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Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Quackery

Alternative medicine: The bait and switch is working

For a long time, going back almost to the beginning of this blog eight and a half years ago, I’ve referred to the “bait and switch” of alternative medicine. What I mean by that is the manner in which advocates of alternative medicine—or, as they like to call it these days, “complementary and alternative medicine” […]

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Clinical trials Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine

NCCAM and “pragmatic trials.” Again.

I’m not alone in pointing this out, but if there’s one thing about research and clinical trials into “complementary and alternative medicine” (CAM) that has become very apparent to me over the years, it’s that the more rigorous the study the less likely it is to show an effect. In normal research, the usual progression […]

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Complementary and alternative medicine Homeopathy Naturopathy Quackery

An amusing “very special issue” of Medical Acupuncture

Every so often, our “friends” on the other side of the science aisle (i.e., the supporters of “complementary and alternative medicine”—otherwise known as CAM or “integrative medicine”) give me a present when I’m looking for a topic for my weekly bit of brain droppings about medicine, science, and/or why CAM is neither. It’s also been […]

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Biology Medicine Skepticism/critical thinking

Oh, no! GMOs are going to kill your babies and permanently change your gene expression!

Heidi Stevenson amuses me. I know, I know, I’ve started a previous post with exactly this sentence a mere month ago, but it’s so damned appropriate that I can’t help but try it again. A homeopath (which means that she’s reality-challenged to begin with), she’s produced some of the most hilariously off-base, pseudoscientific, and downright […]

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Clinical trials Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Quackery

In which Orac gets even more “shrill and brutish” about chelation therapy and TACT

If there’s one thing that a certain subset of people who view themselves as reasonable and science-based don’t like, it’s harshness: Harshness in criticism, harshness in discussion, or—horror of horrors!—anything they view as “incivility.” That’s all well and good as far as it goes, but the problem is that sometimes there are things that demand […]