HomeDigital Clubbing
Digital Clubbing
It’s now your right to smoke marijuana — but don’t bluff yourself that it cures anything
It's not for the state to decide what individuals put into their bodies in their own homes, writes Digital Clubbing columnist Alastair McAlpine. But...
SA's stem cell industry: Preying on the gullible, facilitated by med schemes
Not only does the stem cell industry prey on the gullibility of expectant parents, but it does so with the shameful complicity of some...
SA's private pharmacies are Gollums, not trusted gatekeepers
Instead of being the trusted gatekeepers they are supposed to be, South Africa's commercial pharmacies are like Gollum from Lord of the Rings -...
In defence of chiropractic: DUT, Casa and Prof Noakes
The Durban University of Technology, the Chiropractic Association of SA, and Professor Tim Noakes respond to Dr Alastair McAlpine's recent 'unsubstantiated, provocative and highly...
The 'sheen of respectability' that surrounds chiropractic
“When you ask most people to name some examples of pseudoscience or quackery, they’ll usually mention homeopathy, or reiki, or herbology,” writes MedicalBrief columnist...
Big Pharma and naturopathy — 'unholy allies' in the supplementation scam
15For healthy adults, there is absolutely no benefit to taking multivitamins, writes MedicalBrief columnist Alastair McAlpine. But slick marketing, wishful thinking, and medical doctors...
McAlpine: Noakes spread dangerous and untrue information about vaccines
The recent Digital Clubbing column on anti-vaxxers, was not primarily about Professor Tim Noakes, writes Alastair McAlpine. 'But it necessarily included him because, any...
Aided by the likes of Noakes, anti-vaxxers are causing real damage
It’s easy to make fun of the anti-vaccination lobby, writes Alastair McAlpine, in his Digital Clubbing column on MedicalBrief. But the anti-vaxxers, with the...
A smorgasbord of pseudo-science but lessons for GPs
Integrative Medicine (IM) is an expensive smorgasbord of pseudoscience, writes Alastair McAlpine, in his Digital Clubbing column on MedicalBrief. But there are lessons here...
The simple but profound values of dying children in their final days
'How could anyone want to do your job?' These are words I hear frequently, from patients, from my friends, from strangers on the internet....
Noakes: 'A litany of specious comments and errors'
"The 10 January edition of MedicalBrief carried a critique of the book written by myself and Marika Sboros, entitled Lore of Nutrition</em," writes emeritus...
Sboros: ‘Unsubstantiated negative opinions'
"Often, what reviewers don't say about a book reveals more about their motivation than what they do say," writes Marika Sboros, journalist and co-author...
Less lore and more science, please, Prof Noakes
Professor Tim Noakes’ Lore of Nutrition is an extraordinarily heady mix of conspiracy theory, bad science, bad writing, and persecution complex, writes Dr Alastair...