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Bioethics Medicine Religion

Do God and prayer trump scientific medicine?

Late this afternoon, I happened to be sitting in my office perusing the websites for the latest batch of surgical journals, trying desperately to catch up on my reading, something that I, like most academic surgeons, am chronically behind in, when I happened upon the website of the Archives of Surgery. There, the lead article […]

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Complementary and alternative medicine Entertainment/culture Medicine Quackery

Kinoki detox footpads: Better late than never…

I’ve written about the ridiculousness of the Kinoki Detox Footpads before. While on the way home from work today, I happened to be listening to NPR, and–wonder of wonders!–I came across a skeptical story about the Kinoki Footpads. In the story, the reporter, Sarah Varney, took used footpads to a laboratory to have them tested. […]

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Clinical trials Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Quackery

Maybe we should use therapeutic touch instead of growth factors to culture cells

In complaining about the infiltration of pseudoscience in the form of “complementary and alternative medicine” (CAM) into academic medicine, as I have many times, I’ve made the observation that three common modalities appear to function as “gateway woo, if you will, in that they are the tip of the wedge (not unlike the wedge strategy […]

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Antivaccine nonsense Entertainment/culture Medicine Popular culture Pseudoscience Quackery Skepticism/critical thinking Television

Jenny needs me again!

I was called upon once before, and now I’m called upon again. Jenny McCarthy needs me:

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Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Quackery

Searing stupidity about “complementary and alternative medicine” (CAM) in Slate

I don’t know who Kent Sepkowitz is other than that he he’s an infectious disease specialist in New York and that he writes for Slate. I also know he’s written about penis enlargement, his dislike of magazines’ “best doctor” lists (a sentiment with which I can agree, actually), and that he has suggested that Americans […]