Homeopathy Cured my Hamster January 8, 2010
Posted by Graham in : Health, Science and Rationaltiy , 1 comment so farI paid a short visit to my parents in the UK during the Winterval, but by the time I got there I had developed full-blown tonsillitis and spent most of the time feverish and delerious in bed.
Fortunately I was able to get to a doctor who took my temperature, peered down my throat, made the diagnosis- my father had already guessed correctly- and prescribed some antibiotics. The visit lasted only a few minutes- there was no time for a lengthy lifestyle analysis or discussion of my psychological state and so could hardly be called “holistic” but the whole experience was pleasant one, the doctor was chatty and very affable, I hadnt even had to wait long, and most importantly, within 24 hours I had made a miraculous recovery and had no barely symptoms left at all after 48hours.
Now, this is just anecdotal of course and proves nothing- maybe I would have got better anyway- but since this was a very rare trip to the doctor- my mother refers to all doctors as “quacks” – it seems worth noting that it was as pleasant and as trouble-free an experience as I could have hoped for.
However, as I sat in the waiting room I couldnt help noticing a prominent sign advertising the services of Homeopaths and Reflexologists; if I hadnt been so sick and had there been more time I would have loved to have asked the kind doctor his views on promoting such fraudulent “remedies” in his surgery, and to have had a chat about evidence-based medicine and the public perception of in general.
All this is by way of prelude to drawing your attention to the new 10:23 campaign in the UK: “Homeopathy- there’s nothing in it”.
This campaign is tackling head on the inconsistent postion of high street pharmacists like Boots who claim to have the best interests of their customers at heart and yet sell sugar pills and water as medicine.
One of the main excuses of homeopaths is that their methods are more “holistic”- they incude a lengthy interview covering many detials of the patients’ personal life before making proscribing the remedy, while allopathic medicine “only treats the symptoms”- the implication here is that there is always some kind of emotional/psychologiclal/spiritual component to illness.
Apart from the fact that this is largely mystical mumbo-jumbo- my tonsillitis for example was caused by the bacterium actinomyces and not by some kind of negative energy in my chakras- this whole process is side-stepped by the fact that anyone can just walk into a chemists’ shop and buy whatever type of sugar pill they fancy straight off the shelf. If homeopaths themsleves think that remedies should only be given by a trained practitioner after lengthy holistic interviews surely they should be coming on board fully behind the 10:23 campaign themselves.
The other aspect of this is that belief in quack medicine is inherently anti-science. I could give loads of examples from conversations I have had with mystically minded folk. Start by telling them that there is no scientific evidence to support the efficiacy of things like homeopathy and they will recount anecdotes along the lines of “homeopathy cured my hamster”, even though many conditions people seek treatments for- like the ‘flu- are self-limiting.
If like me you are more insistent, 9 times out of 10 they will attack science in general as being biased- “science has been wrong before” “science doesnt know everything” or most infuriatingly invoke something they call “the observer effect”- the idea that you can discount any scientific evidence whenever it suits you on the basis that the observer will affect what is being observed, possibly on the quantum level.
The claim here is that their own opinions are more vaild- infallible even- and less biased than science, which just displays a complete ignorance of the scientific method, which is by definition an attempt to overcome our own personal, subjective bias. Anecdotes are not evidence; lots of anecdotes do not constitute data.
I recently was discussing evidence-based medicine with a herbalist who had just completed a degree. I asked him about whether he had looked at clinical trials during his degree course; he had to some extent, but was quite happy to tell me that he didnt think it necessary to have evidence for everything.
His real interest it turned out was plant-spirit medicine and shamanism (which were not you will be relieved to hear covered on the degree); the degree was just a front to give more credibility for what he was really practicing. Since he made his own preperations from home-grown herbs I asked him how he could control the concentrations of active ingredients, which could vary wildly from plant to plant; his response was just to shrug his shoulders and say, “I know I make good stuff, the clients like it and know it is good stuff”. In other words, weather the treatments worked or not was immaterial; all that counts is can he sell them.
Another conversation I had on this topic was with someone I would certainly expect to support the role of science in the environmental movement, specifically climate change. When she questioned the value of evidence-based medicine, I pointed out that clinical trials on medical treatments are routine and trivial compared to say the incredibly complex body of evidence from many different scientific disciplines accumulated over decades that constitutes climate science; yet the evidence that homeopathy and other “alternative” therapies do not work is much less ambiguous than the evidence for climate change. I was shocked that her response was that there is no scientifc consensus on climate change, that science is all just a matter of opinion.
Quack medicine is not just an assault on science and reason but appears to lead people to abandon even the most basic standards of ethics, honesty and common sense.
Unfortunately, as I have covered on Zone5 many times, the environmental movement seems to have no discernment when it comes to quack medicine. Wherever you see the word “Green” or “Organic” you can be sure the homeopaths and the herbalists will not be far behind. Alternative therapists seem to make up a significant part of the environmental movement in general and are keen to protect their public image of progressive, natural and holistic alternatives to the nasty world of Big Pharma.
In fact, the persistence of these practices undermine our ability to understand and respnd to the much more serious issues confronting us and make the green movement the laughing stock of the more rational sections of society, and thereby feeds the climate change deniers’ case.
The 10:23 Campaign looks like being the start of a more direct way of tackling these issues head on, let’s all get behind it.
More information on this week’s episode on the Pod Delusion:
http://poddelusion.co.uk/blog/
Fascinating account of the inside world of CAM and more insights into homeopathy here:
http://aillas.blogspot.com/2009/12/open-university-perspectives-on.html
The Heretic’s Guide to vegan Cookery November 12, 2009
Posted by Graham in : Food, Health, Science and Rationaltiy, book review , 1 comment so farBook Review: The Heretic’s Guide to Vegan Cookery
Warning! Not suitable for Breatharians
Andy Murray
The Good Elf Press 2009
187pp
Astrology is an amazing tool to run your life by, without having to waste time with the fraudulent pseudo-scientific mumbo-jumbo of Science. Astrology explains wars, thunderstorms and plagues. We can even use it historically. For example, if we know exactly when and where Queen Elizabeth was born, we can find out exactly who she was without having to waste time on fictitious history books. With it we can even discover why Einstein was so damn clever. Astrology is way better than sex.
You don’t have to be a vegan to enjoy Andy Murray’s brilliant Heretic’s Guide, which is packed with dozens of tasty simple recipes to satisfy even the most hardened omnivore at least some of the time, you dont even need to have any great interest in cooking or even food. That is because for our amusement and philosophical delectation there are numerous passages in between the recipes giving us fascinating and hilarious perspectives from the Mecca of New Age beliefs in Britain, the town of Glastonbury near where the author lives.
While waiting for the pumpkin soup to cook or in between making preperations for the Hazelnut and Celery Risotto you will be able to work up an appetite by rolling around clutching your belly after reading the sure -to-become-classic passages “Reiki Reiki Rise and Shine” “Cooking with Astrology” or “Breeding Gurus for Profit”.
This book has it all really- great advice on cooking with fresh ingredients and all the usual good reasons to grow your own and buy local; loads of easy to follow recipes including a big choice of soups, salads and dips; and inspirational chapter on cooking in the great outdoors, including a useful guide to wild food; Posh Things to Do with Vegetables; Main Meals; Side Dishes and Extras; Desserts, and Cakes and Biscuits.
And then the alternative Contents covers everything else- Cults, Gurus, Satanism, Religion, Crop Circles, Homeopathy- nothing is sacred and nothing is spared the sharp rib-splitting egg-whisk of Murray’s irreverence.
Homeopathic Cookery Doubters of this form of cookery pour scorn on the fact that a diner might receive a drop of gravy and a shred of carrot on a plate. How can this be a meal, they ask? What they fail to understand is that carbon,the building block of all life, has a memory. A potentised meal maintains a complete carbon hologram, the information of the whole, even down to the smallest atomic sum of its parts.A homeopathic amount of food is of course more than sufficient to provide all the nutritional benefits that would be expected from a plateful of food, and puts paid to any shrill cries of fraud. Filthy skeptics who come to the homeopathic table having already made up their tiny minds will trhow down their napkins and walk away still believing what they believe tio be true, and little can be done to change their wrongness.
Even the his own sacred Creed of Veganism is given the once-over. This is something I know a little about, because I once lived in a vegan community on the Welsh Borders. I was not especially into veganism per se and went there to learn to grow vegetables; I happily lived a vegan diet however, but was aware of an accute divide between some of my fellow communards, who seemed to be at each other’s throats all the time.
On one extreme there were the the vegans who were happy to eat anything so long as it was vegan, including skip food, vegan chocolate from Malaysia (or somewhere) and chip butty’s. This group of vegans were also keen to give over some of the best land we had to rescued sheep and ageing dogs, and generally turn the place into an animal sanctury.
All this tended to jar somewhat with the second group who apart from being rather snobby in their choice of edibles- Vegan Organic Wholefoods only, no white flour allowed, lots of Miso- didnt seem to like animals at all anywhere near them. Wild animals were OK in their own wild homes, but no pets, farm animals or incontinent retired donkeys of any kind permitted.
Murray gives a total of 7 Vegan groups, including the Fat Vegan, the Sensitive Vegan and the Style Vegan, but presumable fitsd into he first category of The Common Vegan:
The most widespread of all vegans, the common vegan has been quietly animal free for years and still hasn’t died. Usually healthy, fit and happy, they tend to be quite normal, although sometimes a little willowy to stand in a strong wind.
For Murray, veganism might well play a role in a sustainable future, but is mainly just about bloody good food. While no longer a Vegan myself, my animal-free taste buds have been re-awakened by the Heretics Guide and who knows, so have some of my chakras.
And with that I think Ill go and make a quick Potato Rosti.
Biodynamics on the Pod Delusion November 6, 2009
Posted by Graham in : Health, Podcast, Science and Rationaltiy , add a commentI am on this week’s episode of the UK-based Pod Delusion talking about Biodynamics and the environmental movement:
This week:
David Nutt’s Sacking and Government Policy by Simon Howard A.N Wilson’s Attitude to Science by Pete Hague Irrationality and Environmentalism by Graham Strouts Collective Worship in Schools by Owen Duffy
This is a weekly podcast full of great material on lots of interesting stuff including politics, current affairs, skepticism etc.. Enjoy!
Many thanks to ThetisMercurio for making the connection and getting me onto the Pod Delusion.
The Real Dirt on Organic Food August 5, 2009
Posted by Graham in : Environment, Food, General, Health, Peak Oil, Science and Rationaltiy , 13commentsUpdate Aug 10th: Thanks to Robbie for sending me the link to Dominic Lawson’s piece on the FSA report and responses from the organic movement in the Times.
Lawson quotes research suggesting farmers may have lower cancer rates possibly because pesticide use may protect against cancer! Now that has just got to be corporate spin…
The findings in last weeks’ FSA report that there is little to choose between organic and “conventional” food in terms of the major nutrients is hardly a surprise.
For many including myself, less rigidly defined labels such as “local” and “chemical-free” have been more important especially if we can see for ourseleves how the food is grown.
What is more surprising perhaps is some of the responses from some parties in the organic movement, which are not helping us understand the issues raised, or move the discussion onto other aspects of sustainable food and farming.
Rob Hopkins wrote to me to ask:
Might it be possible that this is actually an example of bad science, which just might have set out to prove a point, been subject to some kind of political interference and the might of the multinational food industry? Clearly it is very useful for some quite unpleasant institutions if we all believe organic farming is a waste of time. Might one argue that to believe that such a study is completely impartial and rigorous is somewhat naive? Might this report be an example of where we need to take what is presented as ‘good science’ with a rather large pinch of ‘organic’ salt?
In order to assess whether or not the review meets the highest standards of science, it is necessary to understand something about how science works, and this is an issue which goes right to the heart of what is wrong with environmentalism, because the movement in general is poorly informed about science, despite being dependent on it for assessing the general health of the environment. (more…)
The Mockery of Evidence-based Science July 23, 2009
Posted by Graham in : Health, Science and Rationaltiy, climate change , 12commentsBrilliant article here by John Gibbons in The Times making the same point that I have been making, linking climate change denial with Quackery and other types of pseudoscience.
When science is reduced to a game, anyone can play. Scientists say the arctic ice sheet is disappearing; I say they are stuffy old sausages; and besides, the world is actually getting colder. Maybe it is all about sunspots, or whatever other discredited theory can be shoehorned to match my intellectual whims. We trusted science to deliver dramatic improvements in health and life expectancy, as well as genuine technological advances . Now, at the time of our greatest peril, we have turned to the quacks, blow-hards and snake-oil salesmen. As Samual Beckett observed: “We are all born mad; some remain so”.
Fair to play to John for bringing this issue out into the mainstream press- and he gets extra marks for endorsing the brilliant Ben Goldacre.
The Transition Timeline June 29, 2009
Posted by Graham in : Health, Peak Oil, Population, Powerdown, Science and Rationaltiy, Transition Towns, book review, climate change, community , 6comments
Book Review:
The Transition Timeline
for a local, resilient future
Shaun Chamberlin
Forward by Rob Hopkins
190 pp pbk
Chelsea Green 2009
The follow-up to Rob Hopkins’ seminal The Transition Handbook uses the method of “backcasting” from an envisioned future from which we create a timeline of how the transition to a more local, resilient world unfolded.
The first part goes through four different scenarios presented as “cultural stories” roughly along the same lines as the scenarios we are familiar with from Holmgren’s Future Scenarios, this time under the headings:
-Denial
-Hitting the Wall
-The Impossible Dream
-The Transition Vision
The transition approach is to look at these possible futures in terms of the cultural stories that we tell ourselves, the idea being that we have the power to make our own cultural stories and thereby empower ouselves to guide the future to a more desirable outcome:
Human Nature is the ability to choose our own path
The second part of the book takes a deeper look at the Transition Vision in the five areas of population and demographics; Food and Water; Electricity and Energy; travel and transport; Health and Medicine.
Each of these sections presents a thorough and well-researched overview of the current situation, ending with a Timeline of how we reached a more desirable situation by 2027.
At the back of the book Chamberlin states that “This book has not attempted to quantify the energy/emissions footprint of each aspect of the Transition Vision, but this represents a critical avenue for further work.”
Unfortunatley, this lack of analysis seriously compromises the usefulness of the book, as the projected scenarios may be widely implausible or purely aspirational. (more…)
Roald Dahl on the death of his daughter from measles June 3, 2009
Posted by Graham in : Health, Science and Rationaltiy , add a commentAs the measles epidemic in Britain gathers pace, and the woo-woos who still do not acknowledge that their refuasal to vaccinate is not because of some higher spiritual knowledge, but simply ignorance brought about by bad science and an irresponsible media, this account by Roald Dahl on the dangers of measles makes sober reading.
It is not yet generally accepted that measles can be a dangerous illness. Believe me, it is. In my opinion parents who now refuse to have their children immunised are putting the lives of those children at risk.
From the BBC: “Rise in measles ‘very worrying’” February 7, 2009
Posted by Graham in : Health, Science and Rationaltiy , 3comments“Measles cases in England and Wales rose by 36% in 2008, figures show…
“Professor David Salisbury, director of immunisation at the Department of Health, said it was “irresponsible” for parents not to have their children vaccinated.
He said: “I think it’s irrational, I think it’s putting children’s lives at risk. I can see no shred of benefit.
“There is no evidence that having vaccines separately is better. There are good reasons why it’s worse.”
Professor Steve Field, chairman of the Royal College of GPs, said confidence in the MMR vaccine was returning but it was vital that parents made sure all their children had received both doses.
“Measles is a sinister and nasty illness and shouldn’t be taken lightly.”
For anyone who thinks that it is cool and trendy and somehow “alternative” or even “mystical” to avoid the MMR vaccine have a look at Ben Goldacre’s recent forray into the subject.
Some of the transcript of the broadcast he is writing about is available here and the comments after this blog are worth reading to get an idea of the different points of view, and where they come from.
Bad Science- and Good January 9, 2009
Posted by Graham in : Health, Science and Rationaltiy, book review , 18commentsUpdate: Jan 9th 2009 “Unprecedented” rise in Measles cases in England and Wales due to poor uptake of MMR: “
“We shouldn’t forget that the children who weren’t vaccinated many years ago are at real risk.”
” ‘Big pharma is evil’, goes the line of reasoning, ‘therefore homeopathy works and the MMR vaccine causes autism’. This is probably not helpful”.
So says Guardian columnist and evidence-based medical blogger Ben Goldacre in his highly recommended and also hilarious book Bad Science.
Some of the comments in response to my review of Greer’s The Long Descent before Christmas lead me to think I should follow up with more explanation on acupuncture and alternative therapies, and I can do no better than give a brief review of Goldacre’s superb explanation of the scientific method in this book.
He begins with a chapter on homeopathy, not as he says because it is particularly important but because it provides such a good example of how to test therapies and see if they work:
Homeopathy is perhaps the paradigmatic example of an alternative therapy: it claims the authority of a rich historical heritage, but its history is routinely rewritten for the PR needs of a contemporary market; it has an elaborate and sciencey-sounding framework for how it works, without scientific evidence to demonstrate its veracity; and its proponents are quite clear that the pills will make you better, when in fact they have been thoroughly researched, with innumerable trials, and have been found to perform no better than placebo. Homeopathic remedies- in liquid drops or pill form- in fact contain nothing at all- perhaps explaining why they are often promoted for their qualities of “being natural alternatives to mainstream medicine without the side-effects”. (more…)
Ecological Enlightenment June 20, 2008
Posted by Graham in : Health, Science and Rationaltiy , 6commentsRichard Heinberg has recently written about how our understanding of our place within ecological systems- the ability to see the “big picture” of energy flows and resource constraints on human activity- could be seen as a kind of “enlightenment”- a new vision of the world not necessarily obvious or intuitive but closer to reality than that which our immediate perceptions and experience tell us.
John Michael Greer has also recently written an interesting post discussing the legacy of science and rationality and whether they can or will be saved as we move through energy descent.
The scientific trial, including use of controls and blinding to avoid observer or experimental bias. is a recent human innovation that has revolutionized the way in which we investigate and gain knowledge about the world. The whole point of this process is that it provides a way of checking our own experience and seeing if they are indeed correct. Evidence is collected and carefully verified by independent parties carefully checking the experiments. Over time, with increasing confidence, testable, verifiable data is accumulated and knowledge about the world and the universe and the nature of Nature can be asserted with increasing confidence. (more…)
