Results for: homeopathy
Antivaccine activists fund a study to show vaccines cause autism. It backfires spectacularly.
Having written about pseudoscience and quackery continuously for over a decade and having engaged in conversations about it online for over 15 years, I’ve come to recognize a number of traits that are virtually the sine qua non of quacks and pseudoscientists and their believers. Obviously, one of them is a severe case of the Dunning-Kruger effect, a tendency of those with...
Keep Naturopathy Out of the VA!
AMVETS has joined with The American Association of Naturopathic Physicians in seeking to “promote natural, non-pharmacological approaches to treating patients suffering from chronic pain.” They are petitioning Congress and the VA to authorize bringing licensed NDs into the VA system. As a veteran myself, a retired Air Force Colonel and an MD, I find this appalling. During my twenty years service in...
Massage Therapy rubs me the wrong way
Back in my days of practicing law, one of my escapes from reality was a good massage. It was a great treat, exchanging the high-octane atmosphere of the law office for the soothing music, subdued voices and pastel tones of the treatment room. I could have stayed on that table for hours. Little did I know just how much an escape from...
Lawsuit Alleges School Wi-Fi Harmed Child with Electromagnetic Hypersensitivity
My mother had a favorite saying that rhymed: “All you need from dawn to dawn is someone else to blame it on.” WiFi involves mysterious emissions that you can’t see and that sneakily permeate our environment, and they have become a popular target for blame. A lawsuit has been filed against the Fay School in Massachusetts on behalf of a 12-year-old boy...
The price of a naturopathic education
A naturopathic education is costly with very little financial reward once training is complete - in addition to being unscientific, and possibly dangerous.
Medicine in the Magic Kingdom of Cascadia. On Naturopathy.
When the Pacific NW secedes from the Union it is to be part of a new country, Cascadia. The capital would be Portlandia, I suppose. Somehow, I think not. But when I watch the devolution of health care in Oregon, I think back to The Onion (?) when they reported that the United Kingdom was to be sold to Disney, being renamed...
ND Confession, Part II: The Accreditation of Naturopathic “Medical” Education
Accreditation of a school does not mean what most people think it means. In particular, it does not mean anything about the quality of education received there, or the validity of the topics studied.
Is there a natural treatment for tinnitus?
“Why do you bother blogging?” asked a colleague. “You take hours of your personal time to write, and you do it for free. You’re not even getting any citations for all that work.” I admit I found the questions a bit surprising. True, you won’t find SBM posts abstracted in PubMed. But I’m writing for an entirely different audience. I blog for...
Learning quackery for Continuing Medical Education credit
The Integrative Addiction Conference 2015 (“A New Era in Natural Treatment”) starts tomorrow in Myrtle Beach, SC. Medical doctors, doctors of osteopathy, naturopaths and other health care providers will hear lectures on such subjects as “IV Therapies and Addiction Solutions,” given by Kenneth Proefrock, a naturopath whose Arizona Stem Cell Center specializes in autologous stem cell transplants derived from adipose tissue. Proefrock,...
An Alternative to Appendectomy: Antibiotics
My title doesn’t refer to alternative medicine, it refers to an alternative within medicine: treating appendicitis with antibiotics instead of surgery. You may be surprised to learn that patients with appendicitis don’t always automatically need an appendectomy. A recent randomized controlled trial in Finland compared surgery to medical treatment. History of appendicitis treatment There is an excellent, detailed history of appendicitis available...