not in Yemen.

Born into an impoverished family in Hodeidah, Fawziya Ammodi was forced to drop out of school, and married off to a 24-year old man last year. More than half of all young Yemeni girls are married off before the age of 18 - many times to older men, some with more than one wife, a study by Sanaa University found. Marriage means the girls are no longer a financial or moral burden to their parents.

Fawziya struggled for three days in labor, before dying of severe bleeding at a hospital on Friday, the September 11; her baby did not survive either - which is not surprising because 12-year old girls usually aren't physically developed enough to cope with childbirth, at least not with the relative ease of a grown-up.

UNICEF issued a statement Monday saying: "Child marriages violate the rights of children in the most deplorable way. The younger the girl is when she becomes pregnant, the greater the health risks for her and her baby... Girls who give birth before the age of 15 are five times more likely to die in childbirth than women in their 20s. Child marriage denies girls of their childhood, deprives them of an education and robs them of their innocence... More must be done to address the underlying causes in order to prevent tragic deaths like those of 12-year-old Fawziya and her baby."

This is not the first incident of this sort in Yemen. Child brides are commonplace in Yemen, especially in the Red Sea Coast where tribal customs hold sway. In 2008, 10-year-old Nujood Ali was pulled out of school by her own parents and married to a much older man who beat and raped her within weeks of the ceremony. To escape, Nujood hailed a taxi - the first time in her life - to get across town to the central courthouse where she sat on a bench and demanded to see a judge. After a well-publicized trial, she was granted a divorce. But in Yemen, she is still fighting to reclaim her life from official apathy and her parents' greed.

I felt incredibly sad at the misfortune of this stranger, a 12-year old who would not walk, talk or run around ever again. Child marriages still take place in many parts of northern India, despite the best efforts of many non-governmental organizations working in conjunction with the central government. Poverty, illiteracy, and of course, 'culture and tradition' are the excuses proferred in all these cases, while female children continue to be abused and die.

The CNN article (linked above) ends with a factoid of the kind that makes my blood boil: "The Yemeni parliament tried in February to pass a law, setting the minimum marriage age at 17. But the measure has not reached the president because many parliamentarians argued it violates Shariah, or Islamic law, which does not stipulate a minimum age." Incidentally, it is the same Shariah, by which Nujood's ex-husband had to be compensated, not prosecuted! Nujood was ordered to pay him more than $200 - a huge amount in a country where 15.7% of the population lives on less than $1 a day, according to the UN Developments Program.

I wish for a saner world, where the so-called 'culture and tradition' and that wellspring of ignorance and abuse called religion do not exist. Fantasy, I know. And it hits closer to home than you think.