Tag: alternative medicine

Google reviews alternative cancer clinics

How Google listings are used by alternative cancer clinics to lure in desperate patients

I've long been writing about "alternative cancer clinics" (i.e., quack clinics) that sell false hope in the form of very expensive but ineffective treatments to desperate cancer patients. A recent study demonstrates how they use Google to do this.

/ August 12, 2024
Latent profile analysis

Alternative medicine and antivax: Two crappy tastes that taste crappy together—particularly when among physicians

A recent study reaffirms the high degree of correlation among physicians between antivax views and an embrace of quackery. This is an old finding that needs to be documented periodically and shows why the acceptance of non-science-based treatments by physicians endangers vaccination efforts.

/ October 16, 2023

Alternative Reproduction?

Are there effective forms of SCAMs for birth control or reproduction? Of course not.

/ September 22, 2022

The American Academy of Pediatrics Weighs in on “Alternative Perinatal Practices”: Part 1

In a soon-to-be published clinical report, the AAP tackles potentially risky "alternative practices" involving labor and delivery of human newborns.

/ February 4, 2022

Why It’s Worthwhile to Debunk Shivambu

Richard Feynman famously said, "The first principle is that you must not fool yourself—and you are the easiest person to fool". This is the most important lesson skepticism has to offer.

/ December 17, 2021
Federation of State Medical Boards (FSMB)

State medical boards vs. COVID-19 misinformation, an update

The disinformation epidemic about COVID-19 has pushed state medical boards to consider disciplining physicians who promote COVID-19 disinformation. How would that work? What are the obstacles? Is it even possible? It should be, but it will be messy and complicated.

/ September 27, 2021

Long COVID: Alternative medicine sees a business opportunity

With vaccines transforming the risk and consequences of a COVID infection, the health burden of "long COVID" may become a lasting consequence of the pandemic. Alternative medicine senses a business opportunity.

/ July 22, 2021

The Brownstein protocol is not a proven treatment for COVID-19

Dr. David Brownstein is a "holistic" physician who practices in Dr. Gorski's neck of the woods. Unfortunately, he just wrote a book promoting an unproven protocol involving vitamins, nebulized hydrogen peroxide and iodine, and intravenous ozone to treat COVID-19. There is no evidence that his protocol works, other than a very poor quality case series.

/ March 15, 2021

The Threat of Conspiracy Thinking to SBM

Conspiracy thinking is on the rise, and threatens the very notion of science and truth.

/ January 20, 2021

New York Times Goop Fail

A NYT opinion piece repeats all the common alternative medicine tropes in service to the further exploitation of women.

/ February 5, 2020