What alternative health

practitioners might not tell you

 

ebm-first.com

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The ruling followed a three-day Information Tribunal hearing in Manchester, during which senior Uclan managers including Malcolm McVicar, the vice-chancellor, took to the witness stand to argue the university's case. The case was triggered by David Colquhoun, professor of pharmacology at University College London. Zoë Corbyn, Times Higher Education (17th December 2009)

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"Given the evidence and the state of the science, the only responsible position is to completely dismantle homeopathy and close the door on this pseudoscience once and for all." Article by Steven Novella, Science Based Medicine (11th November 2009)

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"What homeopaths should not do is demonstrate a tendency to argue that weak papers in dubious journals represent proof of its efficacy, that it can treat and cure terminal illness, that its proponents have minds closed to changing in the face of evidence and that it actively undermines evidence based medicine. Unfortunately H:MC21 seem to believe in this latter option…" Gimpy blog (11th November 2009)

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Some 17% of Dutch doctors prescribed some sort of homeopathic medicine to their patients last year, compared with 40% 20 years ago…Doctors are most likely to prescribe homeopathic medicines because their patients ask for them rather than because they believe in homeopathy, the research, quoted in medical magazine Medisch Contact shows. Dutch News (26th October 2009)

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"A former unsuccessful applicant for the Million Dollar Challenge (MDC), John Benneth is considering re-applying. He thinks he can distinguish between water and homeopathic remedies. He believes a recent study by Montagnier et al. supports homeopathy, and he wants to perform a variant of the same experiment. He is not alone in praising the Montagnier study: homeopaths are touting it as proof that homeopathy works." Critique by Harriet Hall, James Randi Educational Foundation (21st October 2009)

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"British physicist Simon Singh, who was sued by the British Chiropractic Association for saying their therapies for children were bogus, said yesterday it was "obvious" that homeopathy "shouldn't be allowed" and couldn't be regulated by a code of ethics. "I take a fairly hard line," he said. "If anyone is making claims that can't be supported by evidence, these claims should be halted and these practices should be prevented."" The Age — Melbourne,Victoria, Australia (10th July 2009)

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Video clip from comedy due Mitchell and Webb, courtesy of Science Based Medicine (3rd July 2009) [2:33 mins]

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"…June 14-21 is Homeopathy Awareness Week. I would like to do my part to increase awareness of homeopathy. I would like people to be aware of the fact that homeopathy is a pre-scientific philosophy, that it is based entirely on magical thinking and is out of step with the last 200 years of science…The scientific community should use this week to make the public acutely aware of the fact that homeopathy is, put simply, utter rubbish. It is a classic pseudoscience and has no place in a 21st century science-based health care system." Article by Steven Novella, Skepticblog (15th June 2009)

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Jan Willem Nienhuys takes a close look at The Donner Report. Vereniging tegen de Kwakzalverij (13th May 2009) [Dutch website, article in English]|

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Article by Steven Novella, MD, Neurologica Blog (6th May 2009)

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"The stillborn homeopathy campaign, Homeopathy Worked for Me, that attempted to collect 250,000 signatures but managed just a few percent of that, has now resorted to producing a laughably daft critique of Ernst & Singh's Trick or Treatment. William Alderson, a homeopath, has produced a 142 page response to the book that attempts to show that the book has "has no validity as a scientific examination of alternative medicine". Entitled, Halloween Science, the critique is a collection of misunderstandings, quibbles, strawmen and just plain daftness." The Quackometer (22nd April 2009)

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Homeopathy is one of the longest running forms of pseudoscience in the modern world. Oliver Wendell Holmes recognized that it was nonsense back in 1842 when he wrote "Homeopathy and Its Kindred Delusions." We long ago gave up the nonsense of trying to balance the four humors by bloodletting and purging, but the homeopathy Energizer Bunny is still marching on. What makes it so indestructible? Article by Harriet Hall, MD (The Skeptic, 14th January 2009)

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"Currently the evidence fails to show that homeopathy generates more good than harm. Future research needs to scrutinise the value of homeopathy according to generally accepted scientific standards. If homeopathy does not meet these criteria, it will become obsolete." Editorial by Professor Edzard Ernst, International Journal of Clinical Rheumatology (2009) [pdf]

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"Homeopaths are peddling so-called 'vaccines' without any evidence that they are effective." Article by Professor Edzard Ernst, The Guardian (6th September 2008)