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Cancer Complementary and alternative medicine Computers and social media Medicine

Steve Jobs, neuroendocrine tumors, and alternative medicine

It’s been a mere two days since Steve Jobs died. Although it hasn’t yet been revealed what his specific cause of death was, it’s a good bet that Jobs’ death was due to a recurrence of his pancreatic cancer, first diagnosed in 2003, for which he underwent surgery in 2004 and ultimately a liver transplant […]

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Complementary and alternative medicine Homeopathy Medicine Quackery

The architects of a “disinformation campaign” against homeopathy are revealed

He’s ba-ack. Has it really only been two weeks? A mere two weeks since everybody’s favorite advocate of The One Quackery to Rule Them All promised the woo-friendly readers of the “health” section of that wretched hive of scum and quackery, The Huffington Post that he would “provide further specific evidence of the unscientific attitude […]

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Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Quackery Surgery

A board certification in woo is born?

I’ve been harshly critical of the entire concept of “integrative medicine” (IM), which has over the last few years nearly supplanted the former term used for non-science-based medicine or medicine based on prescientific ideas represented as though it were scientific medicine, “complementary and alternative medicine” (CAM). Indeed, just last month I pointed out how IM […]

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Antivaccine nonsense Autism Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine

The perils of engaging the public

People wonder why scientists involved in controversial areas are reluctant to address the public. Courtesy of our favorite band of anti-vaccine bloggers at the anti-vaccine propaganda blog Age of Autism, we see yet another reason why. Yes, AoA’s resident attack poodle Jake Crosby decided to disrupt the Q&A session of a public talk (videocast here) […]

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Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine

Acupuncture works for polycystic ovary syndrome except when it doesn’t–which is always

For some reason, when it comes to so-called “complementary and alternative medicine” (CAM) therapies, acupuncture gets a pass. Homeopathy, for example, is based on ideas so inherently ridiculous that they quite properly attract the scorn of skeptics and advocates of science-based medicine everywhere, stating, as it does, that diluting a remedy to nonexistence makes it […]