Altie Meds
denialism | November 13, 2007Jeanette Winterson offers her "defence" in the Guardian, and I can't wait for Ben Goldacre to rip into it.
She starts with this classic argument from anecdote:
Picture this. I am staying in a remote cottage in Cornwall without a car. I have a temperature of 102, spots on my throat, delirium, and a book to finish writing. My desperate publisher suggests I call Hilary Fairclough, a homeopath who has practices in London and Penzance. She sends round a remedy called Lachesis, made from snake venom. Four hours later I have no symptoms whatsoever.
Dramatic stuff, and enough to convince me that…
choofnagle | November 7, 2007I'm continuing to bore you with the Federal Trade Commission's report on Consumer Fraud in the United States.
Would it be surprising to hear that individuals with higher levels of debt are more likely to be victims of fraud?
Yes, people in debt can be desperate, and thus be more likely to fall for scams, but there is another reason--people in debt are highly targeted by listbrokers (companies that sell lists of consumers). DirectMag's Listfinder has over 400 lists of debtors for sale. Scammers can buy these lists and target these populations for their frauds.
The good news is that,…
choofnagle | November 6, 2007The Federal Trade Commission just released their second report on Consumer Fraud in the United States. Since it is full of interesting information, I'm going to do several posts on the Commission's findings.
First a quick notes about methods: this report presents findings from 3,888 telephonic interviews of Spanish and English speaking adults. The Commission oversampled to ensure that several minority groups were strongly represented, because it is believed that inadequate attention is being paid in particular to scams against Latinos with limited English skills.
Despite the limitations of…
denialism | October 24, 2007Orac has brought up the interesting point that debating the homeopaths at U. Conn might not be a good idea.
On a related note, in a post derriding attacks on consensus I was asked by commenters if isn't it incumbent on science to constantly respond to debate; to never let scientific questions be fully settled. And I understand where they're coming from. These ideas represent the enlightened ideals of scientific inquiry, free speech, and fundamental fairness.
However, they're also hopelessly misplaced in regard to the problem at hand. That is, denialists, cranks, quacks, etc., are not…
denialism | October 10, 2007The latest crankery from Adams is the evil male-chauvinist conspiracy to perpetuate breast cancer for fun and profit being led by none other than those dastardly villains of the American Cancer Society. With his stunning report and links to the thinkbeforeyoupink campaign, he rails against the ribbons that are a "symbol of male-dominated control over women", and exposes the insidious lies of those who spend their lives looking for cures for this deadly disease.
In this report, you'll learn how the cancer industry -- which is dominated by powerful men -- uses the same tactics today to…
denialism | October 5, 2007CNN suggests there are 5 (count them 5) alternative medicine treatments that actually work! How pathetic is it for altie-meds that the article is presented this way. You know, 5 altie-med therapies that work versus, well, all real pharmaceuticals that actually have proven medical effects. As many have pointed out, if it works, it ceases to be "alternative" and then becomes evidence-based medicine. But let's not take this for granted, let's go over this list presented by altie-quack Andrew Weil.
1. Acupuncture for pain
Hands, down, this was the No. 1 recommendation from our panel of…
choofnagle | September 25, 2007The ads work, that is. HeadOn, that homeopathic (and therefore completely ineffective) head rub for head pain isn't effective. But it's still selling, because advertising and propaganda often trumps evidence! Mya Frazier of AdAge reports:
Those rapid-fire "HeadOn, apply directly to the forehead" spots are arguably among the worst commercials ever from a creative standpoint. They're annoying, repetitive, obnoxious -- and effective.
Clutter buster: HeadOn ads seem amateurish and mindnumbing, but the company's marketing chief said consumers remember them.
[...]
HeadOn is logging some heady…
denialism | August 29, 2007In a scathing attack on what he calls "gunpoint medicine", Mike Adams attacks the medical establishment for their supposed ability to imprison patients, force treatments on people against their will and generally be very very evil.
Health officials in Lawrenceville, Georgia have arrested and jailed Francisco Santos, a teenager who tried to walk out of a hospital and go home after being diagnosed with TB (tuberculosis). Instead of allowing him to leave the hospital, health authorities arrested and jailed the teen, throwing him in into a 15 x 20 foot isolation chamber and not allowing him to…
denialism | August 10, 2007As if I needed more evidence for the phenomenon of crank magnetism, Mike Adams has a post on the Nutrition behind the Secret.
Apparently, the secret to the Secret is Mike Adams nutritional advice.
Few people really know one of the most important secrets to making "The Secret" work: Establishing the right nutrition and dietary habits that clear your nervous system and allow intention to flow.
In this article, I'll share some of the best nutritional secrets about The Secret, covering:
1) Foods and substances that interfere with the power of your intention.
2) Foods and substances that enhance…
denialism | August 8, 2007No.
However, there is never a shortage of crankery from Mike Adams who asserts Microwave ovens destroy the nutritional value of your food. There may be too much idiocy here to address but let's get started.
The rise of widespread nutritional deficiencies in the western world correlates almost perfectly with the introduction of the microwave oven. This is no coincidence. Microwave ovens heat food through a process of creating molecular friction, but this same molecular friction quickly destroys the delicate molecules of vitamins and phytonutrients (plant medicines) naturally found in foods.…
denialism | July 23, 2007So, who has heard of the Rife Machine? It is a quack device that purports to destroy diseases by homing in on their resonant frequency, and disrupting them with radiofrequency (RF) waves (like a soundwave shattering a wine glass). I've met true believers of this stuff before, and there is little you can do to dissuade them of the magical power of these machines, that when dissected reveal they're little more than batteries with flashing LED-lights - and no capability of generating specific radio frequencies. I just got an email this weekend about recent hucksters selling these in…
denialism | July 12, 2007Make no mistake about it, the promoters of alternative medicine are denialists. One of the more stunning examples of their denial of the efficacy of evidence-based medicine appeared in Newstarget with the headline The false gods of scientific medicine revealed: It's a cult, not a science by Mike Adams.
Promoters of conventional medicine claim that all the drug marketing, FDA approvals, surgical procedures, chemotherapy and all other treatments are based on "hard science." The term "science" is invoked with hilarious frequency: Science journals, science-based medicine, proven medical…
denialism | June 8, 2007Ben Goldacre at Bad Science is leading the way on opposing this new absurdity of "electric smog", and one of it's leading proponents in Britain, Julia Stephenson.
It's really too easy. Remember the crank HOWTO? Well, she's just about a perfect example.
It all started when she got wifi in her apartment...
Within a couple of weeks she felt tired and fatigued, so she removed it, and then she felt better!
Two years ago I got Wi-Fi. It was convenient, as I could work anywhere in my flat. But within a few weeks began to suffer from a lack of energy and insomnia, and had difficulty…
denialism | June 5, 2007The last day or so of posts on HuffPo is a perfect example of why I'll never take that site seriously, and why in the end, lefties are just as susceptible to anti-science nonsense as the right. We start with Donna Karen promoting her new health-care initiative, the Well-Being Forum with much credit to hucksters Tony Robbins (he'll hypnotize you with his teeth) and Deepak Chopra, king of woo. You know where it's going with the first post "Healing Is Individual, Not One-Size-Fits-All" and early statements such as this:
But Tony knew that the bottom line is that healing is individual, it's not…