All Articles by Jennifer Green, MS
Mrs. Green is a freelance health care writer. A former nurse and college professor, she now writes about health care for clients around the world. She's particularly interested in research into the mind-body connection.
When “Alternative” Isn’t Anymore – The Ketogenic Diet in Epilepsy
I hang out sometimes on a forum for parents of children with epilepsy. It’s a heartbreaking place. If there are kids whose seizures are controlled by medication and who are doing well -- or even making it through the day -- in school, their parents are posting somewhere else.The forum’s purpose is to let parents know about ‘alternative’ treatments for epilepsy. We’re not talking about flower essences, mega doses of vitamins, or Reiki, either. The treatment that parents tell each other about most often is the ketogenic diet -- and its cousins, the modified Atkins, low glycemic index, and specific carbohydrate diets.
HIV-Positive? Start Meditating
Researchers at UCLA recently announced the results of a study of mindfulness medication among people with HIV. This isn't the first team to look at the use of stress-reducing psychological and spiritual practices among people with HIV/AIDs. But it is the first team to look at the right outcome measure.Studies of the impact of alternative and complementary therapies in immune-mediated diseases (chronic inflammatory processes, cancer, and HIV/AIDS) typically use mortality as the outcome of interest. You can make a good argument that this is fitting: avoiding death is, of course, the most ultimately meaningful outcome.
There Is No Sham In Acupuncture
The randomized controlled trial (RCT) is the gold standard for evaluating whether or not a therapeutic modality works. In RCTs testing the effect of acupuncture to improve symptoms, researchers often use "sham acupuncture" as a control procedure, on the theory that sticking needles into points that are not on acupuncture meridians should have no effect.The problem with this approach is that there is really no such thing as sham acupuncture.
A Fatal Lack of Data
I've been looking into violent deaths lately. And now I understand a few things. Mostly, I understand what we don't know about violent death in the United States. For instance, consider one of the most horrific kinds of violent death -- mass shootings in public places like malls and offices and schools.How often does this happen somewhere in the United States?Nobody knows.
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Comments
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- Dr. Linda Vu: I consider the plasticity in r
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- Lino Baine: I am not aware that people wit
- Lulu Jones: Hmm....this is interesting. I
- Robert A. Yourell, MA: Hi Stephanie...OR they tried a
- Stephnie: Based on the facts in the arti
- Sammy: I was a test subject for one o
