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Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Quackery

Quackademic medicine infiltrates the New England Journal of Medicine

One of the things that disturbs me the most about where medicine is going is the infiltration of quackery into academic medicine. So prevalent is this unfortunate phenomenon that Doctor RW even coined a truly apt term for it: Quackademic medicine. In essence, pseudoscientific and even prescientific ideas are rapidly being “integrated” with science-based medicine, […]

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Medicine Science

Unforgivable medical errors, revisited

About six months ago, I applied my usual brand of not-so-Respectful Insolence to what I termed unforgivable medical errors. These are errors that are so obviously harmful and lethal that there is no excuse for not putting systems into place to prevent them or so egregiously careless that there is, quite simply, no excuse for […]

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

Your Friday Dose of Woo: Living water living free

A couple of days ago, I expressed my amusement at an e-mail sent to me by someone named “Carol.” The amusement came primarily from the subject matter in the e-mail, which described something called a “biophoton ionizer,” whatever that is. Knowing, as I do, how prevalent water woo is (after all, what is homeopathy but […]

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Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Pseudoscience Quackery Science Skepticism/critical thinking

A science section for the Huffington Post? More like a pseudoscience section! (2010 edition)

Funny how everything old is new again, isn’t it? Yes, if there’s one thing I’ve learned over nearly six years of blogging, it’s that, sooner or later, everything is recycled, and I do mean everything. At least, that was the thought going through my mind when I came across PZ’s discussion of a clueless wonder […]

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Antivaccine nonsense Autism Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine

Dr. Snyderman, please be more careful…

Nancy Snyderman isn’t helping. At least, she wasn’t helping yesterday. Don’t get me wrong. I like the fact that NBC’s Chief Medical Editor Dr. Nancy Snyderman is a staunch defender of vaccination. She’s one of the rare talking head doctors on TV who pulls no punches when going after the anti-vaccine movement, so much so […]