Results for: acupuncture
Ear Infections: To Treat or Not to Treat
Acute otitis media, also known as an ear infection, is a common problem that used to be treated routinely with antibiotics. As more evidence accumulated, it became clear that the practice needed to change. Seven years after the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Academy of Family Physicians released their guidelines, what has changed?
The NCCAM Strategic Plan 2011-2015: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly
The NCCAM has a new strategic plan that involves funding good science on meaningful topics, which is good. But it's still talking about nonsense like reiki, which is bad, and mixing it with real, scientifically proven treatments, which is ugly.
Complementary and alternative medicine in hospice care
A number of news outlets (e.g. Bloomberg Business Week, MSN.Com, US News, etc) have recently reported that use of complementary and alternative therapies (CAT) is widespread in hospice care facilities. This is based on a report from the Centers for Disease Control, Complementary and Alternative Therapies in Hospice: The National Home and Hospice Care Survey, Untied States, 2007. According to most news...
Dr. Mehmet Oz completes his journey to the Dark Side
A couple of weeks ago, both Steve Novella and I criticized Dr. Mehmet Oz (a.k.a. “America’s doctor”) for not only hosting a man I consider to be a major supporter of quackery, but going far beyond that to defend and promote him. After that, I considered Dr. Oz to be a lost cause, with nothing to excuse him for his having embraced...
For shame, Dr. Oz, for promoting Joseph Mercola on your show!
Dr. Oz goes deeper into the quackery well by hosting one of the most notorious quacks of all on his show, Dr. Joe Mercola.
Simply Raw: Making overcooked claims about raw food diets
This week, I plan on taking on something that’s been sitting near the bottom of my “to do list” for several weeks now. Indeed, readers have been sending me links since November or so to what will be the topic of this week’s post, but something somehow has always managed to push it aside each weekend when the time came to sit...
The Good Rewards of Bad Science
All the world sees us In grand style wherever we are; The big and the small Are infatuated with us: They run to our remedies And regard us as gods And to our prescriptions Principles and regimens, they submit themselves. Molière, The Imaginary Invalid (1673)1 The passage above is part of a burlesque doctoral conferment ceremony, where the French playwright Molière (1622-1673)...
Compare and Contrast
I have been in Infectious Diseases for almost 25 years. I have two major jobs: I see inpatient consults and I chair the Infection Control program. I have been involved in quality improvement, especially as it relates to hospital acquired infections, for my entire career. It has been an interesting quarter century. Year after year we have driven down infection rates and...
Placebo effects without deception? Well, not exactly…
In discussing “alternative” medicine it’s impossible not to discuss, at least briefly, placebo effects. Indeed, one of the most common complaints we at SBM voice about clinical trials of alternative medicine is the lack of adequate controls — meaning adequate controls for placebo and nonspecific effects. Just type “acupuncture” in the search box in the upper left hand corner of the blog...