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

“Practice drift”: A feature, not a bug, in “integrative medicine”

Two prominent advocates of “integrative medicine” bemoan the “practice drift” they see in their specialty, in which doctors drift farther and farther away from their training. What this means is (although it would never be admitted) is that these “integrative medicine” doctors are drifting further and further into quackery. Too bad this is a feature, not a bug.

Categories
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?

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

What the Department of Family Medicine at the University of Michigan teaches about acupuncture

The Department of Family Medicine at the University of Michigan has embraced integrating quackery with medicine in its “integrative medicine” program. But what is it teaching its trainees? Unfortunately, I’ve started to find out.

Categories
Cancer Complementary and alternative medicine Integrative medicine Medicine Pseudoscience

Complementary medicine use and cancer survival: A negative correlation

We know that alternative medicine use is associated with poorer survival in cancer, but what about the use of so-called “complementary medicine,” “complementary and alternative medicine,” or “integrative medicine”? Bad news. There’s still a negative correlation between the use of pseudoscientific and unproven medicine and cancer survival, even when used with conventional cancer therapy rather than instead of it.

Categories
Antivaccine nonsense Bad science Homeopathy Integrative medicine Medicine Pseudoscience Quackery

Stealth advertising for Dr. Mark Hyman and the Cleveland Clinic Center for Functional Medicine

Over the weekend, I came across a local news story from Toledo about Chris Tedrow, a patient who was treated at Dr. Mark Hyman’s Center for Functional Medicine at the Cleveland Clinic. Let’s just say that it was, in essence, free advertising for functional medicine nonsense. The Cleveland Clinic should have had to pay the Toledo ABC affiliate to air it.