Tag: aromatherapy

Neuroplasticity Nonsense Is Full of Red Flags

Adora Winquist offers advice about neuroplasticity, but hers is not the language of science or reality.

/ October 11, 2022

Death by Aromatherapy

An aromatherapy room spray was contaminated with bacteria that caused melioidosis, resulting in deaths and serious sequelae. Buyers were misled.

/ March 22, 2022

Aroma Acupoint Therapy

"Aroma acupoint therapy" demonstrates how the combination of several nonsensical ideas involving essential oils and acupuncture produces, unsurprisingly, yet another nonsensical CAM treatment.

/ November 5, 2020

Essential Oils in the Ambulance

Aromatherapy with essential oils is pseudoscience, backed only with low quality studies guaranteed to show a placebo effect. Their growing popularity warns that better science education is needed.

/ May 9, 2018

Australia ends insurance subsidies for naturopathy, homeopathy, and more

The Australian government has eliminated the insurance subsidy for 17 alternative health practices due to a lack of evidence for efficacy. This is a win for medicine and Australian taxpayers.

/ October 19, 2017

Australian review finds no benefit to 17 natural therapies

A review by the Australian government has assessed the evidence for a variety of natural products covered by private health insurance. Their conclusion was that most lacked clear evidence of clinical efficacy. Hopefully this will end insurance coverage of seventeen different pseudosciences.

/ November 19, 2015

dōTERRA: Multilevel Marketing of Essential Oils

A stay-at-home mom recently e-mailed me. She is a former CAM user who once treated her infant’s colic with homeopathy but has since seen the light and is now thinking skeptically. She asked that I look into the dōTERRA company, seller of essential oils: concentrated extracts distilled from plants, containing the “essence” or distinctive odor of the plant. She said: …moms, well...

/ January 22, 2013

What to Expect When You’re Expecting

A correspondent asked me to review the book What to Expect When You’re Expecting by Heidi Murkoff and Sharon Mazel. She wrote “I’m very worried about this book.” She had just seen an NPR article about the book and was alarmed because it provided an excerpt from the book recommending that patients with morning sickness “Try Sea-Bands” and “Go CAM Crazy.” She knew from...

/ August 9, 2011