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Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Quackery

Using language to achieve the appearance of legitimacy for quacks

The whole concept of “complementary and alternative medicine” (CAM) and “integrative medicine” (IM), the former of which “complements” science-based medicine with quackery and the latter of which “integrates” pseudoscience-based with science-based medicine. The reason I start out by saying this is to emphasize that CAM/IM is all about using language to persuade that pseudoscience is […]

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Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Quackery

Quacks react to Andrew Weil’s proposed board certification in woo

About a month ago, I discussed a rather disturbing development, namely the initiative by Dr. Andrew Weil to set up something he was going to call the American Board of Integrative Medicine, all for the purpose of creating a system of board certification for physicians practicing “integrative medicine” (IM), or, as I prefer to call […]

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Antivaccine nonsense Autism Complementary and alternative medicine Entertainment/culture Medicine Movies

Anti-vaccine propaganda lands in New York City this weekend

“The Greater Good” is what I like to call an antivaccine propaganda film masquerading as a documentary. And, yes, it’s full of antivaccine misinformation.

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Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Quackery Skepticism/critical thinking

No more Acupuncturists Without Borders?

One of the more depressing things I’ve seen coming from various practitioners of quackery is a tendency for them to mimic Médecins Sans Frontières (in English, Doctors Without Borders). You know Doctors Without Borders, don’t you? It’s a fantastic organization that brings volunteer physicians, nurses, and other health care professionals into disaster areas and war […]

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Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Quackery

Quackademic Medicine at Jefferson University Hospitals

I detest the term “integrative medicine,” which is what promoters of “alternative medicine” pivoted to call “complementary and alternative medicine” (CAM) when they decided that they needed to lose the word “alternative” altogether. After all, no longer were CAM practitioners content to have their favorite quackery be “complementary” to real medicine because “complementary” implied a […]