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...
Drug therapy is still sending too many people to the emergency department
Prescription drugs continue to send thousands to the emergency room every year. Many of these adverse drug events are predictable and avoidable.
Add-on Services for IVF – The Evidence
In vitro fertilization (IVF) is the only option for many couples who want to have their own genetic child. This is an expensive procedure – it can cost up to $20,000 per attempt, with about a 40% success rate overall. Couples going for IVF are often desperate to have their own child, and the uncertainty of success can be emotionally and financially...
BrainPlus IQ: Lying with Advertising
I got an email urging me to check out a wonderful new product that boosts brain performance: it “doubles IQ, skyrockets energy levels, and connects areas of the brain not previously connected.” It is BrainPlus IQ, a dietary supplement that falls into the category of nootropics, substances that enhance cognition and memory. After looking into it, my first thought was that if...
“Functional medicine” in practice
"Functional medicine" is a form of quackery that combines the worst aspects of conventional medicine and alternative medicine. Specifically, it combines massive over-testing with a lack of science and a "make it up as you go along" ethic, all purportedly in the service of the "biochemical individuality" of each patient. Don't believe the hype. It's mostly quackery.
Phenibut Is Neither Proven Nor Safe As A Prosocial Wonder Drug
Editor’s note: With Mark Crislip away on yet another vacation, we present an inaugural guest post from Abby Campbell, a practicing MD, Ph.D and contributor at HealthyButSmart.com. Welcome Abby! On average for the past year, phenibut has been typed into google 49,500 times a month. Phenibut is a supposed wonder drug that claims to promote sociability and lessen anxiety. When people run...
Happy Thanksgiving from SBM!
Today is the American Thanksgiving holiday and SBM is taking the day off. Speaking of thanks, thank you to all of our readers and to those of you who take time to comment. Thanks to all of you who patiently explain to a neighbor why homeopathy does not (and cannot) work, complain to your pharmacy about its selling dubious dietary supplements, warn...
Declining Dementia
Dementia is a significant health burden of increasing significance as our population ages. Worldwide the prevalence of dementia is 5-7% in people 60 years and older, with risk doubling every 5 years after age 60. About 5.4 million Americans are living with dementia. Dementia is a general category referring to a chronic decline in overall cognitive function. The most common cause of...
The Last Word on Homeopathy
No one will ever need to write about homeopathy again. Edzard Ernst has said it all in his new book Homeopathy: The Undiluted Facts. Far too many trees have died in the service of praising or debunking homeopathy in the two centuries since Hahnemann invented it. The forests can celebrate, because this is the definitive book about homeopathy. It is neither “for”...
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.