Results for: right to try
Zapping Antipsychiatry ECT Nonsense
These days people's perceptions of electroconvulsive therapy have a fictionalized understanding of what it is, and its harms. The reality is quite different.
Is Dentistry Science Based?
A recent article in The Atlantic claims that dentistry is not science-based. Is it right? Nah.
Naturopaths try (and fail yet again) to argue that they are science-based
That booster of all things "integrative," John Weeks has devoted the entire most recent issue of The Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine, which he edits, to trying to demonstrate that naturopathy is science-based. It does not go well. Same as it ever was.
FDA promises industry-friendly “modernization” of dietary supplement regulation
The FDA promises the "most significant modernization of dietary supplement regulation" in 25 years while maintaining its industry-friendly regulatory scheme.
Does society try to shame and shun vaccine refusers and the vaccine-averse?
Antivaxers often complain that they are judged harshly, even shunned. A recent study suggests that, to some extent, they might well be. But are judging, shaming, and shunning parents who refuse to vaccinate their children wrong? More importantly, what about the children, who didn’t choose not to be vaccinated, and how likely is such stigmatization to change behavior?
Chiropractor Claims the CDC Is Trying to Get Nazi-like Unfettered Power in Violation of the Nuremburg Code
An email was recently circulated among chiropractors warning them about a proposed rulemaking by the CDC, saying that it will establish a public health gestapo. It originated from Ted Koren Seminars. A chiropractor who received the email brought it to my attention. He describes Koren as “a chiropractor who is a “leader” in the chiropractic community, lecturer, antivaxxer (he refers to the...
Should you try a “natural alternative” before medication?
The idea of taking medication can be frightening. And as consumers and patients that want to make our own informed health decisions, it’s understandable and even appropriate to question our physicians when they recommend drug treatments. We need to understand the rationale for any medication that’s recommended or prescribed, the benefits of therapy, the side effects, and if there are any other...
NCCIH Strategic Plan 2016-2021, or: Let’s try to do some real science for a change
It’s no secret that we at Science-Based Medicine (SBM) are not particularly fond of the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH). Formerly known as the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM) and before that the Office of Alternative Medicine, NCCIH has been the foremost government agency funding research into quackery for the last 24 years, and, of course,...
Sarah Hershberger: “Health freedom” and parental rights vs. child welfare
One of the more depressing topics that I regularly write about on this blog includes of analyses of news stories of children with cancer whose parents decided to stop science-based treatment (usually the chemotherapy) and use quackery instead. There are, of course, variations on this theme, but these stories take form that generally resembles this outline: A child is diagnosed with a...
A right to science
Unless forced to do so, the state and federal governments will continue to base law and policy on bad science. Maybe it's time for a constitutional amendment guaranteeing a "right to science."