Clinical trials of integrative medicine: testing whether magic works?

You might perhaps be wondering what the term “integrative medicine” actually means, well if curious and you asked, you would get distinctly different answers. For those that support the concept you will be advised that “it treats the “whole person,” focuses on wellness and health rather than on treating disease, and emphasizes the patient-physician relationship“, however … Read more

Homeopathy – the “cure” that contains no active ingredients

The rather amusing news is that Terra-Medica, a producer Homeopathy remedies has had to recalls more than 50 lots across its range because they potentially contained an active ingredient that just might do something – penicillin. The UK’s Independent reports … A company making homeopathic remedies in the US has had to recall more than 50 different … Read more

Quackery and Cancer Care

Brian Palmer has a great article over in slate all about the deployment of Reiki and reflexology as cancer cures. He writes … Most treatments at U.S. cancer centers are evidence-based and cutting-edge. In recent years, however, some of our great temples of healing have begun to dabble in the unscientific and the prescientific. Integrative care centers … Read more

The Anti-vaccine movement – one picture is all you really need

Michael Hiltzik, the prize winning journalist and columnist, has a fabulous article in the LA Times entitled … “The toll of the anti-vaccination movement, in one devastating graphic“, you should check it out. He starts off with … Aaron Carroll today offers a graphic depiction of the toll of the anti-vaccination movement. (H/t: Kevin Drum.) It comes from a Council … Read more

Finally … a cure for Cancer has been discovered.

The Saudi Gazette has announced the exciting news that a cure for Cancer has been discovered by Dr. Faten Abdel-Rahman Khorshid. She … yes, it’s a woman and not a man who has made … “one of the Kingdom’s greatest national achievements in the field of science“. This is truly exciting stuff, and it is fantastic … Read more

“The Only Moral Abortion is My Abortion” – When the Anti-Choice Choose

Joyce Arthur,a political activist for abortion rights and women’s rights, has a truly fabulous article that she wrote in some time ago that I’ve only just come across it. It is about what happens when those opposed to a woman’s right to choose are suddenly faced with a choice that they deny others. In 2000 she … Read more