Categories
Antivaccine nonsense Medicine Pseudoscience Quackery

Whatever happened to Dr. Daniel Neides, a year after he was forced to leave the Cleveland Clinic because of his antivaccine rant?

A year ago, a prominent Cleveland Clinic “integrative medicine” doctor named Dr. Daniel Neides published an antivaccine screed. At the time, he was the Acting Medical Director of the Tanya I. Edwards Center for Integrative Medicine, Vice Chair and Chief Operating Officer of Cleveland Clinic Wellness, as well as the Associate Director of Clinical Education for The Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine (CCLCM), where he oversaw all clinical activities during years three through five of the medical school. As a result of article, he was dismissed from all his leadership positions. What’s happened to him since then, now that it’s been a year? Surprise! Surprise! He’s let his antivaccine freak flag fly high.

Categories
Medicine Politics Pseudoscience Quackery

More “auricular” acupuncture: Our veterans deserve science-based medicine, not quackery

Over the last several years, the Veterans Health Administration has been increasing the amount of quackery being offered in VA hospitals and clinics. This time around, it’s auricular acupuncture.

Categories
Medicine Pseudoscience Science Skepticism/critical thinking

Got diarrhea? The latest trend in fashionable nonsense is “raw water”

In pseudoscience, appeals to nature are everywhere. It’s not surprising, then, that there is profit to be made selling “raw” (i.e., untreated) water at very high prices for its nonexistent health benefits, those benefits all claimed to be due to the “naturalness” of the water. I can’t help but note that cholera, Giardia, amoebic dysentery, and a wide variety of waterborne illnesses prevented by modern water treatment techniques are all very, very “natural.”

Categories
Cancer Integrative medicine Medicine Naturopathy Pseudoscience Quackery Skepticism/critical thinking

The quackery of “naturopathic oncology” is metastasizing

“Integrating” naturopathic care with real medicine started out largely in academic medical centers. Unfortunately, the cancer of integrative oncology appears to be metastasizing to community hospitals.

Categories
Cancer Medicine Quackery

Integrating pseudoscience and mysticism into oncology in bastions of evidence-based medicine

Last week, I commented on the inability of the Society for Integrative Oncology to define what integrative oncology actually is. This week, I note the proliferation of the quackery of integrative oncology in places that should be rigorously science-based, namely NCI-designated comprehensive cancer centers.