Posts Tagged ‘ daily mail ’

Kryotherapy – Freezing the Balls off a Brazen Quack

November 14, 2006

The Quackometer is far from perfect. Sometimes quackery slips though its little webbed feet and I need to update it. Often a story in the paper requires a little more dissection to reveal its inner quackery. So, today we hear that standing in a freezer can improve your health. Daily Mail reporter, Barney Calman, freezes his bits off as a piece of investigative journalism into whole-body cryotherapy. This is a technique that claims to cure a whole host of problems by allowing yourself to stand in a freezer at -120C for a few minutes. Funny, the chickens I put in the freezer never appear to get any better. As is often the case in the Daily Lunacy, the article is a thinly veiled piece of advertorial for a new...

The Scent of a Quack…

October 20, 2006

By Andy Lewis

At last, what appears to be some reasonable criticism of high street quackery in the Daily Mail… Well, it sort of starts out OK with a report as follows: … according to a report in Psychiatric Bulletin, health shops give out bad advice on depression and they offer a range of useless stuff, including the cruel-sounding cat’s claw, when only one of their products, St John’s Wort, is scientifically proved to have any antidepressant effect. Great – an expose of the nonsense dished out in heath food shops. Our intrepid investigative journalist, Jill Parkin, then sets out to do her own research and pops into her own local health food shop with the following hilarious observation… Inside, what an aroma! It’s licorice stick, ageing raspberry leaf tea and, most...

“Once Dismissed as Hokum…” A Guide to Writing About Quackery in the Mail

October 4, 2006

By Andy Lewis

“Once Dismissed as Hokum” is how Dr Danny Penman begins with a less-than-half-truth in his quacktasticly exceptional article about Spiritual Healing in the Daily Mail, “Could spiritual healing actually work?“ This article ought to serve as a case study in how to write about nonsense quackery for the madder end of the British Press. I thought it worthwhile to dissect this piece to show how you can write supportively about completely batshit ideas without telling too many porkies. 1. Ensure the Title has a question mark at the end. Give the impression of honest enquiry and an open mind – an appeal to be “Open Minded”. 2. As a journalist, flaunt your qualifications, awards and titles. Danny Penman signs the article with his title, ‘Dr’. Note that Dr Danny...

Organic Milk Is/Is Not Healthier

October 3, 2006

By Andy Lewis

Those of you paying attention will have seen the quackometer spot these two stories from the past few weeks in the Daily Mail: Organic milk ‘better for a healthy diet’29th August 2006 Organic milk is not healthier, says food watchdog21st September 2006 So, just a few weeks apart and completely different slants. As an act of kindness, to save you from the pain of reading these articles and deciding between them, I have condensed them into one easy-to-read organic milk heath scare/health promotion story… ‘Experts’ say Organic Milk Is/Is Not HealthierThe Daily Mail Organic milk has more/fewer benefits than standard milk and official advice should reflect this, ‘experts’ have said. A succession of studies in Britain and around the world have found higher levels/the same level of vital nutrients,...

The Guild of the Gullible?

August 17, 2006

By Andy Lewis

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...

Trademarked Science Trade-Offs

July 10, 2006

By Andy Lewis

I have written before about my assertion that if you find someone saying that you cannot get all the nutrients you need through food, then you have also found someone selling food supplements. This is the basic scam behind so many nutritionists – they make the process of eating a healthy diet look so formidable and fraught that you had better hedge your bets and scoff a lot of pills – that they can provide for you for a small(ish) fee. I wish I could automate this rule in the quackometer. It is proving to be a sure rule in identifying quackery. Let’s look at a recent health story in the Daily Mail: You’re eating the WRONG fruit and veg!We’ve known for some time that eating five portions of...

Magnetic Migraine Miracle Madness?

June 22, 2006

By Andy Lewis

In today’s Daily Mail, Brendan Montague brings us the sensational story that Migraine suffers need not suffer much longer thanks to a wonder device about to be launched in the US and available for a paltry £1,000 (with a further £15 for each treatment). Millions of migraine sufferers have been given hope of a cure with the invention of a magnetic pain “zapper”… The handheld device is placed at the back of the head and uses a gentle pulse to disrupt the “electrical storm” which is believed to lead to migraines. Now the black duck’s beak tingles like mad whenever the words ‘magnetic’ and ‘cure’ are found in the same sentence. Quackery is sure to follow. Let’s look a little more. How does the device work? Gary Stroy, the...

Heart Transplants and ‘Cellular Memory’

April 11, 2006

By Andy Lewis

Once again, the bonkers story of how organ transplant patients aquire the behavioural characteristics of their donors has cropped up in the more gullible papers. So, i thought I would bump up this post. Here’s a story from the Daily Mail. A man gains a miraculous ability to paint after receiving a heart transplant from an artist! Let’s see what the quackometer makes of it… 0 quack points Not too good then. Could this be real? Maybe some manual debunking is required after all. What is being claimed here is that every cell in the body has some sort of ‘soul’ that can take ‘memories’ with it between donor and recipient – a sort of 21st Century Lamarkism. So let’s look at Mr Sheridan’s new amazing ability to draw,...

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Posts Tagged ‘ daily mail ’

Kryotherapy – Freezing the Balls off a Brazen Quack

The Scent of a Quack…

“Once Dismissed as Hokum…” A Guide to Writing About Quackery in the Mail

Organic Milk Is/Is Not Healthier

The Guild of the Gullible?

Trademarked Science Trade-Offs

Magnetic Migraine Miracle Madness?

Heart Transplants and ‘Cellular Memory’

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