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Autism Complementary and alternative medicine Naturopathy Quackery

Naturopaths and vaccines

It’s rare to find a naturopath who isn’t antivaccine. Sadly, even naturopaths who proclaim their fealty to vaccines as safe and effective disease prevention often betray antivaccine beliefs.

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Antivaccine nonsense Complementary and alternative medicine Homeopathy Medicine Naturopathy Quackery

Choosing Wisely about homeopathy, supplements, and "detoxification" quackery

One of the major differences between science-based medicine (SBM) and alternative medicine—or, as they call it these days, “complementary and alternative medicine” (CAM) or “integrative medicine”—is that SBM is always questioning itself, always reevaluating its practices. Related to this difference is that SBM does change its practice, discarding treatments that don’t work and incorporating those […]

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Complementary and alternative medicine Homeopathy Naturopathy Politics Quackery

Thanks to the U.S. Senate, the week of October 7 to 13, 2013 is now Quackery Week

Naturopathy is quackery. There, I said it. Actually, I’ve said it many times before, because it is. The problem with naturopathy, of course, is that it is so diffuse and encompasses so many different forms of quackery that it’s hard to categorize. Basically, it’s anything that can be portrayed as “natural,” be it traditional Chinese […]

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Antivaccine nonsense Complementary and alternative medicine Homeopathy Medicine Naturopathy Politics Quackery

Colorado, naturopathy, and “health freedom”: Devolving into a quack wonderland?

It’s just one more cut on the road to the proverbial death by a thousand cuts. I’m referring, unfortunately, to last week’s development in the state of Colorado. Specifically, I’m referring to the Colorado legislature’s truly boneheaded decision to license naturopaths, thus giving the imprimatur of the state to quackery and, in essence, legalizing a […]

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Clinical trials Complementary and alternative medicine Homeopathy Medicine Naturopathy

A study contributes to the deceptive rebranding of naturopathy as “lifestyle counseling”

That naturopathy is a veritable cornucopia of quackery mixed with the odd sensible, science-based suggestion here and there is not in doubt, at least not to supporters of science-based medicine (SBM). However, what naturopaths are very good at doing is representing their pseudoscience as somehow being scientific and thus on par with actual SBM. So […]