A week ago, the World Health Organization held the First WHO Traditional Medicine Global Summit this weekend. Unfortunately, its claims of being “evidence-based” aside, the conference followed the WHO’s usual pattern of serving as one-sided propaganda.
Earlier this month, a study claiming to have identified a neurologic mechanism by which acupuncture reduces inflammation was published in Nature. It does no such thing. it’s another bait-and-switch mouse study that likely would never have been published in such a high profile journal if it hadn’t rebranded electrical stimulation as “electroacupuncture”.
Functional medicine practitioner Dr. Melinda Ring thinks that she should be considered an “early adopter” instead of a quack. However, being an “early adopter” of quackery is not something to be admired.
The National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health recently released its latest 5 year strategic plan. It’s basically the same as the last strategic plan, but with one new addition. It’s not really a new addition, but it signals a resurrection of an old trope about “integrating” quackery with science-based medicine.
“Quackademic medicine” is a term coined to describe the increasing infiltration of pseudoscience and quackery into medical academia. Unsurprisingly, we’re starting to see quackademic medicine turn its attention to COVID-19. In this case, traditional Chinese medicine is invoked to claim that magic amulets might prevent COVID-19,
