The Quackometer

Dr James Colthurst and the Fenzian Machine


No, I haven't gone all Daily Express on you. There is a genuine Lady Di connection here. But first, the Daily Telegraph.

We are told (May 10, 2008) how a man had a bad knee and how 'laser acupuncture' made it better again. Time for the Quackometer to investigate.

So, why do alarm bells ring? The Telegraph reports,

Last year I heard about a new treatment, called Fenzian, and decided to give it a go. Pioneered by Eumedic, a Berkshire-based company, it involves a hand-held electronic device that is passed across the afflicted area imparting low-level electromagnetic impulses into the skin. It has been likened to a non-piercing form of acupuncture.

'Electronic devices' that look really scientific and impart 'electromagnetic' things to the body are readily found in the world of quackery. They usually do nothing but allow practitioners to take hefty fees from customers. Is the Fenzian one of these devices? We must look more.


Apparently, the machine works by,

open[ing] a dialogue between the damaged part and the central nervous system, enabling the body to target its own healing powers more effectively.

Now that could be just flowery journalistic uncomprehending language. But if it is what Eumedic claim, then we could be in a spot of bother. One thing I would like to know is what is being said in the dialogue and what language is being used. Unfortunately, I doubt we will find out.

The next worrying aspect is that Eumedic appear to be relying on testimonials. An over-reliance on testimonials ought to alert us to the possibility that quacks are using anecdotes to convince people that their treatments work. (Check out the All-American Sports Stars.) But things look better when it appears that there is an actual written-up study of the treatment with 600 patients involved. There might be real evidence that the Fenzian works. The Telegraph reports,

[The study] showed that most felt they had been “cured”, though this was less evident among the older ones and those who had had symptoms for more than six months.

And hopes may be dashed. If the Fenzian was useless then we might expect those with new symptoms to get better soon anyway, but those with more drawn out problems to continue to have them. Is this paper for real?

The paper, entitled A retrospective case note review of the Fenzian electrostimulation system: a novel non-invasive, non-pharmacological treatment, is by J. Colthurst and P. Giddings. The study was of 600 case notes from one clinic. It was asking if the patients seen at this self-referred, private clinic felt better after a visit. As such, we cannot tell from the study if the Fenzian had any effect whatsoever. It is perfectly possible that people got better anyway. There is no control group, so we simply do not know what the Fenzian did. The criticisms you could make of this paper are exactly the same as those made of the Bristol Homeopathy Study. Funnily enough, both papers report a 70% satisfaction rate.

The authors themselves note that "conclusions that can be drawn from the findings are limited." However, they go on to rather optimistically conclude, "these preliminary results are highly encouraging". I would add that if all 600 patients had paid the initial £350 as the Telegraph correspondent, followed by 15 follow up visits at £150 a pop, a more justified conclusion of this paper might be, "these preliminary results are highly financially encouraging".

My doubts grow even stronger when we note that the lead author of the paper, J. Colthurst, is the owner of the clinic and inventor of the Fenzian. So, the paper can hardly be looked upon as an independent review of the technique. More troubling aspects arise when I note that a Professor Kim Jobst helped with the paper. Jobst has turned up on the quackometer before as an advocate of the highly dubious qlink magic pendant.

More scary things are in the paper, such as the appeals to NASA/Military/Russian/Secret authority,

Research by the Soviet aerospace and military scientists found that rapid changes in skin electrical properties occurred during acupressure, and that the sites of valuable response often correlated with known acupuncture sites. Regrettably, because of the secretive culture of the Soviet military, none of this research was published.

Such claims are always highly doubtful and impossible to verify - but sound very impressive.

So, who is the inventor of the Fenzian and author of this paper? Dr James Colthurst MBBS; BSc; MBA; MFHom; FRCS(Ed) is an ex surgeon, educated at Eton and St Thomas’s Hospital Medical School, University of London. He is the second son of Sir Richard la Touche Colthurst, 9th Baronet Colthurst of Blarney Castle, and a capped English rower.

Colthurst is an intriguing character. Having the double misfortune of being second in line to the Baronetcy and loosing a bundle on the Lloyds markets, he found himself studying for a business degree (MBA) and then setting up a private clinic in Berkshire. Beyond his medical career, we find out that he was a close childhood friend of Diana and he turned out to be the paid for 'middle man', supplying the Diana tapes to Andrew Motion for the book that 'blew the lid off' the royal marriage.

Colthurst has a history of investment in alternative medicine. He is proud to claim that he is only the second surgeon to train in homeopathy and join the Faculty of Homeopaths and he only surgeon with an MBA. The Telegraph lists him as one of their Top 20 health gurus, just above Patrick Holford.

He also looks as if he has been dabbling in electronic gizmos for a while now. It is claimed he was one of the fist people to use the SCENAR device in the UK - a box remarkably similar to the Fenzian. The SCENAR was

developed by Russian scientists to ensure that cosmonauts stayed fighting fit as they floated in the stratosphere[sic].

Another user of the SCENAR, claims to be trained by Colthurst and says the device was,

developed in Russia in the 1970s to get wounded Soviet soldiers back on the battlefield as quickly as possible.

Marvelous.

In April this year, the Washington State Attorney General, Rob McKenna, wrote a letter to the US FDA to urge them to curb bogus medical devices such as the SCENAR. He said,

The sale and use of untested medical devices is a national problem. We encourage you to ban the manufacture, distribution and use of these dangerous devices, to step up enforcement against those who are taking consumers' money and risking their health.

Colthurst has other electronic device interests too. He runs a web site called muststopsmoking.com. For this service, you will be charged £250 and plugged into a Bioresonance device that "recognises the echoes of toxins and asks your body to 're-set' itself."

I must let you see the "Medical Description of Bioresonance" that is used to sell the service...

All substances have a resonant frequency. Even cells have resonant frequencies. These vary with different types and state of cells. Healthy cells have 'clear' harmonic waveforms. Unhealthy or damaged cells have disturbed waveforms. Toxic substances will disturb the waveform emanating from cells.

The 'output' signal from a cell can be considered as a resultant of the healthy cell waveform and the frequency of the toxic substance.

Bioresonance aims to measure the waveforms and to be able to separate disharmonic (toxic) waveforms from 'healthy' signals. A process of phase-cancellation is then used to counter the toxic waveforms. In addition, another process is used to amplify the healthy waveforms, thereby re-setting the cellular harmonics.

Gold standard pseudoscience.

Now, we have seen the Blarney-stone-kissing, gift-of-the-gab, silver-spoon-in-the-mouth, side of the family, but on his mother's side there is a more interesting relative. He is the great-grandson of Sir Almroth Wright who is something of a medical hero. Wright was an early pioneer of immunisation, inventing the process of autogenous vaccination preparation and was probably responsible for saving millions of lives through the development of the typhoid vaccine before the First World War. He worked with Alexander Flemming on the treatment and cleaning of wounds to prevent infection and battled fiercely with the 'Harley Street Ethos'. He campaigned to set up a government centralised fund for performing medical research so that it could be taken out of the hands of private practice. This action led Lloyd George to set up the Medical Research Committee (which later beacme the Medical Research Council).

Wright found many detractors, not least in George Bernard Shaw who lamented the passing of the art of medicine to the emerging power of scientific medicine typified by the attitude of Wright. Wright formed the basis of the character of Dr Colenso Ridgeon in George Bernard Shaw's satire The Doctor's Dilemma.

In a biography of Shaw by Hesketh Pearson, it is reported that,

Bernard Shaw called upon Sir Almroth Wright - a noted allopathic physician - to look into homeopathy. Wright expressed complete incredulity. Shaw remonstrated with him. "Look here," exclaimed Wright, "the thing is absurd and impossible; let me put it this way. Would you, Shaw, trouble to get out of your chair if I called from the next room, 'Do come in here and see what I have done - I have turned a pint of tea leaves into pure gold.'?" "Certainly I would," replied Shaw. "

Shaw's credulity stands in stark contrast to Wright's sceptical attitude. Homeopaths see Shaw's response as being more 'open minded'. Sceptics see it as an over willingness to believe in anything in the face of illogical nonsense. Indeed, Wright was supposed to have proposed that logic was formally taught to doctor's as part of their training. His ideas were ahead of their time and rejected.

I wonder what he would make of his descendant? My guess is that science may well have advanced, but society has not.

Labels: electromagnetic quackery, fenzian, qlink

 

Yes, a deliberately provocative title for this blog entry. The distressing and puzzling illness of anorexia is very real. We see people convinced that their body is repulsive and overweight and they diet their way into oblivion. We feel helpless in the face of the strength of their conviction that something is wrong with their bodies. From the outside of the illness, it is clear that their beliefs are an integral and delusional part of the illness. If someone was to exploit the illness by selling diet pills, slimming aids or by setting up pro-anorexia web sites, we would be naturally alarmed, concerned and condemning.


Now, electrosensitivity, the belief that radio waves are harming your health, looks like it is also one of these rather strange illnesses that may well start in the brain. If it does not start in the brain, then it shows how many symptoms from various illnesses can be greatly affected by your beliefs about the causes of those illnesses. The placebo and nocebo effects work solely on this principle. The people who describe themselves as electrosensitive obviously suffer from quite debilitating symptoms and their lives are quite devastated by their illness, whatever the cause. However, the best evidence to date suggests that the symptoms have little to do with the real presence of radio-waves, but only by the belief that radio-waves are causing their symptoms. Multiple, repeated studies show this to be true.

With anorexics, the obviousness of their central delusion is plain for all to see. With electrosensitives, a little more thought and experiment is required. After all, many of us suffer from debilitating symptoms from invisible influences in our environments. Ask a hay fever sufferer what it is like to be struck down by your next door neighbour mowing their lawn. But, there are good reasons to believe that radio-waves just cannot cause anything like the symptoms described. Even the advocates of electrosensitivity admit that the energies involved are just too small for direct effects, and so have to rely on 'subtle' and very controversial alternative mechanisms from 'pulsed' radio emitters. There is scant evidence so far that such emissions are harmful to humans.

Meanwhile, the media friendly story that normal domestic appliances are harming us is giving quacks a whole new marketing opportunity. There is a rising exploitation of this condition in the media, as it sells good copy. The quackometer news analysis project was started after a batty story in the Independent on Sunday a year ago. The last fortnight has seen a crescendo of noise with the derisory Panorama on the BBC. But the Independent has now just about topped it.

A story today tells how electrosensitivity sufferer, and Independent reporter, Julia Stephenson, has had her symptoms diagnosed and treated by a range of quacks. It reads like a spoof, but the story is deadly serious. Whatever Julia is suffering from, the result is a terrible story of exploitation by a range of quacks and charlatans. We ought to be alarmed and appalled. The editors of the Independent ought to be ashamed of themselves.

Julia was diagnosed by a naturopath, and has subsequently been sold a whole load of quack junk to 'help' the condition. The Independent tells us that "many doctors are now convinced that this powerful technology is storing up huge problems for our future health." However, the only doctor quoted in the article is a Dr Nicole de Canha.

Unfortunately, it appears that Dr Canha is not a medical doctor, as you might expect, but has a 'PhD' in Homoeopathy. Now, I am not aware of any accredited university in the UK that would have the cheek to offer such an award. (I am sure we shall find out where that came from in due course). It would appear from her list of qualifications that she is a fully paid up quack and her score of 5 Canards is probably an underestimate. This is not the sort of person you would want to diagnose a rather new and difficult new illness, let alone be a quoted authority on such matters.

The Independent article gets worse in that it pretty much endorses the fraudulent qlink pendant and introduces us to new and emerging quack products. Worst, is the advertisement for www.subtlefieldtechnologies.com, a company that sells wall warts that supposedly cancel out all the bad EMF in your room. There is no physical way these devices could help human health and no evidence that they do. What a big boost they have got from the newspaper! The subtle field technologies devices are made by a Gary Johnson who calls himself an engineer and a homeopath. His web page also says he is an acupuncturist. The boxes claim to be,

programmed harmonising units that produce a holograph field, that is amplified through an internal aerial system. This protection field protects the human system from the negative effects of electro magnetic radiation/pulsed transmissions/EMF's emanating from man made, or natural sources.

This is of course nonsense. The boxes look more like Maplins hobby electronics boxes with some stickers on. Somehow, this homeopathist has created a whole new world of holographic electronics.

Organisations to help anorexics exist and do good work. Electrosensitives also have their 'support' organisations too, like Powerwatch and Electrosensitives-UK. However, these organisations vehemently deny the possibility of the illness being unphysical in nature. Protecting their supporters and members from quacks ought to be top priority. If they care about getting their members better, they ought to be giving clear and unequivocal advice to avoid quack product manufacturers to help them from being exploited in their time of need.

Do we hear such a cry? Will the Independent story and the products it recommends be condemned by such campaigners as Rod of ES-UK? I'm not holding my breath.

Labels: electromagnetic quackery, qlink

 

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 their own beliefs and let in new arguments would mean risking abandoning so much about how they define themselves - and how they earn a living.

A journey through quackland is a salutary reminder of how we need to guard ourselves against false beliefs. The existence of quackery ably demonstrates that the easiest person to fool is yourself and that if you want to fool someone else, it is best to fool yourself first.

But undoubtedly there are the deeply cynical and fraudulent out there. And every now and again you come across a product or site that really tests my belief that most quackery is the result of simple delusions. The QLink pendant is a good example of this. The QLink is a device that claims to ease the stresses caused by exposure to 'electrosmog'.

There is a growing belief by the public that the radio waves given off by everyday appliances and electronic devices can somehow be harmful. People report having violent headaches and other symptoms in the presence of TVs, mobile phones and WiFi routers. The problem is that the evidence to date does not support any of this. Firstly, there is a plausibility problem in understanding how exposure to low doses of non-ionising radiation can affect you in any way at all. And secondly, when these 'electrosensitive' people are tested in controlled ways (such as exposing them to a mobile phone, without them knowing if it is on or off) then the symptoms are unrelated to the exposure. Whilst few deny that the symptoms of sufferers of 'electosensitivity' are real, there is huge doubt that they are caused by 'electrosmog'. There is something else going on and it may be psychological.

So, even if electrosensitivity were real, could the QLink do anything about it? Uh, no. Radiowaves are going to get to you whether or not you are wearing it. You can protect yourself against exposure, but you need to be completely enclosed within a box with a conductive surface, e.g. an iron clad room. The claims of some QLink sellers that the device works on a 'quantum level' are just plain hogwash. So, the device appears to be a cure that can never work against an illness that is probably purely psychological in nature. At best, the device will function as a placebo in pendant form.

But maybe a placebo for those affected by electrosensitivity is exactly what they need? A complex question. But that does not mean that companies selling QLink should be pushing at the worried well, sports-people and animals? That looks like a plain rip-off . What amazes me about this, is that the sellers of QLink are not just a 'lone-genius' with a strange theory to sell to the world, but a fairly large company with many people involved in the sale. You must have the original product designers, a manufacturing plant, marketing people, distribution channel managers and finally, the direct and indirect sales force. The product is widely distributed through QLinks own sites or through re-sellers such as Patrick Holford. Do all these people in this complex chain really believe what they are doing is for real? Is everyone just deluded?

It many ways, it does not really matter if there is deliberate deception or just mass delusion. The end result is the same. People spend lots of money on stuff of marginal benefit to them. They also acquire delusional beliefs that may not help them in the future when they really could do with some medical intervention. Are the deluded people in this chain culpable? We might easily forgive and say these delusions are harmless, but delusions can lead to reckless beliefs where real harm might be done.

Another QLink seller rather outstanded me this week with their range of products. The UK company Electronic Healing sells all sorts of gadgets and devices, many of which look as doubtful as the QLink.

One product that really took my breath away was a homeopathic first aid kit. The blurb says...

An essential first-aid remedy kit for the home, car and workplace specifically formulated to be used in even the most severe emergency and accident situations.

Cripes! Most Severe! Now I was under the impression that that homeopathy is a 'gentle healing' method that requires an 'individualised approach' and, usually, a lengthy consultation to provide a 'holistic remedy'. This does not look likely in an emergency situation. Indeed, I would strongly suggest that application of homeopathy in a life-critical situation could severely detract from the absolute need to establish and maintain an airway, ensure breathing and prevent shock. To have one of these kits and believe that it can help is a delusion of the reckless variety.

I've emailed the Society of Homeopaths about this. Would they endorse such a product? Let's wait and see.

Labels: electromagnetic quackery, homeopathy, qlink

 

Or 'How to be debunked by a nine year old schoolgirl'

In the special world of the quack, the crank and the pseudo-scientist the word 'Energy' holds the highest place in the league tables of misappropriated and abused language.

I often get complaints that the quackometer only spots quacks and lets cranks off the hook. That is deliberate on my part - one thing at a time. The crank is easy to tell from the quack: the crank seeks 'free' energy, the quack seeks 'healing' energy. The crank seeks an endless supply of useful energy from spinning rotors and magnets; the quack seeks an infinite source of healing energy from spinning arms and language.

Both cranks and quacks like to talk about 'energy' all the time. Energy has an everyday meaning that we can relate to (our 'energy' to do things) and a rock solid physics definition (the capacity to do work). Maybe that is why energy is such a useful pseudo-scientific concept as we have an intuitive grasp of what it means, but little idea of the scientific details. The crank/quack fills in the gaps for us with their own pseudoscience.

At least the crank has some capacity to understand what energy is - the capacity to do work - even if they have limited understanding of the laws of thermodynamics. The quack however, uses the word energy, just like any other word borrowed from the sciences, with little regard to establishing a definition or consistent meaning. Indeed, vagueness and slipperiness are essential in the quacks cause.

Quack Energy has many different forms, or manifestations, depending on the particular field of woo being considered, Quack Energy has explanatory roles in Reiki, QiGong, Touch Therapy, Biofield Therapy, Acupuncture, Homeopathy and just about any other 'discipline' where science suggests the technique ought to be nonsense. Quack Energy is used to corrupt and subvert logic. It is claimed that because science cannot explain the healing capacity of reiki/acupuncture/qigong then it must be due to a new universal life-force energy. It does not occur to the practitioner that there might not be anything to explain.

The names for Quack Energy are legion: Mana, Energy, Qi, Aura, Chi, Ki and so. In debating with woos, I like to lump them altogether as MEQUACK.

Although, MEQUACK has different origins within the different fake medicines, there are some common properties:

• The Energy is 'Subtle'. Indeed, it is often called 'Subtle Energy'. MEQUACK has to be subtle as no-one has proposed a way of measuring it or even detecting it. So subtle indeed, that it escapes all the very sensitive scientific instruments we have at our disposal.
• MEQUACK is a 'life force', or 'biofield'. Despite is being subtle, it somehow has a very important relationship to our health. Despite no instrument being able to detect it, somehow our bodies can.
• MEQUACK flows around our body in someway and can get blocked, or disrupted, causing illness. Sometimes the energy uses some sort of MEQUACK channel in the body, like a meridian, or is centred in special places in the body, like a Chakra. You've guessed it, none of these flows or centres have ever been found, detected or observed.
• MEQUACK can get disrupted by our modern lifestyles and surroundings. The electrical and magnetic fields in our homes, somehow can also interact with our biofield MEQUACK, even when our sensitive electrical and magnetic scientific instruments cannot.

What is so galling to anyone with a scientific background is that energy, as a concept, is so well understood. Energy comes in many forms: chemical, kinetic, nuclear, thermal, potential and so on. All are convertible from one form to another. Light a firework rocket and chemical energy is quickly converted to sound energy, thermal, electromagnetic (light) and kinetic energy as the fuel burns and the rocket launches upwards. Kinetic energy, under gravity, is then transformed into potential energy and back again as it descends to earth. At the end, all that chemical energy has been converted to thermal energy. No energy was lost or created - always conserved - and all in ways that are thoroughly understood by science with lots of maths to work out what will happen. We are expected to believe that in all the years of experimentation, a form of energy exists, that is vital to our bodies, that has never shown up in our accounting for what happens.

MEQUACK has no conservation laws, no conversion mechanisms, no mathematics, no means of detection, no capacity for harnessing in an engine and doing work - its properties tend to get very vague when examined. Still, somehow, it is vital for life and health. Despite the so-called ancient origins of the knowledge of MEQUACK, no physics or biology textbook denotes a sentence to it, let alone a chapter.

So, why do quacks keep on about it? Talk of MEQUACK is often given in attempt to justify otherwise ridiculous claims. A quick example: The QLink pendant. We have seen this bauble in previous posts. The floggers of this tat invoke 'resonating subtle energies' as an explanation of how it works.

In this ridiculous page, Dr. William Tiller explains how:

Scientists have long puzzled over force field phenomena that do not fit the four known forces: electromagnetic, gravity, weak and strong forces. These force field that do not fall into the classical four are sometimes labeled "subtle energies." They are called "subtle" because they cannot be observed or measured by any known instrumentation.

It's difficult to know where to begin, but the first question would be: "What field phenomena?" Science has done an amazing job of distilling all known phenomena into four forces! Secondly I would ask: "If they cannot be observed by any instrumentation, how do you know they exist?"

This is typical of the garbled quack nonsense speak. Dr Teller goes on to explain that:

Electromagnetic fields are composed of two basic types of energy wave packets:
electrons and photons.

The high school physicists amongst you will be able to spot the simple error in this statement. This is not even wrong, it is just nonsense.

If this example is typical, then we can see that talk of MEQUACK is not meant to explain anything - it is designed to deflect enquiry and bamboozle. It deflects enquiry by quickly getting into technical jargon that most people will not, or cannot, explore further. For those, with a slightly less credulous bent, it deflects enquiry by essentially postulating that all attempts to detect or measure MEQUACK are futile as it is too 'subtle' to be detected by clumsy, reductionist, non-holistic, closed-minded, arrogant scientists and their instruments. Invoking MEQUACK is an act of fraud and deception. My guess is though, that many of the practitioners and exponents of the many forms of MEQUACK have first utterly deceived themselves.

So, to summarise so far:

• MEQUACK is a supposed life force energy;
• it has never been detected;
• it has no theory to explain it;
• MEQUACK has conflicting explanations across quack disciplines;
• is supposedly under attack from modern lifestyles to give rise to illnesses that are not recognised, or have very poor evidence bases, such EMF-stress
• MEQUACK can be manipulated by 'healers' by shamanically waving their arms above you (reiki), sticking pins in you (acupuncture, voodoo), wearing the right colours (chakras), giving you 'energetically charged' pills (homeopathy), or wearing a christmas cracker trinket (the QLink).

With so little going for it, it is amazing that so many people believe so passionately in it. Maybe it is because there are consistent reports of people feeling warmth and tingling when undergoing some sort of MEQUACK non-touch 'healing' ritual, such as QiGong, Reiki or (the modern favourite) Bi-Aura. That is pretty powerful evidence! Being able to detect the warmth and tingling in your nerves! Wow!

So, if you can really feel MEQUACK, then maybe science ought to sit up and take notice. Indeed, such a simple demonstration ought to be easy and it would convince me straight away. Show me you can feel this 'energy' and the world will listen. It ought to be so easy, in fact, that a nine year old could do it.

In fact, a nine year old has done it.

The youngest person ever to publish a scientific, peer-reviewed paper in a prestigious medical journal was Emily Rosa. Emily wanted to test if energy therapists could really sense MEQUACK. Twenty-one therapists agreed to takes part; how could they refuse a sweet little nine year old doing a school project?

In the test, the therapist would put both their hands through a screen. Unseen, Emily would place one of her own hands over one the practitioners hands and the 'therapist' was asked to say which hand it was. All therapists claimed that they could perform this test - the results though showed that their guesses were no better than chance (they got 123 out of 280 trials right). Emily's parents helped her with the stats and the experiment was publised in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA). The editors described the study as 'solid gold'.

Her conclusoins were;

Twenty-one experienced TT [Theraputic Touch] practitioners were unable to detect the investigator's "energy field." Their failure to substantiate TT's most fundamental claim is unrefuted evidence that the claims of TT are groundless and that further professional use is unjustified.

Naturally, many 'energy therapists' have cried fowl. A full list of rebuttals can be found on the quackwatch site. What is amazing is this study cost about $10 for the screen. Any 'therapist' could do this test themselves as long as they were intellectually honest enough to properly blind themselves and remove obvious sources of bias. I think this shows how little the advocates of strange bio-energy are interested in the truth. Only their comforting delusions are important, and in some case, their fraudulent money-making practices.

So what is going on with the therapists? Why do they really believe they can feel MEQUACK. Well, self-deception can be very powerful. Expectations can make you feel things that aren't really there. Now the little black duck is quite ticklish. Even the thought of being tickled can make me tingle. Maybe the MEQUACKists are feeling something similar: anticipation, expectation and wishful thinking? What is for sure, as Emily (aged 9) has shown, they do not feel a bio-energy.

Labels: energy healing, pseudoscience, qlink, Quack Words

 

UPDATE 8th February 2007

Well, six months after first posting this entry, the complementary IT team at Dr Wendy's support organisation have made a few spelling corrections. I thought this might happen soon, as this entry became the most widely read entry on the site. I guess it was being passed round a bit - thousands of times.

So, it looks like, after much speculation, Wendy's services are not complimentary, or free, but indeed complementary. Looks like the team also believes the word 'complementary' deserves capitalising, whereas 'medicine' does not. Read into that what you may. Anyway, for posterity, the wayback machine has preserved the original site here. And you can compare it with now.

******************************************************************

I've just had a comment pointing out that Dr Wendy Denning only scores 1 Canard on the quackometer. Strangely, I had just flicked over to her new Channel 5 series, "The Diet Doctors".

The person leaving the comment said that Dr Wendy deserved a much higher score. In addition, anyone describing themselves as a 'nutritional expert' also needs a good look over just to see what quackery they are up to. (More on that in later blogs). Dr Wendy was also apparently responsible for pushing that useless Christmas-cracker piece of tat, the QLink pendant, on the poor, hapless Daily Mail reporter, Sarah Stacey, who wrote the all time highest scoring newspaper quack article ever. Also, Dr Wendy got her nutritional qualifications from Patrick Holford's Richmond based, made-up college, the Institute of Optimum Nutrition.

So, I decided to investigate a little further. Why had the Quackometer scored Dr Wendy so low?

Well, I found the answer rather quickly and it has opened up a whole new field of organic broccoli for the quackometer to sort out. It appears that Dr Wendy is not into complementary medicine (medicine that complements real medicine) at all. Her web site tells us that she is into complimentary medicine - repeatedly - some seven times at least. Is that going around paying her patients compliments and saying how nice she thinks they would look in her green jacket? Or does complimentary mean she is giving away her nuggets of 'holistic' medical wisdom for free?

Apparently, No. A quick check of her web site reveals she charges £225 for 90 minutes in her clinic, of which, she will guarantee to show up for half-an-hour, obviously to pay all the right compliments to you for handing over your credit card.

So, the answer is obvious. The quackometer only scores those practitioners into complementary medicine. Those who just pay flattering tributes to their patients do not deserve scores on the quackometer.

An insight to quacks then. To get around the quackometer, the answer is simple. Spell everything wrong. Learn a tip from the email spammers: e.g. _V_I_A_G_R_A. Just how many spelling variations of osteopathy, acupuncture and gullible can you come up with?

It looks like I am faced with a big task. To catch the Dr Wendys of this world I am going to have to expand the quack dictionaries enormously with every possible spelling variant. Hell. There is so much good telly I am going to miss over the next few weeks.

Ho Hum.

Just what do they teach them at medical school these days?

Labels: diets, nutritionist, qlink

 

I think that this may be a story of despair. It may be a story about the mountain that has to be climbed if we are to live a society where quacks find it hard to profit from their lies, misinformation and delusions. At present it is a story about how newspapers contribute significantly and fundamentally to the environment in which people are swindled out of their money by quacks and how illness and suffering may be prolonged by irrational thinking. The story is not over yet, but let me tell the first part.

The story starts with my newspaper quack story alert engine that I have been working on recently. It is beginning to settle down now, and has spotted some interesting departures from reality in our esteemed organs. One of the first stories to emerge from the scans appeared in the Sunday Mail You supplement (where else?) and scored a maximum 10 Canards. The article was entitled Good Vibrations and was a completely typical, uncritical and bonkers, piece of quack reporting on some outlandindish pseudoscientific ideas, where someone was hoping to make money out of the credulous by selling some worthless piece of Christmas cracker trash for lots of money. Blatant quack advertorial. Nothing really unusual; we've seen this sort of thing recently in the Daily Junk Mail with that sorry story about the migraine zapper.

I thought it would a shame for the first 10 Canard story to go uninvestigated by the little black duck, so off I went...

The article was as mad as a box of frogs. Completely hatstand. And well deserved of its 10 Canards. The article is full of the usual rubbish about bodies having energy fields and how illness is caused by imbalances in our 'biofield'. Furthermore, the nonsense continues with how electrical items can disturb our - damn, I'm tired of writing this rubbish, let me quote...

Holistic physician Dr Mark Atkinson explains: 'the body’s electro-magnetic field provides a template for the physical body; any imbalance in this field gets reflected by the body as a disturbance in cell structure and function, which is the precursor state to illness.'

Yep, it starts off with that giveaway word 'holistic' and then gets worse. As an aside, let's just run Dr Mark Atkinson through the Quackometer. - Ahh, 7 Canards. Thought as much.

Moving on. The article then goes on to do two things. First, it gives an endorsement for Dr Atkinson's Bi-Aura nonsense philosophy. Bi Aura appears to be similar to that fount of sanity, Reiki, but

Bi-Aura therapy uses both cosmic and earth energy to energise and balance the body.

I see. The addition of cosmic energy, over and above mundane earth energy, is bound to make Bi-Aura the energy healing methodology of choice for the more discerning individual.

Secondly, the article goes on to give another glowing testimonial for a cheap piece of tat called a QLink pendant. This trinket was introduced to the author by Dr Wendy Denning (2 Canards) and Professor Kim Jobst (7 Canards) as employing "Sympathetic Resonance Technology which, the makers claim, ‘repairs and tunes your biofield’ so it functions optimally". Marvelous. You can buy one for £70.

The QLink has cropped up on a number of quack busting sites. I won't bother to go into details here - I have more interesting things to say. If you wondering, why not try the excellent Skepticality podcast that covers this subject. There is loads more on the web. James Randi has also offered anyone (not just the makers) $1,000,000 if they show that the QLink works as claimed. Ought to be easy - spend about $100, make a million. No one has even tried yet.

But I can't help it a little more digging. Let's look at the end of the article in a bit more detail...

Dr Atkinson says: ‘it made a lot of difference to me when I was working hard at the computer, in terms of sustained energy and clarity of thinking.’

Are you sure about that Dr Atkinson? Clarity of thinking?

As with pharmaceutical drugs, there may be a placebo effect although Professor Jobst points out that the ‘remarkable’ effects seen in race horses and other animals sporting a Qlink mean there is something more, which merits serious research. One thing I know: neither technology carries a risk of side effects.

The Prof Jobst obviously deserves some more attention - but not now.

Let's just say for now that the idea that electrical 'smog' from appliances in our home can somehow disrupt 'energy fields' in our bodies is speculative at best. Also, that a small pendant could be 'treated' with the latest 'quantum mechanic' technology to remove this danger has absolutely no basis in theory or experimental validity. It's utter bunkum and it is hard to believe that the makers believe this themselves. I could say more about this - but others have done a fine job.

The thing that spurred me into writing this blog was when I had a look into the background of the author of this piece. The writer is a Sarah Stacey (2 Canards). Googling reveals that Sarah has written a number of health and beauty books, won some awards for health writing and "was elected the first Honorary Chair of the Guild of Health Writers". Now that caught my attention.

Why should that be? Well, Guilds are an ancient tradition where people with similar business interests and skills can get together, organise themselves, uphold morals, standards and conduct within the trade, and generally make sure the cheats, charlatans and the incompetent do not tar the good names of the profession. Surely, a Guild of Health Writers should be very concerned if people are writing utter nonsense under their banner? Surely a Guild would wish to ensure that high standards are upheld and that health writers do not become simple conduits of quackery? Maybe we have found allies in the quest to get good health advice to people?

Who are the Guild of Health Writers? Their web page describes them as

a group of journalists dedicated to providing accurate, broad-based information about health and related subjects to the public.

That's fantastic. Do they know that one of their members is uncritically promoting quackery to their readership? Do they realise that it is none other than their first 'Honorary Chair'? Surely, they must be concerned that their principles are not being upheld? Do they have a complaints procedure? Do they take sanctions against their members who abuse the trust the public put in them to be be accurate? Their web site is not clear on these matters. Obviously, an email was in order.

Now, I would not have written this until I got a reply back. But it has been a little while now without even an acknowledgement. I also, have found out that Sarah Stacey has been the Vice President of the Guild. If true, then I fear a rather depressing outcome. Looking into the Guild a bit reveals founding members with interests in 'integrative medicine', that favourite word combination of Prince Charles, which is just another way of saying that quackery is being slipped in the back door of real medicine.

So, I would like to open this up and ask some more general questions. I fully understand that the Guild wishes to be 'broad-based' and this may well include writing about non-conventional medical approaches, which I have no quarrels with (as long as any claims made are properly caveated). However, what I would really like to know is answers to the following questions:

• Does the Guild take a stance on whether its members only write things that are properly backed up by sound evidence and if not, make it very clear that what they are writing about is controversial, speculative and unproven?
• Does the Guild care if its members are just simple advertising conduits for those wishing to defraud the public, and if a member acts as such, what sanctions they would take?
• How does the Guild help its members find out if medical claims can be properly backed up, such as the skill of reading a scientific paper or doing publication searches?
• Do the Guild encourage its members to seek out broad training in health and science matters, such as how trials are conducted, the nature of evidence and statistics etc?

These things are important. The public get huge amounts of health information from the press. People do tend to think that reporters would not publish something if it was completely groundless. A political story that had no basis in truth would be rightly hammered and could even result in legal action. Why not health matters? I worry that so many of these journalists have English Literature degrees. Not in itself a bad thing, but we would not expect an economics journalist not to have a good foundational understanding of economics. We would not expect a political writer to have no appreciation of our constitution and political systems. Why should we not expect our health writers to be equally well informed?

The current president of the Guild is Simon Crompton. His web site is very informative, he looks like a very decent chap, has written on lots of interesting things, and does not appear to be obsessed with the darker medicinal arts. I will forward my email onto him to see if he has a view on these things.

I hope the responses to my enquiries are encouraging. As I have said, such a Guild could play a great role in keeping the health fraud industry out of the papers. I worry that, like the medieval Guilds, their original laudable aims have become corrupted, and that the Guild of Health Writers has become nothing more than a Guild of the Gullible.

Labels: daily mail, electromagnetic quackery, journalists, newspapers, qlink