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Bioethics Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Quackery

5 alternative medical treatments that “work”?

Some readers have been sending me links to this article on CNN.com entitled 5 Alternative Medicine Treatments That Work. Unfortunately, Your Friday Dose of Woo took up the time that normally would have gone into given this article the lovingly Respectfully Insolent™ treatment that this utterly credulous article so richly deserves and that you, my […]

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

Your Friday Dose of Woo: The fuzziness of woo

Over the last 15 months that this regular Friday feature has been in existence, I’ve come across some real doozies in the world of woo. Who could forget, for example, quantum gyroscopic theories of homeopathy? Or the DNA activation guy? Or the “no plane” conspiracy theory of 9/11? Or a certain disgusting “feedback loop” for […]

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Cancer Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Quackery

A Kevin Trudeau wannabe revealed?

I’ve made no secret how much contempt I have for Kevin Trudeau, whom I have likened to David Irving, at least with respect to his respect for the truth. He has made many, many millions of dollars selling books with titles like Natural Cures “They” Don’t Want You to Know About and its followups, in […]

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Clinical trials Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Skepticism/critical thinking

Perception and reality in acupuncture

Last week, I wrote about an overhyped acupuncture study that purported to show (but didn’t, really) that acupuncture is more effective than “conventional” therapy in the treatment of low back pain. This story reverberated through the Internet and blogosphere as “proof” that acupuncture “works” when in reality the study was very weak evidence of any […]

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Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Religion

Jesus is growing her a new leg! Or is he?

One of the best retorts to the claims of faith healers is the simple question: If faith healing works such miracles, why has there never been a documented case of faith healing regrowing an amputated limb? Now that would be truly miraculous. That would make even a curmudgeonly old skeptic like me sit up an […]