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Clinical trials Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Quackery

Complementary and alternative medicine: The New York Times and the elephant in the room

When I first started blogging, I liked to refer to myself as a booster of evidence-based medicine (EBM). These days, I’m not nearly as likely to refer to myself this way. It’s not because I’ve become a woo-meister of course. Even a cursory reading of this blog would show that that is most definitely not […]

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Cancer Medicine Politics

John McCain a “dead man walking”? Not so fast, ptosis-boys!

It figures. I know, I like to start posts with “it figures,” and maybe I do it too often, but this time it really fits. For a moment I thought I was going to have a lot of egg on my face over this, but just for a moment. Yesterday, I wrote a rather extensive […]

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Cancer Medicine Politics

John McCain a “dead man walking”? Not so fast

Less than a month ago, I got a bit perturbed by some vile rhetoric written by a left-wing blogger named Matt Stoller, who referred to John McCain as a “crazy, cancer-ridden dishonest madman.” As you recall, I administered a bit of not-so-Respectful Insolence to him. It wasn’t so much because I like John McCain. Indeed, […]

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Antivaccine nonsense Autism Cancer Clinical trials Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine

Yawn. Yet another worthless acupuncture study for hot flashes in breast cancer patients

Here we go again. Tuesday night and yesterday, you probably saw it, plastered all over the media, in the newspapers, on ABC, on the radio, in press releases, and around the blogosphere. Yes, it was another bit of science by press release, with news outlets practically falling all over themselves to hype the results of […]

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Clinical trials Medicine

Publication bias in clinical trials used for FDA approval

If there is one difference that defines scientific medicine compared to “alternative medicine” it is the application of the scientific method to health claims. Science and the scientific method require transparency: transparency in methodology, transparency in results, transparency in data analysis. Because one of the most important aspects of science is the testing of new […]