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Complementary and alternative medicine Friday Woo Medicine Quackery Skepticism/critical thinking

Your Friday Dose of Woo: The pause that refreshes and heals

Glutton for punishment that I am, all in the name of skepticism, critical thinking, and evidence-based medicine, I am sometimes wont to surf through the stranger parts of the Internet in search of truly amazing material for Your Friday Dose of Woo. Sometimes, I hit the jackpot, as I did a few weeks ago. Sometimes […]

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Cancer Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Quackery Skepticism/critical thinking

Starchild Abraham Cherrix: It’s over

Sadly, Starchild Abraham Cherrix is almost certainly doomed: ACCOMAC, Virginia (AP) — A 16-year-old cancer patient’s legal fight ended in victory Wednesday when his family’s attorneys and social services officials reached an agreement that would allow him to forgo chemotherapy. At the start of what was scheduled to be a two-day hearing, Circuit Judge Glen […]

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Complementary and alternative medicine Friday Woo Medicine Pseudoscience Quackery Skepticism/critical thinking

Your Friday Dose of Woo: Would you like a liver flush with that colon cleanse?

I have to apologize for last week’s Dose of Woo. No, I’m not apologizing for the subject matter (the obsession that reigns supreme among some alties with “cleansing” one’s colon to “purge toxins” and achieve the super-regularity of several bowel movements a day). Rather, I’m sorry I didn’t point out just how disgusting one of […]

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Cancer Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Politics Quackery

Starchild Abraham Cherrix: The elephant in the room

I hadn’t intended to mention this case again for a while, but an article in Stats.org brought up a point that, although I had somewhat alluded to it, I hadn’t really explicitly addressed. It has nothing to do with the judicial decision, the Cherrixes’ successful appeal for a new trial and the stay ordered by […]

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Cancer Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Politics Quackery

Some questions for those who decry the decision in the Abraham Cherrix case

Not surprisingly, since the court decided that Abraham Cherrix, a Virginia teen who was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s disease at age 15, underwent chemotherapy, relapsed, and then refused to undergo any further chemotherapy, opting instead for an “alternative medicine” treatment known as the Hoxsey treatment, to be administered at the Biomedical Center in Tijuana, the blogosphere […]