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Bioethics Clinical trials Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Politics

They don’t call it “cheat-lation” for nothing (updated)

Last year, a seeming victory for the protection of human subjects from being subjected to pseudoscience. It began when Kimball C. Atwood IV, MD; Elizabeth Woeckner, AB, MA; Robert S. Baratz, MD, DDS, PhD; and Wallace I. Sampson, MD published a lengthy criticism of the NIH Trial to Assess Chelation Therapy (TACT) in Medscape, pointing […]

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Complementary and alternative medicine History Medicine Quackery

Mike Adams brings home the crazy over, of all things, the Caduceus

I have a love-hate relationship with Mike Adams. Mike Adams, regular readers of this blog, is the “intellectual force” between that repository of quackery and sheer lunacy, NaturalNews.com. I hate him because he is a vile human being who cheerfully promotes bogus therapies on his website. (You know, I think we skeptics should borrow Simon […]

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Cancer Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Politics Quackery

Update: Daniel Hauser must continue chemotherapy

The other day, I came across an update on the Daniel Hauser saga. Specifically, I commented about how he is not only undergoing the chemotherapy ordered by his doctors. As you may recall, Hauser is a 13-year-old boy who, after being diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma and undergoing one round of chemotherapy, refused to undergo any […]

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Cancer Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Quackery

Why scientific medicine just can’t win in testimonials

Over the last month or so, I’ve written numerous posts about Daniel Hauser. Danny, as you recall, is the 13-year-old Minnesota boy who was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma back in February, underwent one round of chemotherapy for it, and then decided that he wanted to pursue quackery instead of more chemotherapy. His mother supported his […]

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

Finishing up Homeopathy Awareness Week: It’s not just homeopathy, it’s quantum homeopathy!

Homeopathy Awareness Week is almost over, alas. I hope I’ve done a good job at making my readers even more “aware” of just how silly the principles of homeopathy are. To finish up, I thought I’d repost a bit of “classic insolence” from three years ago, because it’s dedicated to one of the most amazing […]