Results for: "energy medicine"
Confronting homeopathy, naturopathy, homeopathy, and other quackademic medicine at my alma mater
Several years back, I was forced to confront quackery at my alma mater in the form of an anthroposophic medicine program at the University of Michigan. The situation has deteriorated since then, as now the Department of Family Medicine there is inviting homeopaths to give talks and teaching acupuncture as credulously as any acupuncturist. Will the disease metastasize to other departments in...
What’s the Truth behind The Truth About Pet Cancer?
The Truth About Pet Cancer (TAPC) is a slick bit of propaganda. Although it contains some interesting, even promising ideas, these are unfortunately served with a heavy seasoning of misinformation and fear-mongering. Hypotheses and opinions are presented as established facts, and anyone who disagrees is suggested to be ignorant at best, venal and corrupt at worst.
ASCO endorses the integration of quackery into breast cancer care
In 2014, the Society for Integrative Oncology first published clinical guidelines for the care of breast cancer patients. Not surprisingly, SIO advocated "integrating" dubious therapies with oncology. Last week, the most influential oncology society, the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), endorsed a 2017 update to the SIO guidelines, thus endorsing the "integration" of quackery with oncology and paving the way for...
Science-based medicine versus other ways of knowing
It has been our position that science is the most effective means of determining medical treatments that work and whose benefits outweigh their risks. Those who promote pseudoscientific or prescientific medicine, however, frequently appeal to other ways of knowing, often ancient knowledge from other cultures and pointing out deficiencies in SBM to justify promoting their treatments. Do their justifications hold water?
The Null hypothesis: Gary Null attacks science-based medicine
Over the last couple of weeks, one of the old men of quackery, Gary Null, has decided (yet again) that he really, really doesn't like science-based medicine. That includes Steve Novella, Susan Gerbic, and...me. As is his usual habit, Null teamed up with his producer Richard Gale and wrote some seriously off-base screeds against Wikipedia, skeptics, and science-based medicine, basically the forces...
Homeopathy Awareness Week shows that homeopathy is still a problem
Homeopathy Awareness Week might be almost over, but The One Quackery To Rule Them All wastes resources and endangers patients year round, and a recent French criticism of homeopathy has provoked another case of legal thuggery by homeopaths.
Another pebble in the quackademic integrative avalanche
We've documented the infiltration of quackery into academic medicine through the "integration" of mystical and prescientific treatment modalities into medicine. Here, we look at a pebble in the quackademic avalanche. Is it too late for the pebbles to vote?
Quackademic medicine and the delusion of being “science-based”
Last week, I was interviewed by the a reporter from the Georgetown student newsletter about its integrative medicine program. It got me to thinking how delusion that one's work is science-based can lead to collaborations with New Age "quantum" mystics like Deepak Chopra.
The effort of integrative medicine advocates to co-opt the opioid crisis to claim non pharmacological treatments for pain as solely theirs continues apace
Last week, I wrote about how advocates for quackery were trying, and succeeding, at persuading state Medicaid agencies to pay for acupuncture for pain. This week, I discuss how they are promoting the integration of quackery with medicine. In this case, they are promoting a white paper and trying to influence the AHRQ.
Damn the evidence and regulations: VA goes full speed ahead with medical pseudoscience
The VA recently mandated inclusion of acupuncture, reiki, reflexology and other CAM in veterans medical benefits and will require that they be offered at VA medical facilities, ignoring the lack of evidence and federal rules on what medical benefits can be covered.