Categories
Clinical trials Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Politics Popular culture

The cruel sham that is “right-to-try” has returned to California

Here we go again. Remember how I frequently say that naturopaths are relentless, how, whenever they attempt to get a naturopathic licensing bill passed in a state and fail, they’re soon back to try again. Basically, they keep trying until they succeed, and once they succeed, it’s game over for keeping their quackery from having […]

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

The Woo Boat, part 3: Andrew Wakefield goes full Mike Adams antivax

Hard as it is to believe, it’s been seven months since the Conspira-Sea Cruise, or, as I called it when I discovered it before it set sail, The Woo Boat. After it set sail and I started reading reports about it from two reporters who took the cruise in order to report on it, Anna […]

Categories
Cancer Clinical trials Medicine Popular culture Quackery Skepticism/critical thinking

Did the experimental cancer drug 3-Bromopyruvate (3-BP) cause the deaths of cancer patients at a German alternative medicine clinic?

I’ve frequently written about various dubious and outright quack clinics in different parts of the word with—shall we say?—somewhat less rigorous laws and regulations than the US. Most commonly, given the proximity to the US, the clinics that have drawn my attention are located in Mexico, most commonly right across the border from San Diego […]

Categories
Bioethics Medicine Politics Skepticism/critical thinking

Hillary Clinton is “medically unfit to serve” as President and Donald Trump has narcissistic personality disorder: Stop this uninformed medical speculation about the candidates!

I’ve been debating whether to write about this for a while now, given that the first article that I noticed about it was first published a week and a half ago. Part of the reason for my reluctance is that it would be too easy for politics to be dragged into this more than I […]

Categories
Announcements Complementary and alternative medicine Quackery

Baseball, cupping, and quackademic medicine

I hate to do this to you guys twice in one week, but sometimes the situation mandates it. Basically, there’s no new Insolence today. I do, however, have an excuse. Because of a gift the Ilitch family gave to our department, a couple of times a year our department is invited to attend a Tigers […]