2012 – Page 2 – The Quackometer Blog

What Every Parent Should Know About Steiner-Waldorf Schools

2nd November, 2012 483

You may know my feelings about Steiner/Waldorf Schools*. Most importantly, that prospective parents are not being told about the occult foundations of the Steiner philosophy. You may think that the mystical, spiritual and esoteric movement behind Steiner schools might be a very important factor in deciding whether your children should attend such a school. But the schools obviously do not. Informed choice is not possible when you do not understand the [read more…]

Solal Technologies Sues South African Sceptic

12th October, 2012 6

Solal Technologies, a South African company that sells a wide range of vitamin and food supplements with associated questionable claims, is suing the writer Kevin Charleston for saying that their claims are pseudoscientific. In their summons, Solal claim Charleston owes them R350,000 (about £25,000) for claiming that Solal are engaged in misleading business practices and are bullies. Charleston wrote a blog article that stated that a glossy magazine called Health Intelligence (see [read more…]

What Doctors Don’t Tell You – A Publishing Sensation

4th October, 2012 336

Hot on the heels of the new killer magazine What Doctors Don’t Tell You we are seeing an explosion of new titles trying to mimic its success. Here is the original and a raft of copycat titles. Enjoy. If the original has disturbed you, and the associated threats to sue Simon Singh for daring to suggest that this title was irresponsible, please see, Quack rag distributor threatens to sue [read more…]

Should WHSmith Stock WDDTY Magazine?

1st October, 2012 339

An almighty battle between quacks and sceptics appears to be underway. Last month, saw the publication of a new magazine, What Doctors Don’t Tell You. It is being distributed by many mainstream retailers such as Waitrose, Sainsbury and WHSmith. Those of you who read my blog regularly will realise that this magazine is the latest offering from Lynne McTaggart who produces the What Doctors Don’t Tell You website. It is one of [read more…]

Spinning Acupuncture

17th September, 2012 42

How should we read a scientific paper? A new study, published last week1, would suggest that it is a very bad idea to simply read the abstract and conclusions. Worse, it can be very misleading to rely on reports derived from press releases about the research. The study looked at how press releases included ‘spin’ about the results of a medical paper. The results were rather alarming. The authors defined [read more…]

Chekhov, Homeopathy and the Placebo Effect

4th September, 2012 233

What can Anton Chekhov tell us about the placebo effect? Chekhov is best known as a great writer of short stories. But he was also a doctor and wrote many tales of medicine and doctors in everyday life. But recently, again, I have seen homeopaths claim that Chekhov “used [homeopathy] and swore by its curative effects”. No doubt, the source for such claims come from the American homeopathy entrepreneur, Dana Ullman. [read more…]

Boots Unconcerned About Nelsons Production Problems.

16th August, 2012 40

So, to recap: Nelsons, manufacturers of Bach Flower Remedies and various homeopathic products, had their London factory inspected by the the American regulators as they export to the US. The report was damning. They found no control over broken glass entering their medical products, poor production processes resulting in 1 in 6 products failing to receive the homeopathic ingredient, poor labelling and lack of quality control on the products. The [read more…]

FDA Raises Serious Concerns About UK’s Nelsons Homeopathics

9th August, 2012 155

Nelsons, UK manufacturers of such products as Bach Rescue Remedies, and a range of Homeopathic sugar pills, such as Teetha, have been inspected by the US authority the FDA as their products are exported to the US. The FDA reports many concerns about their manufacturing processes in London and have ordered them to report how they are going to remediate their concerns. It all makes rather odd reading, as I [read more…]

Bupa no longer covers Homeopathy

3rd August, 2012 16

So, a quick note to mark that the latest changes in T’s & C’s from Bupa simply state that they will no longer provide cover for homeopathic treatment. Aside from the NHS, Bupa is perhaps the most well known health care provider in the UK. Many people will receive extra cover through Bupa through work place schemes. Bupa, formerly the British United Provident Association, is a private company, but with no [read more…]

The Dirty Tricks of Alternative Medicine

26th July, 2012 27

Last week, I wrote about how German Homeopathy pill manufacturers were paying a writer who was using his blog post to smear and attack academic Edzard Ernst. The journalist who wrote the original article in the German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung has agreed to allow the article to be published in English on this web site and I do so as it provides the full context around the scandal. ———————————————————————————————————————– Drug manufactures finance a journalist who [read more…]