Blog Archives

Debating Homeopathy on BBC Oxford Radio

June 15, 2011

This morning I took part in a debate on the Phil Gayle show on BBC Radio Oxford as part of Homeopathic Awareness Week. You can listen to the debate here: Phil Gayle Show: Debate at 1:46:46 I am always in two minds whether to take part in these things. It is easy for a homeopath to ambush with a bizarre study that makes them look like they have evidence. Or for the phone-in to be inundated with well meaning, but misinformed, anecdotes about how “lucky pebbles cured my next door neighbour’s dog”. But more importantly, the debates rarely get past the ‘It works’, ‘No t doesn’t’ sort of ding-dong. It’s all so rather depressing that the real interesting ideas never get discussed. It also does not help when the...

Homeopathic Study of Cancer Treatment Fails. Homeopaths Conclude It Works.

June 14, 2011

By Andy Lewis

Given that it is Homeopathy Awareness Week again, I thought it would be worth exploring how Homeopaths mislead us about science and evidence. So, from that site of uniformly misleading health advice, What Doctors Don’t Tell You, we learn that, Homeopathy has a ‘clinically relevant’ effect way beyond placebo Critics have always dismissed homeopathy as offering nothing more than a placebo effect – you just think it’s making you better. A new study has proved them wrong. Classical homeopathy has clear benefits to cancer patients that are “clinically relevant and statistically significant”, say researchers. This is of course wrong. And as always, when homeopaths are wrong they are wrong in interesting ways that illuminate the nature of science and evidence. The paper in Question (Classical homeopathy in the treatment...

Of the Imagination, as a Cause and as a Cure of Disorders of the Body

June 3, 2011

By Andy Lewis

Of the Imagination, as a Cause and as a Cure of Disorders of the Body

The Peninsula College of Medicine and Dentistry at Exeter and Plymouth Universities have issued an excited press release about how their researchers have demonstrated the benefits of acupuncture and how it would save resources for the NHS. They claim that ‘5 element acupuncture’ has been shown to be effective with people suffering from ‘unexplained symptoms’. A paper was published in the British Journal of General Practice that concluded that “acupuncture had a significant and sustained benefit” on such people. Except the paper does not show any such benefit. Even a cursory glance at the data in the paper shows quite clearly that patients received no significant benefit from acupuncture against a control group (who received delayed acupuncture). This is somewhat surprising as the study was not properly controlled –...

The Myths of NHS Homeopathy

May 24, 2011

By Andy Lewis

MP David Tredinnick has tabled an Early Day Motion for MPs to sign in support of The Homeopathic Research Institutes campaign to promote more research into homeopathy. I have already spelled out in some detail why such research would be deeply unethical: firstly, we already know with a very high degree of certainty that homeopathy is a superstitious form of medical treatment that is completely ineffective; and secondly, research is supposed to help inform treatment choices – and homeopaths have never changed their approach as a result of any clinical research – and more research is unlikely to make them start incorporating evidence into their belief system. The full text if his EDM is as follows: That this House welcomes the campaign by the Homeopathy Research Institute (HRI) to...

Doses of Expedience

May 22, 2011

By Andy Lewis

Last week, we saw the “first national conference” of the College of Medicine – the organisation that has arisen from the ashes of Prince Charles’ Foundation for Integrated Health. The Foundation closed last year after it failed to provide its accounts after an employee ran off with all the money. The College of Medicine appears to have perfected the art of ‘bait and switch’ within the world of quackery. Practitioners of pseudo-medicine have tried over the years to find acceptable names for what they do. Not so long again it was called alternative medicine- but that sounded a little confrontational to mainstream medicine. So then it became complementary medicine – but that sounded to subordinate to real medicine. The recent fashion has been to call it integrated medicine –...

How Applied Kinesiology Can be Used to Justify any Quack Treatment

May 19, 2011

By Andy Lewis

How Applied Kinesiology Can be Used to Justify any Quack Treatment

There is little industry of companies that like to sell devices and remedies to protect you from the evils of mobile phones and Wifi. Given that there is no compelling evidence that there is a significant and meaningful threat from such technologies, the major challenge of these outfits is to convince the public that they need their services. This problem will no doubt be helped by last week’s decision by the Council of Europe into accepting the conclusions of a small bunch of pseudoscientists and the discredited and unbalanced Bioinitiative Report that we must protect children from the threat of electromagnetic radiation. One company that will hope to thrive from such nonsense is called Phoneshield. It sells little buttons containing magic crystals that you stick on your phone or...

Research into Homeopathy is Unethical

May 6, 2011

By Andy Lewis

On the 17th of May, David Tredinnick MP will be holding a reception in the House of Commons. In conjunction with the Homeopathy Research Institute, the reception is being held “to promote scientific research in the field of homeopathy.” The invitation letter states, There is currently a growing body of scientific evidence suggesting that homeopathy offers an inexpensive, effective treatment option for many chronic conditions, however the only way to know definitively is by conducting further high quality research. At this unprecedented event, there will be brief thought-provoking presentations by experts such as Professor Kate Thomas – Honorary Professor of Health Services Research, and the chance to exchange views with this diverse group of attendees. We look forward to seeing you at this event. Once we have received confirmation...

Abha Light Foundation: Funded through Violent Cult.

May 3, 2011

By Andy Lewis

So, today has seen a thorough investigation by the Independent into the Abha Light homeopathy clinics in Africa where HIV positive people are told to forgo life saving medicines in favour of superstitious homeopathic sugar pills. What is more, the investigation found that this quack clinic is being funded through NGOs by UK charities. Who are the people that are funding this shocking enterprise? The answer to that question is even more shocking. Abha Light itself describes where its money comes from. Gimpyblog has already described the UK charity SHEAF Trust and its support for Abha Light. Money mainly from homeopaths is channelled through this organisation by Dorset homeopath Penny Rowe. Support for such dangerous activities is not a fringe activity within UK homeopathy, but is actively supported through...

Abha Light Must Close

May 1, 2011

By Andy Lewis

Kenyan leading newspaper, The Standard on Sunday, has reported that an undercover investigator has

Turn On, Tune In, Quack

April 25, 2011

By Andy Lewis

A paper in the open access and non-peer reviewed physics arXiv (Electromagnetic Signals from Bacterial DNA; Widom, Swain, Srivastava, Srivastava 2011) reports that bacteria such as E. coli may have a sort of WiFi communication capability. The authors suggest that a quantum mechanical analysis of electrons moving around loops of bacterial DNA will produce low frequency radio waves. What is even more remarkable is that the authors, physicists Widom and Swain, suggest that these radio waves may contain biologically significant information that is being broadcast by either frequency or amplitude modulation of the signal (AM/FM). They suggest that since photosynthesis requires the propagation of electromagnetic signals at optical frequencies, then lower frequencies may too induce “chemical reactions … at a distance due to the propagation of electromagnetic signals during...

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Debating Homeopathy on BBC Oxford Radio

Homeopathic Study of Cancer Treatment Fails. Homeopaths Conclude It Works.

Of the Imagination, as a Cause and as a Cure of Disorders of the Body

The Myths of NHS Homeopathy

Doses of Expedience

How Applied Kinesiology Can be Used to Justify any Quack Treatment

Research into Homeopathy is Unethical

Abha Light Foundation: Funded through Violent Cult.

Abha Light Must Close

Turn On, Tune In, Quack

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