Orac on the B.U.-G.U. Partnership - Quackademic Pseudoscience (2011-01-26)

here, I cite from a recent Respectful Insolence post on naturopathy [see 001., below]; then, I add some thoughts of my own [see 002., below]:

001. Orac writes in "The 'Integration' of Pseudoscience into Medicine Continues Apace" (2011-01-26):

"there are many forces that conspire to insert sectarian versions of medicine into bastions of scientific medicine [...] 'quackademic medicine' [...or] 'complementary and alternative medicine' (CAM) or 'integrative medicine' (IM) [...] its infiltration into various academic medical centers has been one of the more alarming developments I've noted over the last several years [...it is] in reality nothing more than 'integrating' pseudoscience with science, quackery with medicine [...] prescientific understanding of the world with science, religious faith healing [...] and magic with reality [...] the 'integration' of quackery with science-based medicine [hear, hear...] if you want to see [such] 'integration' behold the academic 'integration' model championed by Georgetown University, [once!] a school of science-based medicine, and Bastyr University, a school of naturopathy [...] that's right. Georgetown is partnering with schools of pseudoscience [...] I think that medical students should be taught about CAM modalities, but they should be taught about them from a the perspective of the state of the science, the evidence, and clinical trials. They should be taught about skepticism and critical thinking [hear, hear...] institutions like Georgetown are betraying science-based medicine by being so open to the point of its brains falling out [...by] partnering with Bastyr to integrate nonsense with sense, pseudoscience with science, and quackery with medicine."

Note: I COMPLETELY concur.

002. my thoughts:

I know a heck of a lot about naturopathy. I went to one of their schools for four years [lured in by false labels], left it in 2002, and I've been maintaining a database on naturopathy ever since then.

Naturopathy still fascinates me in its position as what I call an 'unethical sectarian pseudoscience'.

Let me parse Bastyr's marketing slogan, as a microcosm of what naturopathy's MO is. 

A Google.com web search with the parameters "body mind spirit nature Bastyr" [without the quotes] gets you to results that include, first on the list, Bastyr's entry [which the University penned, obviously though I'm not sure if USNWP gets paid to advertise the school] in U.S. News and World Report [saved 2011-01-26] which states:

"Bastyr's international faculty teaches the natural health sciences with an emphasis on integrating mind, body, spirit and nature [...] respecting the healing power of nature and recognizing that body, mind and spirit are intrinsically inseparable [...included is the program for] doctor of naturopathic medicine."

There's a lot said in those few words.  You have the label "science" overarching it all: science subset naturopathy.  You have supernaturalism within that: naturopathy subset supernaturalism.  You have some kind of conflated belief system which melds / conflates that supernaturalism with, apparently, everything.  And the BIG THING, that they are so good at, is coding their underlying sectarian belief in a 'purposeful life spirit' [vitalism, teleology, supernaturalism] in deceptively naturalistic language.  Their "nature" and the "healing power of nature" is that sectarian belief, coded.  Do not expect transparency on that matter, for the most part -- it gets in the way of their growth.

So, overall, naturopathy's claim is that the profoundly science-ejected is within science / science-based / survives scientific scrutiny.  That is absurd, irrational, and insane.

It is naturopathy.  It is fraud.  It is a violation of human rights.

And Naturocrit continues:

because naturopathy falsely labels the supernatural natural, the science-ejected and science-exterior science, sectarian articles of faith objective fact, and OVERALL trades on this falsehood and absurdity academically and clinically particularly across the U.S. and Canada.

And that is not just completely wrong, it is illegal.

Orac Chosen 'The Best Health Policies / Ethics Weblog' of 2008:

The 2008 Medical Weblog Awards have been announced, per:

"Orac of Respectful Insolence has been chosen as the Best Health Policies / Ethics Weblog of 2008. As one of the members of Science Blogs, Orac attempts to bring sanity to the world full of medical quackery. His efforts at exposing the dangers of alternative medicine, pseudoscience, and evolution deniers have made Orac one of the most recognized online activists against medical fraud and pseudoscience."

Here, here.

CAM via SHAM: Orac, Salerno in the WSJ 2008-12-25, & UBCNM:

here, I refer to something Orac [of scienceblogs.com] recently wrote concerning a 2008-12-25 Wall Street Journal [WSJ] article by Salerno [see 001., below], & then I quote from the article itself [see 002., below], and state two basic examples of 'such woo at the university / college level' per the University of Bridgeport's College of Naturopathic Medicine [UBCNM]:

001. as Orac states in "The Woo-Meister Supreme Returns, and He's Brought His Friends" {2009-01-02} :

"speak it, brother Salerno! [...] the WSJ article was that rarest of things for the mainstream media [...] a direct, skeptical, and science-based attack on CAM/IM [that is, Complementary & Alternative Medicine, Integrative Medicine...] Deepak Chopra [is] that Indian physician who demonstrates that a medical training is no protection whatsoever against pseudoscientific and anti-scientific thinking [...] apparently, Chopra is very unhappy about an article by Steve Salerno that the Wall Street Journal published right after Christmas entitled 'The Touch That Doesn't Heal' [...] as I have discussed time and time again, an M.D. after one's name is no guarantee whatsoever that that person has the slightest understanding of the scientific method or what does and does not constitute good science. Indeed, Deepak Chopra is living proof of that, as is Andrew Weil, David Katz, not to mention the horde of physicians signing petitions expressing 'Dissent from Darwin' over evolution on pro-'intelligent design' creationism sites."

Note: ouch! But remember, to paraphrase Orac, 'truthfulness is never insolent.' A basic skeptical rule is stated above, you'll note: an argument's soundness / a claim is based upon 'the thing itself', not merely the authority of its source.

002. Salerno, S. (? ?) {2008-12-25} writes in the WSJ per "The Touch That Doesn't Heal":

"one of the great ironies of modern health care is that many of the august medical centers that once went to great lengths to vilify nontraditional methods as quackery now have brought those regimens in-house [i.e., 'follow the money!'...] hundreds of colleges operating in all 50 states offer coursework in sundry CAM disciplines [i.e., 'follow the money!'...] while bypassing all the customary peer review, controlled studies and other hallmarks of sound medicine [...] 'special commercial interests and irrational, wishful thinking created NCCAM,' writes Wallace Sampson, a medical doctor and director of the National Council Against Health Fraud, on the Web site Quackwatch.com [...] the National Institutes of Health['s...] National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM) [...] despite the $1 billion spent [...] has failed to affirm a single therapy that can withstand the rigors of science [...] 'it is the only entity in the NIH devoted to an ideological [sectarian] approach to health,' writes Dr. Sampson, who has called for the center to be defunded [...] George D. Lundberg, a former editor of the Journal of the American Medical Association [...] once said: 'there's no alternative medicine. There is only scientifically proven, evidence-based medicine supported by solid data [and sectarian CRAP {my embellishment}]."

Note: Salerno is the the author of "SHAM." He mentions that when rigorous science is applied to CAM / IM...'there's no there there.' Orac, previously, had mentioned Katz: who has called for 'a loosening of definitions concerning what constitutes evidence.' When you can't win within the rules, CHANGE THEM.

003. 'such quackery-woo at the university / college level' per the University of Bridgeport College of Naturopathic Medicine [UBCNM] {currently}:

two great ironies / irrationalities of UBCNM:

the label of nonsectarian upon sectarian / ideological 'medicine';

a college teaching the science-ejected as scientific.

Note: when is the profoundly nonscientific the same as the scientific, and when is the 'sectarian belief-based' the same as 'objective science'?

Naturopathy.

Dawkins, Orac - On The Nonscientific Status of Vitalism, 2006 & 2008

here, I reference two sources concerning the nonscientific status of vitalism, a famous UK evolutionary biologist and a famous [:)] US surgeon / scientist & blogger from scienceblogs.com:

001. Richard Dawkins writes:

001.a. in "The Oxford Book of Modern Science Writing" [ 2008; ISBN 0199216800]:

"what neither Mendel nor anyone else before 1953 knew was that genes themselves are digital, within themselves [...] life is the execution of programs written using a small digital alphabet in a single, universal machine language. This realization was the hammer blow that knocked the last nail in the coffin of vitalism and, by extension, of dualism. The hammer was wielded, with undisguised youthful relish, by James Watson and Francis Crick [p.030...] for me, the greatest achievement of Watson and Crick was to turn genetics from a branch of wet and squishy physiology into a branch of information technology, in the process slaying, as I suggested above, the ghost of vitalism [p.226]."

Note: so, vitalism FINALLY was totally 'not viable' before 1960, in terms of the history of the idea per scientific thought.

001.b. in "The Digital River" from "The Science Book" [2006; ISBN 1841882542]:

"our genetic system [...] there is no spirit-driven life force, no throbbing, heaving, pullulating, protoplasmic, mystic jelly. Life is just bytes and bytes of digital information."

Note: vitalism has NO SCIENTIFIC SUPPORT, yet is claimed as the basis for a supposed medial science at a Connecticut [supposed] University -- right now -- a [supposed] College also centered around a 'supernatural, dualistic' premise, also science unsupported.

002. Orac per Respectful Insolence has written, in "That'll Teach 'Em For Using An Actual Valid Placebo Control" [2008-11-17]:

"I never for a minute considered that the whole rigmarole about 'unblocking' or 'redirecting' the flow of that mystical life force known as qi had anything to do with whether or not acupuncture did or did not have efficacy treating disease or other conditions. That was clearly a holdover from the prescientific medicine times in which most beliefs about the causes of disease involved either the wrath of the gods or vitalism [that is, superstitions!!!], the latter of which is, when you come right down to it, the philosophical basis upon which many 'complementary and alternative' (CAM) modalities are based, especially the so-called 'energy healing' modalities, such as reiki, therapeutic touch, and, of course, acupuncture."

Note: and naturopathy.

003. Are you appalled yet?

Caveat emptor [something I should not have to say about a University program, and about a domain claiming to meet the standards of modern science and medical professionalism].