Tag: complementary and alternative medicine
The closure of major integrative medicine “Crown Jewels”: Terminating the Terminator?
When it comes to expansion and infiltrating medicine, "integrative medicine" has frequently seemed like the Terminator: utterly relentless. Recent setbacks at major integrative medicine "Crown Jewels" resulting in their closure cast that narrative in doubt. However, I never forget that after its seeming destruction, the Terminator always comes back.
Quackery infiltrates The BMJ
As quackery in the form of "integrative medicine" has increasingly been "integrated" into medicine, medical journals are starting to notice and succumb to the temptation to decrease their skepticism. The BMJ, unfortunately, is the latest to do so. It won't be the last.
Myths integrative medicine sells us: “We never advocate alternative medicine without conventional medicine”
"Integrative medicine" (IM) effectively integrates quackery with real medicine. The main talking point by advocates of IM meant to deflect this criticism is that IM practitioners always use alternative medicine with conventional medicine and never advocate the use of alternative medicine alone. A new book by a prominent advocate of IM suggests that this talking point is at best self-delusion among academics...
In the tradition of Chairman Mao, traditional Chinese medicine gets a new boost by the Chinese government
Despite a lack of evidence for its efficacy and safety, traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) has made major inroads into US medical centers, both academic and community. I've told the story of how Chairman Mao Zedong created the myth of TCM and promoted it to credulous Westerners to facilitate the "integration" of TCM and "Western medicine." Over the holiday break, I learned that...
It’s Hard Out There for a Psychic
Psychic? Exorcist? Acupuncturist? Homeopath? Naturopath? The practice is the same. The consequences differ.
Can the mind really heal the body? The false narrative of placebo “healing” revisited
Placebo effects are inextricably bound to the question of whether the alternative medicine modalities that are being “integrated” into medicine actually have any useful therapeutic effects or not; i.e., whether they are merely placebos. Here, I examine an article in National Geographic that peddles the false narrative that placebo effects have real "healing" powers against diseases like Parkinson's disease.
State Medical Boards should not recognize board certification in “Integrative Medicine”
Integrative medicine is not a real specialty in medicine. Let's not treat it as though it were.
Science-Based Satire: Cleveland Clinic Subscription Box Service Introduces Integrative Medicine to Curious Consumers
Cleveland, OH- Cleveland native Kelly Anderson is looking forward to the end of the month like a young child anxiously awaiting Christmas morning. That’s because on a day between the 20th and the 28th of December, she will receive the gift of hope. Anderson, a 43-year-old mother of five who was diagnosed with chronic Lyme disease and numerous nutritional imbalances earlier this...
Milestones on the path to integrating quackery with medicine
The "integration" of quackery with real medicine occurring in academia and now private hospitals and practices didn't occur overnight. It began decades ago. Here, we examine what an advocate of "integrative medicine" views as key milestones on the path towards adding pseudoscience and quackery to your medicine.
Dr. Richard Rawlins Reveals the Real Secrets of Alternative Medicine
Dr. Richard Rawlins, an orthopedic surgeon in the UK who is also a magician and member of the Magic Circle, has written an exhaustive review of alternative medicine, Real Secrets of Alternative Medicine: An Exposé. “A conversation with Mrs. Smith” A conversation with Mrs. Smith bookends the text. She comes to Dr. Rawlins for hip replacement surgery and asks if there is...