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Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Politics Quackery

And I thought I was exaggerating when I discussed “battlefield” acupuncture

Ten months ago, I thought I was joking. I really did. Regular readers may (or may not) remember back in March, when, in one of my usual flights of fancy, I decided that I could write a short fictional interlude, a combat scene. True, I didn’t do it because I wanted actually to write a […]

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Antivaccine nonsense Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Politics Quackery

Dr. Jay Gordon: Get away from my alma mater!

I’m pretty sure that I’ve mentioned this before at least a couple of times, but I am an alumnus of the University of Michigan twice over. I completed a B.S. in Chemistry with Honors there and then I stayed on to do obtain my M.D. Several of my longtime friendships were forged or solidified during […]

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Complementary and alternative medicine Entertainment/culture Humor Medicine Music Paranormal Pseudoscience Quackery Religion Skepticism/critical thinking

Tim Minchin on confronting alternative medicine, postmodernism, and the paranormal

I love Tim Minchin. I also totally understand where he’s coming from when it comes to confronting woo, though, as I’ve described here. In any case, see Tim in action (parts may be NSFW due to profanity): Enjoy, as I’m running a bit late in producing my usual content for Monday. Fear not, it’s coming […]

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Complementary and alternative medicine Humor Medicine

Should I go to this “medical” conference? Or, sometimes the universe laughs at me.

Sometimes, coincidence is a strange thing indeed. Friday, I wrote this post about yet another meta-analysis whose results are completely consistent with acupuncture being nothing more than an elaborate placebo. Later that day, less than four hours after my post went live, I received this e-mail sent, not to my work account or my other […]

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Complementary and alternative medicine Friday Woo Medicine Quackery Skepticism/critical thinking

Sepsis is not caused by bacterial infection?

Sometimes I come across something so bizarre, so utterly wrong, that my mind reels in confusion and amazement, not to mention horror, that anyone can actually think or write something something like it. In fact, for a moment I considered offering up this one bit of horrifically inspired craziness up as an installment of Your […]