Category: Homeopathy
Placebos as Medicine: The Ethics of Homeopathy
Is it ever ethical to provide a placebo treatment? What about when that placebo is homeopathy? Last month I blogged about the frequency of placebo prescribing by physicians. I admitted my personal discomfort, stating I’d refuse to dispense any prescription that would require me to deceive the patient. The discussion continued in the comments, where opinions seemed to range from (I’m paraphrasing) ...
Smallpox and Pseudomedicine
A good case of smallpox may rid the system of more scrofulous, tubercular, syphilitic and other poisons than could otherwise be eliminated in a lifetime. Therefore, smallpox is certainly to be preferred to vaccination. The one means elimination of chronic disease, the other the making of it. Naturopaths do not believe in artificial immunization . . . —Harry Riley Spitler, Basic Naturopathy:...
A Skeptic In Oz
UPDATE 4/27/2011: Here’s the online video of Dr. Novella’s appearance on The Dr. Oz Show: Controversial Medicine: Alternative Health, Part 1 Controversial Medicine: Alternative Health, Part 2 Controversial Medicine: Alternative Health, Part 3 I must say I was a bit shocked two weeks ago when I was contacted by a producer for The Dr. Oz Show inviting me on to discuss alternative...
Without Borders
Take up the White Man’s burden– The savage wars of peace– Fill full the mouth of Famine And bid the sickness cease; And when your goal is nearest The end for others sought, Watch CAM and woo Folly Bring all your hopes to nought. Rudyard Kipling. Sort of. The White Man’s burden, a bit of racism from the 19th century: The term...
Coming to an emergency room near you in 2030?
I’ve frequently lamented what might happen if the current trend towards quackademic medicine continues unabated, and quackery becomes fully “integrated” with science-based medicine as a co-equal. Interestingly, this concept has provided fodder for several comedians. For example, the first comedy sketch I discovered on this theme was homeopathic e.r. Then a couple of years ago, Mitchell and Webb brought us the British...
The World Has Moved On
I do a lot of driving as part of my job. I am the sole Infectious Disease doctor at three hospitals and I can spend an hour or two a day in the car, depending on traffic. What prevents me from going crazy sitting in traffic is listening to podcasts and audible books. I especially like reading (and yes, audio books is...
Science vs Homeopathic Pseudoscience
Science is a philosophy, a technology, and an institution. It is a human endeavor- our collective attempt to understand the world around us, not something that exists solely in the abstract. All of these aspects of science have be progressing over the past decades and centuries, as we refine our concepts of what science is and how it works, as we develop...
The Hazards of “CAM”-Pandering
Steven Salzberg, a friend of this blog and Director of the Center for Bioinformatics and Computational Biology at the University of Maryland, is on the editorial boards of three of the many journals published by BioMed Central (BMC), an important source of open-access, peer-reviewed biomedical reports. He is disturbed by the presence of two other journals under the BMC umbrella: Chinese Medicine...
A University of Michigan Medical School alumnus confronts anthroposophic medicine at his alma mater
Anthroposophic medicine is the creation of Rudolf Steiner, who also founded Waldorf Schools. It's a form of medicine that is vitalistic and full of quackery. Unfortunately, my medical alma mater, the University of Michigan, has a program in anthroposophic medicine. It's a small program, but that it exists at all is a disturbing reminder how quackery can infiltrate even the best medical...
Of SBM and EBM Redux. Part IV, Continued: More Cochrane and a little Bayes
OK, I admit that I pulled a fast one. I never finished the last post as promised, so here it is. Cochrane Continued In the last post I alluded to the 2006 Cochrane Laetrile review, the conclusion of which was: This systematic review has clearly identified the need for randomised or controlled clinical trials assessing the effectiveness of Laetrile or amygdalin for...