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Complementary and alternative medicine Homeopathy Medicine Naturopathy Quackery

Why some physicians embrace quackery

And now for something completely different. Yes, it’s about time for that, isn’t it? I’ve probably beat the Tribeca Film Festival story into the ground, even for me, having spent the last week blogging about it. Scratch that. There’s no “probably” about it. I frequently write at length about the quackery that is homeopathy. One […]

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Cancer Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Quackery

When alternative medicine cancer cures fail, it’s always the patient’s fault. Always.

After a trilogy of posts on the lamentably bad decision on the part of the Tribeca Film Festival to screen a pseudoscience- and misinformation-filled documentary by hero to the antivaccine movement, Andrew Wakefield, that is basically one long conspiracy theory, I thought it was time for a change. I had briefly toyed with the idea […]

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Complementary and alternative medicine Homeopathy Medicine Naturopathy Popular culture Quackery Skepticism/critical thinking

Alternative medicine practitioners lionized in Cleveland

I’ve spent a lot of time in Cleveland. Indeed, I lived there for eight years in the late 1980s and early 1990s, during which time I completed my surgery residency training, completed my PhD, and, even more importantly, met and married my wife. Even though I haven’t lived there for nearly 20 years—I can’t believe […]

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Antivaccine nonsense Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Popular culture Pseudoscience Quackery Skepticism/critical thinking

The “conspiracy” to kill alternative medicine practitioners continues apace

Ever since late June, I’ve been intermittently taking note of a new conspiracy theory in the alternative medicine world. It began when notorious autism quack Jeff Bradstreet, one of the longest practicing, most prominent purveyors of the scientifically discredited notion that vaccines cause autism, was found dead in a North Carolina river on June 19. […]

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

The Central Dogma of Alternative Medicine

Molecular biology has a “central dogma,” so why not alternative medicine. Here, I argue that the central dogma of alternative medicine is The Secret.