Tiny Magnets, Tiny Minds

22nd March, 2007 4

Just when I thought the Daily Mail was reducing the number of stupid health stories that it was publishing, it comes up with a classic. Once again, the Daily Mail has been duped into advertising quack products. The story entitled, “Tiny magnet that soothes the misery of menopause” is a full on bit of brainless reporting of a marketing press release issued by a company that makes questionable magnet healing [read more…]

Beauty and the Quack

20th March, 2007 11

Quackery is not just found in ‘alternative’ medicine and the high street homeopathic practice. Quackery exists wherever claims for health benefits are made that do not stand up to scrutiny. Today I want to look at the claims of a billion dollar business, one of the top 20 household products sellers outside of the US, Clarins. Are they guilty of quackery? This is a bit of departure for the quackometer [read more…]

Hideous Quackery?

9th March, 2007 0

It pains me to write this, but I have a nasty feeling that Kate Winslet might have been to visit a quack. I guess I ought to be careful as she has just won a ‘substantial’ settlement from Grazia magazine after they printed outrageous allegations that she had been to visit a ‘diet doctor’. Now to be fair to Kate, she has been outspoken, and rightly so, over the media’s [read more…]

The Dilemma of Finding Reliable Health Advice Online

7th March, 2007 4

A press release today from the Economic and Social Research Council talks about recent research on how the public evaluates the information on health websites. The concluding message is simple: When searching for health advice online, consumers often reject websites with high quality medical information in favour of those with a human touch. This is not good news for NHS sites, drug company sites and other sites that might try [read more…]

Holfords and Halfords

5th March, 2007 5

I’m going to stick my neck out here. I could be horribly wrong. But that is science; come up with a hypothesis, see if it fits with evidence from the real world. If so, create a powerful explanatory theory, if not, then shut the hell up. This contaminated petrol thing. For non-UK readers, thousands of motorists have been reporting their cars breaking down due to dodgy fuel. What has this [read more…]

Go on, you deserve it. Slap yourself with a Healing Broom

27th February, 2007 75

Following on from my last post about whether the people that run quack web sites are deeply deluded or just plain old frauds, I had to share this gem with you. For all aficionados of quackery, this is truly a collectors item to be savoured. Thanks to whoever entered the healingbroom.com web site into the quackometer. It is a treat and scores a perfect 10 canards. The healing broom looks [read more…]

Step Aside, I’m a Homeopath!

27th February, 2007 9

It is difficult to know when looking at the claims of many alternative medicine web sites, whether the people involved are a) deluded or b) fraudulent. For my part, and being a good natured soul, I tend to believe most people are just into weird things and are rather locked into their strange world view. They genuinely feel they are helping people by selling their products and services. To challenge [read more…]

We the undersigned…

15th February, 2007 20

In the past I have been critical of the exaggerated claims made by the promoters of salvestrols as the new super-food-supplement. There is no evidence to suggest that these plant-derived chemicals have any positive effect on reducing cancer risk when taken in supplement form or for forming any part of a medical regime for cancer sufferers. Trials are apparently underway, but the best evidence to-date has been in-vitro studies of [read more…]

The Depths of Ms McKeith’s Anti-Science

14th February, 2007 10

It’s been a bad week for Gillian. The anti-quackery blogging brigade have been partaking in bouts of the great British pastime of uncontrolled Schadenfreude (why did we leave it to the Germans to coin that term?) after the Advertising Standards Authority stopped Gillian McKeith as advertising herself as ‘Dr Gillian’. The Guardian printed a huge article by Ben Goldacre about how she is a ‘Menace to Science’ and how her [read more…]

Luv a Duck – it’s Magnetic Holisitic Slippers!

12th February, 2007 0

It’s that time of year again when a young male duck’s thoughts turn to the browner sex. Yes, its St Valentine’s Day, and gift buying is mandatory if you wish to maintain the affections of your fair-feathered ducky-love. So what to buy? A few suggestions out there from the world of Quackland. Sarah Stacey, and her cosy tie-in with Victoria Health, had plenty of suggestions in last week’s You magazine [read more…]

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