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Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Popular culture Quackery Television

America’s quack: Dr. Mehmet Oz

Dr. Mehmet Oz used to be a rising star in academic surgery, a highly skilled cardiac surgeon with a strong track record of publications in the peer-reviewed literature. Then he met Oprah and became America’s quack.

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

Alternative medicine as religion, again

Over the years, I’ve often likened alternative medicine to a religion—or even a cult. Basically, it requires belief in a set of precepts that have at best little and more commonly no evidence to support them that is often accompanied by magical thinking that a god-substitute, be it nature, one’s body, or, of course, the […]

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Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Popular culture Quackery Skepticism/critical thinking Television

Dr. Oz’s evolution as America’s foremost promoter of quackery continues apace

I’ve often written of “black holes of stupid” that threaten to rupture the fabric of the space-time continuum, so dense and full of stupid are they. Such black holes tend to come from places like the wretched hive of scum and antivaccine quackery known as Age of Autism, the wretched hive of scum and conspiracy […]

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Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Quackery Science Skepticism/critical thinking

Mike Adams issues a challenge over vaccines to Neil deGrasse Tyson, and hilarity ensues

I’m sure that a lot of you, like me, are watching the rebooted version of Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey, with Neil deGrasse Tyson taking over the hosting duties originally handled so ably over 30 years ago by Carl Sagan. I definitely enjoyed the first episode and am looking forward to additional episodes. The only thing […]

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Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Popular culture Pseudoscience Quackery Skepticism/critical thinking

Mike Adams, the “yoga mat chemical,” and the chemical apocalypse

Back in December, I was excited. The reason I was excited was because everybody’s favorite über-Libertarian, New World Order conspiracy theorist quack, Mike Adams, a.k.a. The Health Ranger, had made an announcement. That announcement was that on January 6, 2014 Adams would announce astonishing “scientific findings” about food that would “revolutionize” nutrition and health. Given […]