16 January 2012 by Kim Hebert
Last January, Marketplace took on homeopathy, a frequent topic among skeptical circles — for good reason. This past Friday they looked into Cold-Fx with somewhat more mixed results. On the positive side, they correctly point out a relatively major concern with natural health products (other than the glaring lack of evidence for efficacy) — poor [...]
Posted in Alternative Medicine, Canada, Health, Media, Reviews3 Comments
02 December 2011 by Kim Hebert
Skeptics are often accused of being dogmatic, closed-minded, and/or shills when they criticise particular industries or companies for dishonest, irresponsible, or ethically questionable practices. The natural health industry, with its general lack of oversight and use of science as shiny wrapping paper instead of an inherent foundation, is a veritable cornucopia of claims to be [...]
Posted in Alternative Medicine, Canada, Health, Medicinal Advertising7 Comments
01 October 2011 by Kim Hebert
(Photo by monkeywing.) Pictured: An actual homeopathic remedy. I am not kidding. The College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario (CPSO) has drawn criticism recently for their bizarrely-worded policy proposal regarding alternative medicine, most notably from the Canadian Medical Association (general organization feedback here). Common concerns were that the policy is insufficiently objective and science-based, [...]
Posted in Alberta, Alternative Medicine, British Columbia, Canada, Health16 Comments
17 August 2011 by Kim Hebert
Typical Mabus threat. As I noted in an update to my previous Mabus post, but will highlight here in case anyone missed that and/or the Twitter chatter, the SPVM (Montreal Police) tweeted this evening that they had made an arrest in the David Mabus case. Later, Canadian media (CTV Montreal, CyberPresse (French), Global Montreal, CTV [...]
Posted in Announcements, Quebec1 Comment
11 August 2011 by Kim Hebert
tl;dr If you would like to report harassment or threats from Mabus, see contact info for the Montreal Police at the bottom of this post. ______________________________ Taken from a Mabus-related Facebook group (see link below) A man from Montreal, who generally goes by the name David Mabus, has been harassing scientific, atheistic, and skeptical bloggers [...]
Posted in Announcements, Events, Quebec13 Comments
09 August 2011 by Kim Hebert
Should governments spend health care dollars on naturopathic medicine, acupuncture, and hypnotherapy, all in the name of “integrative” cancer care? If you live in British Columbia, your government has answered “yes”. This past June the BC provincial government [pdf] announced new funding for five “integrative cancer care centres” in the province. The private provider, Inspire [...]
Posted in Alternative Medicine, British Columbia, Health Policy, Medical Conditions, Pseudoscience8 Comments
11 April 2011 by Kim Hebert
Another year, another week to be made aware of homeopathy. This year’s theme is musculoskeletal well-being. The website is relatively unclear about their mission this year, but they do helpfully provide contact information for different countries that are involved in WHAW 2011. Their Canadian contacts are: Martine Jourde & Mathieu Bourbonnais S.P.H.Q. (Syndicat Professionnel des [...]
Posted in Alternative Medicine, Pseudoscience9 Comments
19 March 2011 by Kim Hebert
The scrubs mean that I’m right. Are Psychics the New Therapists? Short answer: No. Longer answer: Psychics/mediums are people who claim to predict the future and/or talk to the dead using paranormal powers. There is no evidence (despite years of investigation) that people have these abilities. There is evidence that psychics/mediums use a technique called [...]
Posted in Health, Paranormal8 Comments
22 February 2011 by Kim Hebert
We’ve written a lot about homeopathy lately, but every time I think I have written all I can, something sucks me back in. The 10:23 demonstrations and the CBC Marketplace coverage have elicited fascinating case studies in CAM professionalism. Rather than offering any new information or evidence about homeopathy itself, some homeopaths have spuriously accused [...]
Posted in Alternative Medicine, Health, Skepticism3 Comments
03 February 2011 by Kim Hebert
Earlier in January, CBC Marketplace investigated homeopathy. Now that there has been some time for people to react, here is a summary of some coverage around the Internet. Please also feel free to share relevant links in the comments. Favourable Reactions Digital Journal’s opinion section covered the topic of homeopathy in several articles the week [...]
Posted in Alternative Medicine, Canada, Pseudoscience9 Comments
Kim Hébert is an occupational therapist. She is interested in the promotion of science and reason, particularly regarding therapeutic health interventions. She blogs occasionally about occupational therapy and other health topics at Science-Based Therapy. Her hobbies are art and astronomy. **All views expressed by Kim are her personal views alone, and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of current or former employers, associations, or other affiliations. All information is provided for discussion purposes only, and should not be used as a replacement for consultation with a licensed and accredited health professional.
