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Complementary and alternative medicine Humor Medicine

Should I go to this “medical” conference? Or, sometimes the universe laughs at me.

Sometimes, coincidence is a strange thing indeed. Friday, I wrote this post about yet another meta-analysis whose results are completely consistent with acupuncture being nothing more than an elaborate placebo. Later that day, less than four hours after my post went live, I received this e-mail sent, not to my work account or my other […]

Categories
Cancer Complementary and alternative medicine Politics Quackery

Ron Rosenbaum on the Cherrix case

Ron Rosenbaum on Starchild Abraham Cherrix and his choosing the Hoxsey treatment over chemotherapy: Young Cherrix has expressed his feelings this way to the Associated Press: “I’ll fight until I do die. I’m not going to let it go. I would rather die healthy and strong and in my house than die in a hospital […]

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

Your Friday Dose of Woo: Gonna wash those (heavy metal) toxins right out of your blood!

After the last couple of weeks of Your Friday Dose of Woo, I was in a bind. You see, people were telling me that they really enjoyed the last couple of weeks, particularly last week. For some reason, they were amused by my discussion of various liver cleansing regimens, hot on the heals of having […]

Categories
Clinical trials Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Quackery Skepticism/critical thinking

Damn those microfascists demanding evidence-based medicine!

Damn you PZ! (Heh, I haven’t gotten to say that since he shamed my profession by showing us an example of a certifiably loony young earth creationist physician running for Lt. Governor of South Carolina.) This time around, I’m annoyed at PZ for pointing me in the direction of an article so absurd, so ridiculous, […]

Categories
Autism Complementary and alternative medicine Quackery

One year later: Sadly, it was only a matter of time: An autistic boy dies during chelation therapy

Note: One year ago today, an autistic boy, Abubakar Tariq Nadama, died of a cardiac arrest while undergoing chelation therapy to try to “cure” his autism. Today, as I am on vacation, I have scheduled several of my old posts on the topic to appear.The investigation into his death is ongoing regarding whether to file […]