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Antivaccine nonsense Autism Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine

The fixed mindset of the anti-vaccine activist

One of my interests in skepticism and critical thinking has been the similarity in the fallacious arguments, approach to data, and general behavior of those who are–to put it generously–not so skeptical or scientific in their approach to life. I’m talking about believers in the paranormal, quacks, anti-vaccine activists, conspiracy theory mavens, Holocaust deniers, creationists, […]

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Clinical trials History Homeopathy Medicine

Echoes of Semmelweis

As hard as it is to believe, I’ve been a physician for 23 years now and a fully trained surgeon for over 15 years. If there’s one thing I’ve learned in that time, it’s most doctors really, really don’t like to be told what to do. I don’t know if part of it comes from […]

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Bioethics Cancer Complementary and alternative medicine Entertainment/culture Medicine Movies Quackery

Burzynski The Movie: Is Stanislaw Burzynski a pioneering cancer researcher or a quack?

I’ve been thinking about the Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch. You remember the Holy Hand Grenade, don’t you? It was in Monty Python and the Holy Grail, where a cleric goes on and on about how “three shall be the number thou shalt count, and the number of the counting shall be three. Four shalt […]

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Cancer Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine

When “personalized gene-targeted cancer therapy” really means “making it up as you go along”

Last week, I applied a little not-so-Respectful Insolence to a movie about a physician and “researcher” named Stanislaw Burzynski, MD, PhD, founder of the Burzynski Clinic and Burzynski Research Institute in Houston. I refer you to my original smackdown for details, but in brief Dr. Burzynski claimed in the 1970s to have made a major […]

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Cancer Clinical trials Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Science

What Dr. Stanislaw Burzynski doesn’t want you to know about antineoplastons

Over the last couple of weeks, I’ve been spending a lot of time (and, characteristically, verbiage) analyzing the phenomenon known as Dr. Stanislaw Burzynski, his “cancer cure” known as antineoplastons, and his incompetent version of “personalized gene-targeted cancer therapy.” In this third and final part, I want to come back to antineoplastons, because it has […]