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Bioethics Cancer Clinical trials Medicine Politics

The FDA really caves: Stanislaw Burzynski can do clinical trials again

It’s hard for me to believe that it’s been almost three years since I first started taking an interest in the Houston cancer doctor and Polish expat Stanislaw Burzynski. Three long years, but that’s less than one-twelfth the time that Burzynski has been actually been administering an unproven cancer treatment known as antineoplastons (ANPs), a […]

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Autism Medicine Popular culture Science Skepticism/critical thinking

Pesticide exposure during pregnancy increases autism risk in the child? Not so fast…

If there’s one thing that antivaccine activists share in common, it’s the passionate (and as yet unproven) belief that “something” out there in the environment caused the “autism epidemic.” Usually, that “something” thought to be vaccines, but with the utter failure of the vaccine-autism hypothesis to the point where it is considered soundly refuted, antivaccinationists […]

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Cancer Clinical trials Medicine Science Skepticism/critical thinking

More hype than science: Ketogenic diets for cancer

If this looks a bit familiar to some of you, let’s just say that it’s grant crunch time again. This should be over after today. I hope. In the meantime, one of the difficult things about science-based medicine is determining what is and isn’t quackery. While it is quite obvious that modalities such as homeopathy, […]

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Bioethics Complementary and alternative medicine Entertainment/culture Homeopathy Medicine Naturopathy Quackery Television

The fallout from the Senate’s Oz-fest: Defending the indefensible

It’s been three days since America’s quack, Dr. Mehmet Oz, had his posterior handed to him by a wily old prosecutor who is now a Senator, Claire McCaskill. The beauty of it is that, not only was Dr. Oz called, in essence, a liar to his face and not only was he called out for […]

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Complementary and alternative medicine Entertainment/culture Medicine Quackery Television

The Great and Powerful Dr. Oz: Humbled by Senator Claire McCaskill

I almost feel sorry for “America’s Quack,” Dr. Mehmet Oz. Well, not really. Remember last week when I took note of an upcoming Senate hearing, specifically a hearing on weight loss scams in front of the Subcommittee on Consumer Protection, Product Safety, and Insurance, which is chaired by Senator Claire McCaskill (D-MO). At the time, […]