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Antivaccine nonsense Complementary and alternative medicine Homeopathy Medicine Naturopathy Pseudoscience Quackery Skepticism/critical thinking

“Disruptive” functional medicine at the Cleveland Clinic: Disrupting medicine by mixing quackery with it

That the Cleveland Clinic has become one of the leading institutions, if not the leading institution, in embracing quackademic medicine is now indisputable. Indeed, 2017 greeted me with a reminder of just how low the Clinic has gone when the director of its Wellness Institute published a blatantly antivaccine article for a local publication, which […]

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Clinical trials Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Science Skepticism/critical thinking

The revenge of the son of the myth of "placebos without deception"

Back when advocates of “alternative” medicine were busily trying to legitimize their quackery by first renaming it “complementary and alternative medicine” (CAM), long before CAM “evolved” into “integrative medicine,” they really believed that if their favorite woo were to be studied scientifically it would be shown to be efficacious. Thus was born the Office of […]

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Cancer Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Naturopathy Pseudoscience Quackery Skepticism/critical thinking

An as yet unidentified “holistic” practitioner negligently kills a young woman with IV turmeric (yes, intravenous)

Out of southern California, comes a lesson that something as seemingly benign as turmeric can kill when weaponized in the hands of a quack.

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Cancer Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Quackery Science

In which the NCCIH is questioned…

Orac’s vacation continues apace. Well, not quite. The main reason I’m in London right now is because I was invited to give an actual scientific (as opposed to skeptical) talk at a conference about—of all things—ion channels in cancer. That’s where I am right now, at the Sir Alexander Fleming Building at Imperial College London, […]

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Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Pseudoscience Quackery Skepticism/critical thinking

“Dr. Seuss monsters”: The quackery that is “battlefield acupuncture” continues to metastasize

“Battlefield acupuncture,” which is really a form of ear acupuncture based essentially on a homunculus on the ear, continues to invade and metastasize in the military, complete with Dr. Seuss monsters.