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Cancer Complementary and alternative medicine Quackery

A quack goes to prison, but it’s not enough

If there’s one thing that’s frustrating about the U.S. justice system, it’s just how slow the wheels of justice grind. For example, it’s hard to believe that it was over two years ago that “pH Miracle” quack Robert O. Young was arrested for fraud, grand theft, and practicing medicine without a license, producing one of […]

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Cancer Complementary and alternative medicine History Medicine Politics Quackery Religion Science Skepticism/critical thinking

Makayla Sault’s mother: Racism, trust, and science-based medicine

One of the recurring topics I write about is, of course, cancer quackery. It goes right back to the very beginning of this blog, to my very earliest posts more than 11 years ago. Over the years I’ve covered more cases than I can remember of patients relying on quackery instead of real medicine. In […]

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Cancer Clinical trials Medicine Science Skepticism/critical thinking

Eric Merola releases a 2016 “update” of his original movie about Stanislaw Burzynski, and the misinformation flows (again)

I feel as though I’m experiencing an acid flashback to 2011, and I’ve never in my entire life once tried acid—or any mind-altering substance other than booze. What am I talking about? Let’s take a trip down memory lane, if you will, back to those halcyon days of—oh—five years ago. That was the time when […]

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Cancer Clinical trials Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Politics Quackery

Will Stanislaw Burzynski finally face real justice?

The other day, I suddenly realized that it’s been a long time since I’ve written about the Polish expat doctor in Houston who treats patients with advanced brain cancer with a concoction that he dubbed antineoplastons (ANPs). I’m referring, of course, to Stanislaw Burzynski who, despite the fact that he has no training in medical […]

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Cancer Complementary and alternative medicine Homeopathy Medicine Naturopathy Skepticism/critical thinking

A naturopath’s got to know his limitations, but naturopaths never do

It’s no secret that I’m not a big fan of naturopathy. It is, as my good bud Kimball Atwood has said, a prescientific system of medicine rooted in vitalism, the idea that there is a “life energy” and a “healing power of nature.” Naturopaths invoke very simplistic concepts to explain the cause of disease, such […]