Search Results for: Chinese medicine

Protandim: An Update from Science-Based Medicine

Last year I wrote a review of a dubious herbal combination product called Protandim. At that time, my bottom line conclusion was: Bottom Line The underlying theory used to promote this product, that anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidant effects are always safe … Continue reading

Posted in Herbs and Supplements | 51 Comments

From The Daily Mash: Made-up Medicine Works on Made-up Illnesses

A spot of British humour with your tea? Here are few excerpts from the article Made-up medicine works on made-up illnesses ACUPUNCTURE has been shown to be extremely effective amongst people who have nothing wrong with them. Experts stressed that … Continue reading

Posted in Humor | 2 Comments

Evaluation of the Chinese Herbal Remedies San Ren Tang, Wei Lin Tang, and Alisma for Feline Urinary Tract Disease

Though herbal remedies often have an aura of being somehow fundamentally different from drugs used as medicines, they are really just collections of chemical compounds. As such, they ought to be evaluated just as conventional pharmaceuticals are: identification and isolation … Continue reading

Posted in Herbs and Supplements | 14 Comments

Integrative Medicine or Bait-and Switch?

For a while now, the Huffington Post has been providing a platform for a prominent voice in the alternative veterinary medicine community, Dr. Richard Palmquist. Dr. Palmquist is involved in the American Holistic Veterinary Medical Association (AHVMA), and has had … Continue reading

Posted in General | 10 Comments

Dr. Gloria Dodd-A Case Study in the Failure of Government Regulation of Veterinary Medicine

I have written at length about the relationship between unproven, unscientific, and pseudoscientific alternative medicine and the legal and regulatory systems intended to protect the public from quackery (including Medical Licensure, Malpractice Law, and Regulation of Drugs, Supplements, and Homeopathy). … Continue reading

Posted in Law, Regulation, and Politics, Miscellaneous CAVM | 54 Comments

We can’t prove it, but….Faith-based medicine and special pleading

CAM proponents often engage in the rhetorical fallacy known as special pleading. Wikipedia’s definition of this is adequate: “a form of spurious argumentation where a position in a dispute introduces favorable details or excludes unfavorable details by alleging a need … Continue reading

Posted in General | 2 Comments

Good Old Days Before Scientific Medicine

CAM proponents are very fond of citing the antiquity and lineage, fictional or not, for their methods. Acupuncture, Traditional Chinese Medicine, and many herbal nostrums are promoted as “time-honored,” with the implication or explicit statement that anything people have been … Continue reading

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Hate Mail- 2023 Edition

Back in February, I announced that I had received the VIN Veritas Award in recognition of my efforts to promote science-based pet health and combat misinformation about veterinary medicine. Subsequent to that announcement, I have also received a lot of kind and … Continue reading

Posted in General | 16 Comments

The Latest in Veterinary Aging Supplements- Leap Years by Animal Biosciences

While the focus of my professional attention, and my writing, has largely shifted away from complementary and alternative veterinary medicine (CAVM) per se and towards the field of aging, I obviously cannot escape the pseudoscience and sloppy or motivated reasoning that characterizes … Continue reading

Posted in Aging Science, Herbs and Supplements | 9 Comments

New Study Shows No Benefit from Acupuncture for Dogs with Arthritis

I have written extensively over the years about acupuncture, and my investigations have ranged from the laboratory animal and human literature to veterinary clinical studies, to completing a certification in medical acupuncture and treating patients in my clinic. Through all of this, I … Continue reading

Posted in Acupuncture | 7 Comments