The ASA have today released their rulings regarding Tearless Teething’s website.
Tearless Teething sell hazelwood necklaces and bracelets that, according to them, remove the acidity (“toxins”) from the baby or toddlers body, that are apparently produced during teething. This has the business savvy side effect of meaning you have to replace the product every three or so months because the product is “full” of the toxins caused by teething.
Background
I initially wrote about these products back in May 2013, so I’ll summarise my main issues. It wasn’t just the unscientific nonsense about this product that bothered me. While, as a reasonable and rational person, I find these claims indefensible, I can accept that their claims were unlikely to lead to actual direct harm to children, in the case of these specific products. Clay Jones, over at Science Based Medicine, has written a good general overview of teething and some teething products that is well worth a read. His piece demonstrates that some teething products can cause direct harm.
Trading Standards
My main, initial concern was the product itself. The website suggested that children could wear this from birth. That they could wear it at night. This really worried me. At the time my niece was wearing one of these. (I can’t fully explain how frustrating I find it that my sister, a usually sensible and rational human, buys into this nonsense. I guess it only goes to show how a seemingly magic cure is music to the ears of a frustrated parent.)...
Read the rest here: SKEPT!CAL blog An Update: The ASA (Advertising Standards Authority), Trading Standards and Tearless Teething (www.tearlessteething.com) � SKEPT!CAL blog
Wednesday, 30 July 2014
New evidence on Reiki and other forms of ‘energy/biofield/spiritual healing’ | Edzard Ernst
Reiki is a Japanese technique which, according to a proponent:
Many websites give much more specific information about the health effects of Reiki...
Read the rest here: New evidence on Reiki and other forms of ‘energy/biofield/spiritual healing’
...is administered by “laying on hands” and is based on the idea that an unseen “life force energy” flows through us and is what causes us to be alive. If one’s “life force energy” is low, then we are more likely to get sick or feel stress, and if it is high, we are more capable of being happy and healthy…(*my emphasis)
A treatment feels like a wonderful glowing radiance that flows through and around you. Reiki treats the whole person including body, emotions, mind and spirit creating many beneficial effects that include relaxation and feelings of peace, security and wellbeing. Many have reported miraculous results.
Reiki is a simple, natural and safe method of spiritual healing and self-improvement that everyone can use. It has been effective in helping virtually every known illness and malady and always creates a beneficial effect.* It also works in conjunction with all other medical or therapeutic techniques to relieve side effects and promote recovery.
Many websites give much more specific information about the health effects of Reiki...
Read the rest here: New evidence on Reiki and other forms of ‘energy/biofield/spiritual healing’
Look to your left, Mr. Bateson
It has always been very funny to me that anti-vaccine types who believe, desperately, that thimerosal causes autism (because mercury) are quick to blame the MMR vaccine for autism as well. MMR never had thimerosal in it, so it must be that it causes autism some other way. Anti-vaccine activists bend over backwards to find evidence that fits their theory, not the other way around. One such piece of work is Tony Bateson, he’s been looking for autistic children who are unvaccinated...
Read more at Look to your left, Mr. Bateson by Reuben
Read more at Look to your left, Mr. Bateson by Reuben
Monday, 28 July 2014
Why do alternative practitioners always smile? | Edzard Ernst
Have you noticed?
Homeopaths, acupuncturists, herbalists, reflexologists, aroma therapists, colonic irrigationists, naturopaths, TCM-practitioners, etc. – they always smile!
But why?
I think I might know the answer. Here is my theory:
Alternative practitioners have in common with conventional clinicians that they treat patients - lots of patients, day in day out. This wears them down, of course. And sometimes, conventional clinicians find it hard to smile. Come to think of it, alternative practitioners seem to have it much better. Let me explain.
Whenever a practitioner (of any type) treats a patient, one of three outcomes is bound to happen:
Read the rest here: Why do alternative practitioners always smile?
Homeopaths, acupuncturists, herbalists, reflexologists, aroma therapists, colonic irrigationists, naturopaths, TCM-practitioners, etc. – they always smile!
But why?
I think I might know the answer. Here is my theory:
Alternative practitioners have in common with conventional clinicians that they treat patients - lots of patients, day in day out. This wears them down, of course. And sometimes, conventional clinicians find it hard to smile. Come to think of it, alternative practitioners seem to have it much better. Let me explain.
Whenever a practitioner (of any type) treats a patient, one of three outcomes is bound to happen:
- the patient gets better,
- the patients roughly remains how she was and experiences no improvement,
- the patient gets worse.
Read the rest here: Why do alternative practitioners always smile?
Saturday, 26 July 2014
The Weirdo John Stone from Age of Autism agrees that thimerosal is not toxic
You know what I love about John Stone, the resident weirdo at Age of Autism? I love that he thinks he knows science then posts something that he thinks agrees with him when it clearly doesn’t. For example, here is a comment of his in which he thinks that the idea that methylmercury is just as bad as ethylmercury […]
Read more at: The Weirdo John Stone from Age of Autism agrees that thimerosal is not toxic by Reuben
Read more at: The Weirdo John Stone from Age of Autism agrees that thimerosal is not toxic by Reuben
What does autism look like?
If you asked me what a child with Down syndrome looks like, I would probably tell you that the child has slanted eyes, a small chin, flat and wide face, a short neck, and extra space between the first and second toe. (I got this from Wikipedia, by the way.) These physical characteristics come from the extra chromosome found in people with Down syndrome. The same can be
said for people with other disorders and conditions that affect both
body and mind. But what does autism look like?
[…]
Read more at: What does autism look like? by Reuben
[…]
Read more at: What does autism look like? by Reuben
Friday, 25 July 2014
Fairy-tale fallout - Education - The Listener
Te Ra Waldorf School has mastered the art of first impressions. “Oh my God, you hear this all the time,” says former staff member Sophie Perkins. “You feel like you’re coming home. It has this very peaceful feeling about it. It is church-like, almost. They do it so well.”
If you visit in the morning, you’ll smell fresh bread being baked. The school bell really is a bell – not an alarm tone piped through speakers. You won’t see kids scoffing chippies or plugged into iPods, or wearing branded clothing. No: Te Ra is a place of greenery, of airy wooden buildings, a place for kids to be kids.
But two years ago, parents at this Steiner school discovered a darker side to the writings of Rudolf Steiner. They found what Perkins now considers to be “evil, evil white racism”.
Over an extraordinary few months, parents and staff left the school in droves. The school has no clear record of numbers. But those we talked to say the racism – and the way the school “vilified” those who spoke out against it – drove out six of Te Ra’s 35 staff members and more than 29 families. It was a huge hit for the roll, which is now 140.
Perkins spent more than five years working at Te Ra and sent her children there. “We’ve managed to get ourselves out of something,” she says. “It’s like being woken up – I felt like Snow White, I really did – I felt like the poisoned apple came out of my mouth and I woke up.”
Last month an official investigation commissioned by the Ministry of Education...
Read the read of the article here: Fairy-tale fallout - Education - The Listener
(Thanks to @lecanardnoir for the heads-up)
If you visit in the morning, you’ll smell fresh bread being baked. The school bell really is a bell – not an alarm tone piped through speakers. You won’t see kids scoffing chippies or plugged into iPods, or wearing branded clothing. No: Te Ra is a place of greenery, of airy wooden buildings, a place for kids to be kids.
But two years ago, parents at this Steiner school discovered a darker side to the writings of Rudolf Steiner. They found what Perkins now considers to be “evil, evil white racism”.
Over an extraordinary few months, parents and staff left the school in droves. The school has no clear record of numbers. But those we talked to say the racism – and the way the school “vilified” those who spoke out against it – drove out six of Te Ra’s 35 staff members and more than 29 families. It was a huge hit for the roll, which is now 140.
Perkins spent more than five years working at Te Ra and sent her children there. “We’ve managed to get ourselves out of something,” she says. “It’s like being woken up – I felt like Snow White, I really did – I felt like the poisoned apple came out of my mouth and I woke up.”
Last month an official investigation commissioned by the Ministry of Education...
Read the read of the article here: Fairy-tale fallout - Education - The Listener
(Thanks to @lecanardnoir for the heads-up)
Texas medical board charges controversial cancer doctor | USA Today
Fans of Houston doctor Stanislaw Burzynski love him for defying the medical establishment and offering alternative therapies to terminally ill patients.
The latest charges against Burzynski by the Texas Medical Board, which has tried and failed to take away his license for more than two decades, paint a very different picture.
The board says Burzynski has lured patients from around the world to his Texas clinic by promoting his unapproved drugs as safe, effective and available from nobody else — even though he knew most patients were ineligible for the experimental therapy, according to a 200-page complaint that describes problems with the care of 29 patients.
Desperate patients have sought out Burzynski because of his claims about antineoplastons, drugs that he invented and patented. Although they haven't been approved by the Food and Drug Administration, the FDA has allowed Burzynski to dispense them through a clinical trial. The FDA put that trial on hold after the 2012 death of a 6-year-old boy, but gave Burzynski the green light to resume the trial last month.
Once patients arrived at Burzynski's office, the board says, he misled them in several ways...
Read the full article by Liz Szabo in USA Today: Texas medical board charges controversial cancer doctor
The latest charges against Burzynski by the Texas Medical Board, which has tried and failed to take away his license for more than two decades, paint a very different picture.
The board says Burzynski has lured patients from around the world to his Texas clinic by promoting his unapproved drugs as safe, effective and available from nobody else — even though he knew most patients were ineligible for the experimental therapy, according to a 200-page complaint that describes problems with the care of 29 patients.
Desperate patients have sought out Burzynski because of his claims about antineoplastons, drugs that he invented and patented. Although they haven't been approved by the Food and Drug Administration, the FDA has allowed Burzynski to dispense them through a clinical trial. The FDA put that trial on hold after the 2012 death of a 6-year-old boy, but gave Burzynski the green light to resume the trial last month.
Once patients arrived at Burzynski's office, the board says, he misled them in several ways...
Read the full article by Liz Szabo in USA Today: Texas medical board charges controversial cancer doctor
Thursday, 24 July 2014
Processed food chemical definitely causes cancer, say researchers | WWDDTYDTY
WDDTY's Facebook post says that Acrylamide "definitely causes cancer", but when you look at the cited source the phrase the phrase “definitely causes cancer” (or anything near it) does not appear. Posting this sort of disingenuous misinformation is dangerous, because people who read this for scientific information are already on the wrong path and will end up believing this nonsense.
The post Processed food chemical definitely causes cancer, say researchers by Skeptic Hivemind appeared first on Gareth Lewry's blog.
The post Processed food chemical definitely causes cancer, say researchers by Skeptic Hivemind appeared first on Gareth Lewry's blog.
More bad news for chiropractors
Some chiropractors claim that their main intervention, spinal manipulation, works for nonspecific neck pain by improving inter-vertebral range of motion (IV-RoM). But IV-RoM is difficult to measure, and whether it is related to clinical outcomes seems uncertain. Researchers from the Institute of Musculoskeletal Research & Clinical Implementation and the Anglo-European College of Chiropractic have just published a study that might throw some light on this issue. According to its authors, it was aimed at answering the following research questions:
Thirty patients with nonspecific neck pain and 30 healthy controls matched for age and gender received quantitative fluoroscopy (QF) screenings to measure flexion and extension IV-RoM (C1-C6) at baseline and 4-week follow-up. Patients received up to 12 neck manipulations and completed NRS, NDI and Euroqol 5D-5L at baseline, plus PGIC and satisfaction questionnaires at follow-up. IV-RoM accuracy, repeatability and hypo-mobility cut-offs were determined. Minimal detectable changes (MDC) over 4 weeks were calculated from controls. Patients and control IV-RoMs were compared at baseline as well as changes in patients over 4 weeks. Correlations between outcomes and the number of manipulations received and the agreement (Kappa) between palpated and QF-detected of hypo-mobile segments were calculated...
Read more here: More bad news for chiropractors
- Does cervical spine flexion and extension IV-RoM increase after a course of spinal manipulation?
- Is there a relationships between any IV-RoM increases and clinical outcomes?
- How does palpation compare with objective measurement in the detection of hypo-mobile segments?
Thirty patients with nonspecific neck pain and 30 healthy controls matched for age and gender received quantitative fluoroscopy (QF) screenings to measure flexion and extension IV-RoM (C1-C6) at baseline and 4-week follow-up. Patients received up to 12 neck manipulations and completed NRS, NDI and Euroqol 5D-5L at baseline, plus PGIC and satisfaction questionnaires at follow-up. IV-RoM accuracy, repeatability and hypo-mobility cut-offs were determined. Minimal detectable changes (MDC) over 4 weeks were calculated from controls. Patients and control IV-RoMs were compared at baseline as well as changes in patients over 4 weeks. Correlations between outcomes and the number of manipulations received and the agreement (Kappa) between palpated and QF-detected of hypo-mobile segments were calculated...
Read more here: More bad news for chiropractors
Wednesday, 23 July 2014
Another Lawsuit To Suppress Legitimate Criticism – This Time SBM | Science-Based Medicine
I suppose it was inevitable. In fact, I’m a bit surprised it took this long. SGU Productions, the Society for Science-based medicine, and I are being sued for an article that I wrote in May of 2013 on Science-Based Medicine. My SBM piece, which was inspired by an article in the LA Times, gave this summary:
Read the full post by Steven Novella at: Another Lawsuit To Suppress Legitimate Criticism – This Time SBM | Science-Based Medicine
The story revolves around Dr. Edward Tobinick and his practice of perispinal etanercept (Enbrel) for a long and apparently growing list of conditions. Enbrel is an FDA-approved drug for the treatment of severe rheumatoid arthritis. It works by inhibiting tumor necrosis factor (TNF), which is a group of cytokines that are part of the immune system and cause cell death. Enbrel, therefore, can be a powerful anti-inflammatory drug. Tobinick is using Enbrel for many off-label indications, one of which is Alzheimer’s disease (the focus of the LA Times story).The claims and practice of Dr. Tobinick have many of the red flags of a dubious medical practice, of the sort that we discuss regularly on SBM. It seems that Dr. Tobinick does not appreciate public criticism of his claims and practice, and he wants me to remove the post from SBM. In my opinion he is using legal thuggery in an attempt to intimidate me and silence my free speech because he finds its content inconvenient.
Read the full post by Steven Novella at: Another Lawsuit To Suppress Legitimate Criticism – This Time SBM | Science-Based Medicine
Video of the day: John Oliver on climate change and false balance
Fine. If you must dispute debate something that is an established fact, such as: is anthropic global warming, aka climate change, real and a threat? (or: is homeopathy quackery? Is evolution more than “just a theory”?), then you should do it honestly, especially if you’re doing it in the media. John Oliver, who is fast becoming one of my intellectual heroes, shows us what a genuinely balanced debate on a topic where no room remains for reasonable doubt really looks like.
Enjoy … Continue reading
The post Video of the day: John Oliver on climate change and false balance by Anarchic Teapot first appeared on Plague of Mice .
Enjoy … Continue reading
The post Video of the day: John Oliver on climate change and false balance by Anarchic Teapot first appeared on Plague of Mice .
Red ginseng lowers postprandial blood sugar levels in diabetic patients – but is this good or bad news?
‘Red ginseng’ is an herbal medicine prepared by steaming raw ginseng. This process is believed to increase its pharmacological activity. Further conversion through fermentation is thought to increase its intestinal absorption and bioactivity to diminish its toxicity.
Red ginseng (RG) is traditionally used for diabetes. Our own systematic review of 4 RCTs concluded that:
Now a new RCT has become available. This study was conducted to investigate the effects of daily supplementation with fermented red ginseng (FRG) on blood sugar levels in subjects with impaired fasting glucose or type 2 diabetes. It was a four-week long, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial. Forty-two subjects with impaired fasting glucose or type 2 diabetes were randomly allocated to two groups assigned to consume either placebo or FRG three times per day for 4 weeks. Fasting and postprandial glucose profiles during meal tolerance tests were assessed before and after the intervention.
Read on: Red ginseng lowers postprandial blood sugar levels in diabetic patients – but is this good or bad news?
Red ginseng (RG) is traditionally used for diabetes. Our own systematic review of 4 RCTs concluded that:
the evidence for the effectiveness of RG in controlling glucose in type 2 diabetes is not convincing. Few included studies with various treatment regimens prohibit definitive conclusions. More rigorous studies are needed to clarify the effects of RG on this condition.
Now a new RCT has become available. This study was conducted to investigate the effects of daily supplementation with fermented red ginseng (FRG) on blood sugar levels in subjects with impaired fasting glucose or type 2 diabetes. It was a four-week long, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial. Forty-two subjects with impaired fasting glucose or type 2 diabetes were randomly allocated to two groups assigned to consume either placebo or FRG three times per day for 4 weeks. Fasting and postprandial glucose profiles during meal tolerance tests were assessed before and after the intervention.
Read on: Red ginseng lowers postprandial blood sugar levels in diabetic patients – but is this good or bad news?
Monday, 21 July 2014
Acupuncture for Menopausal Symptoms | Science-Based Medicine
SBM is a major site, so I normally wouldn't repost from it here. However; as this particular misrepresented study is going the rounds on Internet, I felt it best to include a magistral debunking by no less than Steven Novella here.
A newly published meta-analysis of studies looking at acupuncture for symptoms resulting from natural menopause (not drug or surgically induced) by Chiu et. al. is entirely negative. That is not what the authors or the press release conclude, however.
This disconnect between the study results and the interpretation of those results is a persistent problem in medicine generally to some degree, but is endemic and profound within the CAM (complementary and alternative medicine) culture. Acupuncture in particular is promoted almost entirely based on this type of misinterpretations – the kind that can magically turn negative studies into positive studies....
REad the rest here: Acupuncture - Science-Based Medicine
This disconnect between the study results and the interpretation of those results is a persistent problem in medicine generally to some degree, but is endemic and profound within the CAM (complementary and alternative medicine) culture. Acupuncture in particular is promoted almost entirely based on this type of misinterpretations – the kind that can magically turn negative studies into positive studies....
REad the rest here: Acupuncture - Science-Based Medicine
Ottolenghi and the Quack HIV Homeopaths in Africa | The Quackometer Blog
practices, despite their Code of Ethics suggesting they should and despite the fact that treating people with homeopathic sugar pills could kill them if it interfered with real medical attention.
The subject has received its fair share of media attention too, with BBC Newsnight performing ‘secret camera’ investigations into UK homeopaths who give travellers sugar pills instead of malaria tablets when travelling to Africa. The BBC also found Neal’s Yard Remedies offering similar lethal advice.
The Independent,working with the Kenyan Standard newspaper and the Bureau of Investigative Journalism, found UK-funded homeopathy groups telling people with HIV they will not need ARV drugs if they take homeopathy – lethal advice.
Read more about this horrific exploitation of a serious chronic illness by evangelistic quacks here: Ottolenghi and the Quack HIV Homeopaths in Africa | The Quackometer Blog
What does God know about vaccines?
I don’t like to discuss religion. I don’t like to discuss the existence of nature of a god or the God. Those are all philosophical things that have no place in scientific discourse and, in non-scientific discourse, usually end up getting us all up in arms about this or that. However, we need to acknowledge that an enormous proportion of us humans believe in God or gods, or, at the very least, believe that we are not in charge of our destinies, at least not 100% percent.
There are times when anti-vaccine and anti-science types try to use religion as a way to promote their ideas. Take for example this post by “Megan“. Megan’s about page reads like something out of a quack’s dream...
Read more at What does God know about vaccines? by Reuben
Chiropractic = a profession of wishful thinking? | Edzard Ernst
In the US, the scope of practice of health care professionals is a
matter for each state to decide. Only the one of doctors is regulated
nationwide. Other health care professions’ scope of practice can vary
considerably within the US. This means that a chiropractor in one state
of the US might be allowed to do more (or less) than in the next state.
But what exactly are US chiropractors legally allowed to do?
A recent paper was aimed at answering this very question. Its authors assessed the current status of chiropractic practice laws in the US.
A cross-sectional survey of licensure officials from the Federation of Chiropractic Licensing Boards e-mail list was conducted in 2011 requesting information about chiropractic practice laws and 97 diagnostic, evaluation, and management procedures. To evaluate content validity, the survey was distributed in draft form at the fall 2010 Federation of Chiropractic Licensing Boards regional meeting to regulatory board members and feedback was requested. Comments were reviewed and incorporated into the final survey....
Read the rest of this eye-opening post here: Chiropractic = a profession of wishful thinking? | Edzard Ernst
A recent paper was aimed at answering this very question. Its authors assessed the current status of chiropractic practice laws in the US.
A cross-sectional survey of licensure officials from the Federation of Chiropractic Licensing Boards e-mail list was conducted in 2011 requesting information about chiropractic practice laws and 97 diagnostic, evaluation, and management procedures. To evaluate content validity, the survey was distributed in draft form at the fall 2010 Federation of Chiropractic Licensing Boards regional meeting to regulatory board members and feedback was requested. Comments were reviewed and incorporated into the final survey....
Read the rest of this eye-opening post here: Chiropractic = a profession of wishful thinking? | Edzard Ernst
Thoughts of a Liberal Conservative: Why I Don't Believe in Homeopathy
Having being banned from the Facebook Page for 'What Doctors Don't Tell You' which can be found here, I thought I'd do a quick blog explaining why I don't believe in Homeopathy.
Firstly and most importantly there is NO EVIDENCE HOMEOPATHY WORKS, OTHER THAN AS A PLACEBO. I feel this is an important point to get across. You could feed someone smarties rather than a homeopathic remedy and they would be equally as effective as said remedy. (i.e, not really.) However, if we ignore the fact that THERE IS NO EVIDENCE HOMEOPATHY WORKS, other than as a placebo (I'm trying to be fair here. Placebos have their place I realise this) lets have a look at how homeopathic remedies are created and I'll leave it to you to decide how effective you think these 'cures' will be.
As an example I will take the homeopathic remedy:
OSCILLOCOCCINUM
Read the rest on Thoughts of a Liberal Conservative: Why I Don't Believe in Homeopathy to find out how this exciting story ends!
Sunday, 20 July 2014
Utter garbage | WDDTYDTY
I have never read such a load of utter garbage as on your web site. I find it hard to imagine how anyone with half a brain would make up a web site debunking articles in a magazine largely regarding supplements or treatments that some people have found helpful for various conditions. Do you honestly [...]
Read to the end, it's a classic: Utter garbage by wwddtydty.
Cancel my WDDTY subscription forthwith! | WWDDTYDTY
This one is rather sad. Lucia doesn’t seem to have twigged that we are not Lynne McTaggart, or WDDTY, or anything to do with them. With touching naivety, she provides her full name and phone number which you lot are not going to get because we have standards.
Read the full story here: Cancel my WDDTY subscription forthwith! | WWDDTYDTY
Censure is bad | WWDDTYDTY
dear wddtydty i am a reader of wddty magazine. i find it contains some very useful and interesting information although i don’t necessarily agree with everything it says. i am pleased to encounter your website as it is good to hear a wide variety of opinions on health issues and i’ll look at what you [...]
The post Censure is bad by wwddtydty appeared first on WWDDTYDTY
The post Censure is bad by wwddtydty appeared first on WWDDTYDTY
Fan mail from "Richard Lucinford"
WWDDTYDTY gets a fair amount of feedback: some good, some bad, vast amounts of spam of course. So, after sifting through the spam, we thought it was time to share some of the feedback that lands, sometimes with a resoundingly ill-spelt thud, in our collective inbox. Enjoy!
The post Fan mail from "Richard Lucinford" by WDDTYDTY appeared first on WWDDTYDTY.
Just in case there was any doubt
Ren wrote a great post on his blog the other day on what makes an epidemiologist. He didn’t mention The Kid (a.k.a. Jake Crosby) by name, but I’m pretty sure that’s who Ren was talking about. It seems that Jake Crosby, on account of having earned a Master of Public Health degree from the George […]
Continue reading on The Poxes Blog: Just in case there was any doubt
Saturday, 19 July 2014
One physician comes back from the dark side, sort of, while another goes over, kinda | The Poxes Blog
Remember that “pediatrician to the stars” that I mentioned to you a while back? The one that has his doubts about vaccines and has even used “The Brady Bunch” as his basis for the severity of mumps? He’s (probably) coming back from the dark side. He posted this summary on his blog of a study on the safety of vaccines. Is he coming back? Is he going to stop it with the questioning of the evidence of the safety of vaccines?
We’ll see. We’ll see.
On the other hand, we have this article from this physician about mandatory influenza vaccination of healthcare workers. Unfortunately, she hits a lot of the anti-vaccine talking points in her disagreement with hospitals’ policies on having their employees vaccinated against the flu:
Ah, the “severe” side effects of the flu. You’ve probably heard about them ...
Read the rest here: One physician comes back from the dark side, sort of, while another goes over, kinda | The Poxes Blog
We’ll see. We’ll see.
On the other hand, we have this article from this physician about mandatory influenza vaccination of healthcare workers. Unfortunately, she hits a lot of the anti-vaccine talking points in her disagreement with hospitals’ policies on having their employees vaccinated against the flu:
“But I choose to take the flu vaccine realizing that the vaccine won’t necessarily protect me against all the different strains of the flu virus, and knowing too that I could suffer severe side effects.”
Ah, the “severe” side effects of the flu. You’ve probably heard about them ...
Read the rest here: One physician comes back from the dark side, sort of, while another goes over, kinda | The Poxes Blog
Friday, 18 July 2014
Pilates for chronic back pain? Yes, maybe
What is the best treatment for the millions of people who suffer from chronic low back pain (CLBP)? If we are honest, no therapy has yet been proven to be overwhelmingly effective. Whenever something like that happens in medicine, we have a proliferation of interventions which all are promoted as effective but which, in fact, work just marginally. And sure enough, in the case of CLBP, we have a constantly growing list of treatments none of which is really convincing.
One of the latest additions to this list is PILATES.
Pilates? What is this ? One practitioner describes it as follows:
Mumbo-jumbo? Perhaps; in any case, we need evidence! Is there any at all? Surprisingly, the answer is yes. Recently, someone even published a proper systematic review.
Read the reast here: Pilates for chronic back pain? Yes, maybe
One of the latest additions to this list is PILATES.
Pilates? What is this ? One practitioner describes it as follows:
In Pilates, we pay a lot of attention to how our body parts are lined up in relation to each other, which is our alignment. We usually think of our alignment as our posture, but good posture is a dynamic process, dependent on the body’s ability to align its parts to respond to varying demands effectively. When alignment is off, uneven stresses on the skeleton, especially the spine, are the result. Pilates exercises, done with attention to alignment, create uniform muscle use and development, allowing movement to flow through the body in a natural way.
For example, one of the most common postural imbalances that people have is the tendency to either tuck or tilt the pelvis. Both positions create weaknesses on one side of the body and overly tight areas on the other. They deny the spine the support of its natural curves and create a domino effect of aches and pains all the way up the spine and into the neck. Doing Pilates increases the awareness of the proper placement of the spine and pelvis, and creates the inner strength to support the natural curves of the spine. This is called having a neutral spine and it has been the key to better backs for many people.
Mumbo-jumbo? Perhaps; in any case, we need evidence! Is there any at all? Surprisingly, the answer is yes. Recently, someone even published a proper systematic review.
Read the reast here: Pilates for chronic back pain? Yes, maybe
Monday, 14 July 2014
What is meant by the "accuracy" of screening tests?
The two posts on this blog about the hazards of significance testing have proved quite popular. See Part 1: the screening problem, and Part 2: Part 2: the false discovery rate. They’ve had over 20,000 hits already (though I still have to find a journal that will print the paper based on them).
Yet another Alzheiner’s screening story hit the headlines recently and the facts got sorted out in the follow up section of the screening post. If you haven’t read that already, it might be helpful to do so before going on to this post.
This post has already appeared on the Sense about Science web site. They asked me to explain exactly what was meant by the claim that the screening test had an "accuracy of 87%". That was mentioned in all the media reports, no doubt because it was the only specification of the quality of the test in the press release. Here is my attempt to explain what it means.
Read more: What is meant by the "accuracy" of screening tests?
Yet another Alzheiner’s screening story hit the headlines recently and the facts got sorted out in the follow up section of the screening post. If you haven’t read that already, it might be helpful to do so before going on to this post.
This post has already appeared on the Sense about Science web site. They asked me to explain exactly what was meant by the claim that the screening test had an "accuracy of 87%". That was mentioned in all the media reports, no doubt because it was the only specification of the quality of the test in the press release. Here is my attempt to explain what it means.
Read more: What is meant by the "accuracy" of screening tests?
Nancy Malik Strikes Back! Homeowatch and Quackwatch abusing HONcode?
It’s the silly season all right. So much fuckwittery queuing up to be eviscerated that I’m going to have to aim for shorter posts. Following Nancy Malik’s self-pitying rant about losing her HONcode certification through not complying with the requirements, an update has just been published to that post in her blog. Oddly enough, that update does not mention that the HONcode certification has been withdrawn and that the agreement requires she remove all reference to it from her site. Which, of course, she hasn’t done. No, the update is a tu quoque-style attack on two pro-science websites run by the same person, one Stephen Barrett, M.D, with the help of a number of volunteers. According to Malik, Barrett is abusing the HONcode certification in the same way she did. Which, it would seem, exonerates her – in her own dreams, at least.
Well, being a skeptic doesn’t excuse you … Continue reading
The post Nancy Malik Strikes Back! Homeowatch and Quackwatch abusing HONcode? by Anarchic Teapot first appeared on Plague of Mice .
Well, being a skeptic doesn’t excuse you … Continue reading
The post Nancy Malik Strikes Back! Homeowatch and Quackwatch abusing HONcode? by Anarchic Teapot first appeared on Plague of Mice .
Spinal manipulation for herniated discs? Chiropractors should start doing meaningful research | Edzard Ernst
There is some (albeit not compelling) evidence to suggest that
chiropractic spinal manipulation might be effective for treating
non-specific back pain. But what about specific back pain, such as the
one caused by a herniated disc? Some experts believe that, in patients
suffering from such a condition, manipulations are contra-indicated (because the latter can cause the former), while others think that manipulation might be an effective treatment option (although the evidence is far from compelling).
Who is correct? The issue can only be resolved with data from
well-designed clinical investigations. A new trial might therefore
enlighten us.
The stated purposes of this study were:
Read the rest here: Edzard Ernst | MD, PhD, FMedSci, FSB, FRCP, FRCPEd
The stated purposes of this study were:
- to evaluate patients with low-back pain (LBP) and leg pain due to magnetic resonance imaging-confirmed disc herniation treated with high-velocity, low-amplitude spinal manipulation in terms of their short-, medium-, and long-term outcomes of self-reported global impression of change and pain levels
- to determine if outcomes differ between acute and chronic patients using...
Read the rest here: Edzard Ernst | MD, PhD, FMedSci, FSB, FRCP, FRCPEd
Texas Medical Board files detailed complaint against Burzynski | Doubtful News
The screws continue to be tightened on “Houston Cancer Quack”
Stanislaw Burzynski. Burzynski’s clinic has been the focus of very many
serious allegations of violations from the state, FDA, and from diligent
skeptics who know snake oil when they see it. Burzynski advocates a
treatment, antineoplastons, which has not been demonstrated to work even
after the clinic promised that clinical trials would take place and the
results published. There are no results that show that this treatment
is at all effective. However, it is expensive. Dr. B lives very well off
his clinic’s income. In a ridiculous move, he has been allowed to
proceed by FDA.
The Texas Medical Board has (again) filed an official complaint against Dr. Stanislaw Burzynski. It’s not brief. It’s 202 pages long and detailed. Available at this link (part of the public release), you can read the entire document. But here are the factual allegations of the Texas Medical board:
Burzynski misled patients into paying exorbitant charges for drugs and medical services accepting care from unlicensed persons while Burzynski and his employees misrepresented those unlicensed persons to be licensed medical doctors in Texas accepting care from healthcare providers who didn’t have appropriate qualifications to be treating cancer patients
Read the full story here: Texas Medical Board files detailed complaint against Burzynski | Doubtful News
The Texas Medical Board has (again) filed an official complaint against Dr. Stanislaw Burzynski. It’s not brief. It’s 202 pages long and detailed. Available at this link (part of the public release), you can read the entire document. But here are the factual allegations of the Texas Medical board:
Burzynski misled patients into paying exorbitant charges for drugs and medical services accepting care from unlicensed persons while Burzynski and his employees misrepresented those unlicensed persons to be licensed medical doctors in Texas accepting care from healthcare providers who didn’t have appropriate qualifications to be treating cancer patients
Read the full story here: Texas Medical Board files detailed complaint against Burzynski | Doubtful News
Sunday, 13 July 2014
Three men make a tiger: Health policy must be formed on the basis of evidence, not scaremongering..
A cautionary tale of sorts and an urgent plea to Irish politicians to check their sources before they go and make asinine claims and set bad policy on matters of science of health ...
There are certain topics I write about that generate howling letters of disapproval. Topics like abortion, climate change, secularism, gay rights, nuclear power, and homeopathy have all garnered me angry tweets, emails and in some more disturbing cases long rambling letters with vague threats. I accept this as an occupational hazard - the more prominent your forum, the more likely you are to get projectiles lobbed at you and while that's never justified I accept it for what it is - I'm extremely privileged to be both lucky and ostensibly articulate enough to get the odd say in two prominent papers, and hopefully have been able to sway some people towards an evidence-based approach to certain topics, which has always been my primary goal in writing for a mainstream audience. I am no shrinking violet and usually laugh off the odd unhinged e-mail or tweet that some eijit decides to send me - the kind of emails that have have sections WRITTEN IN ALL CAPS and a grasp of logic so tenuous that you stand dazzled and almost impressed by their brave refusal to be a confined to anything even remotely resembling reality.
Yet of all the contentious issues I've tackled, the vitriol I've garnered for water fluoridation is both impressive and admittedly baffling. It is also a subject that showcases the combined scientific ignorance of many of our elected representatives, and for that reason I wish to revisit it and ram this point home.
Read the rest of this thoughtful post here: Three men make a tiger: Health policy must be formed on the basis of evidence, not scaremongering..
There are certain topics I write about that generate howling letters of disapproval. Topics like abortion, climate change, secularism, gay rights, nuclear power, and homeopathy have all garnered me angry tweets, emails and in some more disturbing cases long rambling letters with vague threats. I accept this as an occupational hazard - the more prominent your forum, the more likely you are to get projectiles lobbed at you and while that's never justified I accept it for what it is - I'm extremely privileged to be both lucky and ostensibly articulate enough to get the odd say in two prominent papers, and hopefully have been able to sway some people towards an evidence-based approach to certain topics, which has always been my primary goal in writing for a mainstream audience. I am no shrinking violet and usually laugh off the odd unhinged e-mail or tweet that some eijit decides to send me - the kind of emails that have have sections WRITTEN IN ALL CAPS and a grasp of logic so tenuous that you stand dazzled and almost impressed by their brave refusal to be a confined to anything even remotely resembling reality.
Yet of all the contentious issues I've tackled, the vitriol I've garnered for water fluoridation is both impressive and admittedly baffling. It is also a subject that showcases the combined scientific ignorance of many of our elected representatives, and for that reason I wish to revisit it and ram this point home.
Read the rest of this thoughtful post here: Three men make a tiger: Health policy must be formed on the basis of evidence, not scaremongering..
Robert Eau Young and the Murderous Miracle Cure
It seems incredible that somebody could actually write this, in the 21st century rather than the 13th, but perhaps the biggest WTF of all stems from the fact that there are woo-prone idiots out there who are ignorant enough to believe this weapons-grade quack and enthusiastically promote the expensive pile of deadly fuckwittery that he sells: Articles of Health are the writings of Robert O. Young D.Sc., Ph.D., based upon his theory that the human organism is alkaline by design and acidic by function. He suggests that there is only one sickness and one disease which is caused by an over acidification of the blood and then tissues due to an inverted way of living, eating and thinking. There is no way to have health and acidity — health and alkalinity is the way! We’ve examined this virulent piece of walking Stupid before. He has an intellectual midden on Blogger … Continue reading
The post Robert Eau Young and the Murderous Miracle Cure by Anarchic Teapot first appeared on Plague of Mice .
The post Robert Eau Young and the Murderous Miracle Cure by Anarchic Teapot first appeared on Plague of Mice .
You read what you want to read | The Poxes Blog
A few weeks ago, I told you about a secret group on Facebook that has been planning to have children infected with, among other things, chickenpox and measles. They’re actively looking for cases of these diseases in order to bring their un-vaccinated children to exchange air and body fluids with infected children in the hopes that their un-vaccinated children catch the disease and get immunity that way. Let me be clear that this is nothing short of child abuse. To knowingly infect a child with an infectious disease defies the laws of logic and moral decency.
In that post, I never once mentioned that these parents were going to be reported to “Protective Services” (CPS?). Instead, I wrote this in the first post:
True to form, however, one of the members of that secret group has taken to an online forum to complain that I am trying to intimidate her...
Read the rest here: You read what you want to read | The Poxes Blog
Mini rant by AT:
Comments being closed on the original post, I'll add here that there is no such thing as immunity to chicken pox via infection. It's a herpes virus: once you've caught it, it never goes away. Chicken pox is the primo-infection; afterwards it manifests as that horribly painful disease known as shingles.
So these unimaginably stupid people aren't conferring "natural immunity" to a disease, they are ensuring that their offspring are very much at risk of developing shingles as they get older.
In that post, I never once mentioned that these parents were going to be reported to “Protective Services” (CPS?). Instead, I wrote this in the first post:
“I am looking into each and every one of those names there, and I will not hesitate to contact the proper health protection authorities in the places where they live.”And I wrote a follow-up post that also talked about their insane way of looking at diseases vs. vaccines. I did not mention Child Protective Services, nor reporting to anyone, in that post.
True to form, however, one of the members of that secret group has taken to an online forum to complain that I am trying to intimidate her...
Read the rest here: You read what you want to read | The Poxes Blog
Mini rant by AT:
Comments being closed on the original post, I'll add here that there is no such thing as immunity to chicken pox via infection. It's a herpes virus: once you've caught it, it never goes away. Chicken pox is the primo-infection; afterwards it manifests as that horribly painful disease known as shingles.
So these unimaginably stupid people aren't conferring "natural immunity" to a disease, they are ensuring that their offspring are very much at risk of developing shingles as they get older.
Saturday, 12 July 2014
“Has WDDTY Ever Helped You?” – Well, Lynne…
Lynne McTaggart, spin witch-doctor for the Self-Centred Raving Loonies, a one-policy party that wants to make lying in advertising legal again, has done us proud. Her latest blog post is entitled: Has What Doctors Don’t Tell You Ever Helped You?
Yeah, well, depends on what you mean by that, Lynne. Cue a certain old Monty Python sketch. It’s certainly provided a lot of bloggers with an amazing amount of weapons-grade fuckwittery to rip apart on a distressingly regular basis. It’s seemingly alerted a lot of people who thought the old lies about HIV, cancer, and New Age “energy” had dropped out of circulation and into folklore long ago. It has provided many a simultaneous outburst of anger and hysterical laughter at the rampant dumbfuckery in its pages. What it hasn’t provided is balanced analysis and advice. Not ever. Not a bleedin’ sausage. We really searched for it, but the prize … Continue reading
The post “Has WDDTY Ever Helped You?” – Well, Lynne… by Anarchic Teapot first appeared on Plague of Mice .
Yeah, well, depends on what you mean by that, Lynne. Cue a certain old Monty Python sketch. It’s certainly provided a lot of bloggers with an amazing amount of weapons-grade fuckwittery to rip apart on a distressingly regular basis. It’s seemingly alerted a lot of people who thought the old lies about HIV, cancer, and New Age “energy” had dropped out of circulation and into folklore long ago. It has provided many a simultaneous outburst of anger and hysterical laughter at the rampant dumbfuckery in its pages. What it hasn’t provided is balanced analysis and advice. Not ever. Not a bleedin’ sausage. We really searched for it, but the prize … Continue reading
The post “Has WDDTY Ever Helped You?” – Well, Lynne… by Anarchic Teapot first appeared on Plague of Mice .
Thursday, 10 July 2014
Scots doctors caught up in miracle cancer cure claims | Herald Scotland
This story originally appeared here: Scots doctors caught up in miracle cancer cure claims | Herald Scotland, where you can still read it and, theoretically at least, comment on it. I have emphasised some passages in the text, as it seems to suggest Young isn't the only one likely to face disciplinary action.
Robert Young is also known as Robert O. Young and frequently uses the title "Doctor". He has a previous conviction for practising medicine without a licence.
The story is also discussed here, with some of the commenters being medical specialists in the appropriate field (unlike the Campbell-Danesh couple)
Robert Young will appear in a California court today on 18 charges of theft and "treating the sick without a certificate" at his alternative retreat near San Diego.
Among other offences, the 63-year-old, who believes in the "pH Miracle" of avocado juice, is accused of taking more than $50,000 from a man dying of cancer, treating him without a licence and then asking staff at his centre not to tell the patient his disease had spread. The man subsequently died.
Mr Young, who made his name with best-selling books advocating a "pH diet", denies all the charges and insists he is the victim of persecution for his non-traditional beliefs. He has published a series of video testimonials from contented patients, including Mr Campbell-Danesh's parents, GP Avril Campbell and retired gastroenterologist Booth Danesh.
The accused, who refers to himself as Dr Young, citing a PhD from an alternative medicine college, tried to use the two Scottish doctors' credentials to support his treatments.
In his blog, he described Dr Campbell as a "world renowned specialist oncologist and research scientist". Dr Campbell herself, in her video testimonial, said she was an oncologist at Glasgow's Beatson West of Scotland Cancer Centre. She does work at the Beatson, as a speciality doctor, but is not officially registered with the General Medical Council as anything other than a GP.
NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde yesterday distanced itself from the endorsement of Mr Young's brand, pH Miracle Living, with sources stressing that she was speaking in a purely personal capacity. A spokeswoman said: "The Beatson West of Scotland Cancer Centre has not heard of this product and in no way would endorse or support it."
Dr Campbell declined to comment when approached by The Herald. However, she sets out her support for Mr Young in three videos. She described how she was diagnosed with breast cancer and underwent "gruelling" chemotherapy and radiotherapy. She says she felt much better at Mr Young's centre on his trademark regimen of green foods, including avocado juice.
Watch the videos below
"I have no more pains," she said after 14 days on the treatment. She also said she now believed that she had a cancer in her thyroid, adding that a cyst discovered had seen a "measurable" reduction during her treatment. She added that she was going back to Scotland "to share my knowledge with colleagues and patients".
Dr Danesh featured in four videos, including one in which he is interviewed by an associate of Mr Young who describes him as "one of the most accomplished physicians and lecturers in Europe with a prominent role serving the Queen and Kingdom".
Dr Danesh, who has also survived cancer, retired from Stobhill Hospital a decade ago and is no longer licensed to practise medicine, according to his General Medical Council records. He said: "I wish Dr Young good luck". Both Dr Campbell and Dr Danesh filmed their videos about Mr Young and his methods in 2013, before the California practitioner was indicted early this year. Mr Young has a 1996 conviction for attempting to practise medicine without a licence.
Dr Campbell and Dr Danesh, who owns a firm offering medical services at his Bearsden address, are understood to have spent some weeks at Mr Young's retreat.
Mr Young has published a photograph on his blog of all three raising glasses of green liquid. The caption reads: "Dr Avril and Dr Booth have stated that Dr Young's research is revolutionary and should be taught to every medical doctor and integrated into every research, clinic and hospital around the world."
The American's books, including The pH Miracle and Reverse Cancer Now, have been widely condemned as pseudoscience.
Mr Young faces up to 15 years in jail if convicted. His indictment names six terminally ill patients who have all died. He charged one of them more than $120,000, according to detailed court papers.
His lawyer Paul Pfingst has previously said all the patients were aware that Mr Young was not a registered medical doctor. "People with a terminal illness can select how they want to be treated for the end of their days," the attorney said.
A Scottish cancer specialist contacted by The Herald said: "There is no way the Beatson will want to be associated with something like this."
Robert Young is also known as Robert O. Young and frequently uses the title "Doctor". He has a previous conviction for practising medicine without a licence.
The story is also discussed here, with some of the commenters being medical specialists in the appropriate field (unlike the Campbell-Danesh couple)
Scots doctors caught up in miracle cancer cure claims
An American facing criminal charges after falsely claiming to cure cancer has been given glowing internet testimonials by the Glasgow doctor parents of singer Darius Campbell-Danesh.
STAR LINK: Darius Campbell-Danesh with his parents.
Among other offences, the 63-year-old, who believes in the "pH Miracle" of avocado juice, is accused of taking more than $50,000 from a man dying of cancer, treating him without a licence and then asking staff at his centre not to tell the patient his disease had spread. The man subsequently died.
Mr Young, who made his name with best-selling books advocating a "pH diet", denies all the charges and insists he is the victim of persecution for his non-traditional beliefs. He has published a series of video testimonials from contented patients, including Mr Campbell-Danesh's parents, GP Avril Campbell and retired gastroenterologist Booth Danesh.
The accused, who refers to himself as Dr Young, citing a PhD from an alternative medicine college, tried to use the two Scottish doctors' credentials to support his treatments.
In his blog, he described Dr Campbell as a "world renowned specialist oncologist and research scientist". Dr Campbell herself, in her video testimonial, said she was an oncologist at Glasgow's Beatson West of Scotland Cancer Centre. She does work at the Beatson, as a speciality doctor, but is not officially registered with the General Medical Council as anything other than a GP.
NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde yesterday distanced itself from the endorsement of Mr Young's brand, pH Miracle Living, with sources stressing that she was speaking in a purely personal capacity. A spokeswoman said: "The Beatson West of Scotland Cancer Centre has not heard of this product and in no way would endorse or support it."
Dr Campbell declined to comment when approached by The Herald. However, she sets out her support for Mr Young in three videos. She described how she was diagnosed with breast cancer and underwent "gruelling" chemotherapy and radiotherapy. She says she felt much better at Mr Young's centre on his trademark regimen of green foods, including avocado juice.
Watch the videos below
"I have no more pains," she said after 14 days on the treatment. She also said she now believed that she had a cancer in her thyroid, adding that a cyst discovered had seen a "measurable" reduction during her treatment. She added that she was going back to Scotland "to share my knowledge with colleagues and patients".
Dr Danesh featured in four videos, including one in which he is interviewed by an associate of Mr Young who describes him as "one of the most accomplished physicians and lecturers in Europe with a prominent role serving the Queen and Kingdom".
Dr Danesh, who has also survived cancer, retired from Stobhill Hospital a decade ago and is no longer licensed to practise medicine, according to his General Medical Council records. He said: "I wish Dr Young good luck". Both Dr Campbell and Dr Danesh filmed their videos about Mr Young and his methods in 2013, before the California practitioner was indicted early this year. Mr Young has a 1996 conviction for attempting to practise medicine without a licence.
Dr Campbell and Dr Danesh, who owns a firm offering medical services at his Bearsden address, are understood to have spent some weeks at Mr Young's retreat.
Mr Young has published a photograph on his blog of all three raising glasses of green liquid. The caption reads: "Dr Avril and Dr Booth have stated that Dr Young's research is revolutionary and should be taught to every medical doctor and integrated into every research, clinic and hospital around the world."
The American's books, including The pH Miracle and Reverse Cancer Now, have been widely condemned as pseudoscience.
Mr Young faces up to 15 years in jail if convicted. His indictment names six terminally ill patients who have all died. He charged one of them more than $120,000, according to detailed court papers.
His lawyer Paul Pfingst has previously said all the patients were aware that Mr Young was not a registered medical doctor. "People with a terminal illness can select how they want to be treated for the end of their days," the attorney said.
A Scottish cancer specialist contacted by The Herald said: "There is no way the Beatson will want to be associated with something like this."
Wednesday, 9 July 2014
Why homeopathy doesn’t work!…… Samuel Hahnemann gives the answer…(finally)
Many posts on this blog have highlighted the fact that homeopathic remedies, when tested in rigorous RCTs, are demonstrably nothing more than pure placebos. Homeopaths, of course, negate this fact but here is a surprising bit of new evidence that further confirms it – and it comes from the highest authority in homeopathy: from Samuel Hahnemann himself!
A well known psychic has been in contact with the great doctor who consequently has dictated a letter to her. Here it is (it came in German, but I took the liberty of translating it into English):
TO ALL HOMEOPATHS OF THE WORLD
I have been watching what you have been doing with my noble healing art for some time now, and I cannot hold back any longer. Enough is enough. You are all fools, bloody fools!
Sceptics and scientists and anyone else who can read the research that has been done with those ‘randomised trials’ that the allopaths are currently so fond of should know that homeopathic medicines, as you monumental idiots employ them, are ineffective. The results of these studies are perfectly true. Instead of asking yourself what you are doing wrong and how you are disobeying my most explicit orders, you insist on doubting that these modern methods generate the truth. How incredibly stupid you are!
Read the rest and other gems here: Why homeopathy doesn’t work!…… Samuel Hahnemann gives the answer…(finally)
Contains genuine statements by Hahnemann, in context.
A well known psychic has been in contact with the great doctor who consequently has dictated a letter to her. Here it is (it came in German, but I took the liberty of translating it into English):
TO ALL HOMEOPATHS OF THE WORLD
I have been watching what you have been doing with my noble healing art for some time now, and I cannot hold back any longer. Enough is enough. You are all fools, bloody fools!
Sceptics and scientists and anyone else who can read the research that has been done with those ‘randomised trials’ that the allopaths are currently so fond of should know that homeopathic medicines, as you monumental idiots employ them, are ineffective. The results of these studies are perfectly true. Instead of asking yourself what you are doing wrong and how you are disobeying my most explicit orders, you insist on doubting that these modern methods generate the truth. How incredibly stupid you are!
Read the rest and other gems here: Why homeopathy doesn’t work!…… Samuel Hahnemann gives the answer…(finally)
Contains genuine statements by Hahnemann, in context.
National Secular Society - Yes, “faith schools” really are the problem
Politicians are in denial over the problems caused by "faith schools" and religious influence in education, argues Terry Sanderson.
The National Secular Society has been saying it for years – "faith schools" are a bad idea. And despite the events of the past few months in Birmingham, the simple message still hasn't got through to the politicians who are responsible for the education system: religious schools are the problem, not the answer. The Church of England is about to launch another great tranche of schools that they'll run but the taxpayer will pay for.
Under the Gove regime, with its promotion of academies and free schools, which give religious proselytisers virtual carte blanche to promote all kinds of questionable religious ideologies, the situation has worsened.
With a host of religious proselytisers out there desperate to get access to those pesky children who obdurately will not attend their churches and mosques, the free schools and academies are – in their terms – a God-send.
Read more here: National Secular Society - Yes, “faith schools” really are the problem
After being taken to task on Twitter for expressing the view that faith schools were (a) State-subsidised brainwashing and (b) psychologically damaging for those forced to attend them because the State cannot, or will not, provide children with places in secular schools, I reckon this article needs a wider audience
Tuesday, 8 July 2014
Why so many chiropractors advise against immunisation | Edzard Ernst
My 2008 evaluation of chiropractic concluded that the concepts of chiropractic are not based on solid science and its therapeutic value has not been demonstrated beyond reasonable doubt. It also pointed out that the advice of chiropractors often is dangerous and not in the best interest of the patient: many chiropractors have a very disturbed attitude towards immunisation: anti-vaccination attitudes still abound within the chiropractic profession. Despite a growing body of evidence about the safety and efficacy of vaccination, many chiropractors do not believe in vaccination, will not recommend it to their patients, and place emphasis on risk rather than benefit.
In case you wonder where this odd behaviour comes from, you best look into the history of chiropractic. D. D. Palmer, the magnetic healer who ‘invented’ chiropractic about 120 years ago, left no doubt about his profound disgust for immunisation: “It is the very height of absurdity to strive to ‘protect’ any person from smallpox and other malady by inoculating them with a filthy animal poison… No one will ever pollute the blood of any member of my family unless he cares to walk over my dead body… ” (D. D. Palmer, 1910)
D. D. Palmer’s son, B. J. Palmer (after literally walking [actually it was driving] over his father’s body) provided a much more detailed explanation for chiropractors’ rejection of immunisation: “Chiropractors have found in every disease that is supposed to be contagious, a cause in the spine. In the spinal column we will find a subluxation that corresponds to every type of disease… If we had one hundred cases of small-pox, I can prove to you, in one, you will find a subluxation and you will find the same condition in the other ninety-nine. I adjust one and return his function to normal… There is no contagious disease… There is no infection…The idea of poisoning healthy people with vaccine virus… is irrational. People make a great ado if exposed to a contagious disease, but they submit to being inoculated with rotten pus, which if it takes, is warranted to give them a disease” (B. J. Palmer, 1909)
Read more here: Why so many chiropractors advise against immunisation
In case you wonder where this odd behaviour comes from, you best look into the history of chiropractic. D. D. Palmer, the magnetic healer who ‘invented’ chiropractic about 120 years ago, left no doubt about his profound disgust for immunisation: “It is the very height of absurdity to strive to ‘protect’ any person from smallpox and other malady by inoculating them with a filthy animal poison… No one will ever pollute the blood of any member of my family unless he cares to walk over my dead body… ” (D. D. Palmer, 1910)
D. D. Palmer’s son, B. J. Palmer (after literally walking [actually it was driving] over his father’s body) provided a much more detailed explanation for chiropractors’ rejection of immunisation: “Chiropractors have found in every disease that is supposed to be contagious, a cause in the spine. In the spinal column we will find a subluxation that corresponds to every type of disease… If we had one hundred cases of small-pox, I can prove to you, in one, you will find a subluxation and you will find the same condition in the other ninety-nine. I adjust one and return his function to normal… There is no contagious disease… There is no infection…The idea of poisoning healthy people with vaccine virus… is irrational. People make a great ado if exposed to a contagious disease, but they submit to being inoculated with rotten pus, which if it takes, is warranted to give them a disease” (B. J. Palmer, 1909)
Read more here: Why so many chiropractors advise against immunisation
Answers in Genesis on Biblical climate change
In a despairing attempt to cleanse my mind of the insanity propounded as fact by homeopaths, I have gratefully seized upon a link tweeted by @PHSJonas containing, er, a prime example of the insanity on climate change, aka global warming, propounded as fact by creationist Christians.
This particular sample of Stupid dates from 2010 and was detected on the outrageously moronic Answers in Genesis webshite. AiG is run by a smug, simpering bampot called Ken Ham, who self-identifies as a “global warming skeptic”. He and his cronies promote young-earth creationism, because the Bible. The Bible is, they say, solid scientific fact – despite all the very solid evidence to the contrary (see some of Dragonblaze’s posts for examples). All AiG’s arguments stem from that untenable premise. There’s even a hilariously fuckwitted rant by Ham in sour grapes mode over Bill Nye – US TV’s “Science Guy”, who comprehensively wiped the … Continue reading
The post Answers in Genesis on Biblical climate change by Anarchic Teapot first appeared on Plague of Mice .
This particular sample of Stupid dates from 2010 and was detected on the outrageously moronic Answers in Genesis webshite. AiG is run by a smug, simpering bampot called Ken Ham, who self-identifies as a “global warming skeptic”. He and his cronies promote young-earth creationism, because the Bible. The Bible is, they say, solid scientific fact – despite all the very solid evidence to the contrary (see some of Dragonblaze’s posts for examples). All AiG’s arguments stem from that untenable premise. There’s even a hilariously fuckwitted rant by Ham in sour grapes mode over Bill Nye – US TV’s “Science Guy”, who comprehensively wiped the … Continue reading
The post Answers in Genesis on Biblical climate change by Anarchic Teapot first appeared on Plague of Mice .
Monday, 7 July 2014
Who is to blame for all the measles? | The Poxes Blog
There’s a massive outbreak of measles underway in China. It’s big, really big:
But this post is not about China. It’s about the good ol’ US of A. We have a somewhat robust public health system that, in my humble opinion and when it comes to immunization, is probably up there with the best in the world. There is no child in this country that does not have access to immunizations. If you have a child in the most remote corners of this country, you can get them vaccinated at little to no cost, especially against the killers like whooping cough and measles. So why do we have measles making a comeback here in the US? Is it just the anti-vaccine crew that have done this to us? (Don’t be fooled, it is us, you and me, that will be affected if vaccine-preventable diseases make a comeback.)...
Read the full story by Reuben on Who is to blame for all the measles? | The Poxes Blog
“In the first five months of 2014, China has reported nearly 36,000 cases of measles, well over the 27,646 cases reported for all of 2013 and almost six times the number reported in 2012.”In a country with that many people (over 1.3 billion at last count), 36 thousand cases may not seem like a lot. It’s 0.003%, but remember that we don’t do math that way in epidemiology. We divide 36,000 by the number at risk, and the number at risk is indicated by the number who are not vaccinated or have lost their immunity due to disease (e.g. cancer) or treatment for a disease (e.g. cancer, again). That number, the number at risk, is pretty much uncertain because the public health infrastructure in China is, well, lacking.
But this post is not about China. It’s about the good ol’ US of A. We have a somewhat robust public health system that, in my humble opinion and when it comes to immunization, is probably up there with the best in the world. There is no child in this country that does not have access to immunizations. If you have a child in the most remote corners of this country, you can get them vaccinated at little to no cost, especially against the killers like whooping cough and measles. So why do we have measles making a comeback here in the US? Is it just the anti-vaccine crew that have done this to us? (Don’t be fooled, it is us, you and me, that will be affected if vaccine-preventable diseases make a comeback.)...
Read the full story by Reuben on Who is to blame for all the measles? | The Poxes Blog
What really annoys scientists about the state of the climate change debate?
“Don’t shoot the messenger,” so the saying goes.
But what if that message warns we might want to rethink that whole fossil fuel burning thing pretty quick because it could seriously alter civilization and the natural world for centuries to come, and not in a good way?
Time to get the bullets out and start firing, obviously.
Climate scientists have been trying to dodge, catch or deflect those bullets for decades.
They are now all too used to being shot at, kicked and maligned as their findings are misunderstood, misrepresented, trivialised or booted around like footballs between politicians and other warring ideological factions and self-interested industry groups.
But if they had to pick one thing, what is it that really gets them annoyed?
When the public tries to understand the implications of their scientific findings – or just understand the findings themselves – what’s the most common mistake they see?
When the media gets hold of their findings, what makes climate scientists chuck a shoe, ice core or physics textbook at the screen in frustration?
I decided to ask a few leading climate scientists from around the globe to articulate that one thing that leaves them totally tacked off.
Some struggled to pick only a single bugbear (one even called to apologise for taking too long, so spoilt for choice were they), others took the chance to uncompromisingly unload their frustrations.
Here’s what they had to say...
Read the rest on Skeptical Science: What really annoys scientists about the state of the climate change debate?
But what if that message warns we might want to rethink that whole fossil fuel burning thing pretty quick because it could seriously alter civilization and the natural world for centuries to come, and not in a good way?
Time to get the bullets out and start firing, obviously.
Climate scientists have been trying to dodge, catch or deflect those bullets for decades.
They are now all too used to being shot at, kicked and maligned as their findings are misunderstood, misrepresented, trivialised or booted around like footballs between politicians and other warring ideological factions and self-interested industry groups.
But if they had to pick one thing, what is it that really gets them annoyed?
When the public tries to understand the implications of their scientific findings – or just understand the findings themselves – what’s the most common mistake they see?
When the media gets hold of their findings, what makes climate scientists chuck a shoe, ice core or physics textbook at the screen in frustration?
I decided to ask a few leading climate scientists from around the globe to articulate that one thing that leaves them totally tacked off.
Some struggled to pick only a single bugbear (one even called to apologise for taking too long, so spoilt for choice were they), others took the chance to uncompromisingly unload their frustrations.
Here’s what they had to say...
Read the rest on Skeptical Science: What really annoys scientists about the state of the climate change debate?
Sunday, 6 July 2014
Water memory tests all wet: A reassessment of the Benveniste experiments by a D.V.M. | Association for Science and Reason
An issue of Ontario Skeptic contained a letter from Paul
Greenwood, (“Science is open to radical, new ideas”) reporting on the
“water memory” experiments of Dr. J. Benveniste, and offering the
publication of these experiments as evidence of the willingness of the
scientific community to examine new and unconventional ideas.
As most skeptics will realize, the claim that solutions can retain their effect when diluted many times, and indeed that the effect increases with dilution, is one of the fundamental tenets of the fringe medicine of homeopathy, but runs contrary to current knowledge in chemistry and biology. The results of this experiment, if validated, would therefore have lent credence to the claims of homeopaths.
However, additional information has come to light which forces us to reassess this research and its publication.
The initial report appeared in the June 30, 1988 issue of the British journal Nature, Vol. 333. Its results were sufficiently unusual that the editor of Nature began that issue with an editorial titled, “When to believe the unbelievable”. It is worth quoting extensively from that editorial...
Water memory tests all wet: A reassessment of the Benveniste experiments by a D.V.M. | Association for Science and Reason
As most skeptics will realize, the claim that solutions can retain their effect when diluted many times, and indeed that the effect increases with dilution, is one of the fundamental tenets of the fringe medicine of homeopathy, but runs contrary to current knowledge in chemistry and biology. The results of this experiment, if validated, would therefore have lent credence to the claims of homeopaths.
However, additional information has come to light which forces us to reassess this research and its publication.
The initial report appeared in the June 30, 1988 issue of the British journal Nature, Vol. 333. Its results were sufficiently unusual that the editor of Nature began that issue with an editorial titled, “When to believe the unbelievable”. It is worth quoting extensively from that editorial...
Water memory tests all wet: A reassessment of the Benveniste experiments by a D.V.M. | Association for Science and Reason
Laurie J Willberg exposes the skeptic agenda
It’s looking remarkably like the brains – if you’ll excuse the expression – behind the Extraordinary Medicine webshite is none other than Laurie J Willberg. She certainly writes a helluva lot for it: long rambling posts that any other blogger would split up into several separate ones. An extreme example of this is the would-be satirical exposé entitled Media Skeptics : A Popcorn Gallery, which would provide enough material for 3 or 4 normal posts, even for Orac. It’s got her name on the byline in the middle of it, so I assume the whole purulent screed is hers.
Now, remember: Ms Willberg claims to be a journalist. Therefore, the quality of her research and writing are both very much under scrutiny. Feel free to snigger in the comments, as there’s so much literary incompetence there’s no way I can encompass it all. To compound this, the meta info on the site boasts the keywords “literature, author, writing, entertainment, book, stories, narration, novel”. No, seriously. Go see for yourselves. Meanwhile, I’m … Continue reading
The post Laurie J Willberg exposes the skeptic agenda by Anarchic Teapot first appeared on Plague of Mice .
Now, remember: Ms Willberg claims to be a journalist. Therefore, the quality of her research and writing are both very much under scrutiny. Feel free to snigger in the comments, as there’s so much literary incompetence there’s no way I can encompass it all. To compound this, the meta info on the site boasts the keywords “literature, author, writing, entertainment, book, stories, narration, novel”. No, seriously. Go see for yourselves. Meanwhile, I’m … Continue reading
The post Laurie J Willberg exposes the skeptic agenda by Anarchic Teapot first appeared on Plague of Mice .
Friday, 4 July 2014
Laurie J Willberg on the rebound effect
Homeopaths are great ones for a complete lack of self-awareness. Recently, a couple of notorious yapping dogs on Twitter gave us their considered legal opinions on this post about Ellen Kramer and her College for Practical Homeopathy: @BrownBagPantry @anarchic_teapot @JeromeJB It's the vile and libellous rant on his blog that's even more outrageous and slimy. — Laurie J. Willberg (@LaurieJWillberg) June 18, 2014 Hermann-Courtney, you’ll recall, is the unpleasant bit of work who tweets that homeopathy can cure rabies and cancer, and then complains bitterly about nasty bullying sceptics asking for evidence. Laurie J Willberg crawled out of the woodwork a few months ago. As I recall, her first tweet to me was an insult. Not complaining, you understand; I don’t give a used anal condom over the opinion of the likes of them. Just setting the scene. That’s Laurie J Willberg there, from her Homeopathy World Community profile (HWC … Continue reading
The post Laurie J Willberg on the rebound effect by Anarchic Teapot first appeared on Plague of Mice .
The post Laurie J Willberg on the rebound effect by Anarchic Teapot first appeared on Plague of Mice .
Thursday, 3 July 2014
Meet the people who would dictate your health care - WWDDTYDTY
It’s time for the double-barrelled WDDTY-McTaggart spam shoot again. Seriously, what idiot imagined that sending subscribers to one list exactly the same emails from a second list they never signed up for was a smart marketing move? Oh, right, McTaggart. Who else?
McTaggart’s clearly getting jittery, and it’s everybody’s fault but
hers that her precious monthly bundle of lies is under attack. This is
just in:Meet the people who would dictate your health careDictate health care? Isn’t that a bit over the top? I haven’t seen anybody in Parliament sponsoring a Bill to prevent people refusing treatment, even for serious conditions, and opting for dumbfuckery.
Meet the people who would dictate your health care � WWDDTYDTY
Nancy Malik isn't even trying to feign good faith - Plague of Mice
While the Blessed McTaggart shrieks “VICTIMISATION” and publishes the names and addresses of random people, because Tesco have reportedly stopped stocking her monthly ill-spelt and worse-written compendium of criminal Stupid – not so much because of skeptic complaints, but because it wasn’t selling – other quacks are also quietly telling large porkies. Take that old favourite Nancy Malik, for example. She’s in fine form right now.
To recap: Nancy Malik claims to be a medical professional and proudly displays her qualifications here. Unfortunately, all her qualifications are in witch-doctoring, aka homeopathy, and therefore not only is she not a medical professional, her diplomas aren’t worth a monkey’s. Her blog is entitled Science-based Homeopathy, a clear attempt to ape the far more prestigious and reputable Science-based Medicine. The latter is a group blog, with a number of contributors who are internationally respected for being bloody good at what they do in …Continue reading
The post Nancy Malik isn’t even trying to feign good faith by Anarchic Teapot first appeared on Plague of Mice.
To recap: Nancy Malik claims to be a medical professional and proudly displays her qualifications here. Unfortunately, all her qualifications are in witch-doctoring, aka homeopathy, and therefore not only is she not a medical professional, her diplomas aren’t worth a monkey’s. Her blog is entitled Science-based Homeopathy, a clear attempt to ape the far more prestigious and reputable Science-based Medicine. The latter is a group blog, with a number of contributors who are internationally respected for being bloody good at what they do in …Continue reading
The post Nancy Malik isn’t even trying to feign good faith by Anarchic Teapot first appeared on Plague of Mice.
Wednesday, 2 July 2014
WDDTY goes “the full Errol” @ Guy Chapman's Blahg
They do say that one should always walk a mile in
the other man’s shoes, but this is best not done when the other man is
Error “Errol” Denton. WDDTY have, however, chosen to follow the
convicted cancer quack down the road of declaring that any scrutiny of
thier bogus claims is a personal vendetta, and to retaliate in kind.
They don’t seem terribly happy that their rather obvious straw man was
summarily demolished yesterday, and their response has been
spectacularly vitriolic, not to say batshit insane.
MEET THE PEOPLE WHO WOULD DICTATE YOUR HEALTH CAREBzzzzt! Wrong. Our agenda is simple and straightforward...
Read the rest here: WDDTY goes “the full Errol” @ Guy Chapman's Blahg
Tuesday, 1 July 2014
It's official: WDDTY have lost - WWDDTYDTY
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We have arrived at a turning point. Tesco have dropped WDDTY, and the editors know that this is the beginning of the end of their attempt to appear to be a legitimate magazine.he Facebook post captured at right, from WDDTY’s wall, where all dissenting views are ruthlessly excised because free speech. Notice two things:... |
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