Results for: "functional medicine"
Mainstream Doctors Actually Do What CAM Claims They Don’t
Alternative medicine proponents criticize mainstream medicine and think they can do better. Evidence from medical journals shows that their criticisms are not valid.
UC-Irvine, integrative medicine, and the delusion of being “science-based”
Last month, a billionaire couple, Susan and Henry Samueli, announced a $200 million gift to UC-Irvine to found the Susan and Henry Samueli College of Health Sciences, which will be devoted to integrative medicine and studying "unconventional" treatments. Its founders promise that it will be rigorously science-based in articles in a large, glossy magazine. There are many reasons for doubts about this...
Integrative medicine advocates react to criticisms of the Samuelis’ $200 million gift to UC-Irvine
Last month, Susan and Henry Samueli donated $200 million to the University of California, Irvine to promote integrative medicine. We were pleasantly surprised by the unflattering coverage in the press of the gift. We were unpleasantly unsurprised by the reaction of integrative medicine advocates to the criticism.
Repealing Legislative Alchemy
We need to repeal federal and state laws that allow quackery and pseudoscience in healthcare.
Reiki: Fraudulent Misrepresentation – Revisited
Factual misrepresentations about manipulating "energy" in a patient's body and its positive effects on health are integral to reiki. They can also be the basis of an action for fraudulent misrepresentation.
Naturopaths are fake doctors cosplaying real doctors (even the ones running dubious stem cell clinics)
Naturopaths are fake doctors who, increasingly, are cosplaying real doctors. Not surprisingly, because naturopaths go where quacking takes them, they've started to open their very own dubious stem cell clinics, thus combining the worst of both worlds, their "natural" quackery with dubious unproven but "high tech" treatments being peddled by the worst of real doctors.
Naturopathy vs. patients: Patients lose
Over the weekend, there was a news story describing two cancer patients treated by naturopaths in New Zealand. Both died, one almost certainly unnecessarily, the other after enduring more suffering than she likely had to. These tragic cases and others reminded me of why it is so appalling that so many physicians are "integrating" naturopathy into "integrative medicine." In reality, they are...
The Congressional Dietary Supplement Caucus
The Congressional Dietary Supplement Caucus, an officially-recognized Congressional Membership Organization, operates as an in-house mouthpiece for the dietary supplement industry. Both the caucus and the rules allowing it should be reformed to prohibit this.
Integrative Psychiatry
Alternative medicine is not just restricted to physical health. Practitioners have insinuated themselves into mental health as well, to the detriment of patients and science.
Gwyneth Paltrow and Goop: Another triumph of celebrity pseudoscience and quackery
Earlier this month, the hostilities between Gwyneth Paltrow's den of celebrity pseudoscience and quackery, her "lifestyle" website and store Goop, and skeptics erupted into open warfare, as Goop attacked Dr. Jen Gunter, an OB/GYN, blogger, and frequent critic of the pseudoscience published and sold by Goop. This leads to the question: Who are the physicians facilitating Paltrow and Goop? And does debunking...