Categories
Autism Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Quackery

Sunday afternoon fisk-fest: The mercury militia edition

I’ll be on the road as this posts. However, for your edification, enjoy a tag-team smackdown of some truly ignorant “mercury causes autism” evidence-free handwaving, courtesy of Dad of Cameron and Not Mercury. In keeping with the theme of twos, it’s done in two parts, separated by two weeks: Part 1: A Hot Cup of […]

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Complementary and alternative medicine Humor Medicine Quackery

Getting to the bottom of reflexology

Reflexology, as you may know, is the pseudoscientific “alternative medicine” modality whose central dogma is that each body part or organ maps to a certain place on the feet or hands and that by pressing on those locations on the feet (for example), the reflexologist can have a therapeutic effect. The question, however, is: Why […]

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Complementary and alternative medicine Friday Woo Medicine Religion Skepticism/critical thinking

Your Friday Dose of Woo: The Color of Woo, revisited

Ah, yes, Washington, DC. That’s where I am right now, deep in the belly of the government beast, attending the meeting of The Society of Surgical Oncology. It’s usually a great meeting, except for the distressing tendency of surgeons here to act, well, too much like surgeons. For example, consider when the very first session […]

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Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Quackery

Got woo?

If not, then American Medical Student Association‘s got it for you, all in a nice, compact 15 page pocket manual. True, there’s some standard advice about diet and some useful information about herbal remedies, but there’s the now usual (from AMSA, anyway) credulous treatment of all sorts of woo, including homeopathy, Reiki, fasting, vitamin supplements, […]

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Complementary and alternative medicine History Holocaust Holocaust denial Medicine Quackery Skepticism/critical thinking

Dr. Lorraine Day’s at it again

You may recall Dr. Lorraine Day, the former Chief of Orthopedic Surgery at San Francisco General Hospital in the 1980’s who, after developing breast cancer, became a consummate altie, selling various dubious “natural, alternative therapies for all diseases, including cancer and AIDS.” Somewhere along the line, sadly, she also became a rabid anti-Semite and Holocaust […]