Back in 2012 the Herald ran a series on alternative 'therapies' that included a somewhat uncritical piece on the use of leeches – the practitioner concerned claimed, for example, that they could be used to 'treat' diabetes. I blogged on this back then, as did fellow Sciblogger Siouxsie Wiles, & the criticisms we made then still stand. […]
Continue readingTag: medicine
a pox on all their parties
Chickenpox “parties”. They had their day – and that day was before the chickenpox vaccine came on the scene. Because chickenpox can be much worse in teens and adults, back in the day it did make sense to contract the disease in early childhood. In fact, it was almost unavoidable, given the epidemic nature of […]
Continue readingmms – the woo-filled gift that keeps on giving
I've written before about the so-called 'miracle mineral solution', aka MMS (here, for example), but I see that it's hit the news again recently. MMS is essentially bleach1, but one Jim Humble has made quite a little empire (and a 'church') out of selling the stuff, and has previously claimed that it's a preventative & […]
Continue readingthe budwig protocol – help, help, it’s being repressed
A friend recently pointed me (via donotlink – well done, Nicky!) at a post on healthnutnews (which reads a bit like an offshoot of mercola.com – this, it turns out, is hardly surprising). It's a while since I've read anything so full of total nonsense – well, a few days, anyway! The post, by one […]
Continue readingthe bedbug genome and their bloody habits
Once upon a time, I wrote about traumatic insemination in bedbugs. (Those of my friends who are still traumatised by learning about the reproductive habits of various slug species may not wish to follow that link.) Now, two papers just published in Nature Communications describe the results of sequencing & examining the genome of the […]
Continue readingthe dangerous delusions around use of ‘black salve’
Black salve. A slightly ominous name, but to some people it seems to be the best thing since sliced bread. A colleague has just pointed me at a discussion (on FB, where else?) around the use of 'black salve' to heal a self-diagnosed melanoma. (That bit's important – the person concerned never saw a doctor […]
Continue reading‘slapping therapy’ for diabetes, and a child dies
I've heard it said more than once that complementary & alternative medicine (CAM) 'does no harm' – here's just one example. I suppose that could be true of a healthy person using something like homeopathy, where the only harm is likely to be to their wallet. But time and again, forms of CAM have been shown to do harm, […]
Continue readingperhaps cancer and cardiovascular disease aren’t such ‘modern’ diseases after all
One of the books I'm currently reading is the excellent The Man Who Touched His Own Heart, by Rob Dunn. It's a fascinating and beautifully-written narrative of how our understanding of both the heart and of ways to treat its disorders have developed over the centuries (& yes, I will review the book properly when I've […]
Continue readingscientists have cured cancer! – or have they?
The other day my friend Renee sent through this link, & her thoughts. "This article (& website) set my woo-ometer off big time," she said. The article’s entitled Scientists cure cancer, but no one takes notice, and begins thusly: Canadian researchers find a simple cure for cancer, but major pharmaceutical companies are not interested. Researchers at the […]
Continue readingit must be the silly season
… not only do we have at least one homeopath using heat to treat burns (yes, really! That piece of burning stupid – to use an Oracian aphorism – is admirably covered here by Grant), but we also have the Daily Mail announcing that scientists have discovered – ta-daah! – a hangover cure (hat-tip to David […]
Continue reading