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Clinical trials Medicine Skepticism/critical thinking

“Low T”: A pharmaceutical company-invented diagnosis whose purpose is profit

A man on TV is selling me a miracle cure that will keep me young forever. It’s called Androgel…for treating something called Low T, a pharmaceutical company–recognized condition affecting millions of men with low testosterone, previously known as getting older. —The Colbert Report, December 2012 And now for something completely different…sort of. Thanksgiving is tomorrow, […]

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Antivaccine nonsense Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Quackery

A tragic as yet unexplained death, exploited by antivaccinationists

As I noted a few days ago, the antivaccine fringe suffered a major setback in the House of Representatives when Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA), chair of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, canceled a previously promised hearing about the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program, even after it had reached the stage of representatives […]

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Complementary and alternative medicine Homeopathy Medicine Quackery

A rather clueless defense of CAM from across the pond

Acupuncture is quackery. This cannot be repeated often enough, and, in fact, over the last several months I’ve developed a tendency to start all my posts on acupuncture by making sure to remind everyone that it is quackery. The reasons are many-fold. For one thing, the concepts behind acupuncture are based on the claim that […]

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Cancer Clinical trials Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine

Is anyone attending the 4th Quadrennial Meeting of the Society of Neuro-Oncology in San Francisco right now?

I know I have readers who are neuroscientists. However, do I have readers who are currently attending the 4th Quadrennial Meeting of the Society of Neuro-Oncology in San Francisco going on this weekend? Why do I ask? Given the Regular readers might suspect that it has to do something with a man who has become […]

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Antivaccine nonsense Autism Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Quackery

No, no, no! Fifteen times, no!

A couple of weeks ago, I noted a new trend among the antivaccine glitterati, or maybe I should refer to it as a new trope. That particular trope is to refer to anyone who has the temerity to stand up for science, support vaccines, and criticize antivaccinationists like the crew at the antivaccine crank blog […]