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Antivaccine nonsense Autism Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Quackery

A survey administered by a German anti-vaccine homeopath backfires spectacularly

Sometimes I feel a little bit guilty when I’m writing a post deconstructing anti-vaccine nonsense, “alternative medicine” quackery, or some other form of pseudoscience. This guilt usually derives when I end up picking a target that’s just too easy, a study that’s just so mind-numbingly, brain-meltingly awful that it’s not much of a challenge, even […]

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Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Quackery

Quackademic Medicine at Jefferson University Hospitals

I detest the term “integrative medicine,” which is what promoters of “alternative medicine” pivoted to call “complementary and alternative medicine” (CAM) when they decided that they needed to lose the word “alternative” altogether. After all, no longer were CAM practitioners content to have their favorite quackery be “complementary” to real medicine because “complementary” implied a […]

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Cancer Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Quackery

“Integrative medicine” further evolves into “evidence-based complementary medicine.” Nothing changes

One of these days I’m going to end up getting myself in trouble. The reason, as I’ve only half-joked before, is that, even though I’m not even 50 yet, I’m already feeling like a dinosaur when it comes to “complementary and alternative medicine” (CAM) or, as it’s called more frequently now, “integrative medicine” (IM). These […]

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

On the evolution of quackery

Once upon a time, there was quackery. It was the term used to refer to medical practices that were not supported by evidence and were ineffective and potentially harmful. Physicians understood that modalities such as homeopathy, reflexology, and various “energy healing” (i.e., faith healing) methodologies were based either on prescientific vitalism, magical thinking, and/or on […]

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Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Quackery Skepticism/critical thinking

A “distinction track” in quackademic medicine is born

The infiltration of quackademic medicine continues apace. I know, I know. I say that a lot, but it’s only because it is, alas, so very, very true and so very, very distressing to supporters of science-based medicine. It’s not as though I haven’t written about it many, many times over the last six and a […]