Results for: homeopathy
The CAM Docket: Boiron I
Author’s note: This will inaugurate a series of occasional posts observing the wheels of justice grind slowly over “CAM.” In a previous post, I posited that CAM practitioners might well subject themselves to liability for the tort of fraudulent misrepresentation. This misrepresentation could be based on both the lack of scientific evidence of effectiveness and the lack of scientific plausibility for their...
How to Choose a Doctor
From an e-mail I received: As a proponent of SBM, and a someone who places a high value on reason, logic and evidence, I would like to find a physician who shares this mindset. He went on to ask how he could go about finding one. Another correspondent was referred to a surgeon by her primary physician, and the surgeon inspired confidence...
An Appraisal of Courses in Veterinary Chiropractic
Today’s guest article, by By Ragnvi E. Kjellin, DVM, and Olle Kjellin, MD, PhD, was submitted to a series of veterinary journals, but none of them wanted to publish it. ScienceBasedMedicine.org is pleased to do so. Animal chiropractic is a relatively new phenomenon that many veterinarians may know too little about. In Sweden, chiropractic was licensed for humans in 1989, but...
FDA versus Big Supp: Rep. Burton to the Rescue (Again)
The Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act of 1994 (DSHEA) has been aptly described here at SBM as a travesty of a mockery of a sham. The supplement industry’s slick marketing, herb adulteration due to lack of pre-market controls, Quack Miranda Warning, and the many supplements for which claims of effectiveness failed to hold up under scientific scrutiny (e.g., antioxidants, collagen, glucosamine...
The Marino Center for Integrative Health: Hooey Galore
Two weeks ago I promised that I would discuss the Marino Center for Integrative Health, identified in the recent Bravewell report as having a “hospital affiliation” with the Newton-Wellesley Hospital (NWH) in Newton, Massachusetts, which is where I work. I also promised in that post that I’d provide examples of ‘integrative medicine’ practitioners offering false information about the methods that they endorse. I’d...
Dr. Oz revisited
We here at SBM have been very critical of Dr. Mehmet Oz, who through his relentless self-promotion (and with more than a little help from his patron Oprah Winfrey) has somehow become known as “America’s doctor.” Back in the early days, when he was the regular medical expert on The Oprah Winfrey Show, Dr. Oz was at least tolerable. Much of what...
Perpetual Motion: More on the Bravewell Report
I’m not here to convince people that we are right, although it would be nice if it turned out that way. I’m here to tell the truth and let readers decide for themselves.” — Kimball Atwood, Science Based Medicine, Bravewell Bimbo Eruptions I had been too inarticulate to formulate what is essentially my approach to this blog: to tell the truth. That...
Informed Consent and CAM: Truth Not Optional
In three recent posts, Drs. Novella, Gorski and Atwood took the Bravewell Collaborative to task over a report on its recent survey of U.S. “integrative medicine” centers. As Dr. Novella noted, So what is integrative medicine? When you strip away the rebranding and co-opting of features and treatments of mainstream medicine, you are left with the usual list of pseudoscientific practices that...
Bravewell Bimbo Eruptions
This is yet another response to the recent “Integrative Medicine in America” report published by the Bravewell Collaborative. Drs. Novella and Gorski have already given that report its due, so I won’t repeat the background information. Inevitably, I’ll cover some of the same points, but I’ll also try to emphasize a few that stand out to me. Most of these have been...
Lessons from History of Medical Delusions
A brief reference on the web site The Quackometer recently drew my attention to a very short book (really more of a pamphlet, in the historical sense) by Dr. Worthington Hooker, Lessons from the History of Medical Delusions, which I thought might be of interest to readers of this blog. Though published in 1850, the book contains many eloquent observations that are...