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Clinical trials Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Quackery Surgery

It looks like the University of Cincinnati is another candidate for the Academic Woo Aggregator

Having lived in Ohio for eight years and married a woman from the Toledo area, I had come to think that Ohioans had more common sense. I guess I was wrong. On the other hand, I should have realized that I was wrong. After all, Ohio is home to The Ohio State University Center for […]

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Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Naturopathy Politics Quackery

“Doctors” of Naturopathy in Minnesota? Or: Barbarians at the gate

I know I’m a bit late to this game, but those of you who read ERV, Denialism Blog, and Pharyngula didn’t think that their prior mention of this story about how the State of Minnesota is going to allow naturopaths to claim the title of “doctor” would stop me from jumping right in even if […]

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Clinical trials Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Quackery

A perfect storm of quackademic medicine and bad journalism

I sometimes wonder if the world is laughing at me. Let me explain. A while ago I compiled a list of academic medical institutions that–shall we say?–are far more receptive to pseudoscientific and downright unscientific medicine in the form of so-called complementary and alternative medicine (CAM), otherwise known as “integrative medicine.” I dubbed this list […]

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Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Politics Quackery

The infiltration of woo into mainstream academic medicine: The media notices

Along with Dr. R.W. and few others, I’ve made a bit of a name for myself in the medical blogosphere by bemoaning the infiltration of non-science- and non-evidence-based medicine into academia. It’s not a particularly popular viewpoint. The prevailing attitude seems to be: Why be so negative? It’s all good. Moreover, with a credulous media […]

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Bioethics Medicine Religion

One last comment on the Dennis Lindberg case

I’ve been spending a bit of time discussing the sad case of Dennis Lindberg, a 14-year-old youth with leukemia who died because of his refusal to accept a blood transfusion when his hematocrit fell to life-threateningly low levels apparently during chemotherapy. My position is that, while competent adults have the right to refuse transfusion for […]