tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-258056592008-05-12T20:38:05.466+01:00Le Canard Noirhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07565056022495154803noreply@blogger.comBlogger177125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25805659.post-42835137523935916102008-05-07T20:13:00.001+01:002008-05-11T07:54:07.089+01:00

Professor Jayney Goddard is the president of the Complementary Medical Association (CMA), "the world's largest professional membership body for complementary medicine" and has been elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine. She studied homeopathy at Imperial College for five years and has won numerous awards. According to various sites, she is "considered to be among the world’s leading

Le Canard Noirhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07565056022495154803noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25805659.post-32508195962876649882008-05-06T13:42:00.004+01:002008-05-06T18:07:20.600+01:00

In a recent post, I described how Neal's Yard Remedies had withdrawn their Malaria homeopathy pills. Their press release said, as this is obviously a contentious issue which is causing customer concern, we have decided to withdraw the product, Malaria Officinalis 30c from sale with immediate effect. I described this as bullshit, just like the rest of their press release. The much more likely

Le Canard Noirhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07565056022495154803noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25805659.post-4715345932633470702008-05-01T18:45:00.008+01:002008-05-01T22:18:59.675+01:00

Edzard Ernst has accused practitioners of alternative medicine of lying to their patients. In last week's New Scientist he gave an interview where he described his childhood experiences with homeopathy, and his subsequent medical and homeopathic training, and his work in the only German homeopathic hospital. His conversion to doubt has been slow and guided by the evidence. He now believes that

Le Canard Noirhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07565056022495154803noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25805659.post-2953396074870640882008-04-28T19:52:00.008+01:002008-04-30T12:07:45.162+01:00

Neal's Yard Remedies has announced that it is withdrawing is Malaria Officinalis 30C homeopathic remedy from sale. This is the absolute minimum it could have done given that its Exeter Branch was recently caught out by the BBC South West programme Inside Out selling this remedy as protection against malaria. (I wrote about this staggering event recently.) What reason do Neal's Yard give? Let's

Le Canard Noirhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07565056022495154803noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25805659.post-75013672343629614552008-04-23T18:26:00.001+01:002008-04-23T16:48:02.854+01:00

I read a rather disconcerting thing the other day. Apparently, the 'close doors' button on lifts (elevators, for my American friends) does not work. It is there to give us a sense of control in the tin box suspended on a rope. We press it but the lift control mechanisms decide when the doors should actually shut according to their pre-programmed cycles. My reaction was of course total disbelief

Le Canard Noirhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07565056022495154803noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25805659.post-77673882308343329172008-04-17T07:50:00.005+01:002008-04-17T13:06:19.068+01:00

The homeopaths, like Dana Ullman, treat original scientific works like scripture - as a source of truth. Their own Hahnemannian scriptures trump scientific knowledge and evidence at all turns. This fact exposes their pseudoscience. I bet the majority of practicing biologists have never read Darwin's Origins. Homeopaths like the authority of scientists, celebrities and politicians. It gives them

Le Canard Noirhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07565056022495154803noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25805659.post-9828918908452273942008-04-16T00:17:00.014+01:002008-04-16T13:23:56.938+01:00

It's the big story this morning all over the British papers - the new killer in our midst - vitamin pills. Today, a new Cochrane review tells us that guzzling antioxidant vitamin pills 'do us no good and may be harmful'. The Independent tell us that, We swallow them by the bucketload at great expense but there is no evidence vitamin supplements do us any good, and they may even be doing us

Le Canard Noirhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07565056022495154803noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25805659.post-71965997211016125762008-04-13T20:00:00.009+01:002008-05-06T15:28:10.736+01:00

Unbelievably, nearly two years after BBC Newsnight exposed ten homeopaths offering dangerous advice to travellers about malaria protection, the BBC have found high street chain Neal's Yard Remedies offering sugar pills as protection against malaria. The BBC, in a press release, said, The presenter of [BBC] Inside Out South West Janine Jansen was sold homeopathic remedies by the manager of

Le Canard Noirhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07565056022495154803noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25805659.post-52753309159628478782008-04-09T00:42:00.002+01:002008-04-09T01:13:40.740+01:00

Part of the wonderful new world of regulated alternative medicine is the insistence that all registered practitioners undergo Continuous Professional Development. Just like in real professions, quacks will be expected to attend a certain number of hours per year in keeping their skills up to date and learning about the latest developments in their field. The Prince of Wales and his new

Le Canard Noirhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07565056022495154803noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25805659.post-87427496571718728682008-03-30T23:46:00.003+01:002008-03-31T00:23:23.634+01:00

In my last post I discussed how Hopi Ear Candles has nothing to do with the American Hopi tribe and was a technique that had only been scalding ear drums since the Eighties. Quackery likes to sell itself on its ancient roots and traditional heritage. But, by the looks of it, most quackery techniques have much more modern roots. Someone emailed me to ask if I could expand on this, so here goes:

Le Canard Noirhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07565056022495154803noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25805659.post-58963099676291153262008-03-27T14:34:00.010Z2008-04-15T20:24:18.651+01:00

Quacks like to tell us that their healing arts are thousands of years old and based on ancient principles that have withstood the test of time. Like most things in their advertising spiel, it is a canard and does not bear any resemblance to the truth. Reiki, Reflexology, Osteopathy and Chiropractic are around a hundred years old. Homeopathy is about 200 years old and even acupuncture as we know

Le Canard Noirhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07565056022495154803noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25805659.post-47317746346925343832008-03-22T09:35:00.003Z2008-03-22T11:22:55.416Z

Some years ago, a well meaning but utterly deluded friend gave me a book entitled Natural Remedies For Your Cat by Christopher Day. It is a slightly disturbing tome that appears to recommend homeopathic remedies for pretty much everything - from fleas to gunshot wounds. Rational cat lovers might find this book pretty disturbing. In many ways, it is a classic homeopathy text. It sees homeopathy

Le Canard Noirhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07565056022495154803noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25805659.post-75876402517543977412008-03-20T22:44:00.000Z2008-03-20T23:04:04.278Z

Here are the stated aims of the Society of Homeopaths for 2007 and set out at the start of the year... The Society of Homeopaths’ Aims and Objectives for 2007 By the 1st January 2008, it is envisaged that The Society will have passed on its regulatory function to an independent new regulatory and registration body, to be known as the Council of Registered Homeopaths (CoRH). This will allow The

Le Canard Noirhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07565056022495154803noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25805659.post-61542784306044385022008-03-14T22:20:00.000Z2008-03-15T20:28:50.242Z

If you are worried about the activities of an alternative medicine practitioner, there is not an easy way to find the right authority who might look into it. The Advertising Standards Authority are very effective at investigating complex matters, but can only really rap knuckles and leave traders to carry on pretty much unharmed. Often, the only damage is an ASA ruling placed well down in the

Le Canard Noirhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07565056022495154803noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25805659.post-68360804620928698752008-03-10T22:42:00.004Z2008-03-10T23:32:25.142Z

On the eve of the Cheltenham Festival, the race organisers are battling to repair the storm damage after ferocious winds have been bashing the West of England. Cheltenham is one of the biggest events in the racing calendar and for one of the most famous jockeys, Tony McCoy, a little storm damage has been the least of his problems. McCoy fractured two vertebrae in a fall two months ago and things

Le Canard Noirhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07565056022495154803noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25805659.post-13999681252664173422008-03-08T15:00:00.001Z2008-03-08T15:39:34.031Z

Watching the antics of quacks is funny and I hope some of that humour comes across on this blog. Sometimes, however, humour just appears to be so misplaced. Las Mariposas Clinic, in Torremolinos, Malaga, Spain, is a clinic that offers homeopathic and nutritional cures for cancer. They promise, “Unique methods that induce the natural remission of cancer and other illnesses” Nothing about this is

Le Canard Noirhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07565056022495154803noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25805659.post-44435183509177814792008-03-04T00:16:00.004Z2008-03-04T00:31:43.673Z

A bit of a ding dong has started up over at HolfordWatch after they questioned some of the activities of a charity called Life’s 4 Living. There is now a huge red banner on their homepage that proclaims the following: There has recently been a vicious, sustained and unprovoked attack on this charity. Over the next few days life's 4 living will refute each and every allegation in this spurious

Le Canard Noirhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07565056022495154803noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25805659.post-9601160181185343732008-03-03T21:52:00.004Z2008-03-03T22:25:27.054Z

Hawley Harvey Crippen (1863-1910) was an American homeopath who was born to Andresee Skinner and Myron Augustus Crippen. He trained as a homeopath and joined a homeopathic pharmaceutical company. In 1910, he emigrated with his second wife, Cora Turner , to England where he was unable to practice as a Doctor as the authorities would not recognise his credentials. Turner was a music hall singer

Le Canard Noirhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07565056022495154803noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25805659.post-40614470240932336242008-03-01T00:31:00.006Z2008-03-17T08:56:01.706Z

The Cochrane Collaboration is an independent network of volunteers, funded only by donations, that collate systematic reviews of the evidence base for healthcare interventions. You can go online and view for yourself the current best thinking on how effective various treatments are. It is an important resource. (And you can help making it free throughout the EU by signing here.) Cochrane does

Le Canard Noirhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07565056022495154803noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25805659.post-92032250051500964222008-02-25T19:01:00.012Z2008-02-29T11:30:34.535Z

We know it is going to be a fun year for watching Homeopaths. The fight is well and truly on for who gets to pretend to regulate the profession. The beleaguered Society of Homeopaths have today gone on the offensive for total and unyielding control. The year started off with Prince Charles and the Foundation for Integrated Health announcing the arrival on the scene of the government backed

Le Canard Noirhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07565056022495154803noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25805659.post-69149373283097329262008-02-23T00:01:00.010Z2008-02-27T13:50:46.135Z

So, the Quackometer has been up and running for 24 hours now and most systems have been restored. A bit more to go though. For the technically inclined, this has involved a move from cuddly cotton wool children's Microsoft servers to grown up, open source, Apache/Unix servers where a missed semi-colon can kill faster than a homeopath dishing out malaria pills. It's been a bit of a bother, but I

Le Canard Noirhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07565056022495154803noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25805659.post-46760672509605767942008-02-21T22:15:00.002Z2008-02-21T22:24:26.345Z

Please bear with me as the new quackometer goes through its re-birthing pangs. Transfering to a new, better, more helpful and cuddlier hosting provider is taking time. The Quackometer Engine and other facilities may well be out of action for a short while. Features will come on line over the next few days. Expect bugs and wierd behaviour. Repsek goes out to the Positive Internet crew who have

Le Canard Noirhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07565056022495154803noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25805659.post-5199173265938732452008-02-16T22:03:00.011Z2008-02-29T13:14:35.760Z

The Homeopathy Research Institute (HRI) has been set up by homeopaths Alex Tournier (who apparently works for Cancer Research UK) and Clare Relton (who is based at the University of Sheffield). The Alliance of Registered Homeopaths in one of their rare press statements have made much of it. They say, The aim of the Homeopathy Research Institute is to promote and facilitate high-quality

Le Canard Noirhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07565056022495154803noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25805659.post-61788789274459060842008-02-02T00:30:00.000Z2008-02-01T16:26:55.311Z

Double Blind Randomised Controlled Trials (DBRCTs) are not the preserve of medical science. Increasingly, corporations are using them to enter into a new world of Evidence Based Marketing where massive, continuous and automated trials are being run on us in order find out how to sell more stuff and become more profitable. What does this mean for medicine and our lives? Our beliefs are our

Le Canard Noirhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07565056022495154803noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25805659.post-48928240126836876762008-02-01T08:25:00.000Z2008-02-01T09:11:53.811Z

After yesterday's raids by the MHRA on suspect dodgy pill sellers and their 'Internet Day of Action', perhaps one of the largest profiteers from such schemes will get away with it. Google has been quite happy to take money from triamazon.com to show adverts for the site and the hugely overpriced food supplement pretending to be a miracle cancer cure. This is despite the fact that Google has a

Le Canard Noirhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07565056022495154803noreply@blogger.com