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Cancer Clinical trials Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Naturopathy Quackery

The Cancer Treatment Centers of America revisited: From "naturopathic oncology" to Burzynski-like genomic testing

Here we go with another one. Three weeks ago, I mentioned in a post that the week of October 7 to 14 was declared by our very own United States Senate to be Naturopathic Medicine Week, which I declared unilaterally through my power as managing editor of Science-Based Medicine (for what that’s worth) to be […]

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Autism Complementary and alternative medicine Naturopathy Quackery

Naturopaths and vaccines

It’s rare to find a naturopath who isn’t antivaccine. Sadly, even naturopaths who proclaim their fealty to vaccines as safe and effective disease prevention often betray antivaccine beliefs.

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Antivaccine nonsense Complementary and alternative medicine Homeopathy Medicine Naturopathy Quackery

Choosing Wisely about homeopathy, supplements, and "detoxification" quackery

One of the major differences between science-based medicine (SBM) and alternative medicine—or, as they call it these days, “complementary and alternative medicine” (CAM) or “integrative medicine”—is that SBM is always questioning itself, always reevaluating its practices. Related to this difference is that SBM does change its practice, discarding treatments that don’t work and incorporating those […]

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Complementary and alternative medicine Homeopathy Naturopathy Politics Quackery

Thanks to the U.S. Senate, the week of October 7 to 13, 2013 is now Quackery Week

Naturopathy is quackery. There, I said it. Actually, I’ve said it many times before, because it is. The problem with naturopathy, of course, is that it is so diffuse and encompasses so many different forms of quackery that it’s hard to categorize. Basically, it’s anything that can be portrayed as “natural,” be it traditional Chinese […]

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Complementary and alternative medicine Homeopathy Naturopathy Quackery

The director of NCCAM wants a "nuanced conversation" about "complementary and alternative medicine"

To say that I haven’t been much of a fan of the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM) throughout the years is a gross understatement. If you want to see the depths of my—shall we say?—lack of enthusiasm for NCCAM, feel free to type “NCCAM” in the search box of this blog and […]