Homeopathy, paid for by the NHS, is under threat. Millions of pounds of NHS money is pumped into a few Homeopathic hospitals so that patients can have ‘choice’. It is a good thing, choice. The Queen makes this choice. The newspapers promote this stuff. It is natural. No side effects. Health Freedom. Patient Options. Blah Blah Blah. Talking to people with jobs and mortgages and only one cat, I get [read more…]
Bored Bored Bored. So, I have been doing some anagrams. Here goes… Dr Andrew Wakefield – Flawed Ink Rewarded Dr Gillian McKeith – Kill Charming Diet Electrosensitivity – Risen To Selectivity homeopathic remedy – Here Hypo-Atom Medic Food for the Brain – Brother Of ION Fad Institute of Optimum Nutrition – Nut Into Tummies Tuition Profit Patrick Holford – Fork to Chip Lard Dr George Carlo – Roger Goldacre (shame [read more…]
Just a few days before Andrew Wakefield appears before the GMC disciplinary body on charges of misconduct, a front page article in the Observer makes fresh claims of links between the MMR vaccine and autism. In a separate interview in the same newspaper, Dr Wakefield says that he ‘told the truth all along’. He rather remarkably compares himself with Vaclav Havel, ‘As Vaclav Havel once said: “Follow the man who [read more…]
Iatrogenesis is not a concept that is confined to quackery, but like most of the words in my Quack Words series it tends to show up more often than not on quack web sites and so can be a good quackometer word. Iatrogenic illness covers the concept of harm having been done by the healer. Harm could come from many quarters including mistakes in diagnosis or treatment, professional negligence, adverse [read more…]
If you were to believe the Society of Homeopaths, the quacks that were handing out lethal advice to Newsnight investigators about malaria prevention, were just a few rogue and unregistered practitioners and unrepresentative of the profession. Peter Fisher , the Director of the Royal London Homeopathic Hospital (currently funded by the NHS) told the programme that, I’m very angry about it because people are going to get malaria – there [read more…]
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 [read more…]
Well, today’s news has had lots of Wi-Fi scares being reported. Tonight’s Panorama is going to look at the ‘dangers’ of bringing Wi-Fi into schools. Let’s wait to see what they have to say, but early reports do not bode well as they are claiming that their ‘independent tests’ showed WiFi produces EM levels three times higher than mobile phone masts. It is difficult to think up a more meaningless [read more…]
Patrick Holford has built up a very impressive and comprehensive empire; networks of web sites, charities, a college, educational trusts and of course, books, TV shows, supplements sales, and licensing deals. It is a very impressive achievement and it would be hard to argue that Patrick, and his philosophies, did not pretty much dominate the UK nutritionist scene. Some nutritionists might outsell him in book sales, but none have created [read more…]
Once upon a time, back in the olden days, that is, before 1996 or thereabouts, your typical quack was faced with a big problem. Just as with producing software, the manufacturing stage of the quack business is straightforward. The software firm used to ‘record’ software onto ‘floppy disks’ and the quack could press ‘nutrient pills’ in huge numbers, or fill bottles or make pills with ‘homeopathic water’ straight from the [read more…]
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…]
Copyright © 2024 | MH Magazine WordPress Theme by MH Themes