2014 – The Quackometer Blog

Medical Innovation or Quackery?

12th December, 2014 19

One of the common marketing messages behind alternative medicine is that is represents true innovation in healthcare. Using one Prince Charles’ favourite words, it tries to offer “integrative” services by combining the best of ‘Western’, or orthodox, medicine with ancient traditions, Eastern practices and New Age ways of knowing. Doctors, in this thinking, are portrayed as hamstrung by their conventional medical training or, even worse, beholden to their imagined paymasters [read more…]

Nutritional Therapists Call for Equal Statutory Footing with Dieticians.

2nd December, 2014 31

In a surprise move, the British Association for Applied Nutrition & Nutritional Therapy (BANT) have formally written to the Health & Care Professions Council (HCPC) requesting that the register of dietitians is modified to allow for the entry of nutritional therapists. This would give Nutritional Therapists equal statutory footing to Dieticians and give them all the privileges and protections that only Dieticians currently have. In a notice to their members, BANT says, [read more…]

Soil Association Trustees Resign over Homeopathy Attacks

29th November, 2014 13

The Soil Association is the marketing organisation behind so-called Organic Farming. It’s stated aims are to campaign for “healthy, humane and sustainable food, farming and land use.” However, it is routinely criticised for embracing pseudoscientific and dogmatic ideas about farming and animal welfare. Matters have now come to a head as four Trustees resigned from the Soil Association earlier in the month. In a blog post, one of them (Joanna [read more…]

Have Homeopaths Reached Peak Stupid?

21st November, 2014 243

Remove hot drinks and sharp objects from your immediate vicinity. Across the world, homeopaths today are trying to ‘heal the oceans’. To do so, British homeopath, Grace DaSilva-Hill, has been writing to appeal to other homeopaths to drop some homeopathic remedies into the sea. She tells homeopaths that those not close to the sea can instead drop their remedies into a river. If even this is too challenging, then Grace advises [read more…]

Society Warns Homeopaths not to Talk About Ebola.

17th October, 2014 27

This blog believes that accredting the Society of Homeopaths was a mistake by the PSA. However, I can accept that some benefits may come of it. One is that the Society now needs to watch very closely its public profile – even more than before. So, on a public homeopathy discussion board discussion board, this email gets slipped out… Information about Ebola Dear xxx The Society shares the global concern [read more…]

Homeopath Finds a Cure for Ebola: Violin Music

9th October, 2014 78

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. If you [read more…]

The Society of Homeopaths Have Achieved PSA Accreditation

12th September, 2014 39

Our health care regulators cannot differentiate between a health care profession and a pseudo-medical cargo cult. The Professional Standards Authority has accredited the Society of Homeopaths as a holder of a approved voluntary register of health-care practitioners. The PSA have announced in a press release that, Patients and the public can have confidence in the Society of Homeopaths’ voluntary register which has been vetted and approved by the Professional Standards [read more…]

Government forced to reveal what they knew about racism and bullying in Steiner Schools

1st August, 2014 47

The British Humanist Association has forced the government to release documents showing what they knew about Steiner Schools before they gave them State Funding. The report shows serious concerns regarding systematic bullying of children by teachers, serious concerns about the underlying philosophy being racist, a culture of secrecy and a refusal by schools to allow themselves to be properly assessed and inspected. BBC Newsnight have picked up the story and [read more…]

Tredinnick at Glastonbury – Homeopathy and Astrology

25th July, 2014 59

It’s the same each time with progress. First they ignore you, then they say you’re mad, then dangerous, then there’s a pause and then you can’t find anyone who disagrees with you. – Tony Benn In front of a large banner bearing the above quote, the MP for Bosworth, David Tredinnick appealed to the Glastonbury crowds* to follow him on his campaign to fight for homeopathy on the NHS. It’s been a few [read more…]

By Keiko Oikawa (it was sent to me personally) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Ottolenghi and the Quack HIV Homeopaths in Africa

21st July, 2014 10

This blog has been a long term critic of the Society of Homeopaths, and other British Homeopathic organisations, who support their members who practice homeopathy in Africa on people with life threatening conditions such as malaria, HIV and TB. Indeed, the Society of Homeopaths threatened to sue me and my web hosts for pointing out that the Society did nothing to stop these dangerous practices, despite their Code of Ethics suggesting [read more…]