Complementary medicines are useless and dangerous

Complementary medicine is anecdotally-based medicine, not supported by scientific fact.

From the Dayli Mail, I found this article:

A lot of complementary medicine is ineffective, and some positively dangerous. Meanwhile, alternative treatments that promise to cure cancer 'are downright irresponsible, if not criminal'.

These are the views not of an old-school doctor dismissive of alternative therapies, but of Professor Edzard Ernst, Britain's first professor of complementary medicine and, you would have assumed, its greatest champion.

There is a booming market for complementary medicine, and it's not only the public who are turning to alternative remedies. Last week it was revealed that 60 per cent of Scottish doctors prescribe their patients homeopathic or herbal remedies.

Read the rest here.

Quackery Exposed

Cancer is not caused by bacteria.

A little bit of common sense can help us see through the fraudulent claims of Hulda Clark.

Clairvoyant led Americans to Saddam

Article November 06 from News.com.au tels us it was a clairvoyant who led Americans to Saddam.......

DID a clairvoyant help US commandos ferret Saddam Hussein out of his hiding place in Iraq three years ago?

Israeli-born celebrity psychic Uri Geller, best known for his spoon-bending antics, says the power of the paranormal led US troops to the fugitive Iraqi ex-dictator.

"You remember when they found Saddam Hussein in Iraq? A soldier walked over to a rock, lifted it and then found a trap-door and found him in there," Geller said.

"Well, I know that that soldier walked over to that rock because he got information from a 'remote viewer' from the United States."

Geller, who says he worked for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) during the Cold War, said his information came from a high-level source involved in US paranormal programs.

A US military spokesman in Iraq had no immediate comment.

At the time of his capture, US commanders said a source close to the fugitive had given him up under interrogation.

A Brazilian psychic tried last year to claim a $US25 million ($A32.53 million) bounty offered for Saddam's capture, saying he had described the hiding place in letters to the US Government.

Do you believe the incredible?

How does stress influence your health?

Barry Spencer wrote an interesting article The unbearable bunkness of stress.

Everybody says they have stress and everybody "knows" stress is bad for your health.

In the article it says:

Stress is a concept invented in the 1930s by Dr. Hans Selye. Dr. Selye died in 1983. Dr. Selye admitted that stress is an abstract concept, and he admitted that stress has never been adaquately defined. Dr. Selye's own definition of stress is the non-specific response of the body to any demand.

To most people, however, stress is not an abstract concept but is something you feel. The feeling that many people call stress boils down to anxiety and frustration. So the word stress refers to two different things: (1) an abstract concept ("The non-specific response of the body to any demand") and (2) anxiety and frustration.

The problem with the stress-theory is

First of all, it ignores everything we know about the causes of disease, such as dietary deficiencies, genetic abnormalities, and infectious agents. Second, it makes society — civilization itself — responsible for our personal ills, and it strongly implies that work — not anything in particular that happens at work but rather work in and of itself — causes disease. How then to explain illness in people who do not work? The stress of unemployment! Or maybe family stress: very unhealthy. No family? The stress of being alone! In short, according to the stress theory, stress is inescapable. We are all just laboratory rats trapped in the big electrified cage of life.

I have come to the conclusion that stress is an inescapable part of life.

But does that mean stress is bad for your health?

The 38th Skeptics' Circle is posted

It looks like some homeopathic remedy, but really it's called Skeptic Cola.

Try them over at Skepticrant and enjoy.

Skeptics' Circle is up at Autism Diva blog

The 37th Skeptics' Circle has been posted to Autism Diva blog and it looks great.

The road from foolishness too healthfraud

Penn and Teller are looking for "bullshit" and takes a look at chiropractic medicine, reflexology, magnet therapy and alternative medicine

Penn and Teller: Bullshit - Alternative Medicine (part 1)



Penn and Teller: Bullshit - Alternative Medicine (part 2)

Penn and Teller: Bullshit - Alternative Medicine (part 3)

The power of suggestion is wonderfull and expensive too...

Watch the video about Chiropractic neck manipulation

Dr. William Kinsinger's video presentation at Mercy Health Center in Oklahoma City in April 2004 focuses on the real dangers of highest neck manipulation. Interviews with the parents, and survivors of this technique that has no therapeutic value tell the terrible tale of what can happen if your chiropactor performs this procedure

Deadly quacks: Neurologists have long protested the practice of 'highest neck manipulation,' which in some cases has resulted in lethal strokes

Dr. William Kinsinger is an American physician, and a member of a professional group monitoring government support for alternative medicine.

If it quacks like an alien ...

Interestingly an alien has now been found in the stomach of a duck.

The good thing is that we obviously have nothing to fear from an alien invasion.

Migraine suffers would be victims of health fraud

It seems that migraine (headache) sufferers would be likely victims of health fraud in that the cause is poorly understood, unpredictable and often triggered by unknown factors, and can be difficult to treat.

As with me, my doctor told me to visit a chiropractor to get relief. As I think massage and relaxation does wonders for headaches of all kinds, I would rather find a good PT or massage therapist.

I have discovered that several PT's have fallen for the latest new-age treatments: Cranio Sacral Therapy. An osteopath started CST and the method are used by many chiros.

CST is just another weird belief without any therapeutic value:

In 2002, two basic science professors at the University of New England College of Osteopathic Medicine concluded:

Our own and previously published findings suggest that the proposed mechanism for cranial osteopathy is invalid and that interexaminer (and, therefore, diagnostic) reliability is approximately zero. Since no properly randomized, blinded, and placebo-controlled outcome studies have been published, we conclude that cranial osteopathy should be removed from curricula of colleges of osteopathic medicine and from osteopathic licensing examinations [10].

(Source: Scientific Review of Alternative Medicine Interexaminer Reliability And Cranial Osteopathy)

Migraine suffers have to be careful to find a clinic or an individual therapist who they can trust, a theraphist who does not fall for this so-called therapy.

Now chiropractors have a real pain in the neck...

A rhetorical question (Injured by a chiropractor?) on a bus have got chiropractors more than just a little upset. The ad is sponsored by the Chiropractic Stroke Awareness Group and Chirobase has a detailed article with a picture of the bus.

Should the NHS fund complementary medicine?

A group of doctors has tried to stop NHS resources being spent on quackery.

Let's rather spend money on real medicine that actually works than use them on unproven and disproved treatments.

Let us give it to real nurses and doctors who use real medicine that actually works.

Reasons?

1. NHS money are being given away from good working medicine which would otherwise be available. They give false information to patients who should be receiving conventional medical treatment.

2. Public are best served by using the available funds for treatments that are based on solid evidence

3. "Alternative" medicine does not work, because if it did it would become part of the conventional medicine and it would be very easy to prove it in a double-blinded controlled trial. Results have not published in a peer-reviewed scientific journal, and it is a fair bet that they are not very reproducible.

4. The "Scientific" basis of "alternative" medicine is not consistent with known science (eg. homeopathy, energy therapies). We knows that homeopathy does not work. Experiments of this kind have been done repeatedly. The people given the wrong homeopathic solution get better just as often as the people given the "homeopathic remedy" (i.e. water). There is nothing that is evidence-based to support homeopathy and it deserves no more place in science than horoscopes.

5. The NHS Direct website includes links to sources containing misleading information about CAM. Furthermore, they allow NHS Alliance and NHS Trust Association to use their logo and style on their website, both websites seems to exist solely to promote CAM. Why support Them?

Why don't we accept that the standard of evidence-based medicine is the only standard? Moreover, that unproven or disproved treatments should be replaced with good evidence and clear information.

Should the NHS fund complementary medicine? Give your vote!

Relevant links:

NHS told to abandon alternative medicine

Doctors' letter: In full
The open letter from some of the UK's leading doctors urging NHS trusts to stop using complementary therapies.

Links to video of Prince's comments...

Prince Charles first advocated the use of complementary medicines more than 20 years ago, and has established the Prince's Foundation for Integrated Health.



Complementary Medical Association Response to Dr. Baum and Colleagues

The IMPROBABLE SCIENCE page

What kind of atheist are you?

The Ardent Atheist
The results are in, and it appears that you have scored 61%...

You are an atheist, pure and simple. You think God is just one big lie, and consider religious people to be both annoying and beneath you. Ardent atheists will argue tooth and claw for their position, and have no truck with people that won't listen. You think being an atheist is the only way to lead an honest life, and see no reason to accept the pleas of faith. Ardent atheists are the backbone of atheism. Be proud.



Link: The Atheist Test written by chi_the_cynic on Ok Cupid, home of the 32-Type Dating Test
(Hat tip: Science & Politics)

the 32nd meeting of the Skeptics' Circle

If you are devoted to skepticism the 32nd meeting of the Skeptics' Circle is live over at Pooflingers Anonymous.

Well known chiropractic problems

Chiropractic is widely accepted by the government, and it isn't hard to see why people would confuse chiropractors with MDs and why people wouldn't even realize there is a controversy.

The problem is that Chiropractic medicine as a whole makes unsubstantiated claims and they are still unproven.

It is demonstrated with X-rays, that subluxation is a fantasy.

The only problem is that most subluxations that are claimed to exist by chiropractic analysis can not be found when examined by radiologists or other chiropractors. In blinded studies chiropractors have not been able to find subluxations claimed by other chiropractors.

Source: XRays (Inappropriate Use)

There is no known benefit for a chiropractor cracking a person's neck, and it is known to cause occasional stroke.

Everyone who wants to be a chiropractor learns that rubbing one part of the body can cure diseases and disorders elsewhere in the body. The claim is that all body organs are controlled through the spinal column, but then explain to me how transplanted organs work well without nerve connections to the host?

Of course, a chiropractor can make your back feel better, but do not let the temptation of a good back rub lure you into supporting the chiropractic educational and billings systems.

It strikes me that if you doubt about a chiropractor it probably get people more upset than doubting of their God.

I doubt about this chiropractor.

Chiropractic treatment with no benefit.....

The BBC News of today has this interesting article about the benefit of spinal manipulation. One of the side effects is still strokes caused by damage to the vertebral artery in the back.

Cartoons from http://skeptically.org/quackery

Spinal manipulation - which is used by chiropractors and osteopaths in the UK to treat neck and back pain - is of little help, researchers have said.
Experts from Peninsula Medical School in Devon reviewed 26 studies carried out between 2000 and 2005.

Writing in Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, they said the data gave "little evidence" of effectiveness.

Chiropractors said the team had focused on negative studies which supported the researchers' views - a claim they deny.

Chiropractors said the team had focused on negative studies which supported the researchers' views - a claim they deny.

The researchers said they looked at all studies evaluating the benefits of spinal manipulation for period pain, colic, asthma, allergy and dizziness - as well as back and neck pain up to 2005.

It was found the data did not show spinal manipulation was effective for any condition - except for back pain where it is superior to sham manipulation, but not better than conventional treatments.

The researchers said that, as spinal manipulation had been linked to mild side effects in around half of patients, such as temporary stiffness, and - much more rarely - strokes brought on by damage to the vertebral artery in the back, it was not something which should be used instead of other therapies.

They suggest existing guidelines need to be re-evaluated in the light of their conclusions.

'Wake-up call'
Professor Edzard Ernst, who led the review, said: "There is little evidence that spinal manipulation is effective in the treatment of any medical condition.

"The findings are of concern because chiropractors and osteopaths are regulated by statute in the UK.

"Patients and the public at large perceive regulation as proof of the usefulness of treatment.

"Yet the findings presented here show a gap and contradiction between the effectiveness of intervention and the evidence."

"We suggest that the guidelines be reconsidered in the light of the best available data."

Professor Ernst said the findings should be seen as a "wake-up call" to the chiropractic profession.

"One way forward is more rigorous clinical trials to test the efficacy of spinal manipulation," he added.

"After all, the treatment is not without risk and chiropractors must demonstrate why it should be a recommendable medical treatment option."

But in a statement, the British Chiropractic Association said it was disappointed by the study's conclusions, which it believed were based on "negative" research - other studies had come to the opposite conclusion.

"The usefulness of manipulation is that it can be added, substituted or modified as part of a package of care that provides management, pain control, advice and recognises risks to a good recovery," it said.

"Recent clinical trials funded by the Medical Research Council show that manipulation is effective and cost-effective within such a package for back pain."

The National Council for Osteopathic Research accused Professor Ernst of working with out of date data.

Featured site(s) at Skeptic Ring

I have taken a break from regular blogging since January this year, but there's still a lot of good skeptical blogging and websites to read, and a lot of them is gathered together in the Skeptic Ring:

The Skeptic Ring consists of sites that examine claims about paranormal phenomena and fringe science from a skeptical point of view. These sites believe that such claims should be examined rationally and objectively. Topics include UFOs, psychic powers, ghosts, crop circles, astrology, telepathy, repressed memories, creationism, Bigfoot, the Loch Ness monster, hypnosis, homeopathy, Reiki, TFT, nonexistent chiropractic subluxations, dowsing, and conspiracy theories. It is not an atheism ring or an anti-religion ring, since some believers can, in other areas, be skeptics....;-)

Anyone having a website with these topics have the possibility to join the webring by contacting the ringmaster Paul Lee. The ring have 162 active site(s) including Anne's Anti-Quackery & Science Blog. I am very flattered to find AAQ&SB in company with Skeptico and The Skeptics Society and Skeptic Magazine as one of the featured site(s) at the Skeptic Ring, and here too.

Not all Christians need to lie about science

An article appeared in the Vatican newspaper written by professor of evolutionary biology Fiorenzo Facchini:

VATICAN CITY - The Vatican newspaper has published an article saying "intelligent design" is not science and that teaching it alongside evolutionary theory in school classrooms only creates confusion.

We live in the 21st century and I am glad that some Christians are able to recognize Intelligent Design as fraud and accept evolution as the key of history of life on earth.

Advocates of ID claim without any evidence that a designer has created life, but evolution is the only explanation, which is consistent with the evidence.

Skeptic Circle is up at The Saga

Enjoy the excellent and creative 25th skeptic thing over at The Saga of Runolfr. Some good skeptical blogging for you to read.

I have submitted several articles to the circle and I hosted the 11th issue of the Skeptic Circle on 23 June last year. As I worried about enough submissions, I invited skeptic bloggers by mail to submit their best skeptical writing.

Next circle will be published over at Skeptic Rant and I recommend anyone to submit his or her appropriating articles ASAP or even better host it yourself.