All posts by Harriet Hall

Harriet Hall, MD also known as The SkepDoc, is a retired family physician who writes about pseudoscience and questionable medical practices. She received her BA and MD from the University of Washington, did her internship in the Air Force (the second female ever to do so),  and was the first female graduate of the Air Force family practice residency at Eglin Air Force Base. During a long career as an Air Force physician, she held various positions from flight surgeon to DBMS (Director of Base Medical Services) and did everything from delivering babies to taking the controls of a B-52. She retired with the rank of Colonel.  In 2008 she published her memoirs, Women Aren't Supposed to Fly.

Chiropractor Lost His License; Patient Lost Her Uterus

Practicing after he lost his license, chiropractor Nicholas LeRoy used escharotics to treat a woman's cervical dysplasia. As result, she lost her uterus. Ex-naturopath Britt Hermes was taught to use escharotic treatments at Bastyr; she has since realized that they are "unproven, dangerous, and very stupid."

/ February 27, 2018

A Cornucopia of Crislip

Mark Crislip has written three books. They are full of wisdom, science-based thinking, and hilarious humor. Highly recommended.

/ February 20, 2018

Answering Our Critics – Again!

Critics of Science-Based Medicine keep making the same old tired arguments, despite the fact that their arguments have been repeatedly demolished. Here is a list of recurrent memes, with counterarguments.

/ February 13, 2018

MyMedLab Offers Expensive, Useless, Nonstandard Lab Tests

Direct to consumer lab testing is good marketing but not good medicine. For instance, there is no reason to spend $199 to measure glyphosate levels in your blood.

/ February 6, 2018

Broken Brain

In his new video series, Dr. Mark Hyman says your brain is broken and functional medicine can fix it. He mixes conventional healthy lifestyle advice with highly questionable claims and recommendations based on speculation rather than on evidence.

/ January 30, 2018

Fake News About Margarine

An alarmist email is circulating with misinformation about margarine. A little fact-checking shows that both margarine and butter can be part of a healthy diet.

/ January 23, 2018

The Elephant in the Compounding Pharmacy

Contaminated products from compounding pharmacies have harmed and even killed patients. Quality control measures are being implemented, but there is a bigger problem: the injudicious use of untested and potentially dangerous treatments.

/ January 16, 2018

 Five Fatal Foods

Dr. Nina Koduru identifies 5 fatal foods that endanger your life and offers a solution: an untested remedy with unsubstantiated claims.

/ January 9, 2018

Rigor Mortis: What’s Wrong with Medical Science and How to Fix It

Medical research has been plagued by less-than-rigorous practices and a culture that rewards quantity over quality. In a new book, Richard Harris identifies the problems, proposes solutions, and offers hope.

/ January 2, 2018

A Misguided Study to Test the Reliability of Traditional Chinese Medicine Pulse Diagnosis

Pulse diagnosis and tongue diagnosis are widely used in traditional Chinese medicine. They are based on imagination, not on anatomical and physiologic reality.

/ December 26, 2017