Interesting Skeptical Links and Articles

williamgrogan

We all come across articles and web sites that other Skeptics might be interested in, particularly newcomers.

I suggest posting them here. This thread then becomes a simple collection of Skeptic related resources.

e.g. The Irish Times seems to be printing CAM type articles/advertisements on an ongoing basis an if we decide to tackle them a list of these articles/extracts would be useful.

(There is a copyright issue here but acknowledging copyright and/or including extracts should solve this.)

williamgrogan

When does food become medicine?

(Copyright Irish Times 12-01-04)

...

On January 30th, in the High Court in London, the Alliance for Natural Health will challenge the EU Food Supplements Directive, which was adopted in 2002 with a view to limiting the active ingredients in mineral and vitamin-based supplements to a "positive list" of approved substances. The alliance, whose challenge is supported by many Irish health food retailers and manufacturers, says the list omits more than 300 widely used forms of vitamins and minerals.

In a related development Avril Doyle, the Fine Gael MEP for Leinster, challenged the inclusion of a "supremacy clause" in the EU's Pharmaceuticals Directive in Brussels last month. She believes the clause could result in food and food supplements being classified as drugs, as the Pharmaceuticals Directive would subsume the Food Supplements Directive, and thereby come under strict pharmaceutical regulation.

...

David Byrne, the EU Commissioner for Health and Consumer Protection, will not comment on this month's legal challenge. He has said, however, that the claim that 300 nutrient forms have been left off the positive list misses an important point. "No independent scientific evaluation about the safety and bioavailability of these nutrient forms has yet been carried out at European level," he wrote in this newspaper in 2002. "For a substance currently on the market, a seven-year national derogation may be obtained, during which time the substance in question can be properly evaluated."

[END]

Alliance For Natural Health

williamgrogan

There is a new channel starting tonight on Sky 289 called FX and at 10:30 pm is Penn & Tellers BULL**** program.

Tonight they (hopefully) debunk Psychics.

I heard about this series and know that P&T are Skeptics.

davros

Originally posted by williamgrogan
(There is a copyright issue here but acknowledging copyright and/or including extracts should solve this.)

You will also need the permission of the copyright holder. Otherwise you can invoke the principle of "fair use" whereby you may quote modest amounts of a published work, with attribution and without permission.

It's often possible to find the press releases and other publicly-available documents that were used as source material by the journalist. You can often also find a similar article on a website that doesn't require a subscription (for example www.unison.ie) and just link to that.

williamgrogan

I wonder how many people who go the Acupuncturists know this?

Blood donors are always needed, particularly now, as restrictions tighten on who is eligible to give. Dr Muiris Houston reports.

Unsurprisingly, much of the questionnaire deals with issues surrounding HIV, AIDS and hepatitis B and C. ... or that if you have had acupuncture within the past 12 months from anybody other than a registered nurse, doctor or physiotherapist, you will be politely turned away?

I.T. 19-01-04

williamgrogan

I often read the UK's Independent although I am of the opinion that its going downhill since O'Reilly took over.

One writer I like and find funny and intelligent is Rowan Pelling. She is also the editor of a magazine called "The Erotic Review".

[Article deleted - davros]

If you send your opinions I will construct a "reply" and send it to Rowan and let’s see what she says. Everything is here. The free advertisement for Acupuncture, the anecdotal evidence, the “I’m not a crystal energy nut”, the conviction that she is pregnant due to “Gerard”, the placebo effect, the Harley Street clinic, etc.

And what about the evidence, “I later discovered that Gerad is something of a fertility specialist and has achieved astonishing results where medics and IVF have failed”. How the f**k (excuse my French) do we “know” Gerard is “something of a fertility expert"?

davros

Please stop reposting articles. I'm not even going to bother editing them from now on - they will just be deleted.

You may not repost articles without the permission of the copyright holder.

davros

Originally posted by williamgrogan
I wonder how many people who go the Acupuncturists know this?

I didn't know that (not that I let anyone stick needles in me without a damn good reason). I see the same restriction is mentioned on the Irish Blood Transfusion Service website.

Linking with the Regulation of CAM thread, does this mean that once the Department of Health-backed registration process goes ahead, acupuncturists will be considered "safe", and the punctured will be eligible to donate?

davros

Originally posted by williamgrogan
How about this edited version then?

Copyright law is notoriously difficult to understand and I'm not a legal expert. But the general principles applicable here are:
- you may quote for the purposes of commentary. The amount you may quote should be no more than a few percent. Certainly not more than 10%.
- you should not "prejudice the interests of the owner of the copyright". Which means you should not provide for free that which the copyright owner is trying to sell.

I have no great desire to be held responsible for any violations of copyright so I'm going to err on the side of caution.

It's nothing personal. Feel free to link to these articles on the original sites where people can pay if they want to view the full text.

sextusempiricus

Originally posted by davros
.

Linking with the Regulation of CAM thread, does this mean that once the Department of Health-backed registration process goes ahead, acupuncturists will be considered "safe", and the punctured will be eligible to donate?

A good point. I assume that all acupuncturists will have professional indemnity and public liability insurance that will compensate the injured public in case of a cock-up. As I noted before 1% of them in the UK do not at present use single-use disposable needles!

ecksor

Argh, insurance. Money won't compensate for a loss of health :eek:

Well, apart from loss of earnings and payment for treatments but you know what I mean.

sextusempiricus

Originally posted by ecksor
Argh, insurance. Money won't compensate for a loss of health :

Too true. However the fear of going through the courts will certainly concentrate the minds of practitioners to practice according to best standards. Hopefully.

williamgrogan

“Pen & Teller’s Bull****”.

Last night episode 2 of this program aired on Sky FX channel.

They pull no punches and continually describe CAM practitioners as con artists, bull****ters, cheats etc.

They examined chiropractic, magnetic healing and reflexology. A Chiropractic admitted manipulating the spine of very small babies and happily boasted that he treated healthy people.

They said that in the states, 8 billion dollars is now spent per year on chiropractic alone. This compares to NASA’s budget of 11 billion.

They highlighted a Reflexologist who charged $2,400 for his course and have him on record recommending that one of his “pupils” start practicing reflexology before even being trained to help pay for the “course”.

They set up a very funny CAM treatment centre in a shopping mall and had great fun taking the piss out of gullible passer-by’s.

They convinced people of the merits of magnetic hats, gravity coats to adjust the spine as you walk and snail face massage.

williamgrogan

How about “Chelation Treatment”?

http://www.irishhealth.com/index.html?level=4&id=1165

PS

The following web site has a “Complementary medicine” section and regularly “explains” CAM treatments in a positive way.

http://www.irishhealth.com

davros

Originally posted by williamgrogan
The following web site has a “Complementary medicine” section and regularly “explains” CAM treatments in a positive way.
http://www.irishhealth.com

I'll have to register to read the articles but I did note a fairly weak disclaimer on the "About" page:

In relation to the section on complementary medicine, our aim is to cover a broad range of topics and due care is taken to commission material from a reputable source. However, in some of these areas there are no national registration or academic bodies and few practitioners in this country. Visitors to the site should be aware of this.

That seems inadequate to me. I'd like to see a mention that there is no evidence to show that CAM treatments are effective.

Apparently, all of the articles are reviewed by a "panel of healthcare professionals", all of whom are traditionally (non-CAM) qualified. How do CAM articles get past such a review process?

williamgrogan

Anyone interested in the Paranormal?

Lewis Wolpert, a developmental biologist at University College London, made the case against the existence of telepathy at a debate at the Royal Society of Arts (RSA) in London on 15 January. Rupert Sheldrake, a former biochemist and plant physiologist at the University of Cambridge who has taken up parapsychology, argued in its favour. And most of the 200-strong audience seemed to agree with him.

www.nature.com/nsu/040119/040119-7.html

Wolpert said, "An open mind is a very bad thing - everything falls out."

PaulP

The excellent English journalist and writer will soon publish a new book on our favourite subject. It should be hilarious. See the following article http://www.guardian.co.uk/g2/story/0,3604,1131814,00.html

williamgrogan

That was a good article.

In Britain, by the end of the 20th century the country's 36,000 general practitioners were outnumbered by the 50,000 purveyors of complementary and alternative medicine - some of whom receive the seal of royal approval.

An amazing statistic.

Typedef

I wouldn't be too perturbed about the Royal seal of approval.

Mick Jagger was knighted recently after all.

williamgrogan

Consumer Health Digest #04-04, January 27, 2004

Major acupuncture claim challenged.

A large well-designed study has found no evidence that acupuncture is
effective against postoperative nausea and vomiting (PONV).
[Streitberger K and others. Acupuncture compared to
placebo-acupuncture for postoperative nausea and vomiting
prophylaxis: A randomised placebo-controlled patient and observer
blind trial. Anesthesia 59:142-149, 2004]
http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/links/doi/10.1111/j.1365-2044.2004.03577.x/abs
The study involved 220 women who underwent breast or gynecologic
surgery. Half received acupuncture at the acupuncture point
"Pericardium 6" on the inside of the forearm. The other half
underwent "sham acupuncture" at a different point at which the needle
was imperceptibly retracted just after it touched the patient's skin.
No significant difference in PONV or antivomiting medication use was
found between the two groups or between the people who received
treatment before anesthesia was induced and those who received it
while anesthetized. A subgroup analysis found that vomiting was
"significantly reduced" among the acupuncture patients, but the
authors correctly noted that this finding might be due to studying
multiple outcomes. (As the number of different outcome measures
increases, so do the odds that a "statistically significant" finding
will be spurious.) Acupuncture has not been proven effective against
the course of any disease. This study is important because PONV
reduction is one of the few alleged benefits of acupuncture supported
by reports in scientific journals. However, the other positive
studies wee not as tightly controlled. The sham acupuncture technique
was developed at the University of Heidelberg. [Streitberger K,
Kleinhenz J. Introducing a placebo needle into acupuncture research.
Lancet 352:364-365, 1998]
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=retrieve&db=pubmed&list_uids=9717924&dopt=Abstract


Editor, Consumer Health Digest http://www.ncahf.org/digest/chd.html
Publisher, Chiropractic News Digest http://www.quackwatch.org/00AboutQuackwatch/chd.html
Donations of $1 to $50 to help support Quackwatch can be made through
http://s1.amazon.com/exec/varzea/pay/T1X6GUTTCLU3T4

williamgrogan

NYT 30-01-04

Georgia Takes on 'Evolution'

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/01/30/education/30GEOR.html?pagewanted=1&th

you need to register.

The NYT has a good daily email newspaper.

williamgrogan

My New Scientist of the 10/1/04, which arrived nearly 3 weeks late for some reason, has an interesting article on the fact that the Herbal "Medicines" market may cause the extinction of 20% of the plants used. Much of the ingredients are harvested in the wild.

It also mentions that the FDA in the USA has banned herbal remedies that contain ephedra and says there is evidence of 155 deaths caused by it, including a Baseball star called Steve Bechler. Another study showed 16,000 incidents of adverse reactions to it.

N.S. also mentions that in some countries 80% of the population use herbal remedies. Amazing!

Having said all that N.S. seems to be getting a bit soft in recent years.

williamgrogan

I was looking on the web for the value of the CAM Industry in Ireland and came across this link.

It looks sound until you continue to read.

http://www.inplainsite.org/html/alternative_medicine1.html



PS

Anyone know what the t/o in Ireland of the CAM Artists is?

williamgrogan

The following is on the Irish Cancer Society's web site

http://www.irishcancer.ie/text/cancerInfo/complementary.php#Complementary

Complementary therapies

These treatments are generally regarded as those given alongside conventional cancer treatments. They are perceived as a supplement to, but not a substitute for, conventional medical care. Complementary therapies are seen as promoting healing. They focus on strengthening the health of the individual, rather that destroying the cause of the disease. Complementary therapies include visualisation, relaxation and psychotherapy. Nowadays these three therapies are often regarded as part of standard support for patients with cancer. Other therapies which many people find helpful include; the touch therapies for example gentle massage, aromatherapy and reflexology, acupuncture, hypnotherapy, creative arts therapies for example and music therapy. Many complimentary therapies involve developing and maintaining a strong sense of spirituality.

In Ireland, there are a number of centres that offer complimentary therapies in addition to conventional medical therapy. For example, in St. Luke’s hospital, Dublin (which is Ireland’s flagship centre for radiotherapy) aromatherapy and therapeutic massage are available for patients with cancer. Patients that may benefit from any of these therapies are referred for treatment by nursing staff, radiographers or doctors. Additionally, Our Lady’s Hospice in Harold’s Cross, has a department of Complimentary and Supportive Therapies, which also carries out research on complimentary therapies.

Many patients that are stressed either physically or emotionally because of their illness find real benefit from theses therapies and develop an increased sense of well-being and an increased perception of their quality of life.

In recognition of the interest exhibited by the public in complimentary therapies, the Department of Health has funded three full-time clinical research nurses to carry out research. These nurses are currently based in Our Lady’s Hospice.

williamgrogan

I.T. Wednesday 11-02-04

If the following is not a funny headline I don't know what is!


Obese diet expert Atkins had long history of heart attacks


Dr Robert Atkins, who pioneered the popular but controversial low-carbohydrate Atkins diet, had a history of heart attack, and was clinically obese when he died in April last year, it was revealed yesterday, writes Conor O'Clery in New York .....

williamgrogan

IT 13-02-04

Scientist convicted over medicines
Lara Marlowe in Paris

A French scientist who manufactures a pseudo-medicinal product called G5 or Silanol in Co Mayo has been convicted of illegally practising medicine and pharmacology by a court in Bordeaux.

...

According to le Ribault, G5 has helped patients suffering from herpes, hepatitis, asthma, cancer, AIDS, rheumatism and cardiovascular disease. Le Monde reported that his Irish laboratory sells between 14,000 and 15,000 litres over the Internet each month, for an annual turnover of €1.5 million.

WG

1 down 1,000,000 to go!

davros

Atkins ... was clinically obese when he died in April last year

Seems to be a nasty attempt at a smear (there's a suggestion that it comes from animal rights activists). Atkins put on 60 pounds due to organ failure while in a coma just before his death. He was not obese before the coma.

williamgrogan

The article you link too is also from a pressure group, this one for restaurants & food companies.

The mayor of NY had already, before Atkins fell afaik, referred to him as fat.

Time will tell whether he was fat or not.

There is very little evidence that the Atkins diet works other than because people may eat less while on it. There is also evidence that it may be dangerous and apparently it makes your breath smell awful. The "logic" behind the "diet" looks very dubious.

sextusempiricus

Originally posted by williamgrogan
I was looking on the web for the value of the CAM Industry in Ireland and came across this link.

It looks sound until you continue to read.

http://www.inplainsite.org/html/alternative_medicine1.html

Most of it was sound apart from the religious i.e. Christian stuff which could be ignored as merely the author blowing his own trumpet. Loved that bit about 'Demonic Involvement' which amusingly jarred with some quite sensible comments. It was mainly useful in referring to the department at Exeter University that looks at the clinical evidence for CAM. This has its own professor, Edzard Ernst, who, according to a recent article in the London 'Times', is on 'a crusade for more scientific rigour in complementary therapies.' I wish him well.

http://www.exeter.ac.uk/FACT/about.htm .
For an example of their publications see

http://www.pharmpress.com/shop/pdf/FACT_Jun03Focus.pdf

The authors frequently attest to the poor quality of studies for CAM. Overall I would say the assessment of such studies by Exeter University is extremely useful for our cause in the critical evaluation of CAM.

williamgrogan

It just dawned on me...........

Davros is on the Atkins diet, Davros is on the Atkins diet, Davros is on the Atkins diet, ............

williamgrogan

see

http://www.internethealthlibrary.com/Therapies/Homoeopathy-Research.htm

Homoeopathy Research

Listed below are health problems for which Homoeopathy has been shown to help. For full details, please click on the health problem.

Does this really mean ".. shown to help make those selling water rich"?

Some of the funnier ones

acute ankle sprain
pregnancy
irritable bowel syndrome
gout

The only person I know who suffes from gout would think nothing of polishing off a bottle of gin at a sitting