Categories
Complementary and alternative medicine Humor Medicine Quackery

Pity the poor UK homeopath…

…because, via Skeptico and DC’s Improbably Science, I’ve learned something that could only warm the coldest cockles of my evil scientific and skeptical heart. It’s something that tells us that, maybe, just maybe, what we bloggers do in favor of evidence-based medicine may actually be having an effect. British homeopath Manish Bhatia, Director of hpathy.com, […]

Categories
Complementary and alternative medicine Evolution Medicine Science Skepticism/critical thinking

All the way from Denmark: The 75th Meeting of the Skeptics’ Circle

It’s hard to believe that two weeks have flown by once again. It’s even harder to believe that the Skeptics’ Circle has been around long enough to reach its 75th edition, which this time around comes straight out of Denmark, courtesy of longtime Respectful Insolence commenter and now blogger Kristjan Wager at Pro-Science. Kristjan’s a […]

Categories
Bioethics Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine

The ethics of therapeutic touch

Lest I forget to mention this one, Randy Cohen, a.k.a. The Ethicist, answers a question. Here’s the question: I work at a hospital where several nurses practice therapies like healing touch and therapeutic touch, said to adjust a patient’s energy field and thereby decrease pain and improve healing, although there is no significant evidence for […]

Categories
Cancer Clinical trials Medicine

The other Chicago Tribune “village quack” spews on birth control and breast cancer

The other village quack of the Chicago Tribune has decided to enter the breast cancer fray again. No, I’m not talking about the main village quack of the Chicago Tribune. That would be Julie Deardorff. Rather, I’m talking about the Chicago Tribune‘s newly minted breast cancer crank, Dennis Byrne. We’ve met him before, parroting credulously […]

Categories
Medicine Surgery

D’oh! I hate it when that happens!

Fortunately, I’ve never had this happen when I’ve placed a central venous catheter: See that bright line with the “J” at the end of it? That’s the guidewire over which a central venous catheter is threaded. It’s a very bad thing when you push it in so far that you lose it. Worse, is not […]