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Clinical trials Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Quackery Science Skepticism/critical thinking

What’s in a word? “Integrative” versus “alternative” medicine, again

I’ve written a lot about the language issue with respect to alternative medicine. As I like to put it (at least in shortened form), first there was quackery. Quacks did not like that name at all, and thus was born alternative medicine. And the quacks did think it good—for a while. There was a problem, […]

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Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Popular culture Pseudoscience Quackery Science

How would you like your placenta? Broiled or freeze-dried?

After nearly 11 years (!) at this blogging thing, I thought I had covered pretty much every medical topic a skeptic and supporter of science-based medicine would be interested in covering. However, if there’s one thing I’ve learned over the years, it’s that there’s always something I’ve missed, some hole in my blogging oeuvre that […]

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Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Naturopathy Pseudoscience Quackery Science Skepticism/critical thinking

The University of Arizona Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health teams up with quacks

Naturopathy is quackery. I like to start most, if not all, posts about naturopathy with that simple statement. The reasons are simple. First, it’s true. Second, most people—including doctors—are unaware of this simple fact. Finally, it irritates naturopaths and their fans. It also has the benefit of setting the tone I want to convey whenever […]

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Complementary and alternative medicine Homeopathy Medicine Quackery Science Skepticism/critical thinking

A portrait of quackademia triumphant: Georgetown University

I frequently discuss a disturbing phenomenon known as “quackademic medicine.” Basically, quackademic medicine is a phenomenon that has taken hold over the last two decades in medical academia in which once ostensibly science-based medical schools and academic medical centers embrace quackery. This embrace was once called “complementary and alternative medicine” (CAM) but among quackademics the […]

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Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Politics Quackery Religion Science

Has Western medicine lost its soul?

If there’s one message that I’ve been trying to promote, regardless of whether it’s on this blog or my not-so-super-secret other blog, it’s the concept that there should be one standard of evidence—one scientific standard of evidence—for evaluating health claims and medical treatments. It doesn’t matter if it’s the latest drug from big pharma, the […]