Tag: integrative medicine

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Complementary and alternative medicine Integrative medicine Medicine Pseudoscience Quackery

Thomas Jefferson University goes full quack with a department of “integrative medicine”

Thomas Jefferson University Hospitals
Thomas Jefferson University Hospitals

Quackademic medicine takes a big leap forward at Thomas Jefferson University with its new Department of Integrative Medicine and Nutritional Sciences.

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Cancer Complementary and alternative medicine Integrative medicine Medicine Quackery

Trojan horse: Selling “integrative oncology” as science-based

Integrative Medicine as the Trojan horse
The Trojan Horse (Rabbit) of quackademic medicine approaches the walls of medical academia. Unfortunately, all too often, the rabbit is often taken within the walls, allowing the woo to escape into the medical school and academic medical center. The result: Integrative medicine.

Integrative oncology “integrates” quackery with oncology. Its practitioners, however, frequently delude themselves that their specialty is science-based. A recent review article by two integrative oncologists from Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center expresses that delusion perfectly.

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Cancer Complementary and alternative medicine Integrative medicine Quackery Skepticism/critical thinking

The Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center shows us how to write a press release on integrative oncology

Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center
The Seattle Cancer Care Alliance, the clinical partner of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center.

Last week, the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center issued a press releast touting its integrative oncology program. It’s a perfect example to demonstrate the formulaic nature of such press releases and the distortions behind them used to sell the “integration” of quackery into medicine.

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Cancer Complementary and alternative medicine Integrative medicine Medicine Quackery

Surprise! Surprise! JACM publishes a whole issue devoted to “integrative oncology” propaganda

JACM

Last week, The Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine (JACM) published a Special Focus Issue on “integrative oncology.” In reality, it’s propaganda that promotes pseudoscience and the “integration” of quackery into oncology.

Categories
Complementary and alternative medicine Integrative medicine Medicine Quackery Skepticism/critical thinking

“Practice drift”: A feature, not a bug, in “integrative medicine”

The quacksalver. Found in the collection of Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam. (Photo by Fine Art Images/Heritage Images/Getty Images)

Two prominent advocates of “integrative medicine” bemoan the “practice drift” they see in their specialty, in which doctors drift farther and farther away from their training. What this means is (although it would never be admitted) is that these “integrative medicine” doctors are drifting further and further into quackery. Too bad this is a feature, not a bug.