7 ways to a dumber you

This WDDTY article has also been placed in Families magazine (it’s not the first time WDDTY have weaselled their dangerously misleading claptrap into a mainstream family-oriented publication). You might feel motivated to contact the magazine and warn them that they’ve been had. School’s about to get tougher this September, but you can boost your child’s …

 Continue reading 7 ways to a dumber you →

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2014 Douchebag of the Year: Robert Sears, MD, FAAP

First and foremost, I want to thank everyone for a great 2014 in the world of fighting back against pseudoscience. While the Douchebag of the Year award was created to ridicule the worst of the worst in the anti-science world, I want to take a minute or two to thank everyone who did their part, however small, to fight the quacks, hacks, and scammers. Here are some honorable mentions, in no particular order: […]

Read more at: 2014 Douchebag of the Year: Robert Sears, MD, FAAP by Reuben

The #WDDTY 7-Step Plan

WDDTY have published a 7-step plan for any practitioner who has attracted the attention of the ASA. The whole page is comedy gold. If you were a magazine under constant criticism for publishing misleading information, would you take the time to promote the ASA’s adjudications against your contributors and advertisers? Well, you might if you …

Read on: The 7-Step Plan To Get Yourself Prosecuted For Unfair Trading Practices

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WDDTY repeats hysterical anti-abortionist propaganda. Again.

WDDTY appear to be losing their marbles – perhaps they should nip down to the homeopath for some 30C Batshittium?

Back in October 2014 they ran “Autism ‘caused by MMR using human fetal cell lines’“, an entirely credulous repetition of a paper written and funded by a rabid anti-abortionist group, “showing” that foetal cell lines …

Continue reading WDDTY repeats hysterical anti-abortionist propaganda. Again.

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ACCC v Homeopathy Plus – 18th and 19th November 2013 | mochuck's musings

FEDERAL COURT NOVEMBER 2013
18th November 2013

The barrister appearing for Homeopathy Plus and Ms Sheffield was Mr Marcel White who also represented Australian Vaccination Sceptics Network (AVSN) in their unsuccessful attempt to have a direction by NSW Fair Trading to change their name overturned. The barrister appearing for ACCC was Ms R Higgins...

Read the second part of this 4-part series here: ACCC v Homeopathy Plus – 18th and 19th November 2013 | mochuck's musings

ACCC v Homeopathy Plus – Background | mochuck's musings

A regulatory prosecution issued by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) against Homeopathy Plus, resulted in a four day trial in November 2013. It was held in the Federal Court in Sydney, Australia and was presided over by Justice Melissa Perry. The trial ran from Monday 18th November to Thursday 21st November 2013. Homeopathy Plus – as well as Ms Fran Sheffield personally were charged with engaging in misleading and deceptive conduct by ACCC according to section 18 of the Australian Consumer Law (ACL) and of making false or misleading representations in contravention of sections 29(1)(a) and (b) of the ACL...

Read the rest here: ACCC v Homeopathy Plus – Background | mochuck's musings

This is Part 1 of what is promised to be a 4-part series on the case.

HOMEOPATHY: proof of concept or proof of misconduct? | Edzard Ernst

As promised, I will try with this post to explain my reservations regarding the new meta-analysis suggesting that individualised homeopathic remedies are superior to placebos. Before I start, however, I want to thank all those who have commented on various issues; it is well worth reading the numerous and diverse comments. To remind us of […]
Read on: HOMEOPATHY: proof of concept or proof of misconduct?

Learned Friend: The Saatchi Bill - True or False?

Here is the current version of the Medical Innovation Bill, following its Report Stage in the House of Lords in December 2014.

As the Bill approaches its Commons stages, the following statements about the Bill seem to me to be true. I don't flatter myself that Lord Saatchi, his professional support team or government ministers read this blog, so if you want to know whether they believe the following statements are true or false, you will have to ask them yourself...

Read the full dissection of the Saatchi Bill by an eminent QC here: Learned Friend: The Saatchi Bill - True or False?

The Kid can’t take the heat

Score one for the good guys. After two (just two!) blog posts on “The Epoch Times”, The Kid has decided that he can’t take the heat in the comments section. People pointing out his logical fallacies are, in his words, “trolls.” He even says that “Ren” has threatened him online without offering any kind of […]

Read more at: The Kid can’t take the heat by Reuben

Voting is open for the Douchebag of the Year, 2014

2014 Anti-Science Quack Douchebag of the Year Voting

Official ballot for the "2014 Douchebag of the Year" award from The Poxes Blog. The winner will be lauded on the last blog post of the year on December 31, 2014. Also, a donation of $50 will be made in their honor to the Autism Science Foundation....

Read more and vote at: Voting is open for the Douchebag of the Year, 2014 by Reuben

Just So We’re Clear

You might know what I’m talking about. You might not. If you do, then you know what this is about. If you don’t, then this is not for you:

I do not tolerate bullies in any way, shape or form. Bullying at any level and in any form is the highest form of cowardice, and […]

Read more at: Just So We’re Clear by Reuben

“Proof of concept that homeopathic medicines have clinical treatment effects.” A challenge for experts to comment | Edzard Ernst

On this blog and elsewhere, I have repeatedly cast doubt on the efficacy of homeopathy – not because I have ‘an axe to grind’, as some seem to believe, but because the assumptions which underpin homeopathy fly in the face of science, the clinical evidence fails to show that it works beyond a placebo effect. […]

Read on: “Proof of concept that homeopathic medicines have clinical treatment effects.” A challenge for experts to comment

Your Perfect Homeopathy Kit for Christmas | The Quackometer Blog

Have you over-done it this Christmas?

Don’t worry. That homeopathic pharmacy to the Royals has the perfect remedy kit to see you through the following days.
Ainsworths Pharmacy is pleased to bring you the following remedies. Remember, these are homeopathic medicinal product used within the homeopathic tradition for the symptomatic relief of Christmas overindulgence.

More on this at: Your Perfect Homeopathy Kit for Christmas | The Quackometer Blog

15 complaints about pro-science skeptics from an antivaccine activist – Respectful Insolence

Having recently discovered a veritable Library with Doctor Moon of antivaccine misinformation and quackery known as Modern Alternative Mama’s blog, Facebook page, Twitter feed, and YouTube channel, I couldn’t resist taking one more drought from the same well. It is, after all, almost Christmas, and truly, as far as the blog is concerned, the discovery of Kate Tietje, a.k.a. Modern Alternative Mama, was an early Christmas gift that could not but be opened immediately. Besides, with Christmas coming up in a couple of days, after today I plan on taking a brief blog break until Friday, with the possible exception of a recent recycled & tweaked post (to make it more…Insolent) from my not-so-super-secret other blog that I’d like to expose to a greater world. Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

Now read on: 15 complaints about pro-science skeptics from an antivaccine activist – Respectful Insolence

It’s beginning to look a lot like DETOX…everywhere I go | Edzard Ernst

Well, not everywhere actually; if you go on Medline, for instance, and search for ‘detox’, you hardly find anything at all on detox as used in alternative medicine. This is because there is no science behind it (for the purpose of this post, ‘detox’ means the alternative detox that is supposed to rid us from environmental poisons and, more relevant to the Christmas season, of the effects of over-indulgence). Notwithstanding this lack of science and evidence, detox is currently being heavily promoted in magazines, newspapers and, of course, via the Internet...

Read more: It’s beginning to look a lot like DETOX…everywhere I go

Religion: The latest scientific exploration. Or not. - WWDDTYDTY

If there’s one thing that doesn’t seem to trouble Lynne McTaggart, it’s doubt. When her world-view is contradicted by science, then it’s science that’s wrong. MMR-autism link refuted? Not in WDDTY it’s not. Urotherapy is derided nonsense? Not in WDDTY. Intercessory prayer? Let’s have a talk about that...

Religion: The latest scientific exploration. Or not. - WWDDTYDTY

‘The 10 commandments of quackery’ | Edzard Ernst

Each year, during the Christmas period, we are bombarded with religious ideology, soapy sentimentality and delusive festive cheer. In case you are beginning to feel slightly nauseous about all this, it might be time to counter-balance this abundance with my (not entirely serious) version of the 10 commandments of quackery?

Some experiences of life at Imperial College London. An external inquiry is needed after the death of Stefan Grimm

The tragedy of the apparent suicide of Stefan Grimm is now known worldwide. His last email has been read by more than 160,000 people from over 200 countries. This post gathers together some of the reactions to his death. It’s a Christmas card for the people who are responsible...

Read the full story: Some experiences of life at Imperial College London. An external inquiry is needed after the death of Stefan Grimm

WDDTY on: Andrew Wakefield - WWDDTYDTY

If there’s one figure the anti-vaccination movement idolises, it’s the struck-off former doctor and research fraudster Andrew Jeremy Wakefield. As a trailblazer for the anti-vaccination movement, Wakefield is widely identified as being responsible for current outbreaks of vaccine-preventable disease, causing serious harms and deaths...

Read on: WDDTY on: Andrew Wakefield - WWDDTYDTY

More potentially good news about fish oil | Edzard Ernst

The regular consumption of fish-oil has a potentially favourable role in inflammation, carcinogenesis inhibition and cancer outcomes. An analysis of the literature aimed to review the evidence for the roles of dietary-fish and fish-oil intake in prostate-cancer (PC) risk, aggressiveness and mortality.

A systematic-review, following PRISMA guidelines was conducted. PubMed, MEDLINE and Embase were searched to explore PC-risk, aggressiveness and mortality associated with dietary-fish and fish-oil intake. 37 studies were selected...

 Read the full story here: More potentially good news about fish oil

How is it that I hadn’t heard of this antivaccine “warrior” before? – Respectful Insolence

One of the depressing things about having dedicated over a decade of one’s life to combatting pseudoscience and quackery is that, no matter how much I think I’ve come to be familiar with all the woo that can be out there and all the players promoting that woo, there are always new people popping up. It’s impossible for one person to keep track of them all. Sometimes, however, there are, for example, antivaccine activists that I haven’t heard of before whom I really think I should have heard of sooner than this. Such is the case with Kate Tietje...

Read the rest of this post at:
How is it that I hadn’t heard of this antivaccine “warrior” before? – Respectful Insolence

Web pages, including ours, deemed “critical” of Universal Medicine removed from Google Search results | Doubtful News

Well, well, well, looks like a certain alternative and controversial “esoteric healing” group was busy for a year or more trying to scrub their image on the internet. Doubtful News is one of many pro-consumer blogs that have reported information about Serge Benhayon’s questionable health treatments resulting in complaints to Google initiated by Universal Medicine (UM) and our URLs removed from Google search results.

Holiday reading – web pages censored by Universal Medicine | The FACTS about Universal Medicine.

For the past two years alternative medicine conglomerate and religion, Universal Medicine, has spammed Google with complaints of defamation. Some succeeded. The following is an incomplete list of URLs removed by Google from search results. It includes links to blogs, including this one, and links to news reports from major media outlets. So much for free speech and a free press in Australia.

The UM group is in Australia. Defamation claims have been made through Google, however, UM has not made any actual legal threats. Hmm, this seems a low-cost, low-risk, easy route to follow to manipulate your online reputation. Even though they seem to have lawyers at the ready, none of the websites received real legal threats. Other sites evicted from search results include many news reports on UM’s activities (including the reports we linked to in our FACTUAL stories). Also, Pharyngula (FTB), Museum of Hoaxes, the JREF forum, Reasonable Hank, and, naturally, “universalmedicineaccountability”, “factsaboutuniversalmedicine” and “universalmedicinecult”. They obviously dislike those sites...

Read more here - Web pages, including ours, deemed “critical” of Universal Medicine removed from Google Search results | Doubtful News and pass it on. It's called the Streisand Effect.

Chiropractic and other manipulative therapies can also harm children | Edzard Ernst

Few subjects make chiropractors more uneasy than a discussion of the safety of their spinal manipulations. Many chiropractors flatly deny that there are any risks at all. However, the evidence seems to tell a different story.

The purpose of a new review was to summarise the literature for cases of adverse events in infants and children treated by chiropractors or other manual therapists, identifying treatment type and if a preexisting pathology was present. English language, peer-reviewed journals and non-peer-reviewed case reports discussing adverse events (ranging from minor to serious) were systematically searched from inception of the relevant searchable bibliographic databases through March 2014. Articles not referring to infants or children were excluded...

Read the rest here: Chiropractic and other manipulative therapies can also harm children

Another bogus claim by chiropractors debunked | Edzard Ernst

How many times have we heard from practitioners of alternative medicine, particularly chiropractors, that their patients are more severely ill than those of conventional clinicians. The claim is usually that they have tried all that conventional medicine can offer and eventually, as a last resort, they turn to the alternatives.

But is this true? If so, it would explain why these patients do no better or even worse than those treated conventionally.

Here is a new article that goes some way in addressing these issues...

Read the full story: Another bogus claim by chiropractors debunked

Vasectomy raises prostate cancer risk by 10 per cent

Some issues in medicine are complex – sufficiently complex that they actively invite Mencken’s famous expression: for every complex problem there is a solution which is simple, neat and wrong. Other things are relatively straightforward. This October 2014 story on prostate cancer risk is straightforward, but that doesn’t stop WDDTY turning it into an alarmist…

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Finally a piece of meaningful chiropractic research: compensation claims against chiropractors | Edzard Ernst

Adverse events have been reported extensively following chiropractic. About 50% of patients suffer side-effects after seeing a chiropractor. The majority of these events are mild, transitory and self-limiting. However, chiropractic spinal manipulations, particularly those of the upper spine, have also been associated with very serious complications; several hundred such cases have been reported in the medical literature and, as there is no monitoring system to record these instances, this figure is almost certainly just the tip of a much larger iceberg...

Read the rest here: Finally a piece of meaningful chiropractic research: compensation claims against chiropractors

Fish oil supplementation may be useful for rheumatoid arthritis | Edzard Ernst

As I have said on several occasions before: I am constantly on the lookout for new rigorous science that supports the claims of alternative medicine. Thus I was delighted to find a recent and potentially important article with some positive evidence. Fish oil has been studied extensively in terms of its effects on health. We […]

Read on: Fish oil supplementation may be useful for rheumatoid arthritis

The current craze for dietary supplements: irresponsible charlatans pulling wool over our eyes?

Dietary supplements (DS) are heavily promoted usually with the claim that they have stood the test of time and that they are natural and hence harmless. Unsurprisingly, their use has become very wide-spread. A new study determined the use of DSs, factors associated with DS use, and reasons for use among U.S. college students.

College students (N = 1248) at 5 U.S. universities were surveyed. Survey questions included descriptive demographics, types and frequency of DS used, reasons for use and money spent on supplements. Supplements were classified using standard criteria. Logistic regression analyses examined relationships between demographic and lifestyle factors and DS use...

Read on: The current craze for dietary supplements: irresponsible charlatans pulling wool over our eyes?

What DOES it take for people to get real in this world? | Edzard Ernst

Guest post by Pete Attkins

 Commentator “jm” asked a profound and pertinent question: “What DOES it take for people to get real in this world, practice some common sense, and pay attention to what’s going on with themselves?” This question was asked in the context of asserting that personal experience always trumps the results of large-scale scientific experiments; and asserting that alt-med experts are better able to provide individulized healthcare than 21st Century orthodox medicine.

What does common sense and paying attention lead us to conclude about the following? We test a six-sided die for bias by rolling it 100 times. The number 1 occurs only once and the number 6 occurs many times, never on its own, but in several groups of consecutive sixes....

Read on: What DOES it take for people to get real in this world?

Monetizing fear: Food Babe show how it’s done | The Skeptical OB

PT Barnum famously said that you can’t go broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public and blogger Vani Hari (Food Babe) is demonstrating the truth of that adage. Her artful manipulation of her Food Babe Army would warm Barnum’s heart.

Like Barnum, Hari depends for her money on the gullibility and lack of sophistication of her followers. They are so naive that they seem to have no awareness that Food Babe is a business, and they’ve been duped into buying an endless array of its useless products...

Read the rest here: Monetizing fear: Food Babe show how it’s done | The Skeptical OB

Seven things to remember before you consult a naturopath | Edzard Ernst

Naturopathy can be defined as ‘an eclectic system of health care that uses elements of complementary and conventional medicine to support and enhance self-healing processes’. This basically means that naturopaths employ treatments based on those therapeutic options that are seen as natural, e. g. herbs, water, exercise, diet, fresh air, heat and cold – but […]
Read on: Seven things to remember before you consult a naturopath

Who will be 2014’s “Douchebag of the Year”?

A few years ago, a fan of this blog got into a lot of trouble at work because he dared call a misogynist anti-vaccine loon who was being more than creepy to women on social media a “douchebag.” The douchebag launched a series of emails to our friend’s employers. He also made an appearance in blogs talking about the issue, threatening to sue people who dared talk bad about him. Needless to say, the guy eventually backed off and went back to doing whatever people like him do when they’re not harassing people who call them on their crap...

Read more at: Who will be 2014’s “Douchebag of the Year”? by Reuben

All the fail you can fit into an infographic

Friends on social media pointed me to this infographic the other day. It states that it wants to “set the record straight” on vaccines and autism, and it uses all of the tricks that we know anti-vaccine cult members use to try and deceive those who are uninitiated. So let’s take it one panel at a time and dissect this thing for all the fail that it is...

Read more at: All the fail you can fit into an infographic by Reuben

Aromatherapy: not much more than a bit of pampering | Edzard Ernst

Aromatherapy is one of the most popular of all alternative therapies. It is most certainly a very agreeable experience. But is it more that a bit of pampering? Does it cure any diseases? If you believe aromatherapists, their treatment is effective for almost everything. And, of course, there are studies to suggest that, indeed, it […]

Read on: Aromatherapy: not much more than a bit of pampering

Thousands of cancer patients are being duped into having bogus treatments | Edzard Ernst

Complementary treatments have become a popular (and ‘political correct’) option to keep desperate cancer patients happy. But how widely accepted is their use in oncology units? A brand-new article tried to find the answer to this question.

The principal aim of this survey was to map centres across Europe prioritizing those that provide public health services and operating within the national health system in integrative oncology (IO). A cross-sectional descriptive survey design was used to collect data. A questionnaire was elaborated concerning integrative oncology therapies to be administered to all the national health system oncology centres or hospitals in each European country. These institutes were identified by convenience sampling, searching on oncology websites and forums. The official websites of these structures were analysed to obtain more information about their activities and contacts...

Read on: Thousands of cancer patients are being duped into having bogus treatments

The chiropractic profession: “struggling to define themselves” | Edzard

This investigation was aimed at examining the messages utilised by the chiropractic profession around issues of scope and efficacy through website communication with the public. For this purpose, the authors submitted the website content of 11 major Canadian chiropractic associations and colleges, and of 80 commercial clinics to a mixed-methods analysis. Content was reviewed to quantify specific health conditions described as treatable by chiropractic care. A qualitative textual analysis identified the primary messages related to evidence and efficacy utilised by the websites...

Read on: The chiropractic profession: “struggling to define themselves”

Court finds Dana Ullman “not credible” | Guy Chapman's Blahg

A court in the US has ruled that private individuals may not bring a class action for lack of substantiation of product claims. The products are, of course, homeopathic nostrums, and the complaint was that they don’t work.

The provisional finding is that the burden of proof lies on the class to prove its claim of lack of efficacy: this is quite reasonable and is the normal standard in any legal proceeding...

Read more: Court finds Dana Ullman “not credible” | Guy Chapman's Blahg

Chiropractic education seems to be a form of religious indoctrination | Edzard Ernst

The purpose of this paper was to compare the characteristics of the chiropractic technique systems that have utilised radiography for subluxation detection with the characteristics of religion, and to discover potential historical links that may have facilitated the development of those characteristics.

The authors found 23 technique systems requiring radiography for subluxation analysis. Evidence of religiosity from the early founders’ writings was compared with textbooks, published papers, and websites of subsequently developed systems. Six criteria denoting religious thinking were developed: supernatural concepts, claims of supremacy, rules and rituals, sacred artefacts, sacred stories, and special language. All of these were found to a greater or lesser degree in the publicly available documents of all the subluxation-based chiropractic x-ray systems.

Read on: Chiropractic education seems to be a form of religious indoctrination

Homeopathy for autism? Negatory!

A friend of mine sent me a story the other day of a group of homeopaths who thought they could go peddle their magical thinking in West Africa and try and treat people with Ebola. I’m happy to say that they were soundly refuted by health authorities and are now left to wander around with their tails between their legs, begging for scraps. To think that you can treat anything with magic is idiotic at best and extremely dangerous at worst.

It’s not just Ebola that these idiots are attempting to treat with homeopathy, of course[…]

Read more at: Homeopathy for autism? Negatory! by Reuben

CAM for KIDS: more good than harm? | Edzard Ernst

Adults using unproven treatments is one thing; if kids do it because they are told to, that is quite another thing. Children are in many ways more vulnerable than grown-ups and they usually cannot give fully informed consent. It follows that the use of such treatments for kids can be a delicate and complex matter.

A recent systematic review was aimed at summarizes the international findings for prevalence and predictors of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) use among children/adolescents. The authors systematically searched 4 electronic databases (PubMed, Embase, PsycINFO, AMED; last update in 07/2013) and reference lists of existing reviews and all included studies. Publications without language restriction reporting patterns of CAM utilization among children/adolescents without chronic conditions were selected for inclusion. The prevalence rates for overall CAM use, homeopathy, and herbal drug use were extracted with a focus on country and recall period (lifetime, 1 year, current use). As predictors, the authors extracted socioeconomic factors, child‘s age, and gender.

Read on: CAM for KIDS: more good than harm?

Publish and perish at Imperial College London: the death of Stefan Grimm

This week’s Times Higher Education carried a report of the death, at age 51, of Professor Stefan Grimm: Imperial College London to ‘review procedures’ after death of academic. He was professor of toxicology in the Faculty of Medicine at Imperial.


Now Stefan Grimm is dead. Despite having a good publication record, he failed to do sufficiently expensive research, so he was fired (or at least threatened with being fired)...


Read it all here: Publish and perish at Imperial College London: the death of Stefan Grimm

Doctors who question vaccination are being ‘forced out of medicine’

Thanks to the editors of WDDTY for a rare bit of good news:

English doctors who may be ambivalent about vaccines are being weeded out of the profession by the ‘revalidation’ process, where they have to renew their licence to practice.

Being “ambivalent about vaccines” is a great litmus test I agree. Any doctor who…

The post Doctors who question vaccination are being ‘forced out of medicine’ by wwddtydty appeared first on WWDDTYDTY.

My offer to educational institutions of alternative medicine | Edzard Ernst

Getting good and experienced lecturers for courses is not easy. Having someone who has done more research than most working in the field and who is internationally known, might therefore be a thrill for students and an image-boosting experience of colleges. In the true Christmas spirit, I am today making the offer of being of assistance to the many struggling educational institutions of alternative medicine .

A few days ago, I tweeted about my willingness to give free lectures to homeopathic colleges (so far without response). Having thought about it a bit, I would now like to extend this offer. I would be happy to give a free lecture to the students of any educational institution of alternative medicine. I suggest to...

Read more: My offer to educational institutions of alternative medicine

World AIDS Day 2014 Theme | Scepticemia

Arguably one of the most effective plans for global health awareness and Information, Education and Communication activities, the World AIDS Day is generally aimed at getting to zero: zero new infections, zero AIDS related deaths, and what is very important, zero discrimination...

Read on: World AIDS Day 2014 Theme | Scepticemia