Tag Archives: peer-reviewed studies

Acupuncture is just a placebo

Acupuncture is an extremely popular form of complementary alternative medicine (CAM) that has even worked its way into many “integrative” hospitals. It is also fiercely defended by its believers. Unfortunately, it is not well defended by actual evidence, so I … Continue reading

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Extreme weather: The effects of climate change are already here

We are in the middle of yet another atypical hurricane season. Between hurricane Florence in America and typhoon Mangkhut in the Philippines and China, both hemispheres have been hit almost simultaneously by unusually strong storm systems. As a result, many … Continue reading

Posted in Global Warming | Tagged , , | 10 Comments

Is it likely that alternative medicine works? The importance of prior probability

Prior probability is basically just the plausibility of a result, given everything else we know about the universe. In other words, when evaluating a hypothesis or a study, you should weigh your confidence in the result not only on the … Continue reading

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Replacing science-based cancer treatments with “alternative treatments” increases your risk of dying from cancer (new study)

Cancer is a truly terrible disease, and although our ability to treat and even cure many types of cancer has greatly improved, our current methods for dealing with it are admittedly imperfect and often have serious side-effects. It is, therefore, … Continue reading

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Methodolatry: An over-reliance on placebo-controlled trials

Randomized placebo-controlled trials (RCTs) are often referred to as the “gold standard” for clinical research, and they certainly are useful and powerful tools. They aren’t, however, the only reliable tools, nor are they always the best tools. Indeed, there are … Continue reading

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