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Biology Medicine

Obesity and diet: The first law of thermodynamics doesn’t entirely apply?

Remember Sandy Szwarc of Junkfood Science? It’s been a long time since we’ve last encountered her. Indeed, it was last year when there developed a debate on whether her posts were suitable for the Skeptics’ Circle. At the time, I was conflicted. In many ways, Ms. Szwarc seemed to be a skeptic–at least, when it […]

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Antivaccine nonsense Autism Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Quackery

Framing vaccines, revisited: The “empathy” gambit

NOTE: This post, which is related to a discussion of Dr. Paul Offit’s Book Autism’s False Prophets, originally appeared over at The ScienceBlogs Book Club. However, now that the book club for this particular book has concluded, I am free to repost it here for those who may not have seen it and to archive […]

Categories
Antivaccine nonsense Autism Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Quackery

Framing vaccines again

NOTE: This post, which is related to a discussion of Dr. Paul Offit’s Book Autism’s False Prophets, originally appeared over at The ScienceBlogs Book Club. However, now that the book club for this particular book has concluded, I am free to repost it here for those who may not have seen it and to archive […]

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Cancer Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Quackery

The Vitamin C Empire Strikes Back

Well that didn’t take long, did it? Three days ago, I described a study that I had noticed in the October 1 issue of Cancer Research that described an animal study that strongly suggested that vitamin C administered at sufficiently high doses may interfere with the action of multiple chemotherapeutic agents. You can read the […]

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Clinical trials Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Quackery Surgery

Yawn. Another worthless acupunct–I mean acupressure–study

Here we go again. It seems just yesterday that I was casting a skeptical eye on yet another dubious acupuncture study. OK, it wasn’t just yesterday, but it was less than two weeks ago when I discussed why a study that purported to show that acupuncture worked as well as drug therapy for hot flashes […]