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Cancer Clinical trials Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Naturopathy Quackery Science Skepticism/critical thinking

Old wine in a new skin: The Society for Integrative Oncology issues guidelines for breast cancer

It should come as a surprise to no one that I’m not exactly a fan of “integrative oncology”—or integrative medicine, or “complementary and alternative medicine” (CAM), or whatever its proponents want to call it these days. After all, I’ve spent nearly ten years writing this blog and nearly seven years running another blog dedicated to […]

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Complementary and alternative medicine Homeopathy Popular culture Pseudoscience Quackery Science Skepticism/critical thinking

The invasion of well-meaning quacks into West Africa continues apace, part three

I hope my U.S. readers have all had a happy Thanksgiving. Today has been known at least since the mid-1970s as Black Friday, the busiest shopping day of the year. Whether it’s still true or not, given the relentless proliferation, progression, and metastasis—yes, the use of terms related to cancer is intentional—of holiday sales right […]

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Complementary and alternative medicine Humor Medicine Pseudoscience Quackery Science Skepticism/critical thinking

Can you destroy a meter other than an irony meter?

I don’t think I mentioned this, but I’m on a bit of a staycation this week. I figured, what the heck? After coming home from Skepticon I could do with a little R&R. Of course, fool that I am, I still can’t resist blogging a bit. On the other hand, the day before Thanksgiving I […]

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Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Politics Quackery Science Skepticism/critical thinking

The invasion of well-meaning quacks into West Africa continues apace, part deux

I realize that I risk getting repetitive by writing about this again, but it’s a rich vein that just keeps on producing and producing. It also demonstrates that, for every tragedy as huge as the ongoing Ebola outbreak that has killed over 5,000 people in West Africa thus far, there always exist well-meaning people who […]

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Cancer Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Politics Quackery Science Skepticism/critical thinking

An Ontario court dooms a First Nations girl with cancer: Who’s to blame?

I figured that yesterday’s post about the First Nations girl in Ontario with lymphoblastic leukemia whose parents stopped her chemotherapy in favor of “traditional” medicine would stir up a bit of controversy, and so it did, albeit much more at my not-so-super-secret other blog, which featured an expanded version of this post. Don’t worry, you […]