Quackery
oracknows | June 28, 2011It's grant crunch time, as the submission deadline for revised R01s is July 5. However, in a classic example of how electronic filing has actually made things more difficult, the grant has to be done and at the university grant office a week before the deadline if it is to be uploaded in time. So, my beloved Orac-philes, I'm afraid it's reruns again today, but, benevolent blogger that I am, I'll again post two about the same topic. Since I recently reran a really old post that started it all, I thought I'd follow up with the two additional posts about the same topic. This is the third one and…
oracknows | June 27, 2011It's grant crunch time, as the submission deadline for revised R01s is July 5. However, in a classic example of how electronic filing has actually made things more difficult, the grant has to be done and at the university grant office a week before the deadline if it is to be uploaded in time. So, my beloved Orac-philes, I'm afraid it's reruns again today, but, benevolent blogger that I am, I'll again post two about the same topic. Since I recently reran a really old post that started it all, I thought I'd follow up with the two additional posts about the same topic. This one is from 2006,…
oracknows | June 27, 2011It's grant crunch time, as the submission deadline for revised R01s is July 5. However, in a classic example of how electronic filing has actually made things more difficult, the grant has to be done and at the university grant office a week before the deadline if it is to be uploaded in time. So, my beloved Orac-philes, I'm afraid it's reruns today, but, benevolent blogger that I am, I'll post two, one older, one more recent, but both about the same topic. Earlier today, I posted a rerun from 2007. This one's a bit newer, from 2010. Even so, if you haven't been reading at least a year it's…
oracknows | June 26, 2011It's grant crunch time, as the submission deadline for revised R01s is July 5. However, in a classic example of how electronic filing has actually made things more difficult, the grant has to be done and at the university grant office a week before the deadline if it is to be uploaded in time. So, my beloved Orac-philes, I'm afraid it's reruns today, but, benevolent blogger that I am, I'll post two, one older, one more recent, but both about the same topic. This one's from 2007, which means that if you haven't been reading at least four years it's new to you.
A common refrain among…
oracknows | June 24, 2011It had to be done.
With all the quackery and pseudoscience promoted by TV doctors like Dr. Oz, Dr. Phil, and "The Doctors," sooner or later someone had to choose a manner other than blogging to call them out. ZDoggMD has done just that, particularly dissing Dr. Oz. Why? Why not. Because:
Why dis Dr. Oz, indeed?
Let's enumerate:
He's taller, smarter, better looking, and infinitely more successful than me. He must therefore be stopped.
He may have started out with good intentions, but his current incarnation foists hype, pseudoscience, and unproven "alternative" treatments upon millions of…
oracknows | June 22, 2011You know, it all makes a lot more sense now.
Actually, I can't believe I didn't see it before. Here I was, all these years, and somehow the thought never crossed my mind, even though all the signs were right there. And then, yesterday, Tufted Titmouse showed me the light. She showed me the light about über-quack, a.k.a. The Health Ranger, the man who has provided me endless entertainment and exasperation at the same time with his reality-challenged (actually, reality-lacking) rants about medicine, vaccines, and science, peppered with bad rap videos and the occasional 9/11 "Truth" rant thrown…
oracknows | June 22, 2011Dietary supplements are minimally regulated in the U.S. Indeed, I'm continually amazed at how much supplement manufacturers can get away with and for how long. For example, one of the most recent atrocities against science occurred when Boyd Haley, disgraced chemistry professor at the University of Kentucky and prominent member of the mercury militia wing of the anti-vaccine movement, tried to sell an industrial chelator as a dietary supplement to treat autistic children. True, that was too much even for the underfunded, undermanned FDA to ignore, but it was amazing how long he got away with…
oracknows | June 17, 2011The other day, I expressed my displeasure at an article published in The Atlantic that, boiled down to its essence, was one long apologia for unscientific "complementary and alternative medicine" (CAM) and "integrative medicine" (IM). Yes, I was quite critical, but, I believe, not unfairly so. Not surprisingly, however, the author of the article, David H. Freedman, was quite displeased, so much so that he actually showed up in my comments to take me to task. He didn't just take me to task, though. He took all of you to task, as well, at least those of you who piled on. Unfortunately, his…
oracknows | June 16, 2011Well, well, well, well, well.
Look who's coming to blight my hometown, and look who's doing it hot on the heels of my having directed some not-so-Respectful Insolence at him. Yes, it's Deepak Chopra himself showing up on Saturday to bring his woo to one of the places that least needs it, downtown Detroit:
Excitement and diversity is coming to the Metropolitan Detroit community this Summer! Chene Park Amphitheater is bringing an entirely new experience to the City on Saturday, June 18th, 2011: The "Music & Mastery Holistic Festival".
The "Music & Mastery Holistic Festival" is a full-…
oracknows | June 15, 2011Remember the case of the Winkler County nurses?
This is the story of two nurses who blew the whistle on a bad doctor, a quack even, in my opinion. As a result they faced the very real possibility of jail time. And not just jail time, but serious jail time, up to ten years. I first wrote about this story nearly two years ago, when I first learned of Dr. Rolando Arafiles, his good buddy (and business partner hawking supplements with him) Winkler County Sheriff Robert Roberts, and the administration of a small hospital in the middle of nowhere in west Texas.
Readers might recall that Dr.…
oracknows | June 15, 2011Note added 6/16/2011: The author of the target--I mean subject--of this piece of insolence has responded in the comments.
Note added 6/17/2011: Steve Novella has also commented. He is unusually harsh (for him).
What is it with The Atlantic lately? It used to be one of my favorite magazines. In fact, I was a subscriber for something like 20 or 25 years. Then, back in 2009 at the height of the H1N1 frenzy, The Atlantic published what can only be described as an execrable bit of journalism lionizing the brave maverick doctor Tom Jefferson and arguing, in essence, that vaccinating against H1N1…
oracknows | June 13, 2011Remember Deepak Chopra?
He's the physician (yes, physician) whose grasp on real science is so tenuous and whose ability to abuse multiple scientific disciplines, ranging from quantum physics to astronomy to genetics to medicine, simultaneously in the service of woo is so amazing that a few years ago I once coined a term representing the only word you ever need to use to refer to Chopra's blather: Choprawoo. Yes, I realize that the term "Choprawoo" is completely redundant if you're a skeptic and realize just how full of pseudoscientific nonsense Chopra's blather is. On the other hand, for the…
oracknows | June 10, 2011It's been another rather rough week. Grant season is in full swing, and I'm busily writing away. As I get to the end of the week, I wondered: Should I be serious or should I post a bit of fluff? Given the crappy mood I've been in on and off (grants added to my usual responsibilities tend to do that to me), I know what I need, and I need it fast. I need it now. I need it bad. I need...some woo. And nothing but the best will do. But what? Over the years I've done Your Friday Dose of Woo, I thought I had seen it all. Well, not exactly all. Rather, it thought I had seen most of it, but…
oracknows | June 5, 2011How many times have I read or heard from believers in "alternative" medicine that some disease or other is caused by "toxins"? I honestly can't remember, but in alt-world, no matter what the disease or condition under discussion is, there's a good chance that sooner or later it will be linked to "toxins." It doesn't matter if it's cancer, autism, heart disease, diabetes, hypertension, or that general malaise that comes over people who, as British comedians Mitchell and Webb put it, have more money than sense; somehow, some way, someone will invoke "toxins."
I was reminded of this obsession…
oracknows | June 3, 2011It's been a rough week. No, it hasn't been rough here on the blog; personally I think I've managed to serve up heaping' helpings of the usual expected Insolence--and then some--if I do say so myself. Rather, it's been a bit rough at the old job. Ah, well, it can't all be sweetness and light. Fortunately, there's always some woo to lighten the mood. In this case, it came from, of all places, P.Z. Myers, who took a break from writing about biology, cephalopods, and atheism and led me to some quackery I hadn't seen before. Well, not exactly. It's definitely quackery that I've seen before many,…
oracknows | June 2, 2011Orac note: This is an updated post that appeared a few months ago. Events occurred that led me to think it would be a good idea simply to expand and update it.
It's been a recurring theme on this blog to discuss and dissect the infiltration of quackademic medicine into our medical schools. Whether it be called "complementary and alternative medicine" (CAM) or "integrative medicine" (IM), its infiltration into various academic medical centers has been one of the more alarming developments I've noted over the last several years. The reason is that "integrative" medicine is all too often in…
oracknows | May 27, 2011I was debating what to blog about last night, and it wasn't easy. We're in the midst of yet another embarrassment of riches, as far as topics relevant to this blog go. Then I noticed something that I considered to be quite appropriate, given that we are now right in the middle of the yearly autism quackfest known as Autism One in Chicago. This week, Nature published an issue with a special section devoted specifically to vaccines. The timing seemed just too deliciously appropriate to ignore. Think of it. In Chicago (well, Lombard), there is a collection of anti-vaccine cranks meeting to…
oracknows | May 25, 2011It's that time of year again!
No, I'm not referring to the unofficial start of summer here in the U.S., namely the Memorial Day holiday, although that is fast approaching. In fact, it's only five days away. No, I'm referring to something that, beginning today, will blight my favorite metro area (Chicago) for the next few days. I'm referring to the anti-vaccine quackfest that starts this morning in Lombard, IL and is known as Autism One. As long as I can remember blogging (OK, maybe for the last four or five years), as Memorial Day rolls around, I can't help but get that sinking feeling as the…
oracknows | May 23, 2011Let's face it, Dr. Andrew Weil is a rock star in the "complementary and alternative medicine" (CAM) and "integrative medicine" (IM) movement. He is one of its founders, at least a founder of the its most modern iteration, and I am hard-pressed to think of anyone who did more in the early days of the CAM/IM movement, back before it ever managed to achieve a modicum of unearned respectability, to popularize CAM. In fact, no physician that I can think of has over the course of his lifetime done more to promote the rise of quackademic medicine than Dr. Weil. The only forces greater than Dr. Weil…
oracknows | May 22, 2011I get it. Seriously, I really do. Advertising is a deal with the devil. I understand that and have come to accept it--to a point. For example, I can (sort of) tolerate ads for Cancer Treatment Centers of America showing up on ScienceBlogs; I even understand that outside of those of us who promote science-based medicine CTCA isn't considered to be that bad. However, ads for homeopathy really, really irritated me, as I mentioned on Friday. It gets even worse than that, though. As if ads for homeopathy and human growth hormone anti-aging quackery weren't enough, what popped up earlier to mock…