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Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Quackery

Searing stupidity about “complementary and alternative medicine” (CAM) in Slate

I don’t know who Kent Sepkowitz is other than that he he’s an infectious disease specialist in New York and that he writes for Slate. I also know he’s written about penis enlargement, his dislike of magazines’ “best doctor” lists (a sentiment with which I can agree, actually), and that he has suggested that Americans […]

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Cancer Clinical trials Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine

Vitamin C and cancer revisited

It’s been quite a while since I wrote about this topic, but, quite frankly, I didn’t think anything new was likely to come up that would interest me sufficiently to take it on again. I was almost right; it’s been well over two years since the last time I discussed the issue of whether or […]

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Antivaccine nonsense Medicine

Why, Medscape, why? Or: Gardasil is hunky-dory except when antivaccinationists say it’s not.

THWOMP! THWOMP! THWOMP! TWHOMP! THWOMP! TWHOMP! That’s the sound of me hitting my head against the table. Hard. What provoked this reaction in me is Medscape, specifically an article that my blog bud PalMD turned me on to. That the article, entitled HPV Vaccine Deemed Safe and Effective, Despite Reports of Adverse Events, seems to […]

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Complementary and alternative medicine Computers and social media Medicine Quackery

Wiki woo?

While I was away over the weekend, a reader made me aware of a new development in the world of “alternative”–excuse me, “complementary and alternative”–medicine (a.k.a. CAM). I suppose I should have seen this coming. In retrospect, given the proliferation of wikis of seemingly every shape and for seemingly every purpose, it was inevitable that […]

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Antivaccine nonsense Medicine

Who says blogging can’t have an effect?

A couple of days ago, I did a Respectfully Insolent™ takedown of a disappointingly credulous and misinformation-laden article published on Medscape about the human papilloma virus vaccine Gardasil. The article was clearly biased, and, worse, it quoted Oprah’s favorite woo-loving gynecologist Dr. Christiane Northrup parroting germ theory denialism and the myth that Louis Pasteur “recanted” […]