Alternative and Complementary Therapies Blogs This is an RSS file. You can use it to subscribe to this data in your favourite RSS reader or to display this data on your own website or blog.

Alternative medicine: Deadly for cancer patients
By definition, alternative medicine has not been shown to be effective or has been shown to be ineffective. Thus, alternative medicine is ineffective against cancer and can best be represented as either no treatment at all or potentially harmful treatment. It is thus not surprising that cancer patients who choose alternative medicine have a higher risk of dying from their cancer. A new study confirms this conclusion yet again. (Source: Respectful Insolence)
Source: Respectful Insolence - August 21, 2017 Category: Surgery Authors: Orac Tags: Cancer Clinical trials Complementary and alternative medicine Homeopathy Naturopathy Quackery Skepticism/critical thinking chemotherapy epidemiology mortality Source Type: blogs

Naturopathy: When fake doctors cosplay real doctors
Naturopaths are fake doctors who fancy themselves to be real doctors, so much so that they call themselves "physicians" even when explicitly barred from doing so by law. (Source: Respectful Insolence)
Source: Respectful Insolence - August 15, 2017 Category: Surgery Authors: Orac Tags: Complementary and alternative medicine Homeopathy Naturopathy Politics Quackery colorado Source Type: blogs

The death of Jade Erick from intravenous curcumin: Mystery solved
In March, it was widely reported that a young woman named Jade Erick had died suddenly of a hypersensitivity reaction while undergoing an infusion of intravenous curcumin ordered by a naturopath named Kim Kelly to treat her eczema. The FDA investigated and found egregious problems with the injectable curcumin used. This tragic incident serves to demonstrate how dangerous a combination naturopaths and dubious compounding pharmacies can be. (Source: Respectful Insolence)
Source: Respectful Insolence - August 14, 2017 Category: Surgery Authors: Orac Tags: Complementary and alternative medicine Naturopathy Quackery curcumin eczema Jade Erick Kim Kelly Source Type: blogs

4 Ways to Ease Back-to-School and Autumn Anxiety
Middle schoolers aren’t the only ones who feel the jitters as school reopens every year. Most people I know have trouble as summer draws to a close and autumn begins. All of the stress and transition required to accommodate new schedules, activities, and schools can throw off the limbic system (your emotional center) of even the most grounded creatures. In fact, Ginny Scully, a therapist in Wales, said in an interview so many clients with feelings of anticipation and nervousness during the last week of August through the first weeks of September that she coined the term “autumn anxiety,” which I’ve written ab...
Source: World of Psychology - August 11, 2017 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Therese J. Borchard Tags: Alternative and Nutritional Supplements Anxiety and Panic Mental Health and Wellness Parenting Self-Help Alternative Medicine Anxious Thoughts autumn anxiety Back To School Depression Diet Healthy Eating School stress Source Type: blogs

To Speed Access To Compassionate Use, Look Beyond The FDA
In mid-July, the nonpartisan research arm of the federal government, the Government Accountability Office (GAO), released its long-awaited verdict on how the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is handling compassionate use. As anyone who saw Dallas Buyers Club knows, compassionate use (also known as pre-approval access and expanded access) is when a drug company allows a patient who has no other treatment options to try a drug that is still in development and not FDA approved for use or sale. These patients are generally too sick to participate in a clinical trial—which has inclusion and exclusion criteria to try t...
Source: Health Affairs Blog - August 10, 2017 Category: Health Management Authors: Alison Bateman-House Tags: Drugs and Medical Innovation Population Health Quality Compassionate Use expanded access Food and Drug Administration right-to-try laws Source Type: blogs

Contamination requiring ritual purification: Superstitious concepts at the heart of antivaccine beliefs
Much of the belief system that undergirds antivaccine views is rooted in superstition. That's why it's not a coincidence that antivaxers frequently speak in terms of contamination due to vaccines as a cause of autism and all the other conditions for which antivaxers blame vaccines and ritual purification in the form of "detoxification" as the treatment. These beliefs very much resemble religious beliefs, and antivaxers project them onto pro-science advocates. (Source: Respectful Insolence)
Source: Respectful Insolence - August 10, 2017 Category: Surgery Authors: Orac Tags: Antivaccine nonsense Complementary and alternative medicine Religion Skepticism/critical thinking contamination John Rappaport Megan Heimer Mike Adams Natural News quackery ritual purification vaccines Source Type: blogs

Another study shows just how hard it is to change beliefs in antivaccine misinformation
Correcting antivaccine misinformation is hard. Real hard. Another study shows us just how hard. (Source: Respectful Insolence)
Source: Respectful Insolence - August 9, 2017 Category: Surgery Authors: Orac Tags: Antivaccine nonsense Autism Complementary and alternative medicine misinformation quackery vaccines Source Type: blogs

Dumb and dumber: Kent Heckenlively and Mike Adams team up to support an antivaccine WhiteHouse.gov petition
On July 3, an antivaxer named Kent Heckenlively posted a WhiteHouse.gov petition demanding a five year moratorium on childhood vaccines. It failed. Did that stop Mr. Heckenlively? Of course not, and this time he has help from über-crank Mike Adams, who is whining about being "censored" by Facebook over it. The hilarity continues to ensue (Source: Respectful Insolence)
Source: Respectful Insolence - August 8, 2017 Category: Surgery Authors: Orac Tags: Antivaccine nonsense Complementary and alternative medicine Politics Popular culture Donald Trump Kent Heckenlively Mike Adams petition vaccines WhiteHouse.gov Source Type: blogs

Following up on a very old case: Abraham Cherrix is alive and well because he finally rejected alternative medicine
Although I haven’t discussed it here in depth, the case of Abraham Cherrix is an instructive example. Eleven years ago, he and his parents chose quackery over science-based medicine to treat his cancer. He’s alive now because he finally realized the error of his decision and underwent chemotherapy and a bone marrow transplant. (Source: Respectful Insolence)
Source: Respectful Insolence - August 7, 2017 Category: Surgery Authors: Orac Tags: Cancer Complementary and alternative medicine Quackery Abraham Cherrix chemotherapy Hodgkin's lymphoma Hoxsey therapy Source Type: blogs

Yoga improves treatment-related symptoms in men with prostate cancer
Decades of research show that yoga can reduce the emotional and physical fatigue brought on by cancer treatment. Now researchers have shown for the first time that’s also true specifically for men being treated for prostate cancer. Men who took a yoga class twice a week during treatment reported less fatigue, fewer sexual side effects, and better urinary functioning than men who did not, according a new study. “The data are convincing,” said the study’s principal investigator, Dr. Neha Vapiwala, an associate professor of radiation oncology at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine in Philadelphia. “Wha...
Source: Harvard Health Blog - August 4, 2017 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Charlie Schmidt Tags: Cancer Complementary and alternative medicine Prostate Health Yoga Source Type: blogs

Carissa Gleason: Embracing real medicine after fake medicine failed her
I wasn’t sure if I should do this post, mainly because I could find so little information to elaborate on a bit of information that I discovered. Then I thought about it a bit more. Perhaps my not being able to find out will illustrate my point better than a detailed progress report on a… (Source: Respectful Insolence)
Source: Respectful Insolence - August 3, 2017 Category: Surgery Authors: Orac Tags: Cancer Complementary and alternative medicine Naturopathy Popular culture Quackery Skepticism/critical thinking Carissa Gleeson sarcoma Tijuana Ty Bollinger Source Type: blogs

No alternative medicine ever disappears when shown to be ineffective: The case of laetrile
I recently took a review course in general surgery to prepare for my board recertification examination in December and realized just how much the standard of care had changed in the decade since I last recertified. Then I learned that laetrile is still a thing. If there's one thing that demonstrates the difference between alternative medicine and real medicine, it's how no alternative medicine treatment ever goes away, no matter how often it's shown not to work. Ever. (Source: Respectful Insolence)
Source: Respectful Insolence - August 1, 2017 Category: Surgery Authors: Orac Tags: Cancer Complementary and alternative medicine Quackery Skepticism/critical thinking amygdalin laetrile vitamin B17 Source Type: blogs

Dr. Aviva Romm: Distancing herself from Goop after defending it
Dr. Aviva Romm, one of Goop's doctors, tried to distance herself from Goop's pseudoscience. It didn't go well. (Source: Respectful Insolence)
Source: Respectful Insolence - July 28, 2017 Category: Surgery Authors: Orac Tags: Antivaccine nonsense Complementary and alternative medicine Homeopathy Naturopathy Quackery Skepticism/critical thinking Aviva Romm Goop Gwyneth Paltrow Jen Gunter Source Type: blogs

Pharma hit squads vs. “ holistic healers ” : The resurrection
Although it's not uncommon for there to be conspiracy theories about police shootings, it is unusual for such a conspiracy theory to touch upon topics covered right here on this blog. Sadly, it's happened in the wake of the police shooting of Justine Damond in Minneapolis. (Source: Respectful Insolence)
Source: Respectful Insolence - July 25, 2017 Category: Surgery Authors: Orac Tags: Complementary and alternative medicine Politics Quackery Skepticism/critical thinking conspiracy theory Holistic healer Justine Damond police shooting Source Type: blogs