Categories
Integrative medicine Medicine Pseudoscience Quackery Skepticism/critical thinking

Acupuncture does not work for chronic pain

A newly published systematic review of systematic reviews tells us what we’ve known. Acupuncture doesn’t work for chronic pain.

Categories
Integrative medicine Medicine Pseudoscience Quackery

UCHealth: Making pseudoscientific claims about acupuncture

UCHealth just published an article about acupuncture full of pseudoscientific claims. What is wrong with the University of Colorado? It looks like another academic medical center has fallen victim to quackademic medicine.

Categories
Medicine Popular culture Quackery

The Washington Post flubs it with an advertorial on IV drips

A couple of weeks ago, the New York Times’ botched “vaccine injury.” Unfortunately, The Washington Post botched discussing “IV drips” even worse.

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Naturopathy Quackery

Resurrecting old tropes about naturopathy

Way back in prepandemic times, naturopaths claimed that they could help with the shortage of primary care docs. They’re doing it again in 2023. They were wrong then and are wrong now.

Categories
Cancer Clinical trials Medicine Quackery

Acupuncture for xerostomia: Spin, spin, spin a negative study!

Investigators at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center reported the results of a trial of acupuncture for xerostomia (dry mouth) secondary to radiation therapy for head and neck cancers. It was a negative trial, but investigators still tried to spin it as positive, but with a twist. There was a large difference between results found at M.D. Anderson and the second site in China. What could be going on?