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Author Archives: skeptvet
The David and Goliath Myth
CAM proponents often present a picture of the relationship between CAM and mainstream medicine that is as dramatic as it is fanciful, and it bears a resemblance to the myth of David and Goliath. Scientific medicine is portrayed as a … Continue reading
Posted in General
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Licensing Woo in WA
A fellow veterinarian recently drew my attention to a glaring example of the disconnect between the logic of science and the logic of politics, and how Big CAM is, sadly, better at playing politics than scientists seem to be. A … Continue reading
Posted in Law, Regulation, and Politics
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Neoplasene-The Latest Head of the Escharotic Hydra
A reader recently drew my attention to a form of CAM that is particularly dangerous and irresponsible but that like the mythological Hydra manages to raise its ugly head again and again despite efforts to kill it. Its latest incarnation … Continue reading
Posted in Miscellaneous CAVM
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Screening Tests-Scientific Ambiguity or CAM Certainty
One of my favorite encounters with CAM was when a woman brought an old golden retriever to see me because her energy practitioner told her she had detected leukemia, a kind of white blood cell cancer. Though the pet had … Continue reading
Posted in General
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The Evidence-Based Veterinary Medicine Conundrum
The Evidence-Based Veterinary Medicine EBVM Conundrum “Dr. X said that one of his main purposes when discussing EBM/EBVM at meetings is to get students/practitioners to question their decisions (i.e., to be less certain about decisions they make). This invariably results … Continue reading
Posted in General
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The Science of Fear:Why We Fear the Things We Shouldn’t by Daniel Gardner
The Science of Fear: Why We Fear the Things We Shouldn’t-and Put Ourselves in Greater Danger by Daniel Gardner does an outstanding job of explaining and supporting the argument that our ability to assess risks is fundamentally flawed. The basic … Continue reading
Posted in Book Reviews
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From Science-Based Medicine Blog-Death and Rebirth of Vitalism
Peter Lipsom has written a concise and insightful post at the Science-Based Medicine Blog, entitled The Death and Rebirth of Vitalism. It illustrates why the underlying philosophical position of faith-based medicine is unteneable. Magical entities, such as Ch’i in acupuncture, … Continue reading
Posted in General
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Veterinary Vaccines-Fact and Fiction
What Are Vaccines? The principle behind vaccination is that small amounts of weakened or killed organisms that normally cause disease, or even just pieces of these organisms, are given to an animal. This stimulates the immune system to generate a … Continue reading
Posted in Vaccines
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Government Fails to Protect People from Harmful CAM
A healthy women, told by her chiropractor she needed her subluxations treated by forceful manipulation of her neck to “improve her health and wellness” ended up a quadraplegic. She and others hurt by chiropractors in Canada have filed a class-action … Continue reading
Posted in Law, Regulation, and Politics
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The Ethics of the Placebo Effect
There are many reasons why therapies which don’t actually have a physical effect on a disease may appear to work anyway (an extensive list of which can be found under Can We Trust Clinical Experience? at my website). One of … Continue reading
Posted in General
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