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Cancer Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine

Integrative oncology: Where “individualization” really means “making it up as you go along”

As a cancer surgeon, one aspect of the infiltration of quackademic medicine into academic medical centers that bothers me more than most others is how willingly academia has been to “integrate” quackery with science-based oncology to form the bastard stepchild known as “integrative oncology” that has metastasized to numerous cancer centers that should know better. […]

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Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Politics Quackery

More alt-med chicanery with the law, this time in Texas

Yesterday, I wrote about SB 31, a proposed law in North Carolina against which uber-quack Mike Adams had mobilized his “health freedom” minions and a crank organization Citizens for Health Freedom and apparently managed to bring some pressure to bear on legislators to water down the bill. The whole incident reminded me how fragile and […]

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Blogging Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Naturopathy Quackery

Fun with a naturopathic rant against The SkepDoc

As many of you probably know, I’m proud to call Dr. Harriet Hall (a.k.a. the SkepDoc) my friend, and, I daresay, so is my wife. We’ve both hung out with her at the last two TAMs, and we’ve hit it off pretty well. I also admire her history of standing up for science, reason, and […]

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Complementary and alternative medicine Entertainment/culture Medicine Quackery Television

Steve Novella on The Dr. Oz Show: Dr. Oz has become Kevin Trudeau

NOTE: Dr. Novella has written up a detailed description of his experiences on The Dr. Oz Show. Please read it. Also note that the online video for Dr. Novella’s appearance is now available: Controversial Medicine: Alternative Health, Part 1 Controversial Medicine: Alternative Health, Part 2 Controversial Medicine: Alternative Health, Part 3 When I first learned […]

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Biology Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Science Skepticism/critical thinking

Straw men and projection: Tools of quacks and conspiracy theorists to deflect critical thinking

As hard as it is for me to believe sometimes, I’ve been at this blogging biz a long time–well over six years now. However, I’ve been engaged, in one form or another, in combatting pseudoscience, pseudohistory, and crankery online since the late 1990s. Although I try hard not to fall into the same cognitive traps […]