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Complementary and alternative medicine Homeopathy Medicine Naturopathy Paranormal Pseudoscience Quackery Skepticism/critical thinking

Integrative medicine and spoon bending at the University of Alberta and "Bigfoot skepticism"

After over 11 years at this blogging thing, I periodically start to fear that I’m becoming jaded. In particular, after following the infiltration of quackery in the form of “complementary and alternative medicine” (CAM), now more commonly known as “integrative medicine,” because it integrates CAM with evidence-based medicine. Of course, in reality, what “integrative medicine” […]

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Complementary and alternative medicine Homeopathy Medicine Naturopathy Quackery

The “big idea” behind integrative medicine is not so big at all…

I’ve frequently referred to “integrative medicine” as the “integration” of quackery with conventional, science-based medicine for the very good reason that that’s what it really is. However, advocates of medicine not based in science are nothing if not masters of marketing, which is how, over the course of three decades or so, “alternative medicine” morphed […]

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Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Naturopathy Pseudoscience Quackery Skepticism/critical thinking

Quack attack: Naturopaths and supplement companies press for naturopathic licensure in Michigan

Over the years, I’ve taken care of women with locally advanced breast cancer so advanced that it’s eroded through the skin, forming huge, nasty ulcers filled with stinky dead cancer tissue that’s outgrown its blood supply, leaving the patient in chronic pain. If the patient is fortunate, her cancer has not metastasized beyond her axillary […]

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Antivaccine nonsense Autism Complementary and alternative medicine Quackery

The annals of “I’m not antivaccine,” part 23: “Vaccine injury” and waterboarding

Whenever I hear an antivaxer claim that she’s “not antivaccine,” I listen to what she’s actually saying. For instance, when she compares “vaccine injury” and the medical system to being tortured (specifically waterboarding), I tend not to believe their denial.

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Antivaccine nonsense Autism Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Pseudoscience Quackery Skepticism/critical thinking

Quoth an antivaxer: Vaccines are making dogs autistic!

To antivaxers, it’s always the vaccines. Now they’re claiming vaccines cause autism in dogs. The problem, of course, is that vaccines don’t cause autism in humans, and labeling dog behavior as “autistic” is problematic in the extreme.