Category: Altie Meds

In light of recent discussions in this corner of teh intertubes, I’ve been thinking about anti-quackery writing. To what extent does our debunking actually feed the ducks? Many of us don’t link to crank sites—that makes sense, since click-throughs probably put money in their pockets. But speaking out works. Most people don’t know medicine. It’s…

So-called alternative medicine beliefs are an interesting and perhaps inevitable phenomenon. They make use of uniquely human qualities such as our intelligence, our pattern-recognition abilities, and our tendency to over-estimate how well we understand things. Most “science”, including medicine, relies on similar human qualities, but modern science has made some improvements. Medicine used to be…

I gotta admit, this is one of my favorites. I was browsing around the alternative health corners of the web when I came across a lovely site peddling “alternative” remedies. My gaze was immediately drawn to a link for “shock and emergency: rescue remedies”. For a physician, shock means something in particular–something very bad. Shock…

“These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease.” This “Quack Miranda Warning” is on every just about every woo-meister’s website. I see dozens of patients every day, and I never Mirandize them, so whats the deal? There are…

When I use the word “scientist”, I mean something pretty specific—someone actually doing experiments and publishing the results. Some physicians are scientists. In fact, the MSTP that Mark H is a part of exists specifically to train doctors to do research and bring the results to the bedside. Most doctors aren’t scientists, by my definition.…

This is another one migrated from my old blog. It is the first in a series that generated an unusually large number of comments. Thanks, PalMD This particular woo-encounter was non-fatal. A patient came to see me. He’s middle-aged, generally quite healthy, and physically active. After a recent return to physical activity, his elbow began…

A frequent argument of (weak) support for alternative medicine is that, well, maybe it doesn’t help much, but it couldn’t hurt. Wrong! Aside from the usual arguments that it wastes resources, distracts people from real medical treatments, etc., there are more, real dangers. One of the hallmarks of woo is that treatments are humorously broad.…

Just returned from an excellent trip to Guatemala, where I spent some of my time at Late Atitlan, near San Marcos. So, San Marcos is known as a hippie town, and I thought you’d love to see the various services offered at local businesses. They include (click for full size): Past-Life Regression, “Introject,” Soul Agreements……

Usually Deepak Chopra’s nonsensical writings at the Huffington post about mind-body healing are so vague and bland I don’t bother addressing them. The mind controls the body, the mind is powerful, blah blah blah, who cares right? Well, today Chopra pulled back the curtain and we see the crank within. It’s a reminder that behind…

Sometimes people wonder why the skeptic types get all worked up over a behavior that is usually seen as at-worst harmless. Ben Goldacre explains why, in one of the best, and clearest articles on the problem of homeopathic medicine. This is exactly what I said, albeit in nerdier academic language, in today’s edition of the…