Quality of life of cancer patients improves after SCAM – or doesn’t it?

So-called alternative medicine (SCAM) is a seriously dangerous option for cancer patients who aim at curing their cancer with it. One cannot warn patients often and strongly enough, I believe. But when it comes to supportive cancer treatment (care that does not aim at changing the natural history of the disease), SCAM might have a […]

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American Loon #2185: Lawrence Rosen

Lawrence Rosen is an “integrative” pediatrician and chair-elect of the American Academy of Pediatrics Section on Complementary and Integrative Medicine, Clinical Assistant Professor in Pediatrics at UMDNJ/New Jersey Medical School, and Chief of Pediatric Integrative Medicine at the Joseph M....

Read the full lunacy: #2185: Lawrence Rosen Encyclopedia of American Loons

American Loon #2001: Barbara Mikulski

Barbara Mikulski served as Senator (D-Maryland) for some thirty years between 1987 and 2017 – and was ten years in the House of Representatives before that – and is currently a professor of public policy at John Hopkins University. For our purposes, Mikulski is notable for her support of...

Read the full lunacy: #2001: Barbara Mikulski Encyclopedia of American Loons

A celebrated study of GPs practicing ‘integrative medicine’ proves … nothing

In recent days, journalists across the world had a field day (mis)reporting that doctors practising integrative medicine were doing something positive after all. I think that the paper shows nothing of the kind – but please judge for yourself.

The authors of this article wanted to determine differences in antibiotic prescription rates between conventional General […]

Read the rest here: A celebrated study of GPs practicing ‘integrative medicine’ proves … nothing

More uncomfortable thoughts on ‘integrative medicine’

Doctor Jonas is an important figure head of US ‘Integrative Medicine’. As we discussed in a recent post, he pointed out that many US hospital doctors fail to answer the following questions relating to their chronically ill patients:

“What matters most for this patient? What is the person’s lifestyle like – their nutrition, movement and […]

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The reality of ‘integrative medicine’ consists of little more than re-discoveries from conventional medicine, platitudes and outright nonsense

Yesterday, I received a ‘LETTER FROM DR JONAS’ (the capital lettering was his) – actually, it was an email, and not a very personal one at that. Therefore I feel it might be permissible to share some of it here (you do remember Jonas, don’t you? I did mention him in a recent post: “Considering […]

Read the rest here: The reality of ‘integrative medicine’ consists of little more than re-discoveries from conventional medicine, platitudes and outright nonsense

Social prescribing: introducing quackery through the backdoor?

Yesterday, I heard my ‘good friend’ Dr Michael Dixon (see here, here and here, for example) talk on the BBC about the “new thing” in healthcare: social prescribing. He explained, for instance, that social prescribing could mean treating a diabetic not with medication but with auto-hypnosis and other alternative therapies. At that moment, I wasn’t […]

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2017 – a year in alternative medicine

At this time of the year it is customary to look back and highlight some remarkable things that occurred during the last 12 months. Here I will try to identify for each month the most important event. My choice is entirely subjective, and I invite everybody to disagree with it and add other happenings.

JANUARY
[…] Read the rest here: 2017 – a year in alternative medicine

Richard Eaton’s excellent update on developments around complementary medicine

Dear edzard
I am sending you Richard Eaton’s excellent update on developments around complementary medicine. As you will know, the College is supportive of an integrated approach that offers each patient the best of both worlds – conventional and complementary. In both worlds it is important that treatment and advice offered is safe, appropriate and evidence […]

Read the rest here: Richard Eaton’s excellent update on developments around complementary medicine

Measles outbreaks – time to stop the madness of the anti-vaccinationists

We have repeatedly discussed on this blog the fact that many alternative practitioners are advising their patients against vaccinations, e. g.:

• Governments take action to prevent vaccination-rates from falling 
• Use of alternative medicine is associated with low vaccination rates 
• Integrative medicine physicians tend to harbour anti-vaccination views 
• Vaccination: chiropractors “espouse views which aren’t evidence based” […]

Read the rest here: Measles outbreaks – time to stop the madness of the anti-vaccinationists

Mainstream medicine is partly to blame for the 'treatments' Goop promotes

It is easy to mock the ridiculous and potentially harmful health advice and product lines promoted by Gwyneth Paltrow and her team at Goop. Sleeping near healing crystals, lugging around jade eggs in the vagina, swilling moon juice, undergoing raw goat milk cleanses, dabbing on sex dust, and snapping photos of your aura are just some of the ridiculous treatments and remedies offered at high prices to those looking for health ideas from a movie star.

The mocking may be a bit understated. How does this company and other equally daffy outfits pull off these highly lucrative health scams?

Read on: Mainstream medicine is partly to blame for the 'treatments' Goop promotes

The ‘Society for Integrative Oncology’ puzzles me yet again

This recently published report provides updated clinical practice guidelines from the Society for Integrative Oncology on the use of integrative therapies for specific clinical indications during and after breast cancer treatment, including anxiety/stress, depression/mood disorders, fatigue, quality of life/physical functioning, chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting, lymphedema, chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy, pain, and sleep disturbance. 

The practice guidelines […]

Read the rest here: The ‘Society for Integrative Oncology’ puzzles me yet again

Use of alternative medicine is associated with low vaccination rates

The fact that some alternative medicine (the authors use the abbreviation ‘CAM’) practitioners recommend against vaccination is well-known and often-documented. Specifically implicated are:

• Physicians practising integrative medicine 
• Doctors of anthroposophical medicine 
• Naturopaths 
• Homeopaths 
• Chiropractors 

As a result, children consulting homeopaths, naturopaths or chiropractors are less likely to receive vaccines and more likely to get vaccine-preventable diseases. These effects […]

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More BS from the BMJ

A recent post discussed a ‘STATE OF THE ART REVIEW’ from the BMJ. When I wrote it, I did not know that there was more to come. It seems that the BMJ is planning an entire series on the state of the art of BS! The new paper certainly looks like it:

Headaches, including primary headaches […]

Read the rest here: More BS from the BMJ

Alternative medicine for chronic pain: ‘State of the Art’ review in the BMJ

The BMJ has always been my favourite Medical journal. (Need any proof for this statement? A quick Medline search tells me that I have over 60 publications in the BMJ.) But occasionally, the BMJ also disappoints me a great deal. 

One of the most significant disappointments was recently published under the heading of STATE OF THE […]

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Therapeutic Touch: a dubious therapy backed by dubious research

Therapeutic Touch is a therapy mostly popular with nurses. We have discussed it before, for instance here, here, here and here. To call it implausible would be an understatement. But what does the clinical evidence tell us? Does it work?

This literature review by Iranian authors was aimed at critically evaluating the data from clinical trials examining the clinical efficacy of therapeutic touch as a supportive care modality in adult patients with cancer.

Four electronic databases were searched from the year 1990 to 2015 to locate potentially relevant peer-reviewed articles using the key words therapeutic touch, touch therapy, neoplasm, cancer, and CAM. Additionally, relevant journals and references of all the located articles were manually searched for other potentially relevant studies […]

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Yoga for depression? Unimpressive science from impressive institutions

The title of the press-release was impressive: ‘Columbia and Harvard Researchers Find Yoga and Controlled Breathing Reduce Depressive Symptoms’. It certainly awoke my interest and I looked up the original article. Sadly, it also awoke the interest of many journalists, and the study was reported widely – and, as we shall see, mostly wrongly.

According to its authors, the aims of this study were “to assess the effects of an intervention of Iyengar yoga and coherent breathing at five breaths per minute on depressive symptoms and to determine optimal intervention yoga dosing for future studies in individuals with major depressive disorder (MDD)”[…]

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Complementary therapies as a way to enhance nursing practice?

The love-affair of many nurses with complementary medicine is well-known. We have discussed it many times on this blog – see for instance here, here and here. Yet the reasons for it remain somewhat mysterious, I find. Therefore I was interested to see a new paper on the subject.

The aim of this ‘meta-synthesis‘ was to review, critically, appraise and synthesize the existing qualitative research to develop a new, more substantial interpretation of nurses’ attitudes regarding the, use of complementary therapies by patients. Fifteen articles were included in the review.

Five themes emerged from the data relating to nurses’ attitude towards complementary therapies […]

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Encyclopedia of American Loons: #1802: Wayne Jonas

Wayne B. Jonas is a family physician and one of the most influential, powerful and dangerous promoters of quackery and woo in the US, partly because he undeniably has his credentials in order and often manages to play the role of an apparently serious researcher (despite publishing in pseudo-journals like The Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine; e.g. the one discussed here). He is the current president and CEO of the Samueli Institute, one of the foremost proponents of integrating fake medicine into medicine ... >> Encyclopedia of American Loons: #1802: Wayne Jonas

Integrative medicine physicians tend to harbour anti-vaccination views

The anti-vaccination attitudes of alternative practitioners such as chiropractors, homeopaths and naturopaths are well documented and have been commented upon repeatedly here. But most of these clinicians are non-doctors; they have not been anywhere near a medical school, and one might therefore almost excuse them for their ignorance and uneducated stance towards immunisations. As many real physicians have recently taken to practicing alternative therapies under the banner of ‘integrated medicine’, one may well ask: what do these doctors think about vaccinations?
[…]

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