Results for: homeopathy
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...
“Aborted fetal tissue” and vaccines: Combining pseudoscience and religion to demonize vaccines
As hard as it is to believe after seven and a half years of existence and nearly 2,400 posts on SBM, every so often, something reminds me that we here at SBM haven’t discussed a topic that should be discussed. So it was a couple of weeks ago, when I saw a familiar name in a news story that wasn’t about vaccines....
The Woo Boat, or: How far Andrew Wakefield has fallen
File this one under the category: You can’t make stuff like this up. (At least, I can’t.) Let’s say you’re a diehard all-conspiracy conspiracy theorist and alternative medicine believer (a not uncommon combination). You love Alex Jones and Mike Adams and agree with their rants that there is a New World Order trying to suppress your rights. You strongly believe that vaccines...
New Study on Homeopathic Cough Syrup for Children Reveals a Lack of Effectiveness and Ethics
On the pages of SBM we frequently discuss homeopathy, and rightfully so considering its position as one of the most pervasive yet dumbest forms of alternative medicine. Just yesterday our own Scott Gavura, who is neither pervasive nor dumb, wrote an excellent review of some recent improvements in the regulation of these ridiculous remedies in Canada, and I encourage readers to check...
A homeopathic win for consumers
Do you believe in magic? It might surprise you to learn that some people believe sugar pills have healing properties. This belief system, called homeopathy, is a multi-billion dollar industry worldwide, and it’s growing. While there is no convincing evidence to demonstrate that homeopathic treatments are more effective than a placebo, many consumers and even some health professionals accept homeopathy as a...
We Should Abandon the Concept of “Alternative Medicine”
In a recent editorial for the New York Times, Aaron E. Carroll argues, “Labels Like ‘Alternative Medicine’ Don’t Matter. The Science Does.” I agree with this headline thesis, but the details of his argument ironically show the harm that the so-called CAM (complementary and alternative medicine) movement has done. Carroll starts out well, essentially pointing out that the division between “conventional” and...
Society for Science-Based Medicine: Comment to FDA on homeopathic drug regulation
The Society for Science-Based Medicine has commented on the FDA's reconsideration of how to regulate homeopathic products.
Medical marijuana as the new herbalism, part 4: Cannabis for autism
Medical marijuana. It’s promoted as a seeming panacea that can cure whatever ails you. While there are potentially useful medicinal compounds in marijuana, in general the medical marijuana movement vastly oversells the promise. Nowhere is this more true than for cancer and autism, where there is no compelling evidence that cannabis cures cancer. Worse, parents are subjecting autistic children to cannabis with...
Neck Adjustment for Newborn Supraventricular Tachycardia: More Chiropractic Manipulation of Reality…..
[Editor’s note: Not enough Clay for one day? Check out this post on homeopathy over at The Scientific Parent!] It was recently brought to my attention that a chiropractor was promoting his profession on Facebook by claiming to have treated and cured a potentially life-threatening cardiac arrhythmia. The condition in question, supraventricular tachycardia (SVT), can be very serious and even deadly in...
Bastions of quackademic medicine: Georgetown University
We frequently discuss a disturbing phenomenon known as quackademic medicine. Basically, quackademic medicine is a phenomenon that has taken hold over the last two decades in medical academia in which once ostensibly science-based medical schools and academic medical centers embrace quackery. This embrace was once called “complementary and alternative medicine” (CAM) but among quackademics the preferred term is now “integrative medicine.” Of...