Today is Leif's first day in the gifted program at school, we'll see how he likes it. We got back the results of his WISC-IV testing they do for the gifted program and he scored a 150. On they sheet that listed the percentile as greater than 99.9. We didn't tell him this as his ego is already extremely large, he already thinks he's awesome at everything he does.

Newsweek trashes Suzanne Summers' cancer book: BREAKING: Health Author Suzanne Somers Mostly Wrong About Science, Medicine

...

But there is a big difference between staying open-minded and tossing aside treatments that have been proven effective after rigorous testing in favor of new “natural” therapies that have undergone much flimsier scrutiny. If you’re someone who needs answers now, and want to make health decisions based on solid scientific findings rather than wishful thinking, there’s not much in Somers’s latest book to help you. The basic problem with the book, says Dr. Otis Brawley, the American Cancer Society’s chief medical officer, “is that it’s really inaccurate” when it describes the science behind current treatments and lacks a basic understanding of the scientific method. Not all research findings are equally authoritative. Just because something sounds good doesn’t mean it works. “Some people confuse what they believe with what they know," Brawley said.

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Somers relies heavily on patient testimonials, but any scientist knows that talking only to those who benefited from a treatment can give less than objective results. A case in point: she lavishes praise on the research of Dr. Nicholas Gonzalez, who uses a combination of enzymes, massive amounts of nutritional supplements (130 to 175 a day—yes, you read that right), a strict diet, and daily coffee enemas, which he says can cure pancreatic cancer. However, just about two months before Somers’s book was published, the Journal of Clinical Oncology published the results of a controlled observational trial of Gonzalez’s protocol vs. chemotherapy for patients with inoperable pancreatic cancer. The study was funded by the National Cancer Institute and enrolled 55 patients who met strict clinical criteria. A year into the study, 56 percent of those using chemotherapy were still alive, compared with only 16 percent of those who chose the enzyme therapy. In other words, those who picked chemo over the alternative treatment lived three times as long. Interestingly, the study was concluded in 2005, yet Somers doesn’t mention this in the book.

I wish the article trashed her more. This is the conclusion:

For her next book, we’d like to suggest a topic she knows very well: media manipulation. You have to love the fact that the only blurb on the back of the book (“Ms. Somers writes with the passion of the prophet”—Wall Street Journal) comes from a review trashing an earlier book. Somers’s real specialty is understanding that when a celebrity writes a controversial book, it doesn’t matter how much mainstream doctors and serious researchers attack it, or whether people’s health is put at risk. Attacks bring publicity, and publicity sells books. Here’s hoping that this time the public proves her wrong.

Oh, great glowing orb in the sky, why have you forsaken me?

Science Based Medicine has another excellent takedown of Somers' book and celebrity medical woo in general: [link]

(It's long, but worth a read if you're into that sort of thing.)

But why would anyone think she knew dick about any subject besides Pratfalls and Acting Like A Diva and Trashing My Reputation?

There's a cynical part of me that thinks that people who take Somers' health advice are Darwinian selection in action... but objectively I know that their early, preventable deaths will grieve their loved ones immensely.

It's easier to have schadenfreude when you don't know the schadenee personally.

But why would anyone think she knew dick about any subject besides Pratfalls and Acting Like A Diva and Trashing My Reputation?

Why does anyone think Jenny McCarthy knows jack shit about vaccines? And yet, she's the reason there is currently a freaking MUMPS OUTBREAK in one of the wealthiest neighborhoods in Brooklyn. People are sheep.

Science Based Medicine has another excellent takedown of Somers' book and celebrity medical woo in general: [link]

I read/skimmed that article. Very depressing.

That article linked to this blog post: The Arrogance of Ignorance, which is very good.

So, who’s the more arrogant; the person with a deep background in biology who states that the current data doesn’t support a connection between autism and mercury or the person with no background in science (apart from Google-based “research”) who insists that there is?

How about somebody with no background in science who presumes to lecture experienced medical researchers about the “limitations” and “flaws” of their study?

Is it just me, or is our society/culture becoming less scientifically literate?

Is it just me, or is our society/culture becoming less scientifically literate?

These people were always there, it's just that they were blinvisible before there were internets.

I'm hip. I came(this close) to saying they deserve what they get, but then I do understand the urge to look for something relatable to read on a heavy subject like that, and I'm not conventional medicine's biggest booster, either. However... And, yeah, Jessica, not just SS, but Ms. Somers sounds like a complete numbskull talking about *her own life* which you'd think she'd have some knowledge of, so it's easy to pick her.