UM's Salzberg at Forbes on UMM Center Integrative Medicine / Pseudoscience / Magical Thinking

here, I cite from a recent article by Steven Salzberg at his Forbes blog regarding CAM/AM/IM at the University of Maryland [see 001., below]:

001. Steven Salzberg writes at Forbes in "Why Medical Schools Should Not Teach Integrative Medicine (2011-04-21)[my comments are in bold]:

"pseudoscience is insinuating itself into our medical schools across the nation, going by the name 'integrative medicine'. Integrative medicine is just the latest buzzword for a collection of superstitions, myths, and pseudoscience that has gone by various names over the years [...aka] holistic medicine [...] alternative medicine [...] complementary and alternative medicine [...] and lately integrative medicine [...]";

naturopathy has paralleled this lineage.  A Google.com web search of: "naturopathic alternative" brings me to this CT ND's site, and "naturopathic complementary" brings me to this Ontario ND's site, and "naturopathic integrative" gets me to this Arizona ND's site.

"CAM is moving into the medical curriculum at respectable medical schools, including the University of Maryland [..] I’m a professor at U. Maryland College Park, part of the same system as U. Maryland Medicine [...] how unfortunate that this pseudoscience has infiltrated its way into the medical curriculum, and that the UMM Center is, in essence, mis-training medical students [...] UM Medicine is undermining its own scientific and educational mission [...] someone ought to tell him that integrative medicine has no place in a 21st century medical curriculum [...]";

as someone who went through a similar mis-training, I concur.

"perhaps the best way to reverse this trend is to call attention to it [...] what’s going on at Maryland’s medical school? [...] its clinical services include acupuncture, homeopathy, reflexology, reiki, qi gong [...] the practices lumped together are bad medicine [...] all of them are, well, nonsense [...] pseudoscientific practices";

hear, hear.

"homeopathic treatments are just water [...] the other treatments offered by the UMM Center are no better. Their qi gong brochure explains that 'sickness, pain or physical disorders are the result of qi blockage, or unbalanced qi in the body. Qi gong practice helps to balance the qi system in the body and break the qi blockage(s) to recover health.'  There’s no scientific basis for qi – it is simply magical thinking. The brochure, though, claims that qigong will give you 'an increased resistance to illness through a stronger immune system.' None of these claims have any good science to back them up."

hear, hear.

Salzberg on Pseudoscience - Forbes 2010-10-27

here, I cite from a recent Forbes blog by Dr. Salzberg [see 001., below]; then, I extend it to include naturopathy [see 002., below]:

001. Steven Salzberg writes in "Osteopaths Versus Doctors" (2010-10-27):

"an osteopath has an D.O. degree, which is different from the standard medical (M.D.) degree [...granted] some osteopaths (DOs) are probably better doctors than some MDs [...] given that some MDs are outrageous promoters of pseudoscience [...e.g.] Andrew Weil [...yet] the training is not the same: the universities offering DO and MD degrees are largely disjoint, the standards are higher at schools offering MDs, and osteopathic colleges offer 'extra' training in [their] pseudoscientific practices [...overall,] when I’m looking for a doctor, I want someone who went to one of the best medical schools and received strictly science-based training. Colleges of osteopathic medicine do not fit the bill [...similarly,] a growing number of mainstream medical schools offer training in 'integrative' medicine, the latest marketing term used to disguise pseudoscience in the guise of real science. Those medical schools [...] have some explaining to do as well."

Note: there's no mention of naturopathy, so I'll make mention.

002. particularly applicable to naturopathy is the phrase:

"pseudoscience in the guise of science."

Note: my links above are quite intentional.  You have, specifically, the ruse known as homeopathy -- which is fused into an ND degree -- overall, and quite falsely, labeled science.

Salzberg on Acupuncture and Vitalism: Pseudoscience and Magical Thinking

Salzberg, S. (PhD Harvard 1989) writes in "Acupuncture Infiltrates the University of Maryland and NEJM" [2010-08-27]:

"in a recent article in the New England Journal of Medicine, Brian Berman from the University of Maryland [...and] co-authors, Drs. Langevin, Witt, and Dubner [...explain] why acupuncture should be recommended for patients [...when] the evidence shows that there is no difference between real acupuncture and sham acupuncture [...and] it doesn’t matter where you place the needles, or even if you puncture the skin [...AND] most scientists would conclude, obviously, that acupuncture doesn’t work [...they] describe how 'internal disharmony is believed to cause blockage of the body’s vital energy, known as qi, which flows along 12 primary and 8 secondary meridians. Blockage of qi is thought to be manifested as tenderness on palpation. The insertion of acupuncture needles at specific points along the meridians is supposed to restore the proper flow of qi' [...] let’s be clear: acupuncture is pseudoscience. It’s based on magical thinking about a non-existent 'life force' that has never had one whit of evidence to support it [...] this pre-scientific magical thinking has no place in modern medicine, and no basis in biology, physiology, physics, or any other science [...] Berman’s work is an example of why I have repeatedly called on Congress and the President to eliminate NCCAM [...] an appalling waste [...] for further reading, I highly recommend the excellent blog posts on the Berman et al. study by Mark Crislip, David Gorski, and Steven Novella, all at Science-Based Medicine."

Note: hear, hear.  More quackademic medicine.  Notice, by the way, the number of NDs who have LAcs.

Down With NCCAM and OCCAM: Salzberg at Forbes.com

Dr. Stephen Salzberg writes in "Save Taxpayer $$$. Eliminate Alternative Medicine Research"(2010-06-16):

"this past week, President Obama called on all federal agencies to voluntarily propose budget cuts of 5%.  Well, Mr. President, you might be surprised to learn that there's a way for you that [sic., 'to'] cut the National Institutes of Health budget without hurting biomedical research. In fact, it will help [...] save over $240 million per year in the NIH budget by cutting all funding for the two centers that fund alternative medicine research -- the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM) and the Office of Cancer Complementary and Alternative Medicine (OCCAM). Both of them exist primarily to promote pseudoscience [...] these two organizations use our tax dollars – and take money away from real biomedical research – to support some of the most laughable pseudoscience that you can find [...] in addition to funding pseudoscience, NCCAM also 'educates' the public about alternative medicine. I put 'educate' in quotes because much of what NCCAM has on its website is misinformation, which serves to mis-educate rather than to inform [...e.g.] homeopathy [...which is] based on principals that scientists know to be false [...] getting rid of NCCAM and OCCAM won’t be easy. These 'alt.med' agencies have grown at the direct behest of the U.S. Congress, particularly Sen. Tom Harkin, who is woefully misguided where science is concerned."

Note: hear, hear.