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Author Archives: skeptvet
The Science of Homeopathy?
Promoters of alternative medicine, especially the more wacky fringe varieties, have a love/hate relationship with science. On the one hand, science often fails to support their theories or claims of clinical effect, so they are inclined to dismiss it. “Allopathic” … Continue reading
Posted in Homeopathy
16 Comments
SkeptVet Survey
In the nearly two years I have been producing this blog, there have been a lto of changes. The visual format, links, and organization structure has changed. I have changed, and hopefully improved, my writing style and content. And the … Continue reading
Posted in General
3 Comments
Veterinary Probiotics: Sloppy Labeling and Poor Quality Control
Probiotics are one of the therapies I frequently discuss here that I suspect may actually have some benefit(1, 2), though the evidence does not currently support routine clinical use. However, as with most herbal remedies, supplements, and nutraceuticals, a lack … Continue reading
Posted in Herbs and Supplements
4 Comments
Raw Diets for Pets: Still No Evidence of Benefit but a Real Risk of Harm
I’ve written before about raw diets for pets, and at the time my conclusions were these (see the previous articles for details 1, 2): 1. The theoretical arguments presented to support feeding raw diets to dogs and cats are mostly … Continue reading
Posted in Nutrition
15 Comments
Veterinarians and Evidence-Based Medicine
? Early in 2010, the Practitioner Committee of the EBVMA conducted a survey of practicing veterinarians in the United States concerning their familiarity with the terms and concepts of evidence-based medicine and their attitudes towards it. The survey instrument was … Continue reading
Posted in General
4 Comments
Causes of Death for Dogs by Breed and Age: An Important New Study
It has long been recognized that there are patterns in the causes of death for our dogs. Younger dogs die from different things than older dogs, and different breeds have greater or lesser risk of dying from different causes. Understanding … Continue reading
Posted in Science-Based Veterinary Medicine
30 Comments
A Primer on Medical Cognition
One subject that I am perennially interested in is the nature of how people in general, and doctors in particular, make decisions and judgments, and how that process can go wrong. I’ve written about the pitfalls of spiraling empiricism, cognitive … Continue reading
Posted in General
3 Comments
A Review of Reviews of Acupuncture for Pain: Might Work, Might not; Could Kill You, Probably Won’t
A new review of systematic reviews of acupuncture treatment for pain was recently published in the journal Pain. Basically, a systematic review is a study which looks at primary clinical research studies selected in a comprehensive and pre-determined manner and … Continue reading
Posted in Acupuncture
3 Comments
From SBM: How Popular Is Acupuncture?
From Science-Based Medicine: How popular is acupuncture? One argument that often comes up when skeptics and proponents of so-called complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) debate is the question of the popularity of various CAM practices. Advocates of CAM often claim … Continue reading
Posted in Acupuncture
7 Comments