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Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Quackery

Pity poor Peter Duesberg; even Medical Hypotheses has dissed him

Pity poor Peter Duesberg. Back in the 1980s, he was on the top of the world, scientifically speaking. A brilliant virologist with an impressive record of accomplishment, publication, and funding, he seemed to be on a short track to an eventual Nobel Prize. Then something happened. The AIDS epidemic happened. Something about the AIDS epidemic […]

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Cancer Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Quackery

The Gonzalez protocol: Worse than useless for pancreatic cancer

The silence is deafening. Yes, I know it’s a cliche, but it’s really true this time. Last month, a major study whose results had been anticipated by the alt-med community, as well as those of us who consider it to be highly unethical pseudoscience, were reported. However, they were reported without fanfare, without press releases, […]

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Antivaccine nonsense Autism Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine

After all this time, Dr. Bob Sears finally tips his hand on vaccines, part III

Dr. Robert Sears (a.k.a. “Dr. Bob), author of The Vaccine Book: Making the Right Decision for Your Child, is definitely antivaccine. His mouth may say, “No, I’m not antivaccine,” but his actions say, “Yes, yes, yes!” There, I finally said it. I’ve been flirting with saying it that bluntly for some time now, but have […]

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Cancer Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Quackery

The price of quackery

I don’t have much to add to this one, as it’s a tragic tale. Shadowfax, a blogging ER doc, relates to us what happens when cancer patients rely on quackery like the Gerson protocol instead of scientific medicine: This was a young woman, barely out of her teens, who presented with a tumor in her […]

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Antivaccine nonsense Autism Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Quackery

Dr. Mark Hyman mangles autism science on–where else?–The Huffington Post

Dr. Mark Hyman is famous as the “founder” of a form of woo known as “functional medicine.” This new form of woo is…well, I’m not sure what it is, and neither are Wally Sampson (1, 2, 3, 4). Suffice it to say that it appears to be a serious grab bag of various forms of […]