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

A fallacy-laden attack on science-based medicine

Over my nearly six years of blogging, I’ve become known as a staunch advocate of science- and evidence-based medicine, both in the guise going under my long-used pseudonym “Orac” and under my real name. And so I am, which is why certain varieties of predictable attacks on science-based medicine (SBM) annoy me. Usually, they come […]

Categories
Pseudoscience Religion Skepticism/critical thinking

Richard Dawkins sues Josh Timonen

Wow. Just wow. I realize that I haven’t exactly been enamored of Richard Dawkins lately, at least not as much as I was, say, three or four years ago. Most of this came about gradually, although the final nail was driven into the proverbial coffin last fall, when Atheist Alliance International bestowed the Richard Dawkins […]

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Cancer Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine

Yet another cancer cure testimonial that tells us nothing

Having gotten back from the Lorne Trottier Symposium, it occurred to me that my talk (not to mention much of my blogging about “alternative medicine” cancer cure testimonials) was nearly completely about breast cancer testimonials. This is, of course, not surprising, given that breast cancer is what I do for both patient care and research. […]

Categories
Cancer Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Quackery

Why nonsense by celebrity doctors ticks me off

Remember Hollie Quinn? She’s the woman who parlayed her “breast cancer cure testimonial” into a book deal, even though she underwent conventional surgical therapy of her cancer. When criticized for this, she came up with an incredibly lame defense of her book. Well, she’s at it again. This time around, she’s touting thermography: As we […]

Categories
Antivaccine nonsense Autism Medicine Quackery

The anti-vaccine movement versus the truth

My alma mater has let me down. As many of you know, I went to the University of Michigan for both my undergraduate degree and for medical school. I still have a fairly strong attachment to the school, which is why I can still be disappointed when its faculty let me down. Unfortunately, it’s happened, […]