Crystal Healing
Crystal healing is back and growing in popularity. What does that reveal about our society and alternative medicine?
Professor Gives Grades to Alternative Medicine
Edzard Ernst assigns a grade to 150 alternative medicine modalities, evaluating plausibility, efficacy, safety, cost, and risk/benefit balance. A very useful reference.
Federal “right-to-try” over a year later: Still a failure and still about the money (and weakening the FDA)
Federal "right-to-try" legislation was passed and signed into law by President Trump over a year ago. Advocates promised that lots of terminally ill people who were dying then would be saved by having the right to "try" experimental therapies outside of the context of clinical trials. That has not happened. This should come as no surprise, because right-to-try was never about getting...
New Florida law forces physicians to endorse pseudoscience
A new Florida law forces physicians to endorse chiropractic, acupuncture, and massage as non-opioid alternatives for pain, even if the physician disagrees with that advice.
Soft Drinks and Death Risk
New study linking soft drinks to increased mortality is correlational only, and should be interpreted with caution.
Herbalife or Herbadeath?
A case of fatal liver failure in India was attributed to Herbalife products, adding to many other reports from around the world. Analysis showed Herbalife products contain heavy metals and other contaminants. The products have not been scientifically tested, and in the absence of evidence of benefit to human health, they can't be recommended.
The long, strange road to passing SB 276 appears to be near its end…finally
In 2015, California passed SB 277, which eliminated religious and personal belief exemptions to school vaccine mandates. Unfortunately, there was a problem; a weakness in the law allowed antivaccine quacks to help parents get around the law by writing medical exemptions not supported by science. The long strange battle to get SB 276, the law designed to close that loophole, reveals a...
A British Teenager is Blind, But Not Because of Junk Food or “Fussy Eating”
A recent case report about a British teenager blinded by severe nutritional deficiencies resulted in widespread media coverage, much of which missed the point. He wasn't blinded by junk food and he wasn't just a fussy eater.
Chris Beat Cancer: A Comprehensive Guide to Making a Killing
Chris Wark has a new book out, with the unsurprising title of Chris Beat Cancer. It purports to be a guide to beating cancer. It's not.
Update on the Obesity Epidemic
The obesity epidemic continues, and even accelerates, among continued debate about its causes and solutions.