A gentle ethical defence of doing nothing

I’m going to tell you about an amazing new alternative therapy that you should consider. It’s called procrasteopathy, and its treatment modality is exactly what the name suggests: procrastination. For whatever condition you believe you have, the treatment is simply to find something else to be getting on with. Licensed procrasteopaths work with patients to find exactly what sort of procrastination will fit best with their lifestyles. Unlike boring, reductive Western medicine, practiced by boring, reductive colonialists, procrasteopaths target their treatment specifically to you as a whole person. They are treating the whole you, not just your disease...

 Read more: A gentle ethical defence of doing nothing by Tom Morris

Some chiropractors quite simply adore me!!!

“Dr” Brian Moravec is a chiropractor from the US; he has a website where he describes himself and his skills as follows:

I attended Chiropractic College and I am a graduate of Palmer College of Chiropractic in Davenport Iowa. I earned a Bachelor of Science degree as well as my Doctor of Chiropractic degree from Palmer College, which is the first chiropractic college in the world and the origin of our profession. I also attend continuing education seminars designed to keep doctors current with regard to clinical chiropractic, technique and nutrition...

Read on! Some chiropractors quite simply adore me!!! by Edzard Ernst

The chiropractic attempt to have the cake and eat it has failed

One of the problems regularly encountered when evaluating the effectiveness of chiropractic spinal manipulation is that there are numerous chiropractic spinal manipulative techniques and clinical trials rarely provide an exact means of differentiating between them. Faced with a negative studies, chiropractors might therefore argue that the result was negative because the wrong techniques were used; therefore they might insist that it does not reflect chiropractic in a wider sense. Others claim that even a substantial body of negative evidence does not apply to chiropractic as a whole because there is a multitude of techniques that have not yet been properly tested. It seems as though the chiropractic profession wants the cake and eat it...

Read the full story of The chiropractic attempt to have the cake and eat it has failed by Edzard Ernst

The difference between them and us

I was talking to an anti-vaccine activist the other day, and she said that scientists, doctors, and anyone else who believed in the science of vaccines were “blindly devoted to the religion of vaccines.” I almost laughed in her face, but I was trying to be civil. After all, the woman had ventured into an institution of higher knowledge to have this debate. She was like a fish out of water as it was clear that she had no formal training in science, and she admitted to those present that she knew all she needed to know through her experience of being a mother of a child with autism.

I’ve never been tossed an easier softball for me to hit out of the park, but I just sat there and listened to what she had to say. She began her tale by telling us about her “stolen” child and how that child is now 5 and starting kindergarten..

Read more at: The difference between them and us by Reuben

Vaccination: chiropractors “espouse views which aren’t evidence based”

Influenza kills thousands of people every year. Immunisation could prevent many of these deaths. Those at particularly high risk, e. g. young children, individuals aged 65 and older and people with severe diseases in their medical history, are therefore encouraged to get immunised. Nova Scotia health officials have just started their annual flu shot campaign. Now they are warning about some anti-flu vaccine literature being distributed by a chiropractor.

The leaflets from local chiropractic clinics suggest that flu shots increase the risk of a child ending up in hospital and link Alzheimer’s disease to flu shots. When questioned about this, the chair of the Nova Scotia College of Chiropractors defended this misinformation and claimed the author of the pamphlet did his homework. “Chiropractic is really pro information. Look at the positive, look at the negative, look at both sides, get your information and make the appropriate decision that’s right for you,” he said...

Read the rest here Vaccination: chiropractors “espouse views which aren’t evidence based” by Edzard Ernst

Lynne McTaggart - HELP US DO IT AGAIN - Plague of Mice

I grow weary of her delusional rants. I even tried to unsubscribe from a mailing list I never subscribed to in the first place, but Alex at WDDTY-dot-com cares little for such niceties. If you want updates on the latest deadly antics of WDDTY (prop. L. McTaggart and A. Hubby) and its editorial team, you will be forcibly subscribed to updates from the ill-written egowank that McTaggart calls a blog.

So the Blessed McFuckwit continues, regardless of others’ wishes, with her self-pitying spam. She, who apparently thinks she intuitively knows about Science – see the slogan used to flog her pathetically deluded Happy Thoughts Via The Fundamental Interconnectedness Of All Things shite – objects violently to being contradicted by science. As, once again, we will see…

 Read the full story here: Lynne McTaggart - HELP US DO IT AGAIN - Plague of Mice

The Saatchi bill won’t find a cure for cancer, but it will encourage charlatans

Maurice Nathan Saatchi, Baron Saatchi is an advertising man who, with his brother, Charles Saatchi ("why tell the truth when a good lie will do?"), became very rich by advertising cigarettes and the Conservative party. After his second wife died of cancer he introduced a private members bill in the House of Lords in 2012. The Medical Innovation Bill came back to the Lords for its second reading on 24 October 2014...

Read the rest at: DC's Improbable Science

A decent trial of ear-acupuncture? (Don’t let this spoil your National Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine Day!)

A reader of this blog recently sent me the following message: “Looks like this group followed you recent post about how to perform a CAM RCT!” A link directed me to a new trial of ear-acupuncture. Today is ‘national acupuncture and oriental medicine day’ in the US, a good occasion perhaps to have a critical look at it.

The aim of this study was to assess the effectiveness of ear acupressure and massage vs. control in the improvement of pain, anxiety and depression in persons diagnosed with dementia.

Read on: A decent trial of ear-acupuncture? (Don’t let this spoil your National Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine Day!) by Edzard Ernst

Just in time for Halloween, an anti-vaccine “expert” rises like a zombie

I was looking through the blog’s stats the other day, and I found out that a ton of people were checking out the post about Peter Doshi, PhD. You know the one? The one where I explain to you that Peter Doshi, PhD is not an epidemiologist and how his attempt at epidemiology, at explaining to his audience that the flu is not that bad and that flu deaths were not really flu deaths, how all of that was pretty goddamn awful. Well, his screeds are back, and the anti-vaccine and conspiracy theory websites are plastering it all over the place. Lucky for humanity that people are skeptical about his claims, go and Google his name, and come to this blog...

Read more at: Just in time for Halloween, an anti-vaccine “expert” rises like a zombie by Reuben

Lynne McTaggart attacks critics with blatant lies

Lynne McTaggart tweets: “Last year drug-company lobbyists tried to ban WDDTY – but we WON. Please vote us Health Website of the Year TODAY”. This is of course a malicious lie – if she had any evidence she would already have published it. The sole grounds for this mendacious claim appears to be that McTaggart’s only experience is with people whose writing is blatant shilling for their own commercial interests; as a result, she does not seem to be able to understand any motive other than naked profit.

Now read on….

The post Lynne McTaggart attacks critics with blatant lies by wwddtydty appeared first on WWDDTYDTY.

Are they happily selling you bogus remedies? Respond like Mark Twain!

Some time ago, my wife and I had the visit of a French couple. They came from Britany by ferry, and when we picked them up in Plymouth we saw two very pale, sick individuals staggering from the boat. It had been a rough crossing, and they had been sea-sick for 7 hours – enough to lose the will to live! “Why did you not take something against it?” we asked. “But we did”, they replied, “we even went especially to a pharmacy at home to get professional advice. They sold us this medication, but it just did not work.” To my amazement they showed me a homeopathic remedy marketed against sea-sickness in France...

Read on: Are they happily selling you bogus remedies? Respond like Mark Twain! by Edzard Ernst

How to convince the world that vaccines are the ultimate evil. Step one: Buy yourself a Congressman

What do you do if you’re in desperate need of some sort of validation about your misguided, uninformed, fraud-driven beliefs about vaccines? Do you fund more research into vaccine technology and how to make it “safer”? Do you use your money to fund autism programs that look to make the lives of autistics better at all levels? Or do you find a Congressman who will believe your drivel and give you some sort of credibility and pour money into his coffer?

If you’re a reasonable person, and you have a lot of money, and you’re worried about autistics, you would be inclined to fund organizations and programs that look to advocate for autistics (and other people with developmental disabilities). You might contact your representatives in Congress, maybe even the President, but you would know better than to give them any money directly. After all, you’re always going to have an elected representative. There is always going to be someone to answer the phone when you call Congress. So why give money to them? Let them get their own money...

Read more at: How to convince the world that vaccines are the ultimate evil. Step one: Buy yourself a Congressman by Reuben

Welcome, minions!

Well, well, well. It seems that this old blog got some sort of an enormous boost over the last 48 hours. As a result, I want to take a moment and welcome all the new readers. Now, most of you are here because you are interested in my blog post about one Dr. Peter Doshi, PhD. However, if you look around the blog, you’ll see that I cover a whole range of other issues, 99% of them having to do with science denialism and its consequences. The other 1% is just me on a rant.

Read more at: Welcome, minions! by Reuben

Homeopathy works for animals – so it can’t be a placebo!

Whenever I give a public lecture about homeopathy, I explain what it is, briefly go in to its history, explain what its assumptions are, and what the evidence tells us about its efficacy and safety. When I am finished, there usually is a discussion with the audience. This is the part I like best; in fact, it is the main reason why I made the effort to do the lecture in the first place.

The questions vary, of course, but you can bet your last shirt that someone asks: “We know it works for animals; animals cannot experience a placebo-response, and therefore your claim that homeopathy relies on nothing but the placebo-effect must be wrong!” At this stage I often despair a little, I must admit. Not because the question is too daft, but because I did address it during my lecture. Thus I feel that I have failed to get the right message across – I despair with my obviously poor skills of giving an informative lecture!

Read on: Homeopathy works for animals – so it can’t be a placebo! by Edzard Ernst

Autism ‘caused by MMR using human fetal cell lines’

Another month, another paper flogging the zombie meme of MMR-Autism. This time in a superficially decent journal, albeit one where the subject is likely to be outside the specialist knowledge of peer reviewers (public health specialists are not normally going to be geneticists).

Impact of environmental factors on the prevalence of autistic disorder after 1979,…

The post Autism ‘caused by MMR using human fetal cell lines’ by wwddtydty appeared first on WWDDTYDTY.

Fish oil might reduce the risk of suffering from rheumatoid arthritis

For this blog, I am constantly on the lookout for ‘positive news’ about alternative medicine. Admittedly, I rarely find any.

All the more delighted I was when I found this new study aimed to analyse the association between dietary long-chain n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) and incidence of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) in middle-aged and older women.

Data on diet were collected in 1987 and 1997 via a self-administered food-frequency questionnaire (FFQ)...

Read on: Fish oil might reduce the risk of suffering from rheumatoid arthritis by Edzard Ernst

We are all Batman, kind of

This is the tenth post not having anything to do with vaccines.

Thank. The. Lord.

I wanted to talk to you about something that has been on my radar the last few weeks as school has resumed and some of my students have been asking me for my background. They seem to want to know who this guy standing in front of them talking about epidemiology is and why they should listen to him. I wanted to point out my degrees, but that would have been too easy. After all, they have the syllabus. They know what my degrees are. Instead, I talked to them about my work...

Read more at: We are all Batman, kind of by Reuben

Tory MP David Tredinnick: “perhaps the worst example of scientific illiteracy in government.” But is he also a liar?

I know, I have written about this guy before – and I am likely to do so again – he is just too outstanding to pass by!

A few days ago, he was in the headlines again: the Conservative health committee member David Tredinnick insisted that herbal medicine and even astrology should be given to patients in order to plug a growing hole in the NHS-budget: “I have referred to the fact that in some cultures astrology is part of healthcare because they need to have a voice and I’ve got up and said that,” he told Channel Four News. “But I also think we can reduce the bill by using a whole range of alternative medicine including herbal medicine, acupuncture, homeopathy…We could probably save five per cent of the [NHS] budget.”

Unbelievably, a man with such views is a member of the science and technology committee! This really does instil trust in politics!!!

Read on: Tory MP David Tredinnick: “perhaps the worst example of scientific illiteracy in government.” But is he also a liar? by Edzard Ernst.

A crash course on Ebola you should be reading right now

This is the ninth blog post that has nothing to do with vaccines. I’m glad because I’m getting a rash from not writing about them.

With all the craziness going on about Ebola, a friend decided to give us his epidemiological perspective on Ebola. Here is the first lesson, and here is the second one. You should go read them.

Seriously, go. I won’t feel bad if you do...

Read more at: A crash course on Ebola you should be reading right now by Reuben

Teething problems in homeopathy’s wonderland? | Edzard Ernst

I just came across this hilarious yet revealing article by Italian authors defending homeopathy. It is far too remarkable to keep it for myself, and I therefore decided to quote its abstract here in full:

Throughout its over 200-year history, homeopathy has been proven effective in treating diseases for which conventional medicine has little to offer. However, given its low cost, homeopathy has always represented a serious challenge and a constant threat to the profits of drug companies. Moreover, since drug companies represent the most relevant source of funding for biomedical research worldwide, they are in a privileged position to finance detractive campaigns against homeopathy by manipulating ...

Read the full story here: Teething problems in homeopathy’s wonderland?

Someone wasted their time in biostats class

There have been many times when I’m standing before master of public health (MPH) students, giving them a presentation on epidemiology, and I wonder how any of them can even put on their shoes in the morning. Don’t get me wrong; they’re bright students. Don’t get me wrong; they’re bright students. Many of them have graduated from college with impressive grades and great projects. They wouldn’t be in these top-notch universities if they were not bright. (Or if their benefactors didn’t see brightness in them.) Still, I’m not surprised when I see many of those kids getting an MPH in epidemiology and not become epidemiologist...

Read more at: Someone wasted their time in biostats class by Reuben

New evidence on the risks of acupuncture | Edzard Ernst

Here and elsewhere, I have repeatedly written about the many things that can go wrong with acupuncture. This invariably annoys acupuncture fans who usually counter by accusing me of being alarmist. Despite their opposition, I continue to think it is important to regularly point out that acupuncture – contrary to what many acupuncturists would tell us – can result in serious injury. I will therefore carry on reporting new evidence about the harm caused by acupuncture. Here is a very brief review of new (2014) articles on this important topic.

A recent study found that the incidence of any adverse events per patient was 42.4% with traditional acupuncture, 40.7% with minimal acupuncture and 16.7% with non-invasive sham acupuncture. These figures are much higher than those around 10% previously reported...

Read more: New evidence on the risks of acupuncture

Beware of the ‘new-born holists’ | Edzard Ernst

There are few concepts in medicine which are more often abused than that of ‘holistic medicine’. Professor Baum and many other well-reasoned observers have pointed out that:

“true holism in medicine is an open-ended and exquisitely complex understanding of human biology that over time has led to spectacular improvements in the length and quality of life of patients with cancer and that this approach encourages us to consider the transcendental as much as the cell and molecular biology of the human organism. ‘Alternative’ versions of holism are arid and closed belief systems, locked in a time warp, incapable of making progress yet quick to deny it in the field of scientific medicine.”

Read on: Beware of the ‘new-born holists’

MMR mother lied over vaccine injury | Brian Deer

A British “mother warrior”, who claimed that the combined measles, mumps and rubella vaccine is responsible for autism, fabricated accounts of injury to her son and persistently lied about his health, a London court has ruled.

The mother, “E”, who cannot be named so as to protect her son’s identity, concocted a story about how he reacted to an MMR shot in January 1991. She said that he became distressed with fever and then lost speech, eye contact and play immediately following his three-in-one at the age of 18 months.

She claimed that he screamed after immunization, and that this was followed by six hours of convulsions and vomiting, and then six months in a “persistent vegetative state”.

But in a landmark 45,000-word judgment, which entered the public domain from the Court of Protection last week, the mother was dismissed as a manipulative liar. It was found that she had made up the story so as to bring attention to herself and had plied her developmentally delayed son, "M", with a mass of sometimes bizarre "biomedical" interventions so as to gain "total control" over his life.

"The critical facts established in this case can be summarized as follows," said High Court judge Mr Justice Baker. "M has autistic spectrum disorder. There is no evidence that his autism was caused by the MMR vaccination. His parents' account of an adverse reaction to that vaccination is fabricated."

Read the full report here, with links to Court judgements, etc: MMR mother lied over vaccine injury

Healing, hype or harm? | Edzard Ernst

‘Healing, hype or harm? A critical analysis of complementary or alternative medicine’ is the title of a book that I edited and that was published in 2008. Its publication date coincided with that of ‘Trick or Treatment?’ and therefore the former was almost completely over-shadowed by the latter. Consequently few people know about it. This is a shame, I think, and this post is dedicated to encouraging my readers to have a look at ‘Healing, hype or harm?’

Read more: Healing, hype or harm?

Things Chiropractors Say

This is a blog containing 10 posts written in November 2013, covering the range of dangerous quackery touted by chiropractors.The author uses a nom de net, as he or she claims to have already been subject to bullying by quacks. Haven't we all? Ask S.L. Singh. Even at my far more modest level, I've seen desperate attempts by bullshit hucksters - whose names I can most likely guess - to find my legal identity and home address.

The link below is to the first post. I urge you to read the whole blog. It won't take long.

Things Chiropractors Say: Introduction, Including Conflict of Interest

Homeopathic medicines: another one hits the dust | Edzard Ernst

Most pharmacies worldwide sell any bogus treatment to their unsuspecting customers, it seems – as long as it makes a profit, anything goes! Not in New Zealand!

The New Zealand’s Pharmacy Council’s Safe Effective Pharmacy Practice Code of Ethics 2011 section 6.9 requires of pharmacists that:

“YOU MUST… Only purchase, supply or promote any medicine, complementary therapy, herbal remedy or other healthcare product where there is no reason to doubt its quality or safety and when there is credible evidence of efficacy.”

 Homeopathic medicines: another one hits the dust

Dietary supplements: often more than we bargained for | Edzard Ernst

Many experts have warned us that, when we opt for dietary supplements, we might get more than we bargained for. A recent article reminded us that:

the increased availability and use of botanical dietary supplements and herbal remedies among consumers has been accompanied by an increased frequency of adulteration of these products with synthetic pharmaceuticals. Unscrupulous producers may add drugs and analogues of various classes, such as phosphodiesterase type 5 (PDE-5) inhibitors, weight loss, hypoglycemic, antihypertensive and anti-inflammatory agents, or anabolic steroids, to develop or intensify biological effects of dietary supplements or herbal remedies. The presence of such adulterated products in the marketplace is a worldwide problem and their consumption poses health risks to consumers.

Read the rest here: Dietary supplements: often more than we bargained for

What Zombies Don’t Tell You

You know, it’s a mystery why this title did not occur to us sooner. 

 

Be that as it may, @GezBlair alerts us to the NHS Choices response to the life-after-death story: Questions about life after death remain unanswered. We mention this for completeness and because it’s a timely reminder that NHS Choices is the perfect…
The post What Zombies Don’t Tell You by wwddtydty appeared first on WWDDTYDTY.

Homeopath Finds a Cure for Ebola: Violin Music | The Quackometer Blog

Peter Chappell has previous form. I wrote in 2007 how he was creating MP3 files that he claimed could treat Malaria and HIV. The Society of Homeopaths held a symposium to discuss his ideas.

Chappell now has a new web site: http://boosters4africa.com/. On this site he is promoting a new MP3 file that plays some violin music. He claims that listening to these files can treat and prevent ebola...

Read more on this dangerous insanity here: Homeopath Finds a Cure for Ebola: Violin Music | The Quackometer Blog

Homeopathic uranium 200X and similarly bizarre stories | Edzard Ernst

Have you ever wondered why homeopathic remedies cost relatively much money? The less they contain, the more expensive they seem to be. The typical homeopathic remedy contains not a single molecule of what it says on the bottle, yet it can cost quite a lot. Why?

The reason is, of course, that these remedies are ‘potentized’ – meaning that the starting material is diluted and subsequently ‘succussed’. The latter term describes the process of vigorously shaking the remedy at each dilution step. Succussion is essential for transferring the life-energy from one dilution to the next, homeopaths insist. The most commonly used OTC remedies are in the ‘C30′ potency. This means that some pharmacist had to do 30 dilutions 1: 100, and each time he or she made a new dilution, he or she had to do the vigorous shaking as well...

Read the rest here: Homeopathic uranium 200X and similarly bizarre stories

We survive death, major scientific study "proves" - WWDDTYDTY

Unusually quick off the mark, new-age hippy dippy loon Lynne McTaggart is trumpeting a new study that “proves” we live after death.

Spoiler: it proves no such thing, and in fact it can’t even really be said to conclude it, other than in the sense that the lead researcher started with a conclusion and worked back...

Read the whole sorry mess here: We survive death, major scientific study "proves" - WWDDTYDTY

Fight the quacklash

We in the reality-based community always wonder why quacks and cranks are unable to understand any motive other than profit. After all, it’s not as if their entire industry is founded on charlatans seeking to profit from the misery of others, is it? Oh, hang on… As a loyal “pharma-sponsored troll” it would be remiss…

The post Fight the quacklash by wwddtydty appeared first on WWDDTYDTY.

Chronic Lying Disease part 2

Chronic Lyme disease does not exist. The patients' symptoms are real enough but there is no evidence of the pathogen responsible for Lyme, and the preferred quack treatment, long courses of strong antibiotics, is dangerous and worthless. WDDTY take this toxic mess, mix in homeopathy and a sprinkling of anti-vaccinationism, and serve up the perfect WDDTY story: wrong in every possible way, and dangerously misleading with it.
The post Chronic Lying Disease part 2 by wwddtydty appeared first on WWDDTYDTY.

Age of Autism makes fun of Autism, draws in the AIDS denialists

This is the seventh post that has nothing to do with vaccines, for the most part.

Age of Autism, the web “newspaper” of the “autism epidemic” had a blog post that was supposed to be poking fun at the CDC response to autism, but it fell flat:

“Dr. Tom Insel, who is the nation’s leading expert in funneling funds away from research that seeks to pinpoint causation or could lead to cure, has been pulled from his post as head of the Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee to head up the HeEbeeGeeBee program...

Read more at: Age of Autism makes fun of Autism, draws in the AIDS denialists by Reuben

Acupuncture for anxiety? Rubbish in, rubbish out! | Edzard Ernst

One of the most commonly ‘accepted’ indications for acupuncture is anxiety. Many trials have suggested that it is effective for that condition. But is this really true? To find out, we need someone to conduct a systematic review or meta-analysis.

Korean researchers have just published such a paper; they wanted to assess the preoperative anxiolytic efficacy of acupuncture therapy and therefore conducted a meta-analysis of all RCTs on the subject. Four electronic databases were searched up to February 2014. Data were included in the meta-analysis from RCTs in which groups receiving preoperative acupuncture treatment were compared with control groups receiving a placebo for anxiety.

Read the rest here: Acupuncture for anxiety? Rubbish in, rubbish out!

Does the ‘Chartered Society of Physiotherapists’ promote quackery? | Edzard Ernst

Reflexology? Isn’t that an alternative therapy? And as such, a physiotherapist would not normally use it, most of us might think.

Well, think again! Here is what the UK Chartered Society of Physiotherapists writes about reflexology:

Developed centuries ago in countries such as China, Egypt and India, reflexology is often referred to as a ‘gentle’ and ‘holistic’ therapy that benefits both mind and body. It centres on the feet because these are said by practitioners to be a mirror, or topographical map, for the rest of the body...

Read the rest here: Does the ‘Chartered Society of Physiotherapists’ promote quackery?

Homeopathy for cancer: a new and remarkable study | Edzard Ernst

After the usually challenging acute therapy is behind them, cancer patients are often desperate to find a therapy that might improve their wellbeing. At that stage they may suffer from a wide range of symptoms which can seriously limit their quality of life. Any treatment that can be shown to restore them to their normal mental and physical health would be more than welcome.

Most homeopaths believe that their remedies can do just that, particularly if they are tailored not to the disease but to the individual patient. Sadly, the evidence that this might be so is almost non-existent. Now, a new trial has become available; it was conducted by Jennifer Poole, a chartered psychologist and registered homeopath, and researcher and teacher at Nemeton Research Foundation, Romsey...

Read on: Homeopathy for cancer: a new and remarkable study

Harpocrates Speaks: Brian Hooker's Paper on Increased risk of ASD in African American Boys Retracted

Just a very quick post to let my readers know a bit of recent news about that whole Hooker-MMR-CDC coverup nonsense. The journal that originally published Brian Hooker's paper originally issued a statement of concern about the conclusions and possible undeclared conflicts of interest. Yesterday, October 3, 2014, the journal fully retracted Hooker's paper. Here is their statement regarding the retraction...

Read the full post here: Harpocrates Speaks: Brian Hooker's Paper on Increased risk of ASD in African American Boys Retracted

What Doctors Don’t Tell You – The Super Bug!!

Yet again What Doctors Dont Tell You has misinterpreted information and blabbed it out to the public like it is Fact. This time it is about the failure rates of Antibiotics.

They start by inventing a claim that "antibiotics are failing in 50% of patients", a figure that does not appear in the cited study, and (it clearly states that the overall failure rate is 15.4%) and form that spin the familiar narrative of wibble.


Then there is the first paragraph (sigh)...

Read it all here: What Doctors Don’t Tell You – The Super Bug!! by wwddtydty appeared first on WWDDTYDTY.

Don’t Feed The Trolls

This is the sixth post that has nothing to do with vaccines… Kind of. Just a quick video music that inspired my initial post about trolls...

Read more at: Don’t Feed The Trolls by Reuben

Help the good Professor fund a video for this song here. Extra cash will go to anti-bullying charities.

Pranic healing: could it be a hoax? | Edzard Ernst

Pranic healing?

What on earth is that?

Whatever it is, it is big; there are more than half a million websites on it, and it seems to me that a lot of dosh is being made with pranic healing.

But what is it?

This website might be as good as any to explain:

Pranic Healing is a form of ancient energy medicine, which utilizes the inherent energy Prana (life force or energy) to balance, and promote the body’s energy and its processes. Prana is a Sanskrit word which actually means, the vital force that keeps us alive and healthy. Pranic healing is a holistic approach as it assumes a person in its complexity and does not separate the body and the mind...

Read more on this amazing subject here: Pranic healing: could it be a hoax?

A truly dangerous homeopath | Edzard Ernst

If you think that homeopathy is risk-free, you should read what this US homeopath proclaims on his website. I have copied several sections from his lengthy article (everything that is in normal print is his writing; mine is in bold). The author first gives a general introduction into homeopathy and why he believes in it; then he continues:
…Now, on the surface, you might think that since there is some common ground between homeopathy and vaccinations, that homeopathic doctors would be, all-in, when it comes to vaccines. The fact is, most homeopaths today are against vaccinations. The main reason for that is not because of the underlying principle, but because the process have been perverted by eugenics. Today, the real purpose of vaccinations is to cause sterilization and early death. Bill Gates spends billions of dollars on global vaccination, admittedly, to reduce the population...

Read on: A truly dangerous homeopath

More evidence to show that acupuncture is a ‘theatrical placebo’ | Edzard Ernst

An international team of researchers wanted to determine the efficacy of laser and needle acupuncture for chronic knee pain. They conducted a Zelen-design clinical trial (randomization occurred before informed consent), in Victoria, Australia (February 2010-December 2012). Community volunteers (282 patients aged ≥50 years with chronic knee pain) were treated by family physician acupuncturists.

The treatments consisted of A) no acupuncture (control group, n = 71), B) needle (n = 70), C) laser (n = 71), and D) sham laser (n = 70) acupuncture. Treatments were delivered for 12 weeks. Participants and acupuncturists were blinded to laser and sham laser acupuncture. Control participants were unaware of the trial...

More evidence to show that acupuncture is a ‘theatrical placebo’