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Antivaccine nonsense Autism Complementary and alternative medicine Homeopathy Medicine Naturopathy Quackery

On teaching pseudoscientific controversies in universities…

About a month ago, a number of news stories were published reporting that the University of Toronto had offered a course in alternative medicine taught by a homeopath named Beth Laundau-Halpern that presented a segment that was clearly highly biased towards antivaccine pseudoscience. It was worse than that, though, because this homeopathy just happened to […]

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Complementary and alternative medicine Homeopathy Medicine Naturopathy

Is there a role for homeopathy in cancer care? I think you know the answer to that question…

Homeopathy is The One Quackery To Rule Them All. There, I’ve started off this post the way I start off most posts about homeopathy, with a statement of just how enormous a pile of pseudoscientific (or rather prescientific) quackery that it is. You’d think that in 2015 no one would believe that diluting a substance […]

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Complementary and alternative medicine Homeopathy Medicine Naturopathy Quackery

This is what happens when you trust a naturopath to treat a real disease

Naturopathy is a cornucopia of quackery with a patina of plausibility applied in the form of some seemingly reasonable recommendations about diet and exercise. Under the patina, however, lies virtually every form of quackery known to humankind. Be it homeopathy, traditional Chinese medicine, applied kinesiology, iridology, bogus diagnostic testing, reflexology, craniosacral therapy, or even organ […]

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Antivaccine nonsense Complementary and alternative medicine Homeopathy Medicine Naturopathy Physics Pseudoscience Quackery Science Skepticism/critical thinking

Quackademia at the University of Toronto: Antivaccine pseudoscience taught by a homeopath is “not unbalanced”

Aside from deconstructing the misinformation and pseudoscience of the antivaccine movement, another of the top three or so topics I routinely discuss here is the infiltration of pseudoscience into medicine. In particular, I’ve found and discussed more examples than I can possibly remember of what I like to call quackademic medicine, defined as the infiltration […]

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Complementary and alternative medicine Homeopathy Naturopathy Quackery Religion Science

Scientific medicine is "truly nonsense"? Orac says no!

Orac note: Congratulations on California and everyone who reads this blog who helped pass SB 277 to protect California’s children. Here’s hoping Governor Jerry Brown signs the bill! I had a big talk to give this morning that required a massive rewrite of my slide set last night; so there wasn’t time for the usual […]