Categories
Cancer Integrative medicine Quackery

Defining “integrative oncology” and failing

Earlier this month, the Society for Integrative Oncology published an article attempting to define what “integrative oncology” is. The definition, when it isn’t totally vague, ignores the pseudoscience at the heart of integrative oncology and medicine.

Categories
Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Naturopathy Quackery

Quackery at the VA: Our veterans deserve real medicine, not fake medicine

A reader recounts his tale of being referred for fake medicine at a VA facility. Unfortunately, the VA seems to be papering over its lack of resources in the same way that Chairman Mao did in the 1950s, by “integrating” fake medicine with real medicine.

Categories
Complementary and alternative medicine Homeopathy Medicine Naturopathy Politics Quackery Science Skepticism/critical thinking

The RAND Corporation: Supporting the “integration” of quackery with real medicine since 2008

As regular readers of this blog and related blogs know, over the last two or three decades there has been a successful effort to legitimize quackery in the form of what is now called “integrative medicine.” Three decades ago, modalities like homeopathy, acupuncture, much of traditional Chinese medicine, reflexology, chiropractic, and many other modalities based […]

Categories
Clinical trials Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Quackery Science

An acupuncture bait and switch on hypertension

Acupuncture is a theatrical placebo, but it’s hard not to grudgingly admire just how—shall we say?—malleable or adaptable a placebo it is. What I mean by this is that, if you believe its practitioners and adherents, acupuncture can treat almost literally any disease or health problem. Any! Pain? Acupuncture. Allergies? Acupuncture. Biliary colic? Acupuncture. Infertility? […]

Categories
Complementary and alternative medicine Homeopathy Medicine Politics Pseudoscience Quackery Science Skepticism/critical thinking

The FTC vs. homeopathy: Substantive change in the regulation of magic or window dressing for the status quo?

Homeopathy is a frequent topic on this blog, for reasons that regular readers no doubt understand all too well by now. Homeopathy is, as I like to call it, again borrowing from Tolkien, The One Quackery To Rule Them All. When it comes to quackery, few can even come close to homeopathy for the sheer […]