Cancer quackery is about as low as you can go. Telling people you can cure cancer with baking powder and vitamin C is irresponsible, unethical and lethal. But these are staple claims of the Naturopathic health care trade. In the UK, naturopathy is not a prominent mode of alternative medicine, but in the United States, students can spend tens of thousands of dollars being told they are getting meaningful medical [read more…]
This morning, the Two Oceans Aquarium in Cape Town, tweeted that it was ‘nurturing their precious penguins’ by giving them a range of quack treatments including ‘laser therapy, acupuncture and magnetic pulses’. The linked article explains, Teddy [a rescued rock hopper penguin with arthritis] has also undergone an operation on his right foot, had pulse magnetic therapy and receives medical attention on a regular basis. Quite what this ‘medical attention’ [read more…]
Bristol CCG are one of the few remaining NHS commissioning services in England that still fund homeopaths. They are considering decommissioning the provisioning of homeopathy, mostly though a private company run by a homeopathic doctor in Bristol. This service is the last sad remnant of what was once a dedicated NHS homeopathy hospital in Bristol. The local NHS is seeking your views on whether public money should be spent on this [read more…]
Homeopaths are launching a new film about homeopathy. As you can see from the trailer above, this is a film that sets out to ‘educate and promote’ homeopathy to the world. It is conspiratorial in tone and credulous in its presentation and shows disgusting quackery being sold to parents of children with autism. I have not been able to see the whole film yet – but the trailer clearly shows [read more…]
In September, the UK’s Advertising Standards Authority wrote to all homeopaths informing them that it would be taking action against homeopaths that did not comply with the rules for making claims in advertising. It has taken the ASA many years to get to this position after trying to work with homeopaths and their trade bodies to ensure they cleaned up their act. The Nightingale Collaboration has been campaigning hard and [read more…]
Corporate HR departments are obviously keen to promote the health of their employees as this will help productivity, reduce sick days and is seen as a perk by the employees. This is often done by such means as subsidised gym membership, cycle-to-work schemes and private health insurance benefits. However, the more murky side of this laudable aim is the introduction of so-called ‘wellness consultants’ who will peddle various forms of [read more…]
This week is Acupuncture Awareness Week. This is probably a good thing as, of all the alternative medicines, acupuncture carries perhaps the most myths. These myths need to be addressed. Acupuncture has achieved an accepted status perhaps even more than chiropractic and osteopathy as being now an accepted part of mainstream medicine. Why is this? Let’s look at some of these myths. 1. Acupuncture is Thousands of Years Old. This is [read more…]
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The charity Homeopathy Action Trust represents pretty much everything that is wrong with homeopathy in the UK today. Homeopaths would not be under such pressure and scrutiny if they did not fund and support HIV clinics in Africa, did not agitate for public funding on the NHS and did not advocate homeopathy for serious and life-threatening conditions. Other forms of alternative medicine do not do such things (at least to any [read more…]
This blog has been continuously critical of UK homeopaths who fund and set up clinics in Africa that treat people with serious illnesses such as HIV, malaria and TB. These homeopaths are able to practice their healing fantasies in ways that it would be very difficult to get away with in the UK. Practice in the UK is constrained by such things advertising laws, the risk of bad publicity and [read more…]
The UK homeopathy bodies are continuing their use of PR to try to raise the profile of their magic medicine rather than offer actual evidence and rational debate. At last week’s National Television Awards, Hot Gossip founder, Arlene Phillips wore what was described as a ‘homeopathic dress’. This is somewhat less exciting than you might at first think. You would be excused for thinking a homeopathic dress would make the [read more…]
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