Acupuncture’s Big Myth

The great acupuncture myth? No spoilers from me. Read the entry or skip to the penultimate paragraph to find out.

/ January 6, 2017

Chiropractic Internist: A “specialty” to avoid

The "chiropractic internist" is the creation of an industry association which promotes chiropractors as "primary care physicians." After 300 hours of instruction in a hotel conference room, they claim they can treat "anything that a medical doctor can."

/ January 5, 2017

Detox Scams are Worthless and Potentially Dangerous

A case report of a healthy woman who landed in intensive care due to her New Year's detox regimen highlights that detox treatments are a dangerous scam.

/ January 4, 2017

The Never-Ending Unchanging Story

NaturalNews.com is one of the most highly trafficked alternative medicine websites in existence. Even though its owner, Mike Adams, has become a rising star in the alt right and has also gone full conspiracy theorist à la Alex Jones, that doesn't mean he's given up promoting medical pseudoscience. He's still at it, this time continuing to make unsupported claims about fluoride in...

/ January 3, 2017

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...

/ January 2, 2017

Newborn Chiropractic, False Balance, and The Doctors

The vacuous TV docs on The Doctors have demonstrated once again why the show is a highly unreliable source for medical information of any sort.

/ December 30, 2016

Fake treatments for real diseases: A review of allergy and asthma advertisements by naturopaths, chiropractors, homeopaths and acupuncturists

A majority of Canadian chiropractic, naturopathic, homeopathic and acupuncture clinics claim that they can diagnose or treat allergies, sensitivities and asthma.

/ December 29, 2016

Son of (the unethical and unscientific) Trial To Assess Chelation Therapy rears its ugly head to the tune of $37 million

First, the NCCIH and NHLBI spend $30 million on a clinical trial of quackery for cardiovascular disease that produces predictably negative to at best equivocal results. Then that result, apparently, is enough to justify wasting another $37 million on a followup study—while dozens of other deserving studies go unfunded. Meanwhile STAT News lionizes the principal investigator of both trials as a brave...

/ December 28, 2016

A review of Benecol, a plant-stanol margarine

Most nutraceuticals don't really work as advertised. For the most part, Benecol pretty much does. But is it worth it?

/ December 27, 2016

It’s Hard Out There for a Psychic

Psychic? Exorcist? Acupuncturist? Homeopath? Naturopath? The practice is the same. The consequences differ.

/ December 23, 2016