Results for: Chakras
Ashwagandha – An Herbal TikTok Sensation
Ashwagandha is another dubious herbal products marketing with inadequate evidence and poor logic.
Bioptron: Too Silly to Write about
Bioptron is a silly device claiming to work through unproven means, but basically seems to be an extremely colorful flashlight.
“Quack Protection Acts” proposed in state legislatures
Laws protecting "complementary and alternative" health care providers from state regulation have been proposed in several state legislatures under the rubric of "health freedom". These "Quack Protection Acts" harm consumers.
Why I Quit My Massage Therapy Career
Years ago, I was accused by my profession's regulator of being an ‘unprofessional’ Registered Massage Therapist for criticizing pseudoscience in alternative medicine. I accepted an unusual public reprimand and made a few changes to my website, but my regulator pressed their case, effectively demanding that I quit writing altogether. I quit the profession instead.
Pseudoscience invades Social Work
Acutonics, aura infusions and angelic channeling: pseudoscience has invaded the practices of social workers.
Homeopathic Arnica in Plastic Surgery
Homeopathic Arnica is clearly pseudoscience and does not work for wound healing, so why are so many cosmetic surgeons recommending it?
I Used To Be a Holistic Nutritionist
Up until a year ago, I was a practicing holistic nutritionist. As someone who has left that world behind, I have a moral obligation to do what is right – and what is right is to denounce my former beliefs in an industry rife with deception.
SXSW Wellness Expo and Goop: Accepting HIV/AIDS denialism and antivaccine pseudoscience by embracing Dr. Kelly Brogan
Dr. Kelly Brogan is doing well these days. Invited to be a headliner at Gwyneth Paltrow's Goop Summit and to be on the advisory board of the 2018 SXSW Wellness Expo, she's riding high. Unfortunately Goop and SXSW appear not to care about her being an HIV/AIDS denialist, antivaxer, and all around quack.
Quackery for Kids
A brief rant and a few random observations on quackery for kids.
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.