Tag: quackery

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Cancer Clinical trials Medicine Quackery Skepticism/critical thinking

How is it that in 2018 cancer quack Stanislaw Burzynski is still preying on desperate cancer patients?

Stanislaw Burzynski
Stanislaw Burzynski. Arrogant as ever.

In the 1970s, young polish expat and cancer researcher Dr. Stanislaw Burzynski thought he had found a cure for many incurable cancers. He dubbed it antineoplastons (ANPs_. Unfortunately, he left the path of science and started treating patients before he had evidence that ANPs work. Four decades later, without ever having published compelling evidence for anticancer efficacy of ANPs, he’s still luring desperate patients to his clinic. Now he’s set to branch out to quack clinics in Mexico. Why can’t the law stop him?

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Antivaccine nonsense Autism Bad science Medicine Pseudoscience Quackery Science Skepticism/critical thinking

Jennifer Margulis: Another rising star in the antivaccine movement

Jennifer Margulis
Jennifer Margulis.

I’ve mentioned Dr. Paul Thomas before as a rising star in the antivaccine movement. A month and a half later, it occurs to me that I haven’t given proper due to his co-author, Jennifer Margulis, as an equally prominent rising star in the same crank movement. Here, I rectify that oversight.

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Clinical trials Homeopathy Medicine Naturopathy

Integrating homeopathy with medicine: Not the “best of both worlds”

Homeopathy
The editorial staff at The BMJ contemplate their next systematic review.

Advocates of “integrative medicine” argue that integrating alternative medicine with real medicine represents the “best of both worlds.” A recent study by Ben Goldacre suggests that, in reality, integrating quackery with medicine infects medicine with pseudoscience and poor practice.

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Homeopathy Medicine Naturopathy Pseudoscience Quackery

Naturopathy: Using homeopathic saliva from a rabid dog to cure growling, aggression, and a fear of werewolves

Werewolf
Werewolf

Whenever I think I’ve seen the most ridiculous quackery ever in homeopathy or naturopathy, homeopaths and naturopaths go above and beyond to prove me wrong. This time around, I learn of Lyssinum, a homeopathic remedy claimed to have been made from the saliva of a rabid dog, and how it “cured” a child of his fear of werewolves.

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Homeopathy Medicine Politics Popular culture Pseudoscience Quackery

fake médicine: Science-based medicine versus homeopathy in France

#fakemed, fake médecine, and Boiron Oscillococcinium
#fakemed and Boiron Oscillococcinium

Homeopathy is The One Quackery To Rule Them All. The same is true all over the world. It’s also true that the preferred tactic of homeopaths and other quacks is to try to suppress criticism of their quackery, not to answer it with science. During Homeopathy Awareness Week, I present an example of this in France.