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

The RAND Corporation: Supporting the “integration” of quackery with real medicine since 2008

As regular readers of this blog and related blogs know, over the last two or three decades there has been a successful effort to legitimize quackery in the form of what is now called “integrative medicine.” Three decades ago, modalities like homeopathy, acupuncture, much of traditional Chinese medicine, reflexology, chiropractic, and many other modalities based […]

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

Antivaccine cranks ask: Did the flu vaccine kill Prince?

I heard the news yesterday morning. I was in clinic seeing patients. It was a bit of a slow morning; there was time between patients. So I spent it, as is my wont when clinic is a bit slow, signing charts (OK, signing off on charts in the electronic medical record; I haven’t actually physically […]

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Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Quackery Skepticism/critical thinking

Mike Adams launches a sustained campaign of lies against a friend of the blog

Several of you have noticed that a certain friend of the blog has been under attack from one of the quackiest of Internet quacks out there. Here is his response. The paranoia and stupidity are black hole level density. (Yes, instead of posting the whole thing, I’ve simply posted a link to our friend’s discussion […]

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

Another young woman with cancer, lured into quackery by Ty Bollinger

It sucks to be diagnosed with cancer at any age, but it especially sucks to be young and diagnosed with cancer. The prompt application of science-based cancer treatment is important for anyone with cancer, but it’s especially important for young people with cancer, because they have the most life-years to lose if they dawdle or […]

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Cancer Medicine Quackery Science Skepticism/critical thinking

Making it up as you go along: So-called “functional medicine” is pure quackery

I often describe “integrative medicine” as integrating quackery with medicine because that’s what this inadvertently appropriately named branch of medicine in essence does. The reason, as I’ve described time and time again, is to put that quackery on equal footing (or at least apparently equal footing) with science- and evidence-based medicine, a goal that is […]