Before you begin, if your irony meter is switched on, then to avoid damage, please turn it off now. For the Society of Homeopaths have today issued a press release condemning sceptics for their ‘half baked arguments and lack of understanding of research’. The homeopaths are very angry at Simon Singh again and his ‘traipsing around the media studios’ talking about how the government are to review if doctors will be [read more…]
Like many parts of the NHS, Lothian Health Board had recently made the sensible decision to stop funding homeopathy. It made this decision after an extensive public consultation. However a 73 year old woman with arthritis called for judicial review of the decision. That review came down firmly on the side of the Health Board and homeopathic provision will not be reinstated. However, the impact of this decision goes well beyond [read more…]
Just what is Christine Braithwaite of the Professional Standards Authority doing speaking at a homeopaths’ conference on treating children with autism with sugar pills? The Society of Homeopaths is holding it annual conference with a theme based around treating children with autism. Braithwaite is the Director of Standards and Policy. You may think that the regulator would be doing its best to protect parents and children from the absurd fantasies of homeopaths [read more…]
The Home Secretary, Theresa May, is to introduce new legislation banning any substance that might be considered a ‘legal high’. In her Psychoactive Substances Bill, any substance that can “affect[s] the person’s mental functioning or emotional state” will be banned unless it is on a very short list of allowed substances. So, after this Bill is passed, you will only be allowed to drink tea because Theresa May has specifically allowed you to [read more…]
That the NHS spends money on homeopathy is a red flag to many thinking people. If the publicly funded health service is to operare efficiently and fairly, how is it that it can spend money on this egregious quackery? Furthermore, how can campaigns to stop homeopaths exporting their dangerous ideas to people with HIV, Ebola and malaria in African countries counter the claim that ‘the UK government supports homeopathy by [read more…]
The Professional Standards Authority has published a report about how it has performed with its Accredited Registers Programme. This scheme has been trying to provide some sort of quality stamp for the registering bodies of various non-statutorily regulated health workers. It has been criticised for rubber stamping organisations who promote quackery, such as homeopathy and acupuncture. Their press release today says that it now has 63,000 ‘underused’ registered health care [read more…]
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…]
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…]
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…]
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…]
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