yoga
oracknows | July 3, 2017One of the most persistent narratives latched on to by advocates of "integrative medicine" is that the "mind" can somehow "heal" the body. Sometimes, the claim is that such interventions work through "powerful placebo" effects. Sometimes it involves the abuse of emerging science, such overblown claims about what can be accomplished through epigenetic modifications of DNA and gene expression. While my wife and I were away on vacation last month, there was another example of this claim popping up in the media under headlines like these:
Mindfulness and meditation dampen down inflammation genes…
oracknows | November 23, 2016Back in the day, Deepak Chopra used to be a frequent topic of this blog. He still pops up from time to time, such as when irony meters everywhere immediately self-destructed after Chopra criticized Donald Trump for being insufficiently evidence-based or when, after I wrote a post asking why medical conferences keep inviting Chopra to speak, Chopra was so displeased that he actually posted a video attacking me (and other skeptics who’ve criticized his pseudoscience). Unfortunately, Chopra truly is one of the most influential people in “integrative medicine” today. To be honest, I’ve never…
oracknows | May 29, 2016"Complementary and alternative medicine" (CAM), now more frequently referred to as "integrative medicine" by its proponents, consists of a hodge-podge of largely unrelated treatments that range from seemingly reasonable (e.g., diet and exercise) to pure quackery (e.g., acupuncture, reiki and other "energy medicine") that CAM proponents are trying furiously to "integrate" as coequals into science-based medicine. They do this because they have fallen under the sway of an ideology that posits a false dichotomy: To practice true "holistic" and "preventative" medicine, physicians and other health…
oracknows | January 7, 2016It's an understatement to say that I'm not exactly a fan of the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH), the institute formerly known as the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM) and, even a year after its name change, probably still better known by its old moniker. Just type "NCCAM" or "NCCIH" into the search box of this blog if you don't believe me. Basically, it's an institution forced upon the National Institutes of Health in the 1990s by Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA), a woo-friendly senator who believed that bee pollen cured his allergies…
oracknows | June 29, 2015The overarching goal that proponents of so-called "complementary and alternative medicine" (CAM) or, as is becoming the preferred term, "integrative" medicine is the mainstreaming of the "unconventional" treatments that fall under the rubric of these two terms. Indeed, that's the very reason why they so insisted on the shift from calling it CAM to calling it "integrative medicine." Not being content with the subsidiary status as not quite "real" medicine" that the words "complementary" and "alternative" imply, they want their woo to be seen as full co-equals with scientific medicine, hence…
oracknows | January 13, 2015Last night I had an evening meeting for a CQI (continuous quality initiative) collaborative that I'm heavily involved in; so I didn't get home until late. Unfortunately, that means I didn't have the time to dish out the usual insolence for today. Fortunately, I do have a video lying around that made me chuckle and is relevant to skepticism and critical thinking. Even though JP Sears does appear to be a real holistic life coach of some sort promoting "healing" and a bit woo-ey, I have to admit, this video of his, at least, amused me greatly.
Hmmm. Am I getting squishy that I find a guy like…
oracknows | December 1, 2014It should come as a surprise to no one that I'm not exactly a fan of "integrative oncology"—or integrative medicine, or "complementary and alternative medicine" (CAM), or whatever its proponents want to call it these days. After all, I've spent nearly ten years writing this blog and nearly seven years running another blog dedicated to promoting the scientific basis of medicine, and just this year managed to publish a lengthy commentary in a high impact journal criticizing the very concept of integrative oncology. Unfortunately, it seems to be the equivalent of the proverbial pissing in the…
denialism | January 6, 2012For some reason the NYT is all about neck injury lately. In yesterday's discussion of a possible chiropractic induced injury, Russell asked:
But given all the other stresses people put on their necks, from accidents such as headbumps, from purposeful athletics such as whacking soccer balls, and from just craning one's head in odd positions when performing various kinds of mechanical labor, it puzzles me that the risk from a chiropractor would be much greater than the risks from these other kinds of use/abuse. Of course, this is not excuse for the chiropractor, who is imposing that risk,…
terrasig | March 18, 2009I just had a chance to check in on a triad of posts by Prof Janet Stemwedel at Adventures in Ethics and Science (1, 2, 3) on the ethical issues of the conduct of studies, particularly clinical trials, supported by the US NIH's National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM).
For background, NCCAM was originally established for political, not scientific reasons, as the NIH Office of Alternative Medicine in October 1991. It received a token budget of $2 million at the time. They still only get $120-ish million; modest by NIH standards as compared, say, with the 2007 NCI…
grrlscientist | October 12, 2007tags: turtle yoga, mountain yoga pose, reptiles, interspecies communication, Image of the Day
Image: Bob Levy, author of Club George. [Wallpaper size]
The photogrpaher writes: This is another in my apparently unending reports on Turtle Yoga. Hey, I'm as surprised as you are that I have more. However, this is a real scoop though it may be a stretch for some readers. (The pun is intended).
This first image (there's another tomorrow) captures two turtles in what one might categorize as a rather intimate yoga moment. Personally I think that interpreting the yoga Mountain Pose this way should…