quackademic medicine
Respectful Insolence
Tag archives for quackademic medicine
The kudzu that is “integrative oncology” continues to insinuate quackademic medicine into oncology
Posted by Orac on May 10, 2013 I hate to end the week on a bit of a downer, but sometimes I just have to. At least, it’s depressing to anyone who is a proponent of science-based cancer care as the strategy most likely to decrease the death rate from cancer and improve quality of life for cancer patients. Unfortunately, in enough…
Naturopathy, functional medicine, and other quackademic medicine at the University of Kansas Medical Center
Posted by Orac on April 16, 2013 It’s been a while since I’ve done this, but somehow now seems to be the right time, particularly after doing such a long post yesterday on the intellectually dishonest promotion of “brave maverick” cancer doctor Stanislaw Burzynski. Unfortunately, dubious clinics like the Burzynski Clinic are not the only place where I find highly questionable medicine.…
Funny how you never see Orac and this person in the same place at the same time…
Posted by Orac on March 30, 2013 Three weeks ago, a certain “friend” of mine gave a talk to the National Capital Area Skeptics at the National Science Foundation in Arlington, VA. The topic was one near and dear to my heart, namely quackademic medicine; so I couldn’t resist posting a link to the video. Amusingly, Jake Crosby makes an appearance in…
The results of the unethical and misbegotten Trial to Asess Chelation Therapy (TACT) are finally revealed, part 2
Posted by Orac on March 12, 2013 With very limited exceptions, chelation therapy is, as I said before in my somewhat Insolent opinion, is pure quackery. The sole exception is for real, documented cases of acute heavy metal poisoning that are known to respond to chelation, such as iron overload due to transfusion, aluminum overload due to hemodialysis, copper toxicity due to…
Quackademic medicine invades the military again
Posted by Orac on October 18, 2012 As much as I write about the infiltration of quackademic medicine into medical academia, there is one particular area that is being increasingly invaded by such quackery. It’s an area that you wouldn’t necessarily expect, although anyone who’s read The Men Who Stare at Goats might not be so shocked. Yes, I’m referring to the…
NBC chief medical correspondent Dr. Nancy Snyderman embraces quackery
Posted by Orac on October 17, 2012 I take back all those nice things I used to say about Nancy Snyderman. There’s no doubt that she “gets it” about vaccines and, for the most part, even though she does occasionally go overboard, and her understanding of the issues involved in the use of various vaccines is anything but nuanced. I used to…
American Academy of Family Physicians embraces quackademic medicine
Posted by Orac on October 15, 2012 In a week and a half, Harriet Hall, Kimball Atwood, and I will be joining Eugenie C. Scott at CSICon to do a session entitled Teaching Pseudoscience in Medical (and Other) Schools. As you might imagine, we will be discussing the infiltration of pseudoscience into medical academia and medical training, a phenomenon I frequently refer…
Quackademic medicine versus cancer quackery: The central dogma of alternative medicine is questioned by an advocate of “integrative medicine”
Posted by Orac on August 22, 2012 Since I seem to be on a roll the last few days discussing cancer quackery, I thought I’d just go with it at least one more day. Frequently, when I get on these rolls laying down the Insolence, both Respectful and not-so-Respectful, over antivaccine quackery I start whining about how I need to change topics,…
More acupuncture quackademic medicine infiltrates PLoS ONE
Posted by Orac on September 10, 2010 I hate to do this to Bora again. I really do. I’m also getting tired of blogging all these crappy acupuncture studies. I really am. However, sometimes a skeptic’s gotta do what a skeptic’s gotta do, and this is one of those times. As you may recall, a mere week ago I was disturbed to…
Noooo! Not quackademic medicine at my old stomping grounds!
Posted by Orac on March 13, 2009 Khaaaaan! No, wait a minute. I mean: Nooooooo! No place is safe from the invasion of quackademic medicine. No place. As you will soon see. As you know, I’ve documented the infiltration of pseudoscientific and outright antiscientific woo into institutions that really should know better, namely academic medical institutions. Specifically, over a year ago, I…
The National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM): Your Tax Dollars at Work
Posted by Orac on February 16, 2009 What’s an advocate of evidence- and science-based medicine to think about the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine, better known by its abbrevation NCCAM? As I’ve pointed out before, I used to be somewhat of a supporter of NCCAM. I really did, back when I was more naïve and idealistic. Indeed, as I mentioned…