Archive for the ‘alternative medicine’ Category
Monday, February 8th, 2010
We interview science journalist Simon Singh, co-author (with Dr. Edzard Ernst) of Trick or Treatment: The Undeniable Facts about Alternative Medicine (which both John and David highly recommend). For more about Simon visit SimonSingh.net. Please also visit LibelReform.org, a website devoted to changing the United Kingdom’s disgraceful libel laws (Simon is currently in the midst of a court battle with the British Chiropractic Association over his reporting on chiropractic treatment of children in the UK’s Guardian newspaper.)
Trick or Treatment is available at Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk.
Continuing this episodes alternative medicine theme, we take a look at aromatherapy. Can smells trigger the body’s healing ability, or do they offer only a temporary placebo?
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Podcast #80 - Simon Singh [57:27m]:
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Tags: aromatherapy, british chiropractic association, edzard ernst, simon singh, trick or treatment
Posted in alternative medicine, books, medical research, news, podcast, science, skepticism | 1 Comment »
Tuesday, June 30th, 2009
Now, I’ll be the first to admit that there’s no well-drawn line to tell the government when it can interfere with parental discretion. Cases like that of Daniel Hauser (the 13-year-old boy with a six-inch-diameter tumor whose parents wanted to treat with “natural” remedies instead of chemo) seem fairly clear-cut to me–the courts should interfere. But are you a bad parent if you don’t give your child EVERY available vaccine? What if you don’t take your kid to the dentist every six months? When does the government step in?
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Tags: child neglect
Posted in alternative medicine, christianity, civil rights, ethics, news, religion, religious rights, superstitions | No Comments »
Thursday, June 18th, 2009
The FDA has issued a warning about a nasal spray called Zicam after numerous users reported a permanent loss of their sense of smell and taste. My first thought is: how did this stuff get approved by the FDA to begin with? The answer is: the FDA didn’t approve it because Zicam is supposedly a homeopathic remedy. While the FDA doesn’t approve such things, they do have the authority to issue warnings once a problem is discovered.
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Tags: fda, homeopathy, zicam
Posted in alternative medicine, news, science, skepticism | 3 Comments »
Saturday, June 6th, 2009
Finally, somebody in the mainstream media is taking on Oprah Winfrey and her promotion of airy-fairy, New-Agey, homeopathic, nonsensical pseudo-science. You may have heard that Oprah is giving Jenny “Vaccines Cause Autism” McCarthy her own show. Anyway, Newsweek has just published a front-page article challenging many of the woo-ish claims that have been uncritically presented on Oprah’s show.
Tags: autism, jenny mccarthy, oprah winfrey, vaccines
Posted in alternative medicine, medical research, news, skepticism | No Comments »
Thursday, June 4th, 2009
If you were intrigued by my recent review of Bruce M. Hood’s SuperSense, you’ll want to read what the UK’s David Gardiner has to say about Robert L. Park’s new book Superstition: Belief in the Age of Science (available at Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk). Gardiner’s review appears on page 34 of Gold Dust #15 (embedded below for your convenience).
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Tags: bob park, david gardiner, gold dust, robert l. park, superstition
Posted in alternative medicine, books, paranormal, religion, science, superstitions | No Comments »
Thursday, May 21st, 2009
I’m not one of those who thinks religious upbringing is necessarily tantamount to child abuse, but occasionally items pop up in the news that really make me think hard about how to separate “mere” religious belief from downright delusional behavior.
First up is Colleen Hauser, now on the run with her 13-year-old son who’s dying of cancer (and who can say they didn’t see this one coming?). Hauser, along with her husband Anthony, are (theoretically) Roman Catholic, but also belong to Nemenhah Band, a group with Native American connections that believe in “natural” (read: ineffective) medical treatment. Sorry, but you can’t treat Hodgkins’ lymphoma with vitamin supplements. Anyway, a judge ordered them to let the boy be treated with chemotherapy, but now (apparently) it looks like the Hausers would rather let him die the old-fashioned way–by doing nothing and hoping for the best.
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Tags: daniel hauser, leilani neumann, nemenhah band
Posted in alternative medicine, civil rights, news, religion, religious rights | 4 Comments »
Here’s a recording of our live show, presented September 5th on the 
We read and respond to lots of feedback we’ve gotten from listeners to the show. We talk about (among other things) Christian opinions on the Creation Museum, Christian license plates in North Carolina and Florida, urotherapy, one-star iTunes feedback and the problem of confirmation bias, our communist boosterism(?), our racist tendencies(!), whether or not atheism is compatible with conservatism, and how to pronounce “Hiroshima.”
Gran Torino, MD
Thursday, September 24th, 2009(more…)
Tags: gran torino, hmong, merced medical center, spiritualism
Posted in alternative medicine, commentary, ethics, medical research, religion, science, superstitions | 3 Comments »