Posts

May 18, 2013

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It’s the May Long Weekend – in Canada at least. The flower above is the Trillium, commonly seen in cottage country at this time of year. Here’s some links, articles, and podcasts I enjoyed this week: Dirty Medicine. If you read one link, make it this. I don’t think I’ve ever read an article about […]

May 13, 2013

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8:43 PM | Poison for pain, the homeopathic way

At my local mega-grocery store last weekend, I happened to stroll down the aisle dedicated to homeopathic treatments. I saw shelf after shelf of brightly colored packages, all claiming health benefits. Most of these "medicines" were not cheap. Amazing. To an average shopper, all of these products look like real medicine. The packaging is similar, the claims are similar, and it's all on display at a respectable grocery store. The difference, though, is that none […]

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7:48 AM | The deceptive rebranding of aspects of science-based medicine as “alternative” by naturopaths continues apace

That naturopathy is a veritable cornucopia of quackery mixed with the odd sensible, science-based suggestion here and there is not in doubt, at least not to supporters of science-based medicine (SBM). However, what naturopaths are very good at doing is representing their pseudoscience as somehow being scientific and thus on par with conventional SBM. So [...]

May 11, 2013

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7:53 PM | Weekend Reading

Here’s what’s keeping this pharmacist engaged and sometimes outraged: Health Canada explicitly puts the financial interests of homeopathy manufacturers above broader public health goals. From the BC Medical Journal, Health Canada licenses homeopathic vaccines: Remarkably, at the same time as Health Canada focuses on influenza education, flu shots, and other proven prevention measures, that same […]

May 10, 2013

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12:45 PM | The kudzu that is “integrative oncology” continues to insinuate quackademic medicine into oncology

I hate to end the week on a bit of a downer, but sometimes I just have to. At least, it’s depressing to anyone who is a proponent of science-based cancer care as the strategy most likely to decrease the death rate from cancer and improve quality of life for cancer patients. Unfortunately, in enough…

May 07, 2013

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8:20 PM | No such thing as ‘Allopathy’

Over at FreethoughtBlogs, an uncharacteristic petit faux pas in the prolifically excellent ‘A Million Gods‘ motivates me into publicly scratching an irritation. The first time I think I heard/read the term ‘allopathy’ was in the context of something discussing homeopathy. And it seemed quite reasonable to me at the time: homeopathy = ‘like cures like’; ‘allopathy’ = err, something other cures it; or it cures something other. Until I got wise on who coined this term, and why? One […]

May 03, 2013

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11:46 AM | Yet further comment…

(I know at least one reader will be interested in this, thus making it a topic theme worth continuing…) I have of late been banging my head at the ongoing frustration borne of repeat attempts to post comment on a pretty questionable, seemingly homeopathy-lauding paper published in a scientific medical journal. Yesterday, my eye was caught by something over at the BioMed Central blog, whence appeared an interesting post, entitled ‘Can open peer review work? Biology Direct suggests it […]

April 29, 2013

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6:35 PM | New Zealand Press Council supported homeopath’s complaint case

Well… I can sort of, kind of, see what happened here. If anyone is not as familiar with the pre-scientific joke that is the basis of homeopathy, I guess you can see the argument. Case Number: 2320 CLIVE STUART AGAINST NORTH & SOUTH. The New Zealand Press Council has upheld a complaint against North & South’s cover article on homeopathy in its July, 2012 edition. A registered homeopath, Clive Stuart of Tauranga, complained that the cover, the article, its illustration and an […]

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7:31 AM | An amusing “very special issue” of Medical Acupuncture

Every so often, our “friends” on the other side of the science aisle (i.e., the supporters of “complementary and alternative medicine”—otherwise known as CAM or “integrative medicine”) give me a present when I’m looking for a topic for my weekly bit of brain droppings about medicine, science, and/or why CAM is neither. It’s also been…

April 25, 2013

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7:00 AM | Claiming to be able to cure cancer with magic water

I’ve written about naturopathy many times before. The reasons that it interests me are several. First, it amazes me how anyone “discipline” (if you want to call it that) can encompass so many forms of quackery, some of which are mutually contradictory. (For instance, how can homeopathy and traditional Chinese medicine both be true?) Also,…

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7:00 AM | Claiming to be able to cure cancer with magic water

I’ve written about naturopathy many times before. The reasons that it interests me are several. First, it amazes me how anyone “discipline” (if you want to call it that) can encompass so many forms of quackery, some of which are mutually contradictory. (For instance, how can homeopathy and traditional Chinese medicine both be true?) Also,…

April 24, 2013

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7:29 PM | Another comment on BMC Cancer, WDDTY and homeopathy

Well, I don’t know what bugs are at play in the BMC Cancer system. Almost three weeks since submitting the latest re-worked version of my comment (which I append below so it may be read by somebody), not only has it not appeared under the paper in question, but the continued lack of response (excepting one message informing me that – again – my query has been forwarded to the Editorial team) to my interim e-mails to the relevant provided... Read more

April 23, 2013

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7:42 AM | “But a Study has Shown …”

It’s probably familiar to many of us … you are debating some issue when someone with an opposing comes out with “but I read a study that showed … ” and then goes on to explain how the so called study justifies their position. You then track down the study (assuming they can tell you [...]

April 18, 2013

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5:00 AM | The Quack Full Employment Act

Quacks, charlatans and snake oil salesmen are closely watching “The Colorado Natural Health Consumer Protection Act,” Senate Bill 13-215 (SB 215) as it wends its way through the Colorado Legislature. I imagine a few felons about to be released from prison are keeping tabs on the bill too, for reasons we’ll get to in a [...]

April 17, 2013

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12:00 AM | British MP gets homeopaths to admit homeopathic vaccines and remedies don’t work

MP Wollaston called on homeopathy purveyors to be perfectly clear with parents – homeopathic “vaccines” and remedies do not protect against measles. And they sort of admit they push useless stuff. Parents need to know homeopathy does not protect against measles, says MP The GP and Conservative MP Sarah Wollaston is calling on homeopathy’s governing bodies to make it clear to parents that their alternative remedies will not protect children from measles outbreaks. In […]

April 16, 2013

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12:01 PM | Pseudoscience Awareness Week

Today is the last day of ‘World Homeopathy Awareness Week‘, which commences every year with cult-like commemoration of the birthday of its movement’s founder. The site informs us: ‘WHAW (World Homeopathy Awareness Week) was created to promote homeopathic awareness around the world. During this week homeopaths and friends of homeopathy share with the world the miracles of homeopathy.’ The miracles of homeopathy. Hmm. They are a confused bunch, these people. Trying to couple the […]

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12:56 AM | Homeopathy; where reason is diluted until none is left

Science is a process by which we attempt to explain the natural world around us. A good indication that we have a reasonable explanation for describing a particular phenomenon is that: 1) it is consistently supported by reliable experimental data and observations 2) it has a plausible mechanism Homeopathy fails on both counts. While supporters [...]

April 15, 2013

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9:33 PM | Press Complaints Commission upholds homeopaths complaint

Tauranga homeopath Clive Stuart has had part of his complaint against an article on homeopathy (Homeopathy – Trick or Treatment?) by Stacey Anyan, published in the July 2012 edition of North & South, upheld by the Press Complaints Commission (PCC)*. While the PCC did not agree with his complaint that balance needed to be numerically [...]

April 13, 2013

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12:15 PM | Diluting the scientific method: Ars looks at homeopathy (again)

In honor of World Homeopathy Week, we discuss why it shouldn't be celebrated.

April 10, 2013

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7:20 AM | Homeopathy: It’s a mad mad mad NHS

Still popular but under some scrutiny lately, homeopathy and the NHS panned by outgoing official. Homeopathy on the NHS is ‘mad’ says outgoing scientific adviser – Telegraph. Professor Sir John Beddington criticised the Government for ignoring his advice against the use of homoeopathic remedies by GPs and NHS run hospitals. Sir John, who retired as chief scientific adviser to the Government on April 1, expressed frustration that ministers had continued to allow taxpayers money […]

April 09, 2013

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1:30 AM | Neal’s Yard medicine shop in U.K. sells homeopathy to treat measles

There’s a strange thing about measles, people think it’s not a big deal anymore. Why bother vaccinating? Just take sugar pills. Neal’s Yard promotes homeopathy for measles. This could kill real children – Telegraph Blogs. For the record, in case I hadn’t made this clear earlier today: measles kills. Not as often as smallpox used to, not as often as TB, but it kills: perhaps one child in every 1,000 who gets it will suffer severe complications, including blindness, […]

April 05, 2013

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3:08 PM | BMC Cancer, WDDTY and homeopathy: ‘new’ comment

It took (me) a month to get a comment posted on a paper on BMC Cancer’s site. My abbreviated version (which appeared five days after re-submitting it) has now sat there for three weeks alongside Kausik’s, both seemingly being roundly ignored. As is my query concerning the full text of my original blog post. What to do? Does it matter? Well, actually, as a QuackRag deems that the paper in question constitutes subject(ive) matter for (re-)citation, then yes, I think... Read more

April 04, 2013

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4:12 PM | Teaching Chemistry With Homeopathy

This post was originally published on Randi.org As much as it riles up proponents of science-based medicine like myself, homeopathy …Continue reading »

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5:00 AM | Homeopathic regulation diluted until no substance left

Homeopathy is quackery but it is perfectly legal to prescribe homeopathic products and to sell them directly to consumers in the United States as well as other supposedly civilized countries such as the United Kingdom and Germany. This makes as much sense as allowing the sale of batteries that don’t produce electricity. What makes this [...]

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4:07 AM | It works every time, doesn’t it?

Every so often I come across a news story relevant to the subject matter usually encompassed by this blog that makes me shake my head in disbelief at the sheer stupidity. OK, every day, if you count the antivaccine movement and its attacks on papers like the one I wrote about Monday and yesterday. True,…

April 03, 2013

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6:44 PM | Discussion of Homeopathy Continues in the AVMA

Over the last few months, I have followed the progress of a resolution introduced to the American Veterinary Medical Association House of Delegates identifying homeopathy as an ineffective therapy incompatible with evidence-based medicine. The story can be traced through several … Continue reading →

March 29, 2013

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12:45 PM | More shameless self-promotion that is, I hope, at least entertaining

Three weeks ago, I gave a talk to the National Capital Area Skeptics at the National Science Foundation in Arlington, VA. The topic was one near and dear to my heart, namely quackademic medicine. I was informed the other day that the video had finally been posted. Unfortunately, there were some problems with the sound [...]

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1:57 AM | The Ethical Implications of Rexall’s Dubious Homeopathic Offerings

From ethicist Dr. Chris MacDonald, a column on Rexall’s recent advertisements promoting homeopathy: The problem, of course, is there’s no reliable evidence that homeopathy works, nor any plausible reason to think that it even could work. In commercial contexts, that’s pretty bad. And it’s worse still when the company selling the stuff is a company [...]

March 27, 2013

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2:05 PM | A founding father of quackademic medicine speaks

It’s been a while since I’ve written about Brian Berman. We first met him when he somehow managed to insinuate a “case report” of chronic low back pain into The New England Journal of Medicine in which he recommended acupuncture for this patient. Dr. Berman also happens to be a founder of quackademic medicine on…

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12:20 PM | Evidence Thresholds

Defenders of science-based medicine are often confronted with the question (challenge, really) – what would it take to convince you that “my sacred cow treatment” works? The challenge contains a thinly veiled accusation – no amount of evidence would convince you because you are a nasty skeptic. There is a threshold of evidence that would [...]