Results for: reflexology

Homeopathy, naturopathy, and acupuncture at the University of Michigan

The Integrative Oncology Scholars Program: Indoctrinating the next generation of “integrative oncology” believers

"Integrative oncology" involves "integrating" pseudoscience, mysticism, and quackery with science-based oncology and co-opting science-based lifestyle modalities as "alternative" in order to provide cover for the quackery. Unfortunately, my alma mater, funded by the National Cancer Institute, is running a course to indoctrinate 100 health care professionals in the ways of "integrative oncology." The Trojan horse of "lifestyle interventions" and "nonpharmacologic treatments for...

/ October 22, 2018

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."

/ October 11, 2018

Homeopathic Arnica in Plastic Surgery

Homeopathic Arnica is clearly pseudoscience and does not work for wound healing, so why are so many cosmetic surgeons recommending it?

/ July 18, 2018
Quackery duck

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...

/ June 18, 2018

Halotherapy – The Latest Spa Pseudoscience

Halotherapy, sitting in a salt room, is the latest spa trend, just as full of pseudoscience and false claims as we have come to expect from wellness spas.

/ June 13, 2018

Hypothesized benefit from integrative treatments for veterans’ chronic pain fails to materialize

Researchers hypothesized that chiropractic, acupuncture and massage would benefit veterans with chronic pain. Their results said otherwise.

/ April 12, 2018
Water

“Raw water”: The latest dangerous “natural health” fad

In pseudoscience, appeals to nature are everywhere. It's not surprising, then, that there is profit to be made selling "raw" (i.e., untreated) water at very high prices for its nonexistent health benefits, those benefits all claimed to be due to the "naturalness" of the water. I can't help but note that cholera, Giardia, amoebic dysentery, and a wide variety of waterborne illnesses...

/ January 1, 2018

A Misguided Study to Test the Reliability of Traditional Chinese Medicine Pulse Diagnosis

Pulse diagnosis and tongue diagnosis are widely used in traditional Chinese medicine. They are based on imagination, not on anatomical and physiologic reality.

/ December 26, 2017

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.

/ December 7, 2017
National Cancer Institute

The integration of mysticism and pseudoscience with oncology continues apace in NCI-designated comprehensive cancer centers

Last week, I commented on the inability of the Society for Integrative Oncology to define what integrative oncology actually is. This week, I note the proliferation of the quackery of integrative oncology in places that should be rigorously science-based, namely NCI-designated comprehensive cancer centers.

/ November 27, 2017