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

Naturopaths: Able to turn even Epsom salt potentially deadly

Epsom salt, like the Earth in The Hitchhikers’ Guide to the Galaxy, is mostly harmless; that is, except in the hands of a naturopath.

Categories
Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Naturopathy Quackery

Patients lose when they chose naturopaths over real doctors

Recently, I came across a news story describing two cancer patients treated by naturopaths in New Zealand. Both died, one almost certainly unnecessarily, the other after enduring more suffering than she likely had to. These tragic cases and others reminded me of why it is so appalling that so many physicians are “integrating” naturopathy into “integrative medicine.” In reality, they are integrating quackery into medicine.

Categories
Complementary and alternative medicine Homeopathy Medicine Naturopathy Politics Pseudoscience Quackery Skepticism/critical thinking

Death by intravenous “turmeric”: Naturopaths circle the wagons and the chair of the Naturopathic Medical Committee of California looks for dirt on conventional medicine

A patient is dead because a naturopath dosed her with intravenous curcumin. Instead of learning from the debacle, naturopaths circle the wagon, and the chair of the Naturopathic Medicine Committee for the State of California Department of Consumer Affairs shows his intent to try to exonerate the naturopath responsible.

Categories
Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Naturopathy News of the Weird Pseudoscience Quackery Skepticism/critical thinking

Naturopaths cynically use the murder of a quack to promote naturopathic licensure

The grieving widower killed the naturopath who treated his wife with cancer after telling her that “chemo is for losers.” Where I see a tragedy, naturopaths see an opportunity to argue for naturopathic licensure.

Categories
Antivaccine nonsense Clinical trials Complementary and alternative medicine Homeopathy Medicine Naturopathy Popular culture Pseudoscience Quackery Skepticism/critical thinking

Hallelujah! The mainstream press finally notices quackademic medicine!

I’ve been writing a long time about a phenomenon that I like to refer to as “quackademic medicine,” defined as the infiltration into academic medical centers and medical school of unscientific and pseudoscientific treatment modalities that are unproven or disproven. Few seem to listen. That’s why it’s reassuring to see a mainstream news publication get it (mostly) right about this phenomenon.