Equazen eye q™ and their Fishy Adverts

12th December, 2007 3

Today, the Advertising Standards Authority have upheld complaints against Equazen and their eye q™ products, finding them to have made untruthful and unsubstantiated advertising claims. This is about time. Their antics in promoting fish oil pills to school children have been well documented. Equazen (now owned by Swiss pharmaceutical company Galenica) have been using local authorities to promote the idea that taking a daily fish oil supplement can boost children’s’ [read more…]

Skeptics’ Circle #72: You Very Naughty Girls and Boys.

25th October, 2007 7

Right. Skeptic Class. Stop what you are doing. Silence. Stop Talking. iPods out of your ears. Orac – no more insolence from you. Are you chewing? You are all here in detention class because I have been hearing very bad things about all of you. You have all brought shame on the Skeptics’ Circle. Now swallow your fish oil pills and listen. Your essays you have just handed in the [read more…]

An Allergy to Truth

24th October, 2007 5

According to Allergy UK, they are “a national medical charity established to represent the views and needs of people with allergy, food intolerance and chemical sensitivity.” Amongst their aims they say they are there to Enabl[e] people with allergy, food intolerance and chemical sensitivity to receive appropriate diagnosis and treatment through education of healthcare professionals and the provision of dedicated services. Allergy UK give awards to services they feel help [read more…]

Bionetics: Untruthful Quacks, But Still Trading

7th September, 2007 52

There are many laws in the UK that ought to make trading in quackery difficult. In practice though, the laws are often skirted around or side-stepped by careful wording of claims and marketing tactics. Those of us who prefer to pop off a complaint to Trading Standards rather than watch Eastenders find it quite a frustrating business. One of the main problems in the UK is that there is no [read more…]

York Shambles

4th September, 2007 2

or, The Curious Case of Patrick Holford’s CV It was funny when ‘Dr’ Gillian McKeith got slapped for using unaccredited qualifications to promote her quackery. However, it is now looking as if Patrick Holford’s CV is far more interesting. Patrick has been criticised for a while now for having no formal qualifications in any nutritional subject. He claims to have a BSc in psychology and his Honorary Diploma in Nutritional [read more…]

The Breakspear Hospital and Electromagnetic Therapy

6th August, 2007 20

The development of new forms of quackery continues with the publication of the latest research from the University of Essex showing yet again that mobile mast radiation was unlikely to be the cause of electrosensitivity. The excuses from the lobbies that support sufferers is piling in with a trend towards excommunication of those that failed the tests as being ‘psycho cases’ and so probably not worthy of support of the [read more…]

The Observer – How long will it take to get a correction and apology?

5th August, 2007 1

I have now added a counter to the front page of the Quackometer to show how many weeks it has been since the Observer has failed to print a proper correction of its glaring errors about MMR and autism and to offer an apology for misleading its readers. Others have fully documented and made available to all the problems with the article about MMR by Denis Campbell. The Observer web [read more…]

The Observer – Confused by Health Advice

5th August, 2007 4

Denis Campbell, the sports journalist, who raked up MMR fears in the Observer and got it all horribly wrong, is now back on the health theme debunking various health fears that crop up in the papers. I spat out my coffee when I saw this in the Observer. My contempt for the paper is growing. Denis says, It kills you; no, it does you good. Hang on, here’s another report [read more…]

Quackograms

19th July, 2007 9

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…]

Broccoli for Brains

17th July, 2007 3

Last Friday, saw Trevor McDonut’s ‘Tonight with’ programme showcase Patrick Holford’s ‘Food for the Brain’ charity and its involvement with a school. The school apparently saw lots of improvements with their children and so will obviously boost the standing of the Food for the Brain charity. And today, we see that Food for the Brain is starting to see itself as an accrediting authority now as it gives its first [read more…]

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