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Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Popular culture Quackery Television

America’s quack: Dr. Mehmet Oz

Dr. Mehmet Oz used to be a rising star in academic surgery, a highly skilled cardiac surgeon with a strong track record of publications in the peer-reviewed literature. Then he met Oprah and became America’s quack.

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Cancer Medicine Popular culture

Fear mongering over cell phones and cancer by Dr. Oz

These days, Dr. Oz seems to stand for everything I oppose in medicine: Fear mongering, quackery, making claims that he can’t back up with science, and, of course, filthy lucre. On second thought, I’m not against filthy lucre per se. In fact, I wouldn’t mind having some of it myself. However, I also want to […]

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Antivaccine nonsense Complementary and alternative medicine Homeopathy Medicine Naturopathy Politics Quackery

Colorado, naturopathy, and “health freedom”: Devolving into a quack wonderland?

It’s just one more cut on the road to the proverbial death by a thousand cuts. I’m referring, unfortunately, to last week’s development in the state of Colorado. Specifically, I’m referring to the Colorado legislature’s truly boneheaded decision to license naturopaths, thus giving the imprimatur of the state to quackery and, in essence, legalizing a […]

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Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Quackery Religion

Reiki in the ICU?

One of the recurrent themes of this blog is to point out, analyze, and discuss the creeping infiltration of pseudoscience into medicine. In particular, it irks me that so many physicians, who really should know better, so easily fall for the siren song of quackery for whatever reason, be it a misguided desire to be […]

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Antivaccine nonsense Complementary and alternative medicine Entertainment/culture Medicine Movies Popular culture Quackery Science

Medical advice from Chuck Norris

Not too long ago, I posted a rather amusing little video called Immunize! One line in the song that amused me went something like this: Don’t give Chuck Norris shots! That’d be dim. Chuck need vaccines? Naw Vaccines need him? Actually, not too surprisingly, it turns out that the word “dim” should be applied to […]