http://www.ucl.ac.uk/Pharmacology/dc-bits/quack.htmlDelusions and fraud in complementary and orthodox medicineen-gbTue, 27 Dec 2005 08:04:28 GMTCopyright: (C) David Colquhounhttp://www.ucl.ac.uk/Pharmacology/dc.html15Please change this feed to http://www.dcscience.net/dcquack.xmlhttp://www.dcscience.net/dcquack.xmlhttp://www.dcscience.net/dcquack.xml1 July 07CAMOne year from our first letter to NHS Trusts, we sent another. Listen to the interview by John Humphrys on the Radio 4 Today Programme, with Raymond Tallis and Peter Fisher. :And hear Fisher suggest that he works for UCL (not true). You can also download a summary of the current evidence in the form of an example commissioning document which accompanied our letter.http://www.ucl.ac.uk/Pharmacology/dc-bits/quack.html#nhs3http://www.ucl.ac.uk/Pharmacology/dc-bits/quack.html#nhs324 May 07CAMLord Hunt, a junior minister in the Department of Health, sends a surreal reply to an enquiry about the fraud known as “psychic surgery”.http://www.ucl.ac.uk/Pharmacology/dc-bits/quack.html#hunt1http://www.ucl.ac.uk/Pharmacology/dc-bits/quack.html#hunt122 May 07CAMAn early day motion in support of homeopathic hospitals shows that irrational belief in magic is not unique to one party. Virtually all MPs have no idea about science. But I was quite surprised to find out in a reply from my MP that it is official Conservative policy.http://www.ucl.ac.uk/Pharmacology/dc-bits/quack.html#edm1http://www.ucl.ac.uk/Pharmacology/dc-bits/quack.html#edm121 May 07CAMA new paper, with a very large sample, almost 300 000 men, shows an association between taking large doses of multivitamin supplements and death from prostate cancer. But this, like most observations on diet, was not a randomised study. The paper itself discusses the interpretation carefully. The reports in the newspapers did not.http://www.ucl.ac.uk/Pharmacology/dc-bits/quack.html#prost1http://www.ucl.ac.uk/Pharmacology/dc-bits/quack.html#prost117 May 07CAMA web site comes very close to claiming that cancer can be cured by a homeopathic preparation mad from the blood of someone who had, allegedly, been cured of cancer by laying-on-of-hands. The site is run by a Sue Benford who has also written papers that suggest “explanations” of spontaneous human combustion and the incorruptibility of human corpses. All this scores maximum points for bizarreness. It would be hilarious but for the fact that it takes advantage of sick patients.http://www.ucl.ac.uk/Pharmacology/dc-bits/quack.html#phisinc1http://www.ucl.ac.uk/Pharmacology/dc-bits/quack.html#phisinc115 May 07CAMA particularly powerful plea to forget homeopathy from Michael Baum, based on his experience as a cancer surgeon.http://www.ucl.ac.uk/Pharmacology/dc-bits/quack.html#baum1http://www.ucl.ac.uk/Pharmacology/dc-bits/quack.html#baum12 May 07CAMIt was announced last year the homeopathic hospital at Royal Tunbridge Wells would be closed to save money. Now the West Kent NHS Trust has announced a public consultation. Have your say.http://www.ucl.ac.uk/Pharmacology/dc-bits/quack.html#twhosp2http://www.ucl.ac.uk/Pharmacology/dc-bits/quack.html#twhosp22 May 07CAMThe person who spoke for the industry front organization, The Health Supplements Information Service, Dr Ann Walker, always uses her University of Reading address, but that is a part time job, and her course on herbals looks a lot less academic.http://www.ucl.ac.uk/Pharmacology/dc-bits/quack.html#walker1http://www.ucl.ac.uk/Pharmacology/dc-bits/quack.html#walker11 May 07CAMThe latest Cochrane review finds no good evidence that acupuncture or acupressure are effective for stopping smokinghttp://www.ucl.ac.uk/Pharmacology/dc-bits/quack.html#acu2http://www.ucl.ac.uk/Pharmacology/dc-bits/quack.html#acu21 May 07CAMTwo scams in which the alleged ingredients don’t exist, and the alleged evidence can’t be traced.http://www.ucl.ac.uk/Pharmacology/dc-bits/quack.html#scam1http://www.ucl.ac.uk/Pharmacology/dc-bits/quack.html#scam11 May 07CAMA new meta-analysis shows that chondroitin is useless for the treatment of osteoarthritis. Recent well-designed and large trials show essentially no benefit at all.http://www.ucl.ac.uk/Pharmacology/dc-bits/quack.html#chondhttp://www.ucl.ac.uk/Pharmacology/dc-bits/quack.html#chond8 Apr 07CAMTwenty-five hospitals from London and southern and eastern England have already either stopped sending any patients to the Royal London Homeopathic Hospital or agreed to fund only a handful A campaign has started o save it, but the arguments are far from convincing.http://www.ucl.ac.uk/Pharmacology/dc-bits/quack.html#rlhh3http://www.ucl.ac.uk/Pharmacology/dc-bits/quack.html#rlhh38 Apr 07CAMThe Times Higher Education Supplement (THES) published another bash at BSc degrees in anti-science. This one was accompanied by a defence from Brian Isbell, head of the department of complementary therapies at Westminster University. Isbell’s defence was different from Westminster’s first defence, but every bit as unsatisfactory, in my view.http://www.ucl.ac.uk/Pharmacology/dc-bits/quack.html#thes1http://www.ucl.ac.uk/Pharmacology/dc-bits/quack.html#thes17 Apr 07CAMThe day after “Science degrees without the Science” appeared Nature, the University of Westminster issued a statement. In my view, their statement provides the strongest grounds so far to believe that the BSc is inappropriate.http://www.ucl.ac.uk/Pharmacology/dc-bits/quack.html#nature2http://www.ucl.ac.uk/Pharmacology/dc-bits/quack.html#nature226 Mar 07CAMA piece in Nature about degrees in complementary medicine (CAM), stirred up a lot of publicity. No vice chancellor was willing to appear to defend the policy of 16 universities that give “BSc” degrees in CAM. The most remarkable outcome (so far) was that during a TV interview, Dr Peter Fisher, clinical director if the Royal London Homeopathic Hospital, appeared to agree with me.http://www.ucl.ac.uk/Pharmacology/dc-bits/quack.html#nature1http://www.ucl.ac.uk/Pharmacology/dc-bits/quack.html#nature123 Mar 07CAMA TV company funded a rather uninformative study of omega-3 fish oil by Prof Basant Puri if Imperial College and the Hammersmith Hospital. The media reports on the study were totally misleading It was not revealed that Prof Puri is named as ‘inventor’ on a paten for the fish oil formulation, as discovered by Ben Goldacre: http://www.badscience.net/?p=385.http://www.ucl.ac.uk/Pharmacology/dc-bits/quack.html#puri1http://www.ucl.ac.uk/Pharmacology/dc-bits/quack.html#puri118 Mar 07CAMThe media reports on the alleged advantages of drinking purple grape juice were uniformly misleading. The study by Alan Crozier did not measure health benefits but was a chemical analysis. Its interpretation in terms of health were arguably over-optimistic.http://www.ucl.ac.uk/Pharmacology/dc-bits/quack.html#crozier1http://www.ucl.ac.uk/Pharmacology/dc-bits/quack.html#crozier118 Mar 07CAMThe British Medical Journal published a “head to head” debate on whether or not CAM should be referred to NICE for critical evaluation. And a hypothesis about why this hasn’t happened -little green men.http://www.ucl.ac.uk/Pharmacology/dc-bits/quack.html#bmj07http://www.ucl.ac.uk/Pharmacology/dc-bits/quack.html#bmj0717 Mar 07CAMA report on the excellent Channel 4 TV documentary, in the Dispatches series: “Charles: The Meddling Prince”. And a bit more on how Clarence House tries to silence its critics..http://www.ucl.ac.uk/Pharmacology/dc-bits/quack.html#hrh5http://www.ucl.ac.uk/Pharmacology/dc-bits/quack.html#hrh512 Mar 07CAMTwo interesting papers this month. One shows popular anti-oxidant “supplements”, beta carotene, and vitamins A and D, far from making you live longer, have the opposite effect. Another shows that garlic does not lower cholesterol. And some publicity for Dan Hurley’s book, Natural Causes. An update looks at the activities of the supplements industry spokesperson. Dr Ann Walker, who seems sometimes to forget to declare her interests.http://www.ucl.ac.uk/Pharmacology/dc-bits/quack.html#supp11http://www.ucl.ac.uk/Pharmacology/dc-bits/quack.html#supp113 Mar 07CAMVioletta and Mimi died young, of tuberculosis. Between Traviata (1953) and Boheme (1896), Robert Koch (1882) discovered the real cause of tuberculosis. Homeopaths' pills don't poison your body (they contain nothing) but their delusional thinking poisons your mind. If we had take their lazy approach to medicine, young people would still be dying.http://www.ucl.ac.uk/Pharmacology/dc-bits/quack.html#bohemehttp://www.ucl.ac.uk/Pharmacology/dc-bits/quack.html#boheme25 Feb 07CAMAnother purveyor of nutribollocks who has been dissected and exposed by Ben Goldacre. His views on AIDS are a menace to humanity. And, incredibly his course has been accredited by the University of Bedfordshire (formerly known as the University of Luton)http://www.ucl.ac.uk/Pharmacology/dc-bits/quack.html#holford1http://www.ucl.ac.uk/Pharmacology/dc-bits/quack.html#holford120 Feb 07CAMThanks to some superb work by Ben Goldacre, some hero has referred Dr Gillian McKeith to the advertising standards authority. Now she is just Ms McKeith. Doubtless she will continue to get rich on her own brand of nutribollocks anyway.http://www.ucl.ac.uk/Pharmacology/dc-bits/quack.html#nutri2http://www.ucl.ac.uk/Pharmacology/dc-bits/quack.html#nutri212 Feb 07CAMJust had to show the latest bit of abusive email. This homeopath thinks that chemistry and physics need to be overturned. Well apart for email, the web, mobile phones, cars and aircraft. They, it seems, are OK.http://www.ucl.ac.uk/Pharmacology/dc-bits/quack.html#abuse1http://www.ucl.ac.uk/Pharmacology/dc-bits/quack.html#abuse110 Feb 07CAMPeter Hain has approved the spending if £200 000 of taxpayers’ money to make unproven 19th century medicine available in Northern Ireland. The “pilot study” is NOT a trial or a study. At the end of it we shall be no wiser about whether it works. The money is being channeled through a private company, GettWellUK, which is supported by the Prince of Wales.http://www.ucl.ac.uk/Pharmacology/dc-bits/quack.html#hain1http://www.ucl.ac.uk/Pharmacology/dc-bits/quack.html#hain19 Feb 07CAMBBC’s You and Yours programme (a lunchtime consumer programme) ran a good piece on “Helps Stop Snoring”, a dubious herbal “remedy” for snoring. They picked up the story from my site.http://www.ucl.ac.uk/Pharmacology/dc-bits/quack.html#snore2http://www.ucl.ac.uk/Pharmacology/dc-bits/quack.html#snore25 Feb 07CAMBBC’s Panorama programme broadcast the content of secret emails. They show that GSK was aware of evidence the Seroxat increased risk of suicide in young patients, and suppressed it. They also showed that Prof Martin Keller’s paper on the topic was ghost-written by a PR firm working for GSK.http://www.ucl.ac.uk/Pharmacology/dc-bits/quack.html#gsk1http://www.ucl.ac.uk/Pharmacology/dc-bits/quack.html#gsk15 Feb 07CAMThe Office of Fair Trading has told Magnopulse Ltd to stop making false claims for the benefits of magnetic bandages. One hopes that the Prescription Pricing Authority will now admit its mistake and stop paying for them on the NHS.http://www.ucl.ac.uk/Pharmacology/dc-bits/quack.html#mag4http://www.ucl.ac.uk/Pharmacology/dc-bits/quack.html#mag45 Feb 07CAMLes Rose debates with homeopath Katherine Armitage on the Vanessa Feltz show on BBC Radio London. Listen to the clip to hear some of the best pseudo-scientific gobbeldygook on record.http://www.ucl.ac.uk/Pharmacology/dc-bits/quack.html#rose1http://www.ucl.ac.uk/Pharmacology/dc-bits/quack.html#rose127 Jan 07CAMDespite allowing claims to be made for the effectiveness on the label of herbal medicines, the MHRA admits that there is no reason to ibelieve the claims are true. Ahem, some inconsistency there surely.http://www.ucl.ac.uk/Pharmacology/dc-bits/quack.html#mhra5http://www.ucl.ac.uk/Pharmacology/dc-bits/quack.html#mhra513 Jan 07CAMOne of the zaniest bit of quantum bollocks of all time. Sigh,.http://www.ucl.ac.uk/Pharmacology/dc-bits/quack.html#shiatsu1http://www.ucl.ac.uk/Pharmacology/dc-bits/quack.html#shiatsu11 Jan 07CAMStatements that condemn CAM and the approval of untrue labels by the MHRA have been issued by Royal Society, the Medical Research Council, the Academy of Medical Sciences, the Royal College of Pathologists, the Biosciences Federation (which represents 40 affiliated societies), the Physiological Society and the British Pharmacological Society. The Physiological Society’s December newsletter has an article by Austin Elliott “Homeopathic mumbo-jumbo”.http://www.ucl.ac.uk/Pharmacology/dc-bits/quack.html#mhra4http://www.ucl.ac.uk/Pharmacology/dc-bits/quack.html#mhra421 Dec 06CAMA debate was held at the Natural History Museum on “Does Homeopathy Work?”. You can see it on streaming video. Peter Fisher gave a talk which, after shameless cherry-picking of the evidence, went on to explain that if a memory stick can hold a lot of information, so can water (I’m not kidding).http://www.ucl.ac.uk/Pharmacology/dc-bits/quack.html#goldfishhttp://www.ucl.ac.uk/Pharmacology/dc-bits/quack.html#goldfish18 Dec 06CAMThe BBC2 Newsnight programme, in an excellent bit of investigative journalism, has shown that an ex-arms dealer, Michael Hart Jones has conned the Swaziland government with his claims to cure AIDS with a useless and probably dangerous treatment for AIDS based on goat serum.http://www.ucl.ac.uk/Pharmacology/dc-bits/quack.html#aids1http://www.ucl.ac.uk/Pharmacology/dc-bits/quack.html#aids12 Dec 06CAM“Helps stop snoring” claims to work on the basis of a clinical trial. But the trial is flawed in many ways. In addition the author, Dr Andrew Prichard, seems to have quite forgotten to mention that a Helen Prichard who lives at the same address holds 2000 shares in the company that makes this wonder cure..http://www.ucl.ac.uk/Pharmacology/dc-bits/quack.html#snorehttp://www.ucl.ac.uk/Pharmacology/dc-bits/quack.html#snore24 Nov 2006CAMThe Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) acts un direct breach of its brief my allowing unjustified claims to be made for the efficacy of Arnica gel. .http://www.ucl.ac.uk/Pharmacology/dc-bits/quack.html#mhra3http://www.ucl.ac.uk/Pharmacology/dc-bits/quack.html#mhra39 Nov 2006CAMIn a recent speech and interviews, Tony Blair confirms that he thinks science is just for making money, and that homeopathy and creationism don’t concern him.http://www.ucl.ac.uk/Pharmacology/dc-bits/quack.html#blair1http://www.ucl.ac.uk/Pharmacology/dc-bits/quack.html#blair16 Nov 2006CAMThe House of Lords held a debate designed to annul the disgraceful decision of the MHRA to endorse the sale of snake oil (well, to allow homeopathic “medicines” (i.e. water) to be labelled with unjustified therapeutic claims.http://www.ucl.ac.uk/Pharmacology/dc-bits/quack.html#mhra2http://www.ucl.ac.uk/Pharmacology/dc-bits/quack.html#mhra226 Oct 2006CAMInterview with DC, vainly trying to counter the bunkum from the two previous speakers.http://www.ucl.ac.uk/Pharmacology/dc-bits/quack.html#london1http://www.ucl.ac.uk/Pharmacology/dc-bits/quack.html#london120 Oct 2006CAMThe Consumers’ Association has had a good record in distinguishing true claims from false in washing machines and dishwashers. But in CAM, they seem to be out of their depth. They have been giving some very bad advice, of the sort you might expect from the lifestyle pages of the Daily Mail.http://www.ucl.ac.uk/Pharmacology/dc-bits/quack.html#ca1http://www.ucl.ac.uk/Pharmacology/dc-bits/quack.html#ca113 Oct 2006CAMAfter a long delay, the Dept of Health eventually complied with the Freedom of Information Act and supplied documents relating to the approval of magnetic bandages by the Prescription Pricing Authority (PPA). At the time the PPA denied it was their job to assess efficacy. But the documents show that isn’t true. They just did a very bad job of the assessment.http://www.ucl.ac.uk/Pharmacology/dc-bits/quack.html#mag3http://www.ucl.ac.uk/Pharmacology/dc-bits/quack.html#mag312 Oct 2006CAMThe two chiropodists who run the Marigold Homeopathic Podiatry clinic (no, honestly, it’s real) at the Royal London Homeopathic Hospital seem to be spending much of their budget with a company that they themselves own. The UCLH Trust did not receive any notification of this until I told them about it.http://www.ucl.ac.uk/Pharmacology/dc-bits/quack.html#marigold2http://www.ucl.ac.uk/Pharmacology/dc-bits/quack.html#marigold21 Oct 2006CAMIn answer to a complaint about homeopathy on the NHS, Caroline Flint, Minister of State in the Department of Health, replied with a mind-bogglingly ill-informed letter, recommending hin to consult the Faculty of Homeopaths for more information. Read the letter here.http://www.ucl.ac.uk/Pharmacology/dc-bits/quack.html#flint1http://www.ucl.ac.uk/Pharmacology/dc-bits/quack.html#flint11 Oct 2006CAMThe Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) (an executive agency of the Department of Health) states that “We enhance and safeguard the health of the public by ensuring that medicines and medical devices work, and are acceptably safe.” They have just utterly betrayed the important job with which they are charged, Latest news indicates that the Department of Health is responsible.http://www.ucl.ac.uk/Pharmacology/dc-bits/quack.html#mhra1http://www.ucl.ac.uk/Pharmacology/dc-bits/quack.html#mhra110 Sept 2006CAMThe Royal Society posts a statement that says “It is important that treatments labelled as complementary and alternative medicines are properly tested and that patients do not receive misleading information about the effectiveness of complementary medicine”. I hope the MHRA is listening.http://www.ucl.ac.uk/Pharmacology/dc-bits/quack.html#roysoc1http://www.ucl.ac.uk/Pharmacology/dc-bits/quack.html#roysoc14 Oct 2006CAMThe BMJ published yet another inconclusive paper on acupuncture, but misrepresented it in their press release.http://www.ucl.ac.uk/Pharmacology/dc-bits/quack.html#bmj2http://www.ucl.ac.uk/Pharmacology/dc-bits/quack.html#bmj230 Sept 2006CAMGerald Weissmann, editor-in-chief of FASEB journal, talks straighthttp://www.ucl.ac.uk/Pharmacology/dc-bits/quack.html#faseb1http://www.ucl.ac.uk/Pharmacology/dc-bits/quack.html#faseb126 Sept 2006CAMCongratulations to South West Kent PCT which has decided that Tunbridge Wells homeopathic hospital has no place in the 21st century medicine.http://www.ucl.ac.uk/Pharmacology/dc-bits/quack.html#twhosphttp://www.ucl.ac.uk/Pharmacology/dc-bits/quack.html#twhosp26 Sept 2006CAMA curious web site that will sell you D-mannose and “DNA-rich” Chlorella for cancer (and, of course, take your donations).http://www.ucl.ac.uk/Pharmacology/dc-bits/quack.html#icon1http://www.ucl.ac.uk/Pharmacology/dc-bits/quack.html#icon110 Sept 2006CAMThe prince’s unconstitutional interventions in public policy continue as he launchs an organisation called Integrated Health Associates (IHA).http://www.ucl.ac.uk/Pharmacology/dc-bits/quack.html#hrh3http://www.ucl.ac.uk/Pharmacology/dc-bits/quack.html#hrh310 Sept 2006CAMAn even more than usually crackpot idea from homeopath Carol Franske is that shaking the bottle splits atomic nuclei. And a discussion on recent work which suggests that the real memory of water is even less than a millionth of a millionth of a secondhttp://www.ucl.ac.uk/Pharmacology/dc-bits/quack.html#water1http://www.ucl.ac.uk/Pharmacology/dc-bits/quack.html#water123 Aug 2006CAMThe Australasian Society of Clinical Immunology and Allergy (ACAI) has issued a superbly reasoned analysis of about 30 allergy-related tests and treatments that "have been promoted in the absence of any scientific rationale."http://www.ucl.ac.uk/Pharmacology/dc-bits/quack.html#allergy1http://www.ucl.ac.uk/Pharmacology/dc-bits/quack.html#allergy117 Aug 2006CAMThe US National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM) has had $842 million of taxpayers’ money and has wasted most of it.http://www.ucl.ac.uk/Pharmacology/dc-bits/quack.html#nccam1http://www.ucl.ac.uk/Pharmacology/dc-bits/quack.html# nccam116 Aug 2006CAMThe Independent published a response from me that includes the words “Selling pills that contain nothing whatsoever but sugar as medicines isn't just delusional, it's fraud.”. When foolishness ends and fraud begins is the subject of an excellent book by the physicist Robert Park.http://www.ucl.ac.uk/Pharmacology/dc-bits/quack.html#fraud1http://www.ucl.ac.uk/Pharmacology/dc-bits/quack.html#fraud115 Aug 2006CAMA paper has appeared, apparently quite serious, that likens anyone who thinks that there should be evidence that a medicine works is a fascist. This paper is truly unbelievable.http://www.ucl.ac.uk/Pharmacology/dc-bits/quack.html#holmes1http://www.ucl.ac.uk/Pharmacology/dc-bits/quack.html#holmes111 Aug 2006CAMBrain Deer has produced a very detailed account of the MMR scandal. It shows the corrupting influence of money on research, and the harm done, bath by Dr Wakefield, and by the Royal Free Hospital which sought to profit from him..http://www.ucl.ac.uk/Pharmacology/dc-bits/quack.html#mmr1http://www.ucl.ac.uk/Pharmacology/dc-bits/quack.html#mmr14 Aug 2006CAMThe Independent recommended the Helios Homeopathy Travel kit as one of its Ten Best. They made amends by publishing a letter pointing out that the pills contained nothing whatsoever.http://www.ucl.ac.uk/Pharmacology/dc-bits/quack.html#helios1http://www.ucl.ac.uk/Pharmacology/dc-bits/quack.html#helios128 July 2006CAMDr Gleason, a Maryland psychiatrist was led away in handcuffs after taking $100 000 from a drug company. His activities in promoting ‘off-label’ uses for their drug are, of course, entirely unrelated to the money he received.http://www.ucl.ac.uk/Pharmacology/dc-bits/quack.html#gleasonhttp://www.ucl.ac.uk/Pharmacology/dc-bits/quack.html#gleason22 July 2006CAMThe Institute of Science in Society purports to be about promoting a socially responsible approach to science. It combines some reasonable stuff about global warming with a lot of utter rubbish about homeopathy (mainly written by the Institute’s director, Dr Mae-Wan Ho.http://www.ucl.ac.uk/Pharmacology/dc-bits/quack.html#isishttp://www.ucl.ac.uk/Pharmacology/dc-bits/quack.html#isis19 July 2006CAMThe Newsnight TV programme did an undercover investigation. Ten out of ten homeopaths, including two big companies Nelsons and Helios, told patients that malaria could be prevented by homeopathic pills alone. So much for the idea that homeopathy is harmless. .http://www.ucl.ac.uk/Pharmacology/dc-bits/quack.html#newsnight1http://www.ucl.ac.uk/Pharmacology/dc-bits/quack.html#newsnight113 July 2006CAMGeorge Lewith, who is an advocate of CAM research, appears to have rather different standards in his private clinic.http://www.ucl.ac.uk/Pharmacology/dc-bits/quack.html#lewith1http://www.ucl.ac.uk/Pharmacology/dc-bits/quack.html#lewith15 July 2006CAMAn outrageous paper in the post-modernist style which is remarkably similar to Alan Sokal’s famous spoof.http://www.ucl.ac.uk/Pharmacology/dc-bits/quack.html#barry1http://www.ucl.ac.uk/Pharmacology/dc-bits/quack.html#barry131 May 2006CAMA lovely article by Dominic Lawson, in The Independent.http://www.ucl.ac.uk/Pharmacology/dc-bits/quack.html#lawsonhttp://www.ucl.ac.uk/Pharmacology/dc-bits/quack.html#lawson31 May 2006CAMThe Prince of Wales addressed the World Health Organisation in Geneva. Some bits were excellent, but in the end it was irresponsible, dishonest, and perhaps unconstitutional too.http://www.ucl.ac.uk/Pharmacology/dc-bits/quack.html#hrh2http://www.ucl.ac.uk/Pharmacology/dc-bits/quack.html#hrh223 May 2006CAMA letter from 13 doctors on scientists to NHS chiefs was the front page headline in The Times, and the lead story on the Today Programme.. Read and hear it here.http://www.ucl.ac.uk/Pharmacology/dc-bits/quack.html#nhs1http://www.ucl.ac.uk/Pharmacology/dc-bits/quack.html#nhs123 May 2006CAMFrancis Wheen on HRH Prince Charles “his views on medicine are barmy -and pernicious.”http://www.ucl.ac.uk/Pharmacology/dc-bits/quack.html#hrh1http://www.ucl.ac.uk/Pharmacology/dc-bits/quack.html#hrh117 May 2006CAMWhat is the truth? Tobacco companies on one side, and the near-religious zealotry of the anti-smoking lobby on the other, certainly make it hard to discover. Neither side seems interested in evidence.http://www.ucl.ac.uk/Pharmacology/dc-bits/quack.html#ps1http://www.ucl.ac.uk/Pharmacology/dc-bits/quack.html#ps12 May 2006CAMA bizarre organisation called the NHS Trusts Association promotes not only homeopathy, but even wackier things like ‘crystal therapy’.http://www.ucl.ac.uk/Pharmacology/dc-bits/quack.html#nhsta1http://www.ucl.ac.uk/Pharmacology/dc-bits/quack.html#nhsta129 Apr 2006CAMAn Edinburgh hospital is to supply aromatherapy on the NHS.http://www.ucl.ac.uk/Pharmacology/dc-bits/quack.html#lothian1http://www.ucl.ac.uk/Pharmacology/dc-bits/quack.html#lothian129 Apr 2006CAMThe Amsterdam Medical Disciplinary Tribunal has struck off one doctor and suspended two others for their exclusive use of complementary treatments, resulting in the death of a woman.http://www.ucl.ac.uk/Pharmacology/dc-bits/quack.html#dutch1http://www.ucl.ac.uk/Pharmacology/dc-bits/quack.html#dutch121 Apr 2006CAMBoots, the biggest UK retail pharmacists, give bad, indeed dangerous, advice, and their ‘learning store’ for children has a lot of misleading rubbish about alternative medicines.http://www.ucl.ac.uk/Pharmacology/dc-bits/quack.html#boots1http://www.ucl.ac.uk/Pharmacology/dc-bits/quack.html#boots118 Apr 2006Big PharmaHere is a link to a fascinating collection of essays that discuss ‘disease mongering’.http://www.ucl.ac.uk/Pharmacology/dc-bits/quack.html#pharma3http://www.ucl.ac.uk/Pharmacology/dc-bits/quack.html#pharma313 Apr 2006Big PharmaWhen asked for the documentation that led to the approval of magnets as treatment for leg ulcers, the Department of Health would reveal precisely nothing, giving as a reason that trade secrets were involved. Trade secrets of magnetic bracelets?http://www.ucl.ac.uk/Pharmacology/dc-bits/quack.html#foi2http://www.ucl.ac.uk/Pharmacology/dc-bits/quack.html#foi26 Apr 2006FOIA letter published in the Guardian on 1 April 2006 defended in unequivocal terms the whole BBC2 series on Alternative Medicine. It had 10 signatories. But it seems the letter originated from the BBC and at least one signatory had not seen it and did not agree with it. What is going on?http://www.ucl.ac.uk/Pharmacology/dc-bits/quack.html#bbc3http://www.ucl.ac.uk/Pharmacology/dc-bits/quack.html#bbc34 Apr 2006BBCSeveral of the people who contributed to, and/or appeared in, the BBC2 series on alternative medicine, have complained that they were treated “like marionettes”, and that the programme was sensationalised and uncritical,http://www.ucl.ac.uk/Pharmacology/dc-bits/quack.html#singh2http://www.ucl.ac.uk/Pharmacology/dc-bits/quack.html# singh225 Mar 2006BBCThe Office of Fair Trading has taken Magno-Pulse Ltd to the High Court after they refused to stop what the OFT regards, quit rightly, as misleading advertising. This is the company whose magnets have just been approved by the PPA for prescription on the NHS!http://www.ucl.ac.uk/Pharmacology/dc-bits/quack.html#oft1http://www.ucl.ac.uk/Pharmacology/dc-bits/quack.html#oft115 Mar 2006magnetsA request for information under the Freedom of Information Act gets the brush-off. It seems that the PPA retains no copies of any information about how it makes its decisions (they say).http://www.ucl.ac.uk/Pharmacology/dc-bits/quack.html#foi1http://www.ucl.ac.uk/Pharmacology/dc-bits/quack.html#foi114 Mar 2006magnetsEmails in my possession show that the Chiron Clinic is able to decide that nutritional supplements are needed for leg ulcers on the basis of an email (as well as magnets of course).http://www.ucl.ac.uk/Pharmacology/dc-bits/quack.html#ne1http://www.ucl.ac.uk/Pharmacology/dc-bits/quack.html#ne114 Mar 2006magnetsNobody knows the cost! But here is some information that I found by use of the Freedom of Information Act 2000...http://www.ucl.ac.uk/Pharmacology/dc-bits/quack.html#rlhh2http://www.ucl.ac.uk/Pharmacology/dc-bits/quack.html#rlhh213 Mar 2006homeopathyThe Prescription Pricing Authority, who approved the magnetic device say simultaneously that for a device to be included it “must be cost-effective” and “There is no judgement offered about whether a product in the Drug Tariff is more (or less) efficacious than any other, or the placebo effect.”. The mind boggles.http://www.ucl.ac.uk/Pharmacology/dc-bits/quack.html#mag2http://www.ucl.ac.uk/Pharmacology/dc-bits/quack.html#mag227 Jan 2006magnetsA report in the Sunday Times says the magnetic devices for leg ulcers have been approved for prescription on the NHS despite there being next to no evidence that they work. Cherie Blair is said to approve.http://www.ucl.ac.uk/Pharmacology/dc-bits/quack.html#mag1http://www.ucl.ac.uk/Pharmacology/dc-bits/quack.html#mag19 Jan 2006magnetsUse of alternative medicine, even as a placebo, raises problems that are rarely considered.http://www.ucl.ac.uk/Pharmacology/dc-bits/quack.html#dilemmahttp://www.ucl.ac.uk/Pharmacology/dc-bits/quack.html#dilemma9 Jan 2006BBC2The Open University course K221: delusions in a good universityhttp://www.ucl.ac.uk/Pharmacology/dc-bits/quack.html#ou1http://www.ucl.ac.uk/Pharmacology/dc-bits/quack.html#ou1January 2006UniversityA good chance was missed to convey the facts and the science. Well below the BBC’s usual standard for science programmes.http://www.ucl.ac.uk/Pharmacology/dc-bits/quack.html#bbc2http://www.ucl.ac.uk/Pharmacology/dc-bits/quack.html#bbc29 Jan 2006BBC2An article on the death of homeopathy, There has been long enough to get evidence, but it is not there.http://www.ucl.ac.uk/Pharmacology/dc-bits/quack.html#relicthttp://www.ucl.ac.uk/Pharmacology/dc-bits/quack.html#relictTue, 27 Dec 2005 23:59:56 GMTCAMA wonderful spoof paper on fraud in Science.http://www.ucl.ac.uk/Pharmacology/dc-bits/quack.html#clone1http://www.ucl.ac.uk/Pharmacology/dc-bits/quack.html#clone12 Feb 2006UK