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

More hilariously off-base genetics denialism

Things have been a bit too serious around here lately. After all, yesterday I wrote about obesity and chemotherapy, while the day before that I did an even lengthier than usual deconstruction of some claims by anti-Obamacare activists, which seemed particularly appropriate to me given that a group of wingnuts has just succeeded in mostly […]

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Biology Cancer Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Quackery Science

Epigenetics. You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.

Epigenetics. You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means. I realize I overuse that little joke, but I can’t help but think that virtually every time I see advocates of so-called “complementary and alternative medicine” (CAM) or, as it’s known more commonly now, “integrative medicine” discussing epigenetics. […]

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Antivaccine nonsense Complementary and alternative medicine Evolution Intelligent design/creationism Medicine Quackery Science Skepticism/critical thinking

Just what Dr. Egnor wanted for Christmas: Some not-so-Respectful Insolence!

It’s Christmas Eve. I know, I know, it’s all supposed to be Peace On Earth, Good Will Towards Men (and Women), and all that jazz. Really, that’s exactly what I had intended for today and tomorrow. Indeed, my plan was to do nothing more than a quickie post today and a maybe a couple of […]

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Biology Cancer Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Quackery Science

Epigenetics does not mean that thinking makes it so

You know, I really, really hate the way quacks abuse molecular biology. I know, I know. I’ve said it before, but certain quacks have a way of willfully misunderstanding the latest advances in genomics, molecular biology, and biology in general. Of course, this isn’t limited to just medicine, unfortunately. After all, we have Deepak Chopra […]

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Complementary and alternative medicine Humor Medicine Quackery

Getting to the bottom of reflexology

Reflexology, as you may know, is the pseudoscientific “alternative medicine” modality whose central dogma is that each body part or organ maps to a certain place on the feet or hands and that by pressing on those locations on the feet (for example), the reflexologist can have a therapeutic effect. The question, however, is: Why […]