Newspaper Headlines

Ignore the gratuitous kitten picture and read about the Daily Mail's propensity for writing shit headlines.

Homeopathy for Cows

What does the evidence say?

Well, there's a study that found no significant effect, there's another that found no significant differences between homeopathy and control groups, and there's this: Antibiotics appear to have some (limited) value in the treatment of mastitis in cows, homeopathic products do not.

Get Vaccinated

Protect yourself, your children, and your friends' children by ensuring that you are vaccinated against infectious diseases such as measles and pertussis.

Holford's In Vitro Inconsistency

It has been pointed out that Patrick Holford has recently noted the limitations of in vitro studies in the context of a study that found high doses of antioxidants could potentiate DNA damage:

“We don’t have the full study available yet and I think it’s significant that it is a cell study, rather than one carried out on humans,” he says. “We have to know that it’s a cell study and may have some limitations. The devil is in the detail.“

An example is given of Holford's approach to studies conducted in the lab that accord with his beliefs:

In his Optimum Nutrition Bible, Patrick Holford made this statement: “AZT, the first prescribable anti-HIV drug, is potentially harmful, and proving less effective than Vitamin C.” This statement was ‘supported’ by a reference to a paper that described an experiment in HIV-infected T-lymphocytic cell lines. This has been covered by Ben Goldacre here (with follow-up here and here).

Here are some further examples: on the Holford Watch blog.

Homeopathy Awareness Week 2010

Here's a post listing blogs relevant to Homeopathy Awareness Week.

Enjoy!

Evidence or STFU: The Campaign

Dear Internet,

You seem to be hosting an awful lot of websites that spout nonsense. Very few of these website provide any sort of evidence - let alone evidence that is reliable. I intend to challenge the owners of these websites to provide evidence or STFU, ahem, remove their claims.

I think I should begin with the Alternative Medicine associations - BANT (British Association For Applied Nutrition And Nutritional Therapy), SoH (Society of Homeopaths), and BCA (British Chiropractic Association). Oh, not to mention BHA (British Homeopathic Association).

Then, perhaps I will look at individual businesses that make unsubstantiated claims. Hopefully, you will one day be slightly less full of shit than you are now.

All the best,
CC.