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Antivaccine nonsense Cancer Clinical trials Politics Science Skepticism/critical thinking

Federal biomedical science policy under Donald Trump, nearly 100 days in

In less than two weeks, the Trump administration will have passed that magical “first 100 days” marker. Let’s check in and see how Donald Trump is shaping federal biomedical policy thus far. Hint: It’s deregulation über alles.

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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.

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

Did cannabis oil save Deryn Blackwell’s life?

In a forthcoming book The Boy in 7 Billion, Callie Blackwell claims that cannabis oil, which she had started giving her son Deryn to relieve his symptoms during a bone marrow transplant for two cancers, actually saved his life when the bone marrow transplant appeared to be failing. Unfortunately, her story appears to be another testimonial that confuses correlation with causation.

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Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Pseudoscience Quackery Skepticism/critical thinking

“Dr. Seuss monsters”: The quackery that is “battlefield acupuncture” continues to metastasize

“Battlefield acupuncture,” which is really a form of ear acupuncture based essentially on a homunculus on the ear, continues to invade and metastasize in the military, complete with Dr. Seuss monsters.

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

Adventures in bad veterinary medicine reported by the local media (2017 edition)

Just because people think that sticking needles into their meridians will somehow unblock their qi and fix whatever ails them doesn’t mean it’s OK to inflict the same nonsense on our pets. Unfortunately, a local TV station disagrees.