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Cancer Complementary and alternative medicine Integrative medicine Quackery

Belief in alternative cancer cures: We have a lot of work to do to combat quackery

Alternative cancer cures: Beware the cancer quack

Earlier this week, a new survey from the American Society of Clinical Oncology showed that belief in alternative cancer cures is common, with roughly four out of ten Americans believing that “natural” alternative treatments alone can cure cancer, without any conventional oncologic therapies, like chemotherapy, surgery, and radiation therapy. This survey points to just how ingrained misinformation about cancer is in our society and how much work advocates of science-based oncology have ahead of them to combat it.

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Antivaccine nonsense Autism Medicine Politics Quackery

The problem with SB 277, the law that eliminated personal belief exemptions (PBEs) in California

SB 277 and personal belief exemptions (PBEs)

in 2015, SB 277 was passed in California, eliminating personal belief exemptions (PBEs) to its school vaccine mandate beginning in 2016. Two years on, health officials express frustration with shortcomings of the law, the two most glaring of which involve their lack of authority to deny scientifically bogus medical exemptions sold by antivaccine doctors and their lack of authority and resources to track medical exemptions.

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Cancer Integrative medicine Medicine Pseudoscience Quackery

The Integrative Oncology Scholars Program: Indoctrinating oncology professionals into pseudoscience

Integrative Medicine as the Trojan horse
The Trojan Horse (Rabbit) of quackademic medicine approaches the walls of medical academia. Unfortunately, all too often, the rabbit is often taken within the walls, allowing the woo to escape into the medical school and academic medical center. The result: Integrative medicine.

“Integrative oncology” involves “integrating” pseudoscience, mysticism, and quackery with science-based oncology and co-opting science-based lifestyle modalities as “alternative” in order to provide cover for the quackery. Unfortunately, my alma mater, funded by the National Cancer Institute, is running a course to indoctrinate 100 health care professionals in the ways of “integrative oncology.” The Trojan horse of “lifestyle interventions” and “nonpharmacologic treatments for pain” is at the gates. The quackery will leap out as soon as it’s in the fortress.

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Medicine Popular culture Pseudoscience Quackery Skepticism/critical thinking

Functional medicine (FM) quackery dissected in the mainstream media

Functional medicine (FM)

Functional medicine (FM) is “make it up as you go along” quackery that combines the “worst of both worlds,” namely the overtesting and overtreatment that can plague conventional medicine plus the quackery “integrated” into “integrative medicine.” It’s rare to see a mainstream outlet get it right about FM, but an Irish journalist pulls it off.

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Antivaccine nonsense Autism Medicine Politics Popular culture Pseudoscience Skepticism/critical thinking

The Republican Party has become the antivaccine party

Republican Party

Contrary to the stereotype of antivaccinationists as hippy-dippy left wing granola crunchers, in actuality antivaccine pseudoscience is the pseudoscience is the pseudoscience that knows no political boundaries. Unfortunately, that doesn’t mean that both parties are equivalent. Unfortunately, thanks to the co-opting of conservative activism by antivaxers, the Republican Party in 2018 has become the antivaccine party.