Categories
Bioethics Medicine Pseudoscience Quackery

How quacks sell dubious stem cell therapies

More and more, alternative medicine practitioners are offering unproven, almost certainly ineffective, and potentially dangerous stem cell therapies. How are they doing it?

Categories
Computers and social media Medicine Popular culture Pseudoscience Quackery

I see…schadenfreude. Natural News banned from YouTube.

Over the weekend YouTube deleted the Natural News channel, which is the video arm of Mike Adams’ online quackery empire. Adams, not surprisingly is ranting about “censorship.” it’s not.

Categories
Announcements Medicine

While a grant deadline distracts Orac, create your own Insolence! Open thread time!

For the last few days, real life concerns over keeping his lab funded have shockingly interfered with Orac’s blogging. Being the benevolent blogmaster that he is, Orac has decided to open the floodgates with an open thread. Create your own Insolence. And, hey, let’s be careful out there. And don’t push each other’s buttons (too much).

Categories
Cancer Medicine Pseudoscience Quackery

True believers and scammers in alternative medicine

In the online echo chamber promoting alternative medicine, there are varying degrees of deception. There are true believers (who are often victims), entrepreneurs (who are often true believers who found a profitable business), and scammers. The categories are not mutually exclusive.

Categories
Medicine Pseudoscience Quackery Skepticism/critical thinking

What’s more quackademic medicine than Harvard’s acupuncture course? Maybe Duke’s reflexology course!

Quackery has thoroughly infiltrated medical academia in the form of “integrative medicine.” So what’s worse than Harvard offering an acupuncture course? It might be Duke offering a reflexology and reiki course.