Category: Science and the Media
The stem cell hard sell: The Medical Board of California is forming a task force to determine how to regulate physicians offering stem cell therapies.
For-profit stem cell clinics selling unproven and downright quacky stem cell therapies have proliferated over the last several years, with federal and state law seemingly powerless to stop them. Recently, the FDA and FTC have shown signs of acting to crack down on them. Now, the Medical Board of California is forming a task force to determine how to regulate physicians offering...
Reader’s Digest Promotes Prevagen
Reader's Digest is advertising a memory aid, Prevagen, that has been tested and shown not to work. Shame on them!
Goop and Dr. Mark Hyman join forces for some functional medicine heavy metal fear mongering
Goop and the Cleveland Clinic's Dr. Mark Hyman join forces for some functional medicine heavy metal fear mongering featuring bogus diagnostic testing and discredited treatments. Experts crush their pseudoscience.
Antivaccine propaganda from Dr. W. Gifford-Jones in The Toronto Sun
On Saturday, The Toronto Sun published a syndicated column by a pseudonymous Canadian doctor, Dr. W. Gifford-Jones. The column was packed with antivaccine misinformation and pseudoscience. Apparently due to complaints, the article was taken down sometime Sunday, but is still available on the websites of several other Canadian newspapers. Its misinformation is still there to frighten parents out of vaccinating.
My Cancer Free Life: A reality series designed to promote Stanislaw Burzynski’s quackery
Stanislaw Burzynski has been selling a dubious treatment known as antineoplastons to desperate cancer patients since the late 1970s. Unfortunately, there are those who are all too willing to promote the myth of a Brave Maverick Doctor who can cure cancer. Several years ago, it was Eric Merola. Now it's Uchenna Agu, a reality TV star turned producer. He plans on making...
Reporting on the edge: Authority, dog whistles, and the politics of the unknown
Beatrice Golomb, MD, has appeared in the news arguing "mysterious symptoms" experienced by Cuban diplomats are due to electromagnetic radiation. Though quoted by The New York Times and published in a peer-reviewed journal, are her opinions credible?
Brief Announcement: SkepDoc’s Website
I have a newly-revamped website!
Are antivaxers “holding science hostage”?
Melinda Wenner Moyer published an article in The New York Times arguing that fear of how antivaxers will react to scientific findings is leading scientists to self-censor. I'm not convinced that this is the case.
Angelina Jolie’s surgeon peddles misinformation about…breast cancer!
Dr. Kristi Funk is a surgeon to the stars in Beverly Hills who operated on Sheryl Crow and Angelina Jolie for breast cancer. This year, she published a book about breast health and breast cancer. Unfortunately, it's full of misinformation and radical advice with little or no basis in science.
Respected health news media watchdog to shut down, citing lack of funding
The only U.S. media watchdog devoted exclusively to health news, HealthNewsReview.org, will shut down at the end of the year for lack of funding, a huge loss to the science-based medicine community.