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Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Paranormal Pseudoscience Quackery Skepticism/critical thinking

An Australian “energy healer” begs medicine to take him seriously

Even though I’ve taken on the ‘nym of a fictional computer in a 35-year-old British science fiction series whose key traits were an arrogant and condescending manner and the ability to tap into every computer of the galactic federation any time he wanted to, in reality I am just one person. That means, try as […]

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Antivaccine nonsense Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Politics Quackery

Michigan HB 5126: Endangering children by making nonmedical vaccine exemptions easier to obtain

We have a problem with antivaccinationists here in Michigan. It’s a problem that’s been going on a long time that I first started paying attention to in a big way a few years ago when we started seeing pertussis outbreaks again due to low vaccine uptake. It’s a problem that’s persisted as last year we […]

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Cancer Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Quackery Skepticism/critical thinking

An advertisement for Stanislaw Burzynski masquerading as a news story

Although I don’t write about him as much as I used to, there was a time a couple of years ago when Houston cancer quack Stanislaw Burzynski was a frequent topic of this blog. His story, detailed in many posts on this blog and in an article I wrote for Skeptical Inquirer, is one that […]

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Complementary and alternative medicine Homeopathy Medicine Pseudoscience Quackery Skepticism/critical thinking

Starbutts, or: How is it still a thing that people are shooting coffee up their nether regions?

Many are the “alternative” medicine therapies that I’ve examined with a skeptical eye over the years. The vast majority of them rest on concepts that range from pre-scientific to religious to outright pseudoscientific to—let’s face it—the utterly ridiculous. Examples abound: Reflexology, reiki, tongue diagnosis, homeopathy, ear candling, cupping, crystal healing, urine drinking, detoxifying foot pads, […]

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Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Quackery

No, it is not okay to give patients a treatment with no proved medical benefits

Et tu, Scientific American? A few of you seem to know what will catch my attention and push my buttons, because over the past couple of days a few of you sent me an article published in Scientific America by an internal medicine resident named Allison Bond entitled Sometimes It’s Okay to Give Patients a […]