A few weeks ago, my post on the anti-vaccination bias in the alternative medical community raised the ire of some readers when I suggested that chiropractors have been culpable in the spread of dangourous anti-vax rhetoric. In Canada, at least, it appears we were both right.

On April 1 2013, Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) doctors and acupuncturists in Ontario will need a license to practice their unique brand of healing. Without a licence you will not be able to diagnose heat stagnation by looking at the tongue. Without a licence you will not be able to discern the state of the organs through the pulse in patient's wrist. Without a licence you will not be able to diagnose a fever caused by the wind, or needle the meridians of the body to unblock stagnant Qi. I feel safer already. We are faced with one striking dilemma, however: what responsibility does the state have to its citizens when they seek help from non-traditional sources?

While the safety and efficacy of vaccines for childhood infectious diseases is very well established, doubt continues to be sown among well-meaning parents. We need to demand that our government stop speaking out of one side of its mouth about the importance of the modern, science-based immunization schedule, while with the other side approving the sale of useless homeopathic hokum to be promoted as an ineffective alternative. If we do not, we risk a return of deadly childhood diseases like the 100-day cough of pertussis or the deadly, paralytic polio.

TORONTO - A growing number of Canadian children with chronic illnesses are being treated with complementary medicine, researchers say, but parents don...

I was guilty of thinking acupuncture seemed like a silly thing to do. How can tiny needles in your skin and muscles do anything other than cause pain? After one session I had to eat my words. I don't like needles, but I would be happy to have one stuck between my eyes every day.