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Complementary and alternative medicine Homeopathy Medicine Naturopathy Surgery

Naturopathy invades the heartland

Many are the times I’ve referred to homeopathy as The One Quackery To Rule Them All. Because homeopathic remedies diluted greater than 12 C (12 serial hundred-fold dilutions) have been diluted more than Avagadro’s number, they are incredibly unlikely to have even a single molecule of starting compound in them. That makes them water. Given […]

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Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Science Skepticism/critical thinking

Another reason why NCCAM can never be truly scientific

I’ve frequently been critical fo the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM) for funding dubious studies of pseudoscience and, in essence, promoting unscientific quackademic medicine (is there any other kind?) by giving it the patina of seeming respectability. I can’t recall how many times I’ve seen promoters of woo justify their woo by […]

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Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Quackery

The ultimate in “integrative medicine,” updated

Orac note: This is an updated post that appeared a few months ago. Events occurred that led me to think it would be a good idea simply to expand and update it. It’s been a recurring theme on this blog to discuss and dissect the infiltration of quackademic medicine into our medical schools. Whether it […]

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Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Quackery

The “triumph” of New Age medicine? The Atlantic strikes again

Note added 6/16/2011: The author of the target–I mean subject–of this piece of insolence has responded in the comments. Note added 6/17/2011: Steve Novella has also commented. He is unusually harsh (for him). What is it with The Atlantic lately? It used to be one of my favorite magazines. In fact, I was a subscriber […]

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Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Quackery

David Freedman responds to criticism of his CAM apologia

The other day, I expressed my displeasure at an article published in The Atlantic that, boiled down to its essence, was one long apologia for unscientific “complementary and alternative medicine” (CAM) and “integrative medicine” (IM). Yes, I was quite critical, but, I believe, not unfairly so. Not surprisingly, however, the author of the article, David […]