12 August 2011 by Scott Gavura
This is a guest post from Ian Cromwell. See his full bio at the end of the article. I live in Vancouver. Vancouver is home to quite a bit of what is wildly-inaccurately called “alternative medicine”. What people think they mean by this term is medical treatments that fall outside of the conventional combination of [...]
Posted in Alternative Medicine, Guest Post, Health, Health Policy2 Comments
11 August 2011 by Dianne Sousa
Some time ago, Skeptic North reviewed an episode of CBC’s Marketplace that focused on homeopathy. The program featured a parent that opted to use homeopathic vaccines instead of real vaccines. I suspected that the parent was genuinely misinformed about vaccines and homeopathy, and noted in the comments that since as a result of the program, [...]
Posted in Alternative Medicine, Canada, Featured, Health Policy, Medicinal Advertising, Pseudoscience, Skepticism12 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
02 August 2011 by Erik Davis
While we’re hardly fans of numerology here at Skeptic North, 8-02-11 (aka Wifi Day) does come only once a century. And following Green Party of Canada leader Elizabeth May’s dubious pronouncements on its safety last week, we’d be remiss if we failed to take note. Wifi has been a frequent topic in these pages, especially in the last [...]
Posted in Canada, Health, Health Policy, Skepticism22 Comments
02 June 2011 by Michael Kruse
Picking up where I left off yesterday, here is a short discussion about the application of the Precautionary Principle and the Weight of Evidence approach to evaluating scientific claims. The Precautionary Principle In many discussions of the “dangers” of WiFi and cell phones, the precautionary principle is evoked. It is the idea that we have [...]
Posted in Critical Thinking, Health, Health Policy, Probability and Statistics, Skepticism21 Comments
18 May 2011 by Ethan Clow
The Harper Government (which is now the legal name for the Government of Canada) is currently continuing its campaign against Vancouver’s safe injections site, Insite. What is a safe injection site? Simply put, this is a location operating under an exemption from Canada’s drug laws that allow addicts to safely use needle drugs. Addicts can [...]
Posted in British Columbia, Canada, Health, Health Policy13 Comments
08 April 2011 by Mitchell Gerskup
We’re in the midst of an election campaign, which means all of the parties are putting out updated versions of their platforms. One of my friends was skimming through them, and pointed out some terrible science in the Green Party’s health care platform. You can find their full platform here. Full disclosure: I don’t consider [...]
Posted in Alternative Medicine, Canada, Health, Health Policy62 Comments
28 March 2011 by Erik Davis
Last year, I took a look at a product called ProstaCaid, which bills itself as “a comprehensive prostate formula that targets prostate cancer and promotes healthy prostate cells.” The product caught my eye after its creator tweeted about “Research on new prostate formula that naturally combats #prostatecancer!” but when I checked the data it came [...]
Posted in Alternative Medicine, British Columbia, Canada, Health, Health Canada Approves..., Health Policy, Medicinal Advertising, Skepticism14 Comments
10 March 2011 by Erik Davis
This story wasn’t picked up by the mainstream media, so unless you follow right-wing U.S. blogs, you probably missed the news last month that U.S. Environment Protection Agency head Lisa Jackson has found the cause of autism. It’s not genes, vaccines, or freezer mums – all this time it’s been hiding in plain sight in [...]
Posted in Environment, Health, Health Policy, Medical Conditions, Skepticism2 Comments
28 February 2011 by Erik Davis
It’s a scene from the blogosphere that’s become all too familiar. A skeptic challenges a natural health product for the lack of an evidentiary base. A proponent of that product responds that the skeptic has made a logical error – an absence of evidence is not evidence of absence, and in such a scenario it’s not [...]
Posted in Alternative Medicine, Canada, Health, Health Policy, Skepticism16 Comments
