“Urban Zen” and homeopathy at Beth Israel Medical Center, or: Dr. Gorski destroys his chances of ever being invited to join the faculty at BIMC or the Albert Einstein College of Medicine
I guess I never really wanted to work in Manhattan anyway. At least, that’s what I keep telling myself. I mean, why on earth would I want to? What’s the attraction? Living in the heart of it all, all those shows and all those amazing cultural activities, all those world-class restaurants? Being close to Boston, Philadelphia, and other cool East Coast cities,...
Another take on those “50 Facts About Homeopathy”
You may recall that a week ago fellow SBM blogger Mark Crislip did a truly amusing takedown of an article by a homeopath purporting to provide us with 50 Facts About Homeopathy that supposedly validate the efficacy of this most amazing form of quackery. Not surprisingly, others wanted to get in on the fun, given how outrageously ridiculous and riddled with numerous...
Placebos in the news again
Towards the end of last week, I was contemplating what I would be writing about for Monday. No topic had quite floated my boat, but I hated to dip into the archive of topics I’ve written about before to update a post. After all, I like to be topical whenever possible. Then what to my wondering eyes should appear (yes, I know...
Another new blogger, or SBM is going to the dogs (well, horses, actually)
We at Science-Based Medicine are pleased to announce the recruitment of yet another blogger to add to the discussion of the scientific basis of medicine. We’re especially pleased because he will help us address questions that we were not particularly well-equipped to address before his joining us. So, please welcome to the SBM fold David Ramey, DVM, who will be discussing science-...
Dr. Jay Gordon and me: Random encounters with an apologist for the antivaccine movement
Although he doesn’t detest me nearly as much as antivaccine honcho and founder of Generation Rescue J. B. Handley does, Santa Monica celebrity pediatrician Dr. Jay Gordon doesn’t like me very much at all. Actually, I’m not sure whether that’s entirely true or not, but Dr. Gordon sure doesn’t like it when I criticize him for his antivaccine rhetoric. He affects an...
Announcing two more new bloggers
Last week, we at Science-Based Medicine announced the arrival of a new blogger, Dr. Val Jones. She’s already made her mark here by in the course of her description of how she awakened to the problem of unscientific so-called “alternative” medicine infiltrating its way into medicine coining a new term that may well become more widely used than anyone could suspect. I’m...
Vitamin C strikes (out) again
A new research paper on vitamin C and cancer came out recently, but didn't get much attention in the press. Why not? Because this one found vitamin C actually made things worse.
Voice of Reason Dr. Val Jones joins Science-Based Medicine
We at Science-Based Medicine are very happy to announce that Dr. Val Jones will be joining us this week as a regular blogger. Her first post will appear this Thursday, October 9. Val Jones, M.D. is the President and CEO of Better Health, PLLC, a health education company devoted to providing scientifically accurate health information to consumers. Most recently she was the...
Autism’s false prophets revealed
Dr. Paul Offit has written a book about the false prophets of autism, those who promote the idea that vaccines cause autism and those who sell quackery to treat autism, which are often the same people. If you want a good history of how the "vaccines cause autism" myth started, this is a great primer.