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Cancer Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Quackery Surgery

A horrifying breast cancer “testimonial” for “holistic” treatment

(NOTE ADDED 12/7/2010: Kim Tinkham has died of what was almost certainly metastatic breast cancer.) Cancer is scary. It’s very, very scary, even when it is a cancer that is treatable and potentially curable. It’s such a common disease that, by the time we reach a certain age, the vast majority of us have seen […]

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Bioethics Clinical trials Medicine Quackery

Stem cell tourism: Stem cells as the new snake oil

There’s no doubt about it: Stem cells are hot. Yes indeed, they’re not only hot, but they’re hip, they’re happenin‘, they’re right now, baby. Scientists are falling all over themselves with excitement at the potential applications that could potentially come from stem cell technology. True, no validated therapies for embryonic stem cells have yet made […]

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

Your Friday Dose of Woo: The Worldwide Wanker of Woo

Let me say right up front that I’m not entirely sure that the victim–I mean target; no, I mean subject–of this week’s little excursion into the deepest darkest depths of woo is not a parody. That’s the beauty of it. I’ve never heard of it before, but a little Googling brought me evidence that it […]

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Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Politics Quackery

More quackery at–where else?–The Huffington Post

I apologize to my readers. I apologize for continually blogging about the pseudoscience at The Huffington Post. Of late, it seems that I can’t go more than a day or two without some new atrocity against science being tossed out from Arianna’s happy home for antivaccinationists and quacks. Be it antivaccine lunacy, Deepak Chopra’s “quantum” […]

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Cancer Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Politics Pseudoscience Quackery Religion Science Skepticism/critical thinking

Another child sacrificing himself on the altar of irrational belief

Regular readers here know that I really hate to see stories like the one I’m about to discuss, specifically that of 13-year-old Daniel Hauser, a boy with Hodgkin’s lymphoma who is refusing chemotherapy based on religion and his preference for “alternative” therapy, whose parents are also supporting his decision. Since I’m a bit behind on […]