Science-Based Medicine is a website dedicated to evaluating medical treatments and products in a scientific light. The editors and the blog’s regular contributors are prominent skeptics, doctors, researchers, and communicators. They believe that online information about alternative medicine is overwhelmingly credulous and uncritical, and that mainstream media and even medical schools have failed to rigorously examine its claims.
The posts on Science-Based Medicine do not pull any punches. Here is what it said Medical Medium Life Changing Foods: “I expected it would be bad, but I was positively gobsmacked by how phenomenally bad it was. I was outraged that he could get away with spreading such egregious nonsense, that a publisher would agree to publish it, and that many readers apparently accept his fairy tales as legitimate health advice (89% 5-star customer reviews on Amazon). It’s a sad demonstration of the fact that common sense is not common, and that critical thinking skills are sorely lacking in our society.”
The authors of Science-Based Medicine claim “We provide a much needed “alternative” perspective — the scientific perspective.”
I understand that this Virtual Lexicon post, which I posted, has caused concern to at least one reader. That person said that Science-Based Medicine espouses biased opinions, and that anyone is welcome to submit content regardless of credentials. The site is biased toward evidence-based medicine, which usually means traditional medicine. And it is true that anyone is welcome to submit content, but editors, all respected in their fields, review submissions before posting them. I wanted to share it on the Virtual Lexicon because I think that there is too much unscientific medical information floating around—much of it on our own shelves. I think that Science-Based Medicine is a good alternative to all the alternative medicine titles that we purchase.
I agree with another librarian who thought that much of the tone on Science-Based Medicine is “unnecessarily inflammatory”, but still think that overall it is a useful site.
Mary Lee Hart
Northland