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Snooker player, Peter Ebdon, has been appearing on the BBC Snooker Championships with a promotional logo for ‘Gerson Therapy; emblazoned on his waistcoat. Gerson Therapy is a form a alternative cancer treatment offered by many quacks and supported by a US company, the Gerson Institute. People with cancer are persuaded that the diet should be used as an alternative to mainstream treatment. It mainly consists of eating huge quantities of fruit and having coffee enemas. There is no evidence that it has any effect beyond removing large quantities of cash from its users. Indeed, users may be harmed by its insane dietary requirements and the needless and dangerous enemas. Of course, it also harms people by driving a wedge between them and their oncologists and GPs. Informed decision making...

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The Olympics are coming to London this Summer and the presence of such a huge jamboree means it will not just be athletes and race walkers flocking in, but thousands of support staff and businesses including caterers, pole dancers, medical teams and chiropractors. Yes, chiropractors. Apparently, a ‘Central Medical Unit’ has been appointing “doctors, chiropractors and physiotherapists” in order to treat athletes at the games. Google this ‘Central Medical Unit’ and you will see a plethora of chiropractors who are keen to announce their pride at their inclusion in the event. We see chiropractor Richard Skippings from Thirsk say “to have been selected is a massive honour”. Chiropractor Lauren Comley from Berkhampsted says on her website  “to have been selected is a massive honour.” Tim Button from Mangotsfield also...

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An advert in my local paper called for people to come into the Wells Chiropractic & Osteopathy Centre for an introductory price of £19. Included in this price was a “complete consultation and results, including the latest high-tech Myovision Scan”. Chiropractors have been criticised for trying to lure people into lengthy, costly and, importantly, unnecessary treatments. Chiropractic is of limited therapeutic value. It may help a little with lower back pain, but no more than pain killers and exercise. The wilder claims of chiropractic, such as being able to treat childhood ailments, have been shown to be utter nonsense. So what is a Myovision scan and what function does it provide during an initial chiropractic consultation? A Myovision device is a handheld scanner that is designed to measure electric...

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In October this year, an organisation calling itself The Cambridge Institute of Complementary Health is hosting a conference on “cutting edge and innovative ways of treating cancer”. The keynote speaker is Dr Stanislaw Burzynski from the Burzynski Institute in Texas. Burzynski is a controversial character. He has been regularly appearing in local and national newspapers and TV in the UK as families with desperately sick children try to raise hundreds of thousands of pounds to send them to the US and try his antineoplaston cancer therapy. Except that, after 30 years of selling this ‘pioneering’ treatment Dr Burzynski has failed to produce any convincing evidence that it works. Indeed, an analysis of what he is actually doing by an oncologist suggests that, at best, he is selling orphaned chemotherapy...

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England has a rather odd piece of legislation prohibiting the advertisement of cancer treatments. It is odd because, on the whole, England is a pretty tolerant place when it comes to allowing people to set themselves up with health businesses. There is a Common Law right to practice. And anyone can treat a sick person, even for money, as long as there is informed consent. There are exceptions. You must not claim you are a registered medical practitioner, you may not use a few protected titles such as Dietician and Speech Therapist, and you must not claim to be able to treat cancer and venereal disease. The Cancer Act of 1939 specifically prohibits that “No person shall take any part in the publication of any advertisement containing an offer...

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Having just had a baby girl and moving house, I thought I would subscribe to Which? magazine as I knew I needed to make a few critical spends over the coming months. Which? is a consumer rights organisation that publishes reports and reviews into consumer issues. Online reviews of products and services can often be misleading as you do not know anything about the reviewers motives and depth of experiences. More often than not, I find myself wondering if reviews say more about the reviewer than the product. So, it’s good to see independent consumer organisations such as Which? systematically review and rate competing products. One thing did strike me though, and that is that Which? tend not to focus on dodgy health product claims. I had put this...

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It would appear that, quietly and without fuss, the NHS Homeopathic Hospital in Liverpool has closed. It is difficult to know precisely what has happened. But there now appears to be no trace of its existence. Previously, only a few years ago, the British Homeopathic Association were boasting of five NHS hospitals dedicated to homeopathy. It now only lists three. We know that Tunbridge Wells closed after West Kent PCT withdrew funding. So, what happened to Liverpool? Of the remaining three hospitals, it is now difficult to call them dedicated homeopathic hospitals. The Royal London Homeopathic Hospital changed its name to the Royal London Hospital for Integrated Medicine to reflect the fact that homeopathy was becoming less important as fewer referrals were occurring and other forms of quackery were...

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