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Complementary and alternative medicine Homeopathy Medicine Naturopathy Quackery

A board certification in "integrating" quackery and pseudoscience with real medicine

It’s hard to believe that it’s been nearly two years since I first noticed that a board certification in quackery was in the works and appeared to be nearly ready to go. I’m referring, of course, to Andrew Weil’s effort to create a board certification in so-called “integrative medicine,” better known to those of us […]

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Cancer Clinical trials Complementary and alternative medicine History Medicine Movies Popular culture Science Skepticism/critical thinking

How Stanislaw Burzynski became Burzynski the Brave Maverick Doctor, part 1

Time really does fly. It’s hard to believe that it’s been over a week since I gave my big (to me, at least) talk at TAM. It’s equally hard to believe that it’s been more than a week since I had the honor of being kicked out of Penn Jillette’s Private Rock & Roll Bacon […]

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Antivaccine nonsense Autism Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Television

I love the smell of the pharma shill gambit in the morning. It smells like…crankery.

I promised myself that I was done writing about Jenny McCarthy this week. Two posts, a lengthy one and a brief one, lamenting her being hired for a national daytime talk show was, in my view, enough. Unfortunately, something’s happened that makes me want to make like Arnold Schwarzenegger in that famous scene from the […]

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Cancer Clinical trials Medicine Science

Clinical trials do still work, but need to evolve

As I write this, I’m winging my way home from TAM, crammed uncomfortably—very uncomfortably—in a window seat in steerage—I mean, coach). I had thought of simply recounting the adventures of the contingent of skeptics with whom I’m associated who did make it out to TAM to give talks at workshops and the main stage and […]

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Antivaccine nonsense Autism Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Quackery

Jenny McCarthy, antivaccine lunacy, and “The View”

Like Steve, I’m off to The Amazing Meeting today. I don’t know how much I’ll be posting, but, as Han Solo so famously said, “Hey, it’s me.” I’m sure I won’t be able to resist. In any case, I’ll be taking part in the Science-Based Medicine workshop tomorrow, and, for the first time ever, I’ll […]