By oracknows
on April 24, 2016.
Arguably, one of the most popular forms of so-called "complementary and alternative medicine" (CAM) being "integrated" with real medicine by those who label their specialty "integrative medicine" is acupuncture. It's particularly popular in academic medical centers as a subject of what I like to refer to as "quackademic medicine"; that is, the study of pseudoscience and quackery as though it were real medicine. Consider this. It's very difficult to find academic medical centers that will proclaim that they offer, for example, The One Quackery To Rule Them All (homeopathy). True, a lot of integrative medicine programs at academic medical centers do offer homeopathy. They just don't do it directly or mention it on their websites. Instead, they offer naturopathy, and, as I've discussed several times, homeopathy is an integral—nay, required—part of naturopathy. (After graduation from naturopathy school, freshly minted naturopaths are even tested on homeopathy when they take the NPLEX, the naturopathic licensing examination.) Personally, I find this unwillingness of academic medical centers that offer naturopathy to admit to offering homeopathy somewhat promising, as it tells me that even at quackademic medical centers there are still CAM modalities too quacky for them to want to be openly associated with. That optimism rapidly fades when I contemplate what a hodge-podge of quackery naturopathy is and how many academic integrative medicine programs offer it.