Tag: quackery

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Cancer Clinical trials Medicine Pseudoscience Quackery Skepticism/critical thinking

Rigvir: A cancer "cure" imported from Latvia that cancer patients should avoid

No, this is not a cancer cure-all.

Recently, the Hope4Cancer Institute, a quack clinic in Mexico has added a treatment known as Rigvir to its other offerings. But what is Rigvir? It turns out that it’s an import from Latvia with a mysterious history. Its proponents claim that it targets cancer specifically. Unfortunately, there is a profound paucity of evidence for its efficacy. The story of Rigvir is the story of an unproven treatment that, because of its origin in a small country, has flown mostly under the radar. Until now, that is.

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

Gwyneth Paltrow’s goop: Psychic Vampire Repellent as female "empowerment"

Gwyneth Paltrow’s goop is continuing to sell snake oil promoted as the “empowerment” of women. Yes, that even includes a psychic vampire repellent, reiki charged.

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

Naturopaths and quack stem cell clinics revisited

Naturopaths don't just cosplay the medical equivalent of the Avengers or Fantastic Four. They cosplay the medical equivalent of the villains, too.

Last week, I wrote about a naturopath imitating the worst of real doctors by running his very own dubious stem cell clinic. He even cosplays an interventional radiologist doing it. Unfortunately, he’s far from alone. There are many more naturopaths going down this road. Even more unfortunately, it is MDs who are showing the way. Basically, naturopaths don’t just cosplay doctors. They cosplay the worst of doctors as well.

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Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Naturopathy Quackery

Patients lose when they chose naturopaths over real doctors

Recently, I came across a news story describing two cancer patients treated by naturopaths in New Zealand. Both died, one almost certainly unnecessarily, the other after enduring more suffering than she likely had to. These tragic cases and others reminded me of why it is so appalling that so many physicians are “integrating” naturopathy into “integrative medicine.” In reality, they are integrating quackery into medicine.

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Medicine

What’s scarier than dubious stem cell clinics? A naturopathic stem cell clinic!

A naturopath, doing what naturopaths do best.

After nearly 13 years of blogging, I thought I’d seen it all. Then former naturopath Britt Hermes let me know that there is a naturopath in Utah offering stem cell treatments. My face is raw from the double facepalming.