Categories
Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Quackery

Appeals to other ways of knowing for “integrative” medicine

So-called “complementary and alternative medicine” (CAM) or, as it’s now as frequently called, “integrative medicine” (IM) represents a hodge-podge of remedies that are mostly based on prescientific concepts about how the human body works and how disease attacks it. Homeopathy, through its concept of “like cures like” and law of contagion. The former in essence […]

Categories
Medicine

Oops I did it again! The 118th Meeting of the Skeptics’ Circle

I’ve been a bad, bad boy. In particular, I’ve been a bad, bad host in that I totally forgot to hawk the last Skeptics’ Circle back on August 27, nearly a week ago. So, please, go make up for my horrific error and visit The 118 Skeptics’ Circle: Looking Closely Edition (if that link doesn’t […]

Categories
Antivaccine nonsense Autism Clinical trials Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Science Skepticism/critical thinking

“There must be a reason”

For a change of pace, I want to step back from medicine for this post, although, as you will see (I hope), the study I’m going to discuss has a great deal of relevance to the topics covered regularly on this blog. One of the most frustrating aspects of being a skeptic and championing critical […]

Categories
Antivaccine nonsense Autism Complementary and alternative medicine Entertainment/culture Medicine Quackery Television

“A Dose of Controversy”: More like a dose of equivocation

Last Thursday, I expressed dismay about an upcoming NBC news special, A Dose of Controversy, which is about a man who arguably caused more damage to public health than just about anyone in the last decade, namely Andrew Wakefield. Anyone who’s a regular reader of this blog knows just what I think of Andrew Wakefield. […]

Categories
Antivaccine nonsense Autism Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Politics Quackery

The SickKids Foundation supports woo

It really and truly saddens me to have to do this. The Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto is one of the finest children’s hospitals there is. Unfortunately, as I documented yesterday, the hospital has, either knowingly or unknowingly, lent its good name to the metastasis of the quackfest known as Autism One from its […]