On Ros(s)ing

That homeopathy zealot Roslyn Ross is conforming to type in the comment thread below a recent article entitled, ‘Are homeopathic ‘remedies’ helpful or harmful?’, by Jennifer Gunter. I’ve observed and encountered much of the activity of this irritating snark a number of times in recent years and have previously commented on the fervid activity of this apologist and propagandist for homeopathy. Indeed, so predictable, so tedious is her fallacy-laden modus operandus that I figured it deserved its own fallacy name:

                       Ros(s)ing


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My ‘ideological biases’ !?!

Yesterday, I received the following interesting tweet from my friend Natalie Grams:
Edzard, YOU are just influenced by ideological biases (they told me so yesterday – so it must be true;-) 
If I understand it correctly, Natalie was a guest in a public discussion about homeopathy somewhere in Austria during which my name must have […]

Read the rest here: My ‘ideological biases’ !?!

Charlatanism: fantasy or dishonesty?

In his Homeopathy: The Undiluted Facts Edzard Ernst delineates between two types of charlatan: the dishonest and the fantasist. I don’t know and have never met Sally Lloyd, a homeopath who charges for her services. Neither do I know whether she actually offers them to people diagnosed with cancer. But if she spews forth the following disgraceful misinformation to anybody daft or desperate enough to ‘consult’ her, there is something seriously amiss. [Read more... ]

Banning ineffective medicines on the NHS is “illogical and ill-informed”

An article in the medical magazine ‘GP’ caught my eye. In it, a GP from Southampton argues that it is counter-productive for the NHS to ban ineffective treatments. Here are a few excerpts (my comments are inserted in brackets and are in bold print):

START OF QUOTES NHS England’s recent decision requiring GPs stop prescribing […]

Read the rest here: Banning ineffective medicines on the NHS is “illogical and ill-informed”

…but my therapy DOES work … only recently, it cured a patient!

How often have we heard this? YOU ARE WRONG! MY TREATMENT DOES WORK!!! ONLY THE OTHER DAY, I HAD A PATIENT WHO WAS CURED BY IT.

Take for instance this tweet I got yesterday:

F SThomas‏ @spenthomf You go too far @EdzardErnst . In fact I was consulted about a child who hadn’t grown after an […]

Read the rest here: …but my therapy DOES work … only recently, it cured a patient!

Chiropractic: a ‘global overview’

Chiropractic is hugely popular, we are often told. The fallacious implication is, of course, that popularity can serve as a surrogate measure for effectiveness. In the United States, chiropractors provided 18.6 million clinical services under Medicare in 2015, and overall spending for chiropractic services was estimated at USD $12.5 billion. Elsewhere, chiropractic seems to be […]

Read the rest here: Chiropractic: a ‘global overview’

The sale of alternative medicines: proper regulation of nonsense will inevitably result in nonsense

This post is based on an article by Ken Harvey, Associate Professor, School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, Monash University, Australia. I took the liberty of slightly modifying his text for the purpose of this blog. The article informs us about the regulation of nonsense which, as I have often argued, is likely to result in […]

Read the rest here: The sale of alternative medicines: proper regulation of nonsense will inevitably result in nonsense

‘Chiropractors are Bullshit’: a rebuttal of a rebuttal

In her article “Chiropractors are Bullshit” SciBabe discussed her views on the chiropractic profession. Now the chiro ‘Dr’ Michael Braccio has published a rebuttal (excerpts from it are below). Here I will provide a rebuttal of his rebuttal. For clarity, the bold quotes are by SciBabe (as quoted by the ‘Dr’), what follows is the […]

Read the rest here: ‘Chiropractors are Bullshit’: a rebuttal of a rebuttal

After “knocking the hell out of alternative medicine”, let me offer you some real solutions

I recently got this comment which might seem reasonable to some readers: 

“What is most humorous about the author and this website is how he knocks the hell out of alternative medicine and therapies yet never provides readers with any alternatives, despite claiming to be an expert. For example: it’s like needing new tyres for […]

Read the rest here: After “knocking the hell out of alternative medicine”, let me offer you some real solutions

A method of ending discussions with belligerent twits

It has been pointed out that many of the discussions we have on this blog are like pigeon chess. The term comes from a comment made by Scott D. Weitzenhoffer about Evolution vs. Creationism: An introduction: “Debating creationists on the topic of evolution is rather like trying to play chess with a pigeon — it knocks the […]

Read the rest here: A method of ending discussions with belligerent twits

A chat with a homeopath

On this blog, we have had (mostly unproductive) discussions with homeopath so often that sometimes they sound like a broken disk. I don’t want to add to this kerfuffle; what I hope to do today is to summarise  a certain line of argument which, from the homeopaths’ point of view, seems entirely logical. I do this in the form of a fictitious conversation between a scientist (S) and a classical homeopath (H). My aim is to make the reader understand homeopaths better so that, future debates might be better informed.

HERE WE GO:

S: I have studied the evidence from studies of homeopathy in some detail, and I have to tell you, it fails to show that homeopathy works.

H: This is not true! We have plenty of evidence to prove that patients get better after seeing a homeopath […]

Read the rest here: A chat with a homeopath

Two hallmarks of alternative medicine

Whenever a level-headed person discloses that a specific alternative therapy is not based on good evidence, you can bet your last shirt that a proponent of the said treatment responds by claiming that conventional medicine is not much better.

There are several variations to this theme. Today I want to focus on just one of them, namely the counter-claim that, only a short while ago, conventional medicine was not much better than the said alternative therapy (the implication is that it must be unfair to demand evidence from alternative medicine, while accepting a similar state of affairs in conventional medicine). The argument has recently been formulated by one commentator on this blog as follows...

Read on: Two hallmarks of alternative medicine

Charlatans rush to jump on Donald Trump’s band-waggon

We live in interesting, if they were not so frightening, one could almost say amusing times!

Politicians who previously have criticised Trump for his unacceptable deeds, behaviour and statements can now be seen to bend over backwards to join his band-waggon. They don’t know where the waggon is heading but they don’t want to be left behind. A prime example is UK’s Boris Johnson who now even criticises other politicians for having more back-bone than himself and therefore being less enthusiastic about America’s future leader.

But this is not a political blog, and I will therefore try to focus on matters related to alternative medicine...

Read on: Charlatans rush to jump on Donald Trump’s band-waggon

The 12 defences of charlatanry | Edzard Ernst

During the last two decades, I have had ample occasion to study the pseudo-arguments of charlatans when trying to defend the indefensible. Here I will try to disclose some of them in the hope that this might help others to identify charlatans more easily and to react accordingly.

Let’s say someone publishes a document showing evidence that homeopathy is […]

Read on: The 12 defences of charlatanry

Why are there so many reports of autism following vaccination? A mathematical assessment | The Logic of Science

The idea that vaccines cause autism is one of the most persistent myths that I have ever encountered, and it seems that no amount of evidence will ever cause it to disappear. Indeed, I recently wrote a lengthy post in which I thoroughly reviewed the scientific literature on this topic, and I showed that there are no high quality studies supporting this myth, but there are multiple very large studies that debunked it. Nevertheless, many people responded to the post by insisting that vaccines must cause autism because there are so many cases of parents reporting the onset of autism shortly after vaccinating. They were adamant that these anecdotes could not be chance results and must mean that vaccines cause autism. To quote one commenter:

“How can you sit there and say that observing an adverse reaction AFTER a vaccine is given doesn’t mean it was the vaccine? So, what…? It’s just a random coincidence? I think not...”

Read the full post, accessible even to the worst of mathematicians, right here: Why are there so many reports of autism following vaccination? A mathematical assessment | The Logic of Science

Tricks of the quackery trade (part 5) | Edzard Ernst

It would be easy to continue this series on ‘tricks of the trade’ for quite a while. But this might get boring, and I have therefore decided to call it a day. So here is the last instalment (feel free to post further tricks that you may know of [in the comments section below]): 

CRITICS DON’T UNDERSTAND […]
Read on: Tricks of the quackery trade (part 5)

The tricks of the quackery trade (part 4) | Edzard Ernst

This series of post is quite good fun – at least for me who is writing it. But I also hope that it is useful to those readers who are tempted to consult alternative practitioners. My intention is to stimulate people’s ability to think critically and to provide some sort of guide for patients which might help them in deciding which practitioners to avoid.

In this spirit, I now offer you the next instalment of three ‘tricks of the trade’ […]

Read on: The tricks of the quackery trade (part 4)

The tricks of the quackery trade (part 3) | Edzard Ernst

In part one and part two of this series of posts, we have discussed altogether six ‘tricks of the trade’:

• TREAT A NON-EXISTING CONDITION 
• MAINTENANCE TREATMENT 
• IT MUST GET WORSE BEFORE IT GETS BETTER 
• THINK HOLISTICALLY 
• IT’S DUE TO THE POISONS YOUR DOCTOR GAVE YOU 
• A CURE TAKES A LONG TIME 

Now it is time to disclose three […]

Read on: The tricks of the quackery trade (part 3)

When orthodox medicine has nothing more to offer | Edzard Ernst

“When orthodox medicine has nothing more to offer” is the title of an article by Dr Elizabeth Thompson, a UK medical homeopath. The article was written years ago, but it is still an excellent example for disclosing the dangerously false and deeply unethical reasoning used by many alternative practitioners. The notion that all sorts of disproven treatments like homeopathy are justified when orthodox medicine has nothing more to offer is so very prevalent that I decided to do this post analysing it. […]

Read on: When orthodox medicine has nothing more to offer

The intriguing case of homeopathy in India | Edzard Ernst

Homeopathy must be effective! It is used extensively throughout the world, not least India! If it were ineffective, as all these nasty sceptics insist, Indians would not use it in such large numbers. 

How often have we heard this argument? Take, for instance, statements from the ‘peer-reviewed’ literature such as this one: “At present, in […]
Read on: The intriguing case of homeopathy in India