Categories
Cancer Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine

Katie Wernecke and Teddy Bears for Cancer Kids

I hate to end the week on a downer, but I came across this last night and, given my attention to the case of Katie Wernecke (the girl whose parents chose dubious alternative medical therapy over the radiation therapy she needed for her lymphoma) over the last several months and the recent news that her […]

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Complementary and alternative medicine Friday Woo Medicine Skepticism/critical thinking

Your Friday Dose of Woo: The hills are alive with the sound of woo

After posting about the Donnie Davies, an alleged “youth minister” in Houston who has garnered a lot of attention throughout the blogosphere for his website in which he provides a hilariously off-base list of “gay bands” to avoid and “safe” bands, I was perusing my Folder of Woo, looking for this week’s target, but it […]

Categories
Clinical trials Medicine Science

The difference between the newbie and the old pro

Grant season is upon us. Every day that I’m not in the clinic and the O.R., I find myself holed up in my office pounding my head against my monitor trying to write just that perfect mixture of preliminary data, blarney, and grantsmanship to persuade the Powers That Be to give me just a taste […]

Categories
Cancer Clinical trials Medicine Politics Skepticism/critical thinking

Too fast to label others as “conspiracy-mongers”?

The other day, I did a reality check on a story making the rounds through the blogosphere about an alleged new cure for cancer that, if you believe some hysterical bloggers, is being suppressed because it would cut into their profits. I took one blogger to task for what I characterized as the “utterly ridiculous […]

Categories
Autism Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Quackery Skepticism/critical thinking

You haven’t walked in my shoes!

At the risk of muscling in on Bronze Dog‘s territory, I’ve encountered a phenomenon that ought to be in his list of doggerel but doesn’t appear to be. It appeared in the comments of my post about the Arthur Allen-David Kirby debate and my discussion of how the human tendency to see patterns where none […]