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Medicine Politics Quackery

iV Bars: The FTC cracks down on “intravenous micronutrient therapy”

One of the most popular forms of quackery sold by alternative medicine practitioners such as naturopaths is intravenous vitamin therapy, sometimes also called “intravenous micronutrient therapy” (IVMT). Most are variants of a concoction known as “Myers cocktail,” and there is no good evidence that IVMT is efficacious for any of the indications for which quacks use it. Last week, the FTC issued a proposed consent agreement based on a complaint against the company selling iV Bars for false advertising. Here’s hoping this is the beginning of something good.

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Antivaccine nonsense Complementary and alternative medicine Integrative medicine Medicine Quackery Skepticism/critical thinking

Dr. Robin Berzin, functional medicine concierge practices, and the marketing of medical pseudoscience

Dr. Robin Berzin founded a concierge functional medicine practice, Parsley Health. Her practice is growing and has expanded to three major cities thus far, and she’s begun a foray into pediatrics? Are holistic concierge medical practices the future of “integrating” quackery into medicine, be it functional medicine or other models?

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Bad science Cancer Medicine Pseudoscience Quackery

Clínica 0-19 and IDOI: Not making DIPG history in Monterrey (part 1 of 4)

Drs. Alberto Siller and Alberto Garcia run Clínica 0-19 in Monterrey, Mexico, which has become a magnet for patients with diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma (DIPG), a deadly brain cancer. Unfortunately, their treatment is an unproven combination of 11 chemotherapy drugs injected into an artery feeding the brainstem, plus an unknown and unproven “immunotherapy.” Of course it all costs $300,000 or more for a complete course of treatment, and the good doctors are “too busy to do clinical trials” or even publish their survival and recurrence statistics, despite having used this protocol for 20 years. I say: If it quacks like a duck…

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Antivaccine nonsense Bad science Cancer Medicine Pseudoscience Quackery

James Lyons-Weiler and Leslie Manookian are still battling for the title of Most Antivaccine Crank

Yesterday’s crank fight continues, as James Lyons-Weiler, antivax warrior and founder of the Institute for Pure and Applied Knowledge, stung by Leslie Manookian’s attack painting him as insufficiently antivaccine and even a tool of the vaccine-industrial complex, strikes back. Hilarity ensues as he battles Manookian for the title of Most Antivaccine Crank in the World.

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Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Pseudoscience Quackery

Credulous promotion of “integrating” quackery into medicine

Over the last 25 years, medical academia has increasingly embraced “integrative medicine” (i.e., the “integration” of pseudoscience and quackery with medicine). However, it has had help normalizing this new situation. That help comes from the press. Here’s yet another example.