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Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Quackery

Another teen endangered by “alternative medicine”

If there’s one thing that gets my blood boiling almost above all else when it comes to quackery, it’s when parents subject children to it. The result has been copious blogging about cases, such as that of Daniel Hauser, Katie Wernecke, and Abraham Cherrix, all of whom refused chemotherapy for treatable cancers. I’ve also discussed […]

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Cancer Medicine

The truth? You can’t handle The Truth (when it comes to mammographic screening)!

Occasionally, there are topics that my readers want — nay, demand — that I cover. The topic of this post, it turns out, is one of them. It’s a link to a TED Talk. I’m guessing that most of our readers have either viewed (or at least heard of) TED talks. Typically, they are 20-minute […]

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Entertainment/culture Homeopathy Medicine Popular culture Quackery Skepticism/critical thinking

Challenging homeopathy

Lest I be left out of the fun, I can’t help but point out that over the weekend the Amazing One himself, James Randi, issued a challenge to homeopathy manufacturers and retail pharmacies that sell homeopathy, in particular large national chains like Walgreens and CVS and large national chains that include pharmacies in their stores, […]

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Antivaccine nonsense Medicine

Bill Gates steps in it in a good way, declares vaccine-autism link an “absolute lie”

I never thought I’d be praising Bill Gates, being a Mac person and all and not being at all fond of Microsoft, but it’s impossible for me not to in the wake of a recent interview Gates did with CNN’s chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta. As you probably know, since retiring from Microsoft, Bill […]

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Antivaccine nonsense Autism Medicine

“We shall overcome,” sings the anti-vaccine movement

Yesterday, in the course of applying a heapin’ helpin’ of not-so-Respectful Insolence to a particularly brain dead exercise by the anti-vaccine movement, in which the International Medical Council on Vaccination (the most deceptively named anti-vaccine organization this side of the National Vaccine Information Center) gathered 80 signatures of “health care professionals” who warn about the […]