Anomalous Distraction

I am still alive.

xtaldave — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 10:09:16 +0000

I really should try and blog more often.

I suffer from S.I.N.

xtaldave — Tue, 21 Jun 2011 08:31:52 +0000

A plea for understanding about a debilitating and embarrassing disease.

There is a plague sweeping through the academies of this land. Its symptoms are a lot like death.

This disease is indiscriminate. It can strike anyone from the fresh-faced grad student, to the ageing emeritus professor. From the lecturer to the Dean.

First the eyes glaze over. Then they begin to close, involuntarily. Then motor functions begins to fail. The head rolls forwards, and then snaps smartly upright, in a futile attempt to maintain control. Finally, the battle is lost, and the academic sits there, slumped in unconsciousness.

Then, 30-60 minutes later, the sufferer emerges blinking and disoriented from their coma, roused back to life by a polite smattering of applause and a muffled request for questions.

This disease is SEMINAR-INDUCED NARCOLEPSY (S.I.N.), and I am a sufferer.

Sleep is winning.

There is something about seminars that is conducive to sleep. A warm, dark room. Gentle and often barely audible monotone emanating from the speaker. Virtual anonymity. Everyone focused elsewhere. Occasionally extreme tedium.

Whilst seminar-induced narcolepsy does no long-term physical damage to the sufferer, it can be terribly embarrassing and cause severe mental anguish, particularly if you are asked to pass judgements on the seminar you supposedly just watched by colleagues, or worse still, the speaker themselves.

When this happens the paranoid S.I.N sufferer (worried that his secret is out) always suspects that his interrogator has spotted him dozing during the seminar and is trying to catch him out. What to do? Come clean and confess all? Or just bluff your way through? (“Nice westerns, nice and sharp”). Almost always the latter.

How to combat S.I.N.

Academics have attempted to counter the onset of S.I.N. with all manner of remedies. Caffeine is a popular choice. For someone dependant on caffeine (like myself and indeed most academics) the familiar, conditioned rush of caffeine coursing through your veins does little but relax you even further, hastening the decent to slumber. Even a double espresso.

Nicotine (still alarmingly popular among academics, despite the health risks) is also used. I cannot comment about the efficacy of this as I have been smoke-free for several slightly smug and self-satisfied years now.

Eating during a seminar can help, but noisily eating a bag of crisps at the front of a seminar is often frowned upon, and the resulting social stigmatization may be as bad as SIN itself. Egg sandwiches are also a no-no, due to their odorant properties.

The environment of the lecture theatre can also be adjusted to minimize S.I.N.ing. The room should be kept at a temperature just hovering above uncomfortably cold. Lights should be kept up unless dark images require otherwise.

The speaker themselves can do their best to keep the audience awake. The subject may be dry and technical, but an animated, enthusiastic and engaging speaker makes the S.I.N.er less likely to capitulate to the onset of sleep. Watching this video by Prof Stephen Curry might give you some pointers on how to put some vim in your presentation.

S.I.N.ing is not a sin

Very few of us S.I.N.ers want to S.I.N. We would be as annoyed/mortified as any other speaker if we found our peers dozing through an explanation of our hard-won results. We cannot help it. Family pressures, work pressure, life in general conspires against us and makes us sleep. Please do not be offended. We cannot help it.

Quickie – Homeopathy for Radiation poisoning?

xtaldave — Wed, 27 Apr 2011 07:55:19 +0000

Taken from here

A few quack websites (e.g. such as the one discussed here) have lept on the terrible events surrounding the earthquake and subsequent tsunami in Japan to make a fast buck off the backs of scared and vulnerable people.

This one is no better than the others, but it couches and prefaces the descent to batshittery with some sensible advice about emergency planning and what have you.

See if you can spot the odd one out in this list:

Having a preparedness plan should put in place now, not when you need to go to the store and purchase goods that the rest of the population is wanting also. Stores will sell out within hours in an emergency. Things to have on hand are;

Bottled water and food for at least one week, preferably longer.

A camp stove and fuel to cook with.

Flashlights and extra batteries

Portable radio that is battery or crank operated

Access to a computer if possible.

Thin plastic sheeting, staple gun and duct tape to seal windows and doors

Extra fuel in case you need to leave

Dust masks and protective painters coveralls.

Potassium Iodide or Potassium iodate tablets

Homeopathic remedies stored in a lead lined film bag with information on how to use them.

Personal documents in a handy place and organized

A family plan that everyone knows – where to meet, who to call. etc.

Did you spot it?

The page then talks sensibly about some of the effects and symptoms of radiation sickness before plunging head first back into the woo, suggesting lots of homeopathic remedies for cancer. And fear of cancer.

Cadmium Metallicum – For stomach cancer. Violent vomiting, loss of appetite and emaciation. Bright red bloody diarrhea. Blood changes, anemia, problems in the intestinal tract. Fatigue and lassitude like in influenza. Dull ache all over. Concentration difficult. Fear of Cancer. Indifference, does not want to see people anymore. Irritability alternating with deep depression.

Cadmium Sulphuricum – Similar to Arsenicum Album. Cancer of the stomach. Persistent vomiting. Black vomit. Chief complaints are the stomach and breathing. Chilliness and cold even next to the fire. Restless. Gray complexion. Nause, retching with burning and cutting pains. Worse from motion.

Cadmium Iodatum – Very similar to Cad Met but warmer. The Iodine component brings aggravation from heat or extreme cold. A distinctive mental trait is hatred and a high degree of self pity.

Fluoric Acid – Affects the bones. Necrosis and bone decay. Deep acting in slow, progressive, destructive effects. Wants open air.

Phosphorus – Affects mucous membranes, destroys bone, disorganizes blood and inflames nerves. Hemorrhages. Desires cold drinks. Suddenness of symptoms. Excitable and impressionable. Wants sympathy. Great fear creeping out of every corner. The human barometer. Profundly effects the nutrition and function of every tissue. Chronic effects of radiation exposure.

Radium Bromatum – Effects nerves skin. Radiation burns. Destroys the nucleus of the cell. Severe aching all over. Pains suddenly shift, electric like pains. Joint pain and gout. Fear to be alone, wants company. Apprehensive, depressed. Cancer.

Strontium Carbonicum – Effects the bones. Shock after surgery or loss of blood. Pains fleeting, can hardly tell where they have come from, felt in the marrow of the bones. Pains appear and disappear gradually also. Violent involuntary starts. Burning, gnawing pains. Great prostration. Anguish as from guilt. Angry, tendency to fly into a rage. Depression.

X-Ray – Low vitality, chonic fatigue and sick feeling. Cancer. Skin burns and lesions. Affects the blood, lymphatics and bone marrow. Anemia, leukemia. Sadness. Aversion to company.

It should go without saying that NONE of these remedies have any proven efficacy what-so-ever. The ‘potency’ is not mentioned, but it is worth repeating that there is no known mechanism of action for remedies that are diluted beyond 12C, i.e. those that do not contain any molecules of the original substance.

Another sickening example of people pushing unproven quack remedies on scared and vulnerable people, much like the ‘homeopaths without borders’ incursion into Haiti, following the earthquake there.

ASA swamped with complaints re: Homeopathy. (xtaldave.wordpress.com)
Diluting nuclear homepathy (blogs.discovermagazine.com)
Everybody’s favorite homeopath is back, and I’m not… (scienceblogs.com)

100 FACTS!!!11!! About Homeopathy

xtaldave — Thu, 14 Apr 2011 05:47:22 +0000

Now with added reality! Warning: Contains Snark.

From this -> “100 Facts About Homeopathy” By Louise Mclean, LCCH MHMA with contributions from: Vaikuntanath Kaviraj“

I got my ‘red pen’ out.

Basically – we have 10 sections.

Homeopathy is old – therefore it works!
Arm-wavy nonsense about ‘energy’ and ‘higher levels of health.’
Random irrelevant facts about the ‘remedies.’
A bit of ‘agrohomeopathy’ – can’t imagine where that came from…
Homeopathic hospitals – bizarrely, this shows that there once were quite a few US and UK homeopathy hospitals – now there are less – I wonder why?
A bit of whinging about previous complaints about homeopathy.
A bit of whinging about the UK ‘evidence check.’
Ah – tries to push some ‘science’ to back up claims – but finishes by stating that science can’t test homeopathy because of individualisation…
Some arm wavy stuff about homeopaths.
Large final section about how many people use homeopathy…

Foundations of Homeopathy

FACT 1: Hippocrates ‘The Father of Medicine’ of Ancient Greece said there were two Laws of Healing: The Law of Opposites and the Law of Similars. Homeopathy utilises the Law of Similars, orthodox medicine uses the Law of Opposites, e.g. antibiotics, anti-inflammatories, anti-convulsants, anti-hypertensives, anti-depressants, anti-psychotics.

So what?

FACT 2: Discovered by German doctor Samuel Hahnemann over 200 years ago homeopathic medicine is based upon sound scientific principles of the Laws of Nature – unlike medical theories which are constantly changing. Far from being ideas-based, Homeopathy is a completely evidence-based, empirical medicine – a unique concept when it was founded.

Rather than being based upon ‘sound scientific principles and the Laws of Nature’, homeopathy conveniently ignores certain Laws of Nature (avogadros constant, 2nd law of thermodynamics) as they are inconveinient. Medical theories change to reflect current evidence and best practice. Homeopathy, like any other faith-based system, selects what it believes in order to support preconceived notions.

FACT 3: In Hahnemann’s first experiment, though perfectly healthy at the time, he found that by giving himself repeated doses of cinchona bark (quinine), he brought on all the symptoms of a malaria attack - fever with heat and chills.

Or maybe he gave himself quinine poisoning?

FACT 4: Hahnemann was the first to conduct trials on medicines. He set about discovering the healing properties of plants, metals and minerals by testing them on himself and on healthy volunteers or ‘Provers’, recording all the symptoms that each substance caused. He created a ‘Provers Union’.

And?

FACT 5: After some years of practising, Hahnemann found the tiny doses of substances he was using caused side effects. He experimented by diluting then succussing a substance (shaking through striking the phial a number of times between numerical potencies). The potentised remedy was safer to use on the sick, unwanted side effects disappeared and medicines were more effective.

…

FACT 6: Hahnemann tested 99 substances on himself and healthy volunteer Provers, keeping detailed accounts of his observations. He matching the tested substances to heal symptoms of his patients using the Law of Similars.

Great(!)…

Homeopathic Prescribing

FACT 7: Every patient is unique so homeopathic medicines are individualised. The homeopathic practitioner treats the WHOLE PERSON, believing all symptoms are interrelated and seeks to select a medicine which fits the whole state.

This is meaningless.

FACT 8: Homeopathic medicines are chosen on the basis of a patient’s mental, emotional and physical constitutional type, unlike orthodox medicines which treats in a ‘one-size-fits-all’ manner. A homeopathic medicine is chosen on the basis of totality of symptoms.

Why not prescribe a medicine that works and is suitable for the disease that causes the symptoms… oh wait…

FACT 9: Just as there are fat and thin, dark and blonde, tall and thin, chilly and hot, talkative or quiet people, lazy or hurried people, etc., etc., there are homeopathic medicines to match all types.

This is also meaningless.

FACT 10: Homeopathic medicine awakens and stimulates the powers of the whole body by communicating a current/pattern/frequency of energy, which acts as a catalyst to set healing into motion and jump start the body’s own inherent curative mechanisms.

This is utter nonsense. There is no evidence of any of this army wavey “current/pattern/frequency of energy” guff.

FACT 11: Homeopathy assists the body to heal itself, to overcome an illness which brings the patient to a HIGHER level of health. Orthodox medicine suppresses the illness, bringing the patient to a lower level of health.

Evidence or GTFO (there – I said it – just let me have one). Another unsupported and wildly speculative claim with little basis in reality.

FACT 12: Outcomes of homeopathic treatment are measured by the LONG TERM curative effects and the complete eradication of the disease state.

Because if we measure for longer it is more likely that the patient will just get better by themselves…

FACT 13: Homeopathic medicines are used for inherited diseases and trace their origins to three main genetic causes or ‘miasms’: Psora, Syphilis and Sycosis.

We’ll just ignore the whole of molecular biology and genetics, because otherwise things might get difficult.

Homeopathic Medicines

FACT 14: Most remedies are made from a single substance but some are made of compounds, while others are mixtures of compounds. Hepar sulph and Causticum as examples of compounds.

And?

FACT 15: During the making of a homeopathy remedy, the formative intelligence of the substance is imprinted on the alcohol/water medium via the process of succussion (vigorous shaking) between each numerical potency. Remedies are not made using dilution alone.

“Formative intelligence of the substance is imprinted on alchol/water medium” – LOLWUT? Once again, and unsupported assertion with no basis in reality.

Remedies are made using the process of trituration, whereby the substance is reduced first to smaller than molecular size, (nano-phase) which causes electrons to be rubbed off, with a negatively charged electrromagnetic energy, measurable by piezo-electric constant. This energy is passed on to the dilute, which becomes charged. Succussion is the amplification of that energy.

Wait – shaking causes electrons to be rubbed off, with a negatively charged electromagnetic energy??? Is that why the batteries in my TV remote control are good for a few more days if I take them out and shake them?

FACT 16: Homeopathic medicines are made using the original substance, plus 40% alcohol as a preservative and 60% distilled water or 50/50 of each.

Or 87% Alcohol, 13% Water – but why does that matter?

FACT 17: There are no molecules in any homoeopathic dilution, because the substances have been reduced to nano-phase, which is smaller than a molecule.

Bwah-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-h-ah-a-ha-h-ah-ah-ah-a-ha-ha. Seriously? That’s how you are getting around Avogadro’s constant – by making up a phase of matter? (Unless you mean nanophase material – which still have grain sizes on the order of um, nanometers and contain actual atoms. (Atoms being fairly small little beasties have a typical size of roughly 0.3nm)

FACT 18: There are more than 4,000 homeopathic medicines.

There are over 9,000 types of beer.

FACT 19: In 2006, an Arnica gel product was the first homeopathic product to be registered by the MHRA. http://www.mhra.gov.uk/NewsCentre/Pressreleases/CON2025160

Cheezus – even homeopaths can’t tell the difference between ‘homeopathic’ and ‘herbal’.

FACT 20: Homeopathy works very FAST in acute illnesses, more gradually in chronic illness.

Evidence?

FACT 21: Many high fevers can be lowered within minutes after taking the homeopathic medicine Belladonna and Aconite.

Evidence?

FACT 22: Homeopathic remedies are inexpensive to produce and buy.

Sugar is quite cheap on the open market, although Homeopathy is the most expensive kind of sugar one can buy.

FACT 23: Homeopathic medicines can also be made using a Radionics machine.

http://www.homeopathyheals.me.uk/site/featured/317-homeopathy-and-radionics

Radonics machines? They don’t work.

FACT 24: Homeopathic medicines have no toxic side-effects.

Because sugar is safe for most people

FACT 25: Homeopathic medicines are NON-ADDICTIVE.

Sugar is mostly non-addictive

FACT 26: Homeopathic medicines work well for small babies, animals and plants, showing this cannot be placebo effect.

Nonsense – babies and animals can feel the effects of the placebo effect, and babies, animals and plants can be subject to the secondary placebo effect, where the owner/parent’s reaction or interpretation of the state of the baby/animal/plant is subject to their assumptions about the treatment. For more about the oft repeated fallacy – see point 3 in this post.

FACT 27: Homeopathy is safe for women to take during pregnancy and safe for old people.

Sugar is mostly harmless.

FACT 28: There are thousands of text books on homeopathic medicine, available at specialist outlets, which record historical evidence of homeopathic cures for a vast number of conditions.

Books full of anecdotal evidence, which is essentially meaningless.

FACT 29: Homeopathic medicine has been proven extremely effective in Epidemics such as cholera, typhoid, diptheria, yellow fever, polio and influenza and used extensively in the 19th century. http://www.whale.to/v/winston.html

http://www.wholehealthnow.com/homeopathy_pro/hahnemann_rev1.html

It was used extensively in the 19th century because medical science back back then was not up to much, and sugar pills were as likely to be successful as leeches and trepanning. Medical science has moved on since then. Homeopathy has not.

FACT 30: Homeopathy prevented a Leptospirosis Epidemic in Cuba for over 2.4 million people with only 10 reported cases. 99% success rate. http://www.homeopathyeurope.org/news-and-press/news/stunning-cuban-experiences-on-leptospirosis

An uncontrolled and extremely dodgy piece of work which is explored in more detail here.

Homeopathy for Animals and Agriculture

FACT 31: Homeopathic medicines are used successfully for treating disease in animals, proving that there is no placebo effect. http://www.homeopathyheals.me.uk/site/featured/185-homoeopathy-on-the-farm-works-for-animals

No it has not. See response to fact 26. Homeopathy studies on farm animals are as dodgy (as far as I have seen) as those conducted on humans.

FACT 32: Homeopathy is used to treat the cows at Yeo Valley Organic Farms.

http://www.yeovalleyorganic.co.uk/#/2010/11

So what.

FACT 33: There are courses on homeopathy for farmers.http://www.hawl.co.uk/homoeopathic-vets/

and in 2010 Christine Lees was the Farmers Weekly Livestock Adviser of the Year finalist with advice on homeopathy for animals. http://www.fwi.co.uk/Articles/2010/08/16/122560/2010-FW-Awards-Livestock-Adviser-of-the-Year-finalist-Christine.htm

Wait! Farmers weekly! Why didn’t you say so! Quickly! Tear up the textbooks, an agricultural glossy has decreed that homeopathy works.

Oh – hang on – she was just a finalist? Not the winner… shame…

FACT 34: There is a list of homeopathic vets at the British Association of Veterinary Surgeons who treat all animalshttp://www.bahvs.com/

There is also a British Veterinary Voodoo society. Go figure.

FACT 35: Homeopathic medicines are used in agriculture, known as Agrohomeopathy.

http://www.hpathy.com/papersnew/moreno-agrohomeopathy.asp

And this has been shown to work where?

FACT 36: Wine is produced from grapes using 100% homeopathic agriculture.

http://popsop.com/42532

Wow – a sales gimmick. Yawn.

Homeopathic Hospitals

FACT 37: There were once fourteen Homeopathic Hospitals in Britain.

http://www.homeopathyheals.me.uk/site/homeopathic-hospitals-nhs/237-there-were-fourteen-homeopathic-hospitals-in-britain

Note past tense.

FACT 38: In the USA, by 1900 there were 22 homeopathic medical schools, more than 100 homeopathic hospitals, over 60 orphan asylums and old people’s homes, and more than 1,000 homeopathic pharmacies.http://www.homeopathic.com/Articles/Introduction_to_Homeopathy/A_Condensed_History_of_Homeopathy.html

*Idly wonders how many there are now*

FACT 39: In 1854 there was a cholera epidemic in London. When the House of Commons asked to see a report about the methods of treatment, patients who had received homeopathic treatment at the Royal London Homeopathic Hospital were not included. The House of Lords demanded an explanation and it was shown that under conventional medical care the death rate was 59.2 per cent but for patients under homeopathic care, only 9 per cent.

See fact 29…

FACT 40: There were homeopathic hospitals in France, with Neuilly treating soldiers in WW1.

http://www.homeoint.org/cazalet/neuilly/index.htm

WW1 – that was the one where nobody died, right?

FACT 41: Homeopathy in Russia dates back to 1824.

http://ollo.norna.ru/eng/arts/history.htm

http://www.homeoint.org/books4/kotok/index.htm

So what…

FACT 42: At one of the earliest debates on the NHS Act of 1948 the Government pledged that homoeopathy would continue to be available on the NHS, as long as there were “patients wishing to receive it and doctors willing to provide it”.

http://homeopathy.wildfalcon.com/archives/2008/02/05/aneurin-bevan-and-homeopathy/

The government of the time. Also, politicians noted for their trust-worthyness…

FACT 43: There are now only four homeopathic hospitals in the Britain – in London, Bristol, Liverpool and Glasgow. The total cost to the NHS in 2010 was around £4 million a year compared to over £100 billion for the total annual NHS budget!

£4 million too much…

FACT 44: The cost of homeopathic medicine to the NHS in 2010 was £57,000 per annum compared to £11 billion for pharmaceutical medicine.

£57,000 too much…

FACT 45: In March 2007 - 208 MPs signed Early Day Motion 1240 to save the NHS Homeopathic Hospitals. http://edmi.parliament.uk/EDMi/EDMDetails.aspx?EDMID=33006

Speaks volumes as to the intelligence of 208 of our elected representatives.

FACT 46: In November 2005, the Bristol Homeopathic Hospital published a study of 6500 patients who had received homeopathic treatment showing an overall improvement in health for 70% of them. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/bristol/4454856.stm

http://www.trusthomeopathy.org/research/homeopathic_hospitals/Bristol_study.html

An uncontrolled observational study in which patients were allowed to keep taking other medicines at the same time.

FACT 47: In a survey of 500 patients at the Royal London Homeopathic Hospital, 72% of reported being able to stop or reduce their conventional medication.

http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200910/cmselect/cmsctech/45/4504.htm#note102

An uncontrolled observational study in which patients were allowed to keep taking other medicines at the same time.

FACT 48: In 2010, spending on homeopathy in Scotland was a third of the rest of the UK with an annual total of 60,000 prescriptions and the Scottish Government backing the funding. Evidence for Homeopathy from the Glasgow Homeopathy Hospital

http://www.adhom.com/adh_download/EVIDENCE_9.0_Sept_06.pdf

Spending money ≠ efficacy

FACT 49: In 2010, 55,000 patients were treated on the NHS with homeopathic medicine

On average, 70% of follow-up patients seen at the homeopathic hospitals report a positive outcome from homeopathic treatment.

http://www.britishhomeopathic.org/research/homeopathic_hospitals/

Once again – uncontrolled so how do we know the outcome was down to the sugar pills.

FACT 50: Homeopathic hospitals SAVE money for the NHS, as the Smallwood report commissioned by Prince Charles has demonstrated in 2005. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/4312780.stm

Ah yes. Prince Charles. Known for his scientific knowledge and rigour.

FACT 51: Homeopathic Hospitals are clean, friendly, with well informed staff and patients are generally pleased with their treatment. The chances of contracting MRSA or C. Difficile at a Homeopathic Hospital are extremely rare.

Contracting MSRA or C.diff is much less likely in institutions where invasive surgical procedures aren’t actually carried out.

Orthodox Medicine Opposing Homeopathy

FACT 52: After its formation in 1847, members of the American Medical Association had great animosity towards homeopathy and decided to purge all local medical societies of physicians who were homeopaths.

…

FACT 53: In 1847, the American Medical Association published a code of ethics which stated that physicians would lose their membership if they consulted with a homeopath. At an AMA meeting, Dr. J.N. McCormack of Kentucky, who was the driving force behind the 1903 reorganisation of the AMA, said: ‘We must admit that we never fought the homeopath on matters of principle. We fought him because he came into the community and got the business.’

…

FACT 54: In 1858 the British Medical Association also passed internal rules that forbade their members from practising homeopathy or even consulting with a homeopath.

…

FACT 55: In 1910, vigorous attempts to stamp out homeopathy were stepped up in the USA when the Carnegie Foundation commissioned a report by Abraham Flexner, who was chosen to reform American medical education. The report was an evaluation of US medical schools and it gave the homeopathic and herbal colleges a bad rating. In 1900 there had been 22 homeopathic colleges but only two were left in 1923.

…

FACT 56: In 2005 the World Health Organisation brought out a draft report which showed homeopathy was beneficial causing Big Pharma to panic and the Lancet to bring out an editorial entitled ‘The End of Homeopathy’.

WHO also said that ‘homeopathy is not a cure’ – but this somehow failed to be mentioned here…

FACT 57: At the end of August 2005 the Lancet looked at eight inconclusive trials out of 110, of which 102 were positive. ”The meta-analysis at the centre of the controversy is based on 110 placebo-controlled clinical trials of homeopathy and 110 clinical trials of allopathy (conventional medicine), which are said to be matched. These were reduced to 21 trials of homeopathy and 9 of conventional medicine of ‘higher quality’ and further reduced to 8 and 6 trials, respectively, which were ‘larger, higher quality’. The final analysis which concluded that ‘the clinical effects of homoeopathy are placebo effects’ was based on just the eight ‘larger, higher quality’ clinical trials of homeopathy. The Lancet’s press release did not mention this, instead giving the impression that the conclusions were based on all 110 trials.”

http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=1375230

Just because you don’t understand a paper or press release, doesn’t mean it was done maliciously.

FACT 58: In 2006 there was a campaign by UK Professors to oust homeopathy completely from the NHS.http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/health/article1827553.ece

and in 2007 they sent a document on NHS headed paper to all Primary Care Trusts telling managers not to refer patients to the homeopathic hospitals. http://dcscience.net/homeopathy_paper_for_nhs_commissioners.pdf

Yup…

FACT 59: There are a few hundred Skeptics who spend their time attacking homeopathy on their blogs and websites, especially in the UK.

I utterly refute this.

FACT 60: In February 2010, the House of Commons Science & Technology Committee called for an end to funding for homeopathy on the NHS after conducting an Evidence Check in November 2009.

Yes they did.

Science & Technology Committee Evidence Check on Homeopathy

Wednesday 25th November 2009

http://www.parliamentlive.tv/Main/Player.aspx?meetingId=5221

Monday 30th November 2009

http://www.parliamentlive.tv/Main/Player.aspx?meetingId=5257

FACT 61: Only half of the 14 Members of the Science and Technology Committee actually attended the two oral hearings and those MPs who attended appeared to have little knowledge or understanding of it.

Of the nine witnesses at the first hearing, only two who had any relevant qualifications – Dr. Peter Fisher, the Queen’s physician and Clinical Director of the Royal London Homeopathic Hospital and Dr. Robert Mathie, Research Development Adviser of the British Homeopathic Association. There was noone called to represent patients.

“any relevant qualifications” what you mean like doctors and pharmacologists/pharmacists?

FACT 62: Their Report was voted on by just five of its fourteen members, with only three MPs ratifying it.http://www.parliament.uk/business/committees/committees-archive/science-technology/s-t-homeopathy-inquiry/

http://vonsyhomeopathy.wordpress.com/2010/02/27/stop-funding-nhs-homeopathy-mps-urge-who-are-these-mps/#more-293

That’s a problem with parliament, not science & medicine…

Science & Technology Committee Evidence Check on Homeopathy

REPORT - 22nd February 2010

Evidence Check – 33 Conclusions http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200910/cmselect/cmsctech/45/4504.htm

FACT 63: Out of a total of 66 written submissions to the Committee, nearly 40 compiled by the homeopathic profession that were positive about homeopathy, was not properly considered. Written Submissions:

http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200910/cmselect/cmsctech/45/4510.htm

How do you know this?

FACT 64: In May 2010 The British Medical Association called homeopathy Witchcraft

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/alternativemedicine/7728281/Homeopathy-is-witchcraft-say-doctors.html

No. One doctor did. (Dr Tom Dolphin)

FACT 65: In July 2010 the UK Government came out in favour of continuing the NHS Funding for homeopathy.

http://www.dh.gov.uk/en/Publicationsandstatistics/Publications/PublicationsPolicyAndGuidance/DH_117810

Or maybe they just failed to legislate either way, despite advice from the chief scientific advisor.

FACT 66: According to BMJ only 11% of NHS treatments are found to be evidence-based medicine with any benefit. http://clinicalevidence.bmj.com/ceweb/about/knowledge.jsp

This is incredibly disingenuous. And wrong. 76% of current practice is evidence based – Imrie R. The evidence for evidence-based medicine. Complementary Therapies in Medicine. 2000. Volume 8, Issue 2, Pages 123-126.

FACT 67: Hundreds of medical doctors have converted to Homeopathy http://homeopathy.wildfalcon.com/?s=converted&submit=Search

That link does not back up your claim. And even if it did, hundreds of thousands of doctors haven’t, therefore….

FACT 68: Unlike orthodox medicine, where the bill for claims for side-effects of pharmaceutical medicines runs into millions, a leading UK insurance company reported only ‘a couple’ of insurance claims against homeopaths in a ten year period! Hence insurance cover for homeopathy is around £70 per year, reflecting low risk.

That’s because sugar pills have relatively few side effects.

FACT 69: In 200 years, there has never been a single homeopathic medicine recalled, unlike many pharmaceutical medicines.

Because 1) sugar pills don’t have side effects, and 2) homeopathy is almost entirely self-regulated. People don’t like to wail on themselves.

FACT 70: The pharmaceutical industry does not want the Public to discover that homeopathy works!

People don’t want other people to find out how something that doesn’t work, works??

Scientific Studies

FACT 71: In 1985 French scientist Jacques Benveniste published his ‘Memory of Water’ research in Nature. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BWYlMSHOGBw

http://www.lancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736%2804%2917339-X/fulltext

Which was subsequently debunked here - J. Maddox; J. Randi, W. W. Stewart (28 July 1988). “”High-dilution” experiments a delusion” (PDF). Nature 334 (6180): 287–290.

FACT 72: The first clinical RCT trials of medicine where undertaken by Dr. Samuel Hahnemann and used in Provings of medicines. 50 – 100 volunteer Provers took the 30c potency of a medicine every two hours until they started experiencing symptoms which were carefully recorded. The group supervisors collected all the data and delivered it to the Proving Master, who was the only person who knew the name of the medicine under trial. That way, all bias was removed.

I’m not seeing the words ‘placebo’ and ‘controlled’ anywhere here…

FACT 73: In the past 24 years there have been many clinical trials that prove homeopathy works. there have been more than 180 controlled, and 118 randomized, trials into homeopathy, which were analysed by four separate meta-analyses. In each case, the researchers concluded that the benefits of homeopathy went far beyond that which could be explained purely by the placebo effect.

http://avilian.co.uk/2008/08/scientific-research-and-homeopathy-overview/

http://knol.google.com/k/dr-nancy-malik-bhms/scientific-research-in-homeopathy/pocy7w49ru14/2

The vast majority of homeopathy trials are flawed. I know – I read over 100 of them – please see here.

FACT 74: In 2004 Rustum Roy published The Structure Of Liquid Water; Novel Insights From Materials Research; Potential Relevance To Homeopathy Rustum Roy1, W.A. Tiller2, Iris Bell3, M. R. Hoover4 http://www.rustumroy.com/Roy_Structure%20of%20Water.pdf

Rampant speculation, ‘preliminary data’ – hardly compelling.

FACT 75: After carefully studying the structure of homeopathic medicines, a team of researchers from Pennsylvania State University and the University of Arizona reported that by using ‘spectroscopy’ these researchers were able to see distinct structural differences between a homeopathic remedy and plain water, between one remedy and another remedy and between different potencies of the same remedy. Equally important, they replicated the results many times over. The researchers noted that the spectography of the remedies revealed the spectogram of the diluted substance, instead of water. www.bodyandsoulclinic.blogspot.com/2007/09/groundbreaking-research-regarding.html

Rampant speculation, ‘preliminary data’ – hardly compelling.

FACT 76: In 2008, a major CAM Pilot Project, implemented by Get Well UK, was commissioned by the Department of Health, Social Services and Public Safety in two primary care trusts in Northern Ireland. There was a 79% improvement in the level of health for those who had homeopathic treatment. (see page 31 for Homeopathy)http://www.dhsspsni.gov.uk/final_report_from_smr_on_the_cam_pilot_project_-_may_2008.pdf

Uncontrolled

FACT 77: In 2001 Professor Madeleine Ennis of Queen’s University Belfast finds homeopathy works. http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2001/mar/15/technology2

One botched assay does not a system of medicine make. Plenty of caveats here too…

FACT 78: In 2009 Nobel Prizewinner Luc Montagnier Proves Homeopathy Works http://avilian.co.uk/2009/09/luc-montagnier-foundation-proves-homeopathy-works/

Actually – No.

FACT 79: There are more than 90 homeopathic trials on animals

http://avilian.co.uk/2008/08/scientific-research-and-homeopathy-animal-studies/

They can’t be much cop if the UK Veterinary medicines directorate are clamping down on ineffective homeopathic remedies.

FACT 80: Homeopathy can never be properly tested through double blind randomised trials because each prescription is individualised. Therefore 10 people with arthritis may all need a different homeopathic medicine.

You spend 10 facts trying to demonstrate a science base for homeopathy, and then try and claim that science can’t be used to test homeopathy. LAUGHABLE.

Homeopathic Practitioners

FACT 81: The homeopathic physician endeavours to search for and remove the cause of the disease in order to heal the EFFECT of it.

They may endeavour all they want – but sugar pills are ineffective.

FACT 82: Homeopathic Practitioners train for three to four years. They study anatomy and physiology, as well as pathology and disease, Materia Medica, Homeopathic Philosophy and the Homeopathic Repertory.

We know what gets taught on a homeopathy course.

FACT 83: Most homeopaths treat patients who have been referred to them by word of mouth. Most patients seek out homeopathy because conventional treatment has not benefitted them or because it poses too great a risk of side-effects.

Referred by word of mouth – great – but wouldn’t it be better if they were referred by their GP – oh wait…

FACT 84: The homeopathic community has thousands, even millions, of written case notes that demonstrate the positive benefits of their treatment. Some homeopaths have video proof of their patients before and after treatment.

Uncontrolled case notes – largely meaningless.

FACT 85: Homeopaths charge patients an average of £50 an hour, whereas specialist Doctors can charge up to £200 or more.

Not on the NHS. And anyway – £50 for meaningless banter and sugar pills?

Popularity of Homeopathy

FACT 86: According to the WHO, homeopathy is the 2nd most popular and widely used medicine in the world.

Popularity ≠ efficacy – cigarettes are popular too…

FACT 87: The popularity of homeopathy has grown in the past 30 years, its revival entirely through word of mouth and estimated to be growing at more than 20% a year the world over!

Popularity ≠ efficacy

FACT 88: Hundreds of famous people throughout the past 200 years have enjoyed the benefits of homeopathic medicine. www.homeopathicrevolution.com

Appeal to authority

FACT 89: Many of the famous swore by it including writers Charles Dickens, William Thackeray, George Bernard Shaw; artists such as Renoir, van Gogh, Monet and Gaugin and the composers Beethoven, Chopin and Schumann, to name a few.

Appeal to authority

FACT 90: Nowadays many modern celebrities opt to use homeopathic preparations.

http://www.ok.co.uk/body/view/1374/Back-to-nature/

Appeal to authority

FACT 91: The aristocratic patronage of homeopathy in the UK extended well into the 1940s and beyond can be easily demonstrated. In the Homeopathic Medical Directories there are lists of patrons of the dispensaries and hospitals. www.homeopathyhome.com/reference/articles/ukhomhistory.shtml

http://www.homeoint.org/morrell/articles/pm_arist.htm

Appeal to authority

FACT 92: The Royal Families of Europe use homeopathic medicine and Queen Elizabeth II of England is reputed to never travel anywhere without her homeopathic medicines.

Appeal to authority

FACT 93: Homeopathy is practised nowadays in countries all over the world.

Popularity ≠ efficacy

FACT 94: In India there are 100 homeopathic medical schools, around 400,000 registered homeopathic doctors with approximately 13,000 being added every year! There were 28 homoeopathic dispensaries in Delhi in 1978 and now 78. The number of patients taking homeopathic medicines has increased from around 800,000 patients in 1997 to 13,62,174 patients in 2006.

http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/savvy-marketing-sees-surge-in-alternative-therapies/66042/on

Popularity ≠ efficacy

FACT 95: 100 million Europeans use homeopathy – 29% of the EU population.

65% of Europeans have declared they have used homoeopathic medicine and 45% have declared that they are satisfied to use it again.

http://www.homeopathy-ecch.org/

Popularity ≠ efficacy

FACT 96: Homeopathic medicine is used in France by a third of the French population. Almost all French pharmacies dispense it with its use covered by state social security. In 2004, 62% of French mothers used homeopathic medicines in the previous 12 months. A survey of French pharmacists in 2004 found that 94.5 per cent. reported advising pregnant women to use homeopathic medicines. 70% of French doctors are receptive to homeopathy and consider it effective and at least 25,000 of them prescribe homeopathic medicines for their patients. http://edmi.parliament.uk/EDMi/EDMDetails.aspx?EDMID=40806&SESSION=903

Popularity ≠ efficacy

FACT 97: In Germany 20% of doctors treat patients with homeopathy.

Popularity ≠ efficacy

FACT 98: In the Netherlands 47% of doctors treat patients with homeopathy.

Popularity ≠ efficacy

FACT 99: In a 2008 Global TGI survey where people were asked whether they trust homeopathy the following percentages of people living in urban areas said YES: 62% in India, 58% Brazil, 53% Saudi Arabia, Chile 49%, United Arab Emirates 49%, France 40%, South Africa 35%, Russia 28%, Germany 27%, Argentina 25%, Hungary 25%, USA 18%, UK 15%. http://www.tgisurveys.com/documents/TGIbarometerhomeopathy_Jan08.pdf

Popularity ≠ efficacy

FACT 100: The media as a whole has been unwilling to air a proper defence of the efficacy of homeopathy and the validity of this 200 year old profession.

Unwilling? Or unable? Taking advantage of sick people to peddle nonsensical, unsubstantiated cures is indefensible.

Please put up on as many websites as possible…Louise Mclean

OK!

ASA swamped with complaints re: Homeopathy.

xtaldave — Fri, 18 Mar 2011 13:01:28 +0000

Quickie about a letter from the ASA to all who have complained about website with homeopathic levels of honesty.

As you may or may not be aware, the Nightingale Collaboration has co-ordinated a campaign to highlight and complain about some of the ridiculous and unsupportable claims that alternative medicine practitioners make on their websites – the current project is targeting homeopathy websites within the UK.

As someone who has complained recently about a homeopathic website or two, I recently received this bulk mail-out from the ASA:

Dear Sir/Madam

ADVERTISING CLAIMS ON HOMEOPATHY WEBSITES

Thank you for your recent complaint.

As you may know, the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has received over a hundred and fifty complaints about over a hundred different websites for homeopathy. Complaints cover a range of issues from specific claims made by individual advertisers to general concerns about the sector as a whole. Because of the volume of complaints, we are sending this letter to everyone who contacted us on these issues to let you know what action we intend to take.

The ASA has an established position on claims that can be made, and those claims that are not likely to be acceptable for homeopathy, based on the requirements set out in the CAP Code and previous ASA adjudications. Although we have not historically received many complaints about advertising for homeopathy, the Code has general requirements for substantiation of claims in the health sector and the Committee of Advertising Practice (CAP) offers specific advice on marketing health-related products and services. Further information about the requirements of the advertising Code is available on our website www.asa.org.uk and from www.copyadvice.org.uk.

We are seeking to enforce compliance with the Code even-handedly across the sector by contacting all of the advertisers we have received complaints about as well as the bodies that represent homeopaths and homeopathy in the UK. We will be explaining the Code’s requirements, giving advice on how to ensure advertising claims do not breach the Code, and asking advertisers to remove any claims which do not comply. More information about what that means in practice is provided in the CAP Help Notes on Substantiation for Health, Beauty and Slimming claims and Health, Beauty and Slimming Marketing Communications that Refer to Medical Conditions. You can find these documents on our Copy Advice website, as indicated above. Because the ASA has only been regulating websites since 1 March many of the advertisers we contact will not be familiar with us or the work we do and will need help and assistance from us. For that reason, we plan to monitor compliance 3 months after making our expectations of them clear. We feel that this will give advertisers, some of whom are very small and have limited resources, sufficient time to make the necessary changes.

The ASA will not be publishing individual adjudications on this occasion. We will however publish specific, up-to-date advice to the industry and its representative bodies in due course and we will work with them to ensure that advertising for homeopathy is compliant with the Code.

Thank you for taking the trouble to contact us. While you will not see immediate results please be assured that we are working hard in the background to resolve the issues that have been complained about.

Yours sincerely

What do I think about this?

First off it shows that the Nightingale Collaboration (NC) has been successful in co-ordinating a fair few complaints within the 2-and-a-half weeks it has been running this campaign – whether this number of complaints matches the expectations of the NC, only they know.

It would appear that the ASA recognise that UK-based homeopaths are often making unsupportable claims about the efficacy of their sugar pills on their websites – to such an extent that they are going contact both the complained-about homeopaths and their ‘regulatory’ bodies (ARH, SoH, BHA etc) about these breaches, and make them aware of the rules that they should be adhering too. If after 3 months they have not complied with UK advertising regulations – the ASA may take further action.

Whilst individual complainers may miss out on the satisfaction of seeing adjudications against the websites they have complained about – the end result should be the same – and in fact much more far reaching. This wholesale action against all UK-homeopaths (via their ‘professional’ bodies) by the ASA should ensure that they are no longer allowed to make outrageous claims about efficacy (or claim that they were unaware of the rules).

Provided the ASA take a suitably tough line with the homeopaths, and they ensure that the rules are adhered to, I think that this can be seen as a very effective first strike by the Nightingale Collaboration.

The World Has Become Slightly Less Quacky (quackometer.net)
Exploring the New Skepticism – the View from Woo (scepticalenquiry.wordpress.com)
I finally got to explain homeopathy to my mother (opcdossier.wordpress.com)

Homeopathic guide to “conflict of interest”

xtaldave — Thu, 10 Mar 2011 20:40:08 +0000

Skeptics of alternative medicine are often accused of being in cahoots with the pharmaceutical industry (the “big pharma shills” argument).
Here is a ‘handy-cut-out-and-keep’ guide to COI.

I could go on…

The Wonders of the Universe Drinking game rules!

xtaldave — Sun, 06 Mar 2011 21:39:46 +0000

Jusht Cuz.

Stop Press: Apparently Prof Cox is aware of the drinking game. So by not participating, not only will you be letting yourself down, you’ll be letting him down too. Do it. You know it makes sense.

Take 1 finger of drink when Prof Cox says:

“Millions*”
“Entropy“
“Enthalpy“
“Stelliferous“
“Probability”
“Vast”
“Epic”
“1st law of thermodynamics“
“Chandrasekhar limit“
“Singularity“
When ever Brian shouts at us from a moving vehicle. (Double for a flying vehicle – h/t @Markgfh)
Whenever you see time lapse footage of the sky or clouds (like this) – h/t @MrMMarsh

Take 2 fingers of drink for:

“Billions*”
“2nd law of thermodynamics“
Any use of props (like salt and pepper shakers) or drawing in the sand with a stick (ht Rob and @carolwhead)

Take 3 fingers of drink for:

“Trillions*”
“3rd law of thermodynamics“

Half-a-pint for:

“Wonders”
“Scientific explanation”

Finish your drink whenever you see Brian in silhouette up a mountain somewhere.

* The more conservative ethanol-enthusiasts out there may like to take advantage of a modification suggested in the comments by @Nullifidian whereby each mention of million/billion/trillion in a row be counted as a single occurrence – eg “one billion billion billion billionth” would count as 2 fingers of drink, not 8. Either way, you can blame @Kashfarooq for the original rule .

Tip o’the hat to @fibularis and @imascientist for other ideas.

Add more below and I’ll add them to the list…

“You know you’ve worked in the lab too long when…”

xtaldave — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 20:26:01 +0000

Shamelessly stolen from Kausik Datta, refurbished with my own answers.

“You know you’ve worked in the lab too long when…”

Linguistics:

You say “mills” and “migs”. ✔
You say “orders of magnitude” in regular sentences. ✔
You say “conjugation” instead of “sex”, and “pili” sounds dirty.
You can no longer spell normal words but have no trouble with spelling things like immunohistochemistry or deoxyribonucleic acid. ✔
You refer to your children as the F1.
You think the following is a quality insult: “I’ve seen cells more competent than you!” ✔
You use acronyms for everything and never stop to elaborate. ✔
You use the word “aliquot” in regular sentences, especially with reference to tea, coffee or curry. ✔
You flinch when you hear the word “significant”. ✔
For you, media is something which increases your culture. ✔
When you hear tween, you think of the surfactant not the age group. ✔
You are fed up of people saying alcohol, when they mean ethanol.
SOB is not an insult; it’s what you grow your bugs in. ✔
You actually threaten your cells whilst waving a bottle of virkon or some other disinfectant. ✔
You give the lab equipment motivational pep talks: “Work for me today or I’ll reprogram you with a fire axe” is my favorite.

Entertainment:

You’ve seen how far away you can hit a target with a squirty water bottle or seeing how far away from the bin you can fire pipette tips. ✔
You still get amusement out of “freezing” things in liquid nitrogen. ✔
You rejoice when grabbing a handful of eppendorfs/bijous/anything and it turns outs to be the exact number you needed. ✔
You decide the courses and conference you want to go on by the quality of the food served.
When you start making patterns in your pipette tip box as you take the tips out. ✔
You’ve played Battleship using tip boxes.
You’ve used, “I’d like to get into your genes” as a pickup line. (✔ – only in jest)
You have made some kind of puppet out of a nitrile glove and kept it as a pet. ✔
The scent of latex reminds you of work, not play.

Couture:

Safety equipment is optional unless it makes you look cool. ✔
A timer clipped to the hip is not only practical, but dead sexy. ✔
People wearing shorts under a lab coat disturb you slightly as they look as though they might be naked underneath. ✔
You can tell what cheap and expensive white coats look like. ✔
You hate having to change your lab coat to a new one because ‘it just won’t fit right’ and because the wrist bits are way too tight. ✔
You’ve never worn a clean lab coat.
You have an irresistible urge to rip your shirt off superman style because it has press stud fasteners just like your lab coat… Most often occurring as you walk through a door just like exiting the lab… (I prefer to apply the Hulk style to disposable PPE) ✔
You’ve left the lab wearing a piece of PPE (personal protective equipment) because you forgot you had it on. ✔
You consider a green laser pointer to be science bling. ✔
You own Invitrogen t-shirts and actually wear them.

Kitchen and home skillz:

No matter what the timings in the experiment protocol, there is always time for lunch in the middle. ✔
When you organize your kitchen cupboard contents the way you would your chemicals… all labeled in alphabetical order.
Although all cooking is a glorified chemistry experiment you just still can’t seem to get it right. ✔
You’re also very good at transferring small amounts of liquid between containers. ✔
You’re very good at diluting things. ✔ (Not as good as homeopaths though)
When your fruits go bad and you get fruit flies, you can’t help but check their eye color.
You open the toothpaste with one hand.
You want to have parafilm at home too. ✔
You wonder what absolute alcohol tastes like with orange juice.

Professional:

Showing up at 10AM and having a coffee is a productive day. ✔
You’ve worked out that a trained chimp could probably do 90% of your job. ✔
You always seem to use the microscope after the person with the impossibly close-set eyes. ✔
When you say goodnight to your microscope on a Friday night and tearfully hug it goodbye as you won’t see it all weekend.
You can identify organs on roadkills. ✔
You can’t wait for lab clean-up because you get to do random pointless “experiments” to figure out what’s in all the dodgy unlabeled bottles.

Accidents & discomfort:

Accident reports are a badge of honor.
Warning labels invoke curiosity rather than caution. ✔
Blinking real fast has saved your eyesight on more than one occasion. ✔
Burning eyes, nose and throat indicate that you haven’t actually turned on the fumehood/ downdraft bench. ✔
Liquid nitrogen is only about a 1/3 as dangerous as you thought. ✔
You bitch about not being able to pipette by mouth any more.
When you wonder: how much will it hurt if I pour just a smidgen of this phenol/chloroform/ trichloroacetic acid/ any random chemical on myself?
The fire alarm ceases to bug you. You only evacuate when you see the fire. (Hand on the floor to check for heat is a good indicator.) ✔

C’est la vie:

No one in your family has any idea what you do. ✔
Sometime you momentarily vanish from social activities because of a time-point. ✔
The front page of Science is your light reading. ✔
You realize that almost anything can be classed as background reading. ✔
When a non-scientist asks you what you do for a living, you roll your eyes and talk science at them until they’ve lost the will to live. ✔
When you rejoice when grabbing a handful of eppendorfs/bijous/anything and it turns outs to be the exact number you needed. ✔
When you’ve got that callus on the side of your thumb from opening PCR tubes (0.5ml and 1.5ml eppendorf tubes for me). ✔
You are strangely proud of the collection of junk you’ve stolen from vendors at trade shows. ✔

Technology:

You can make a short film in Powerpoint. ✔
You can’t watch CSI without cursing at least one scientific inaccuracy. ✔
You don’t fear rodents, rodents fear you. ✔
You have to check the web to find out what the weather is outside. ✔
You’ve bent down to pick something up off the floor only to scatter the contents of your top pocket under the largest machine in the lab. ✔

Health and Hygiene:

You wash your hands before and after using the washroom. ✔
You’ve suffered carpal tunnel from the pipetman. ✔
You’ve used Kimwipes as Kleenex. ✔
You’ve wondered why you can’t drink distilled water in the lab- shouldn’t it be clean? ✔
Your nose invariably itches when you’re doing mucky stuff with your hands so you develop the habit of scratching it on your upper arm. Unfortunately, you sometimes carry this habit over to real life, where it looks like you’re sniffing your armpits. ✔
You are slightly too fond of the smell of (pick one or many) Xylene/ Agar/ Ethanol/ Undergraduates/ Alcoholic hand-wash. ✔
You’ve removed your gloves to find a small hole which has left you with either – wrinkly old person hands, a brightly colored finger (histologists especially) or a burning sensation and dermatitis at some point.

Tada! Done

Homeopathic Suicide is Painless…

xtaldave — Sun, 06 Feb 2011 10:23:21 +0000

Ten²³ day!

Today, as this blog is posted, I will be taking a massive overdose of homeopathic ‘medicine’.

Unless the laws of chemistry, biology and physics momentarily lose their grip on our reality, the only thing that will happen is that the sugar in pills will enter my blood stream, via my digestive tract, and give me a mild sugar rush.

The fact that these sugar-pills-dressed-up-as-medicine continue to be offered by persons acting on behalf of the (cash strapped and under funded) National Health Service, and are available from supposedly reputable high street pharmacies like Boots the Chemist is an affront to reason.

The ten23 overdose is not (and was never) designed to be a scientific proof of the lack of efficacy of homeopathy – we rely on tried and tested methods like meta analyses to do that for us – rather ten23 is a public awareness exercise.

Please be aware. “There is nothing in it”

If you feel moved to do so, follow @xtaldave for updates through out the day.

Psorinum therapy – homeopathy for cancer?

xtaldave — Mon, 31 Jan 2011 21:32:02 +0000

A quick look at another paper doing the rounds

These papers ^{[1], [2](pdf)} have recently been pimped around twitter by various homeopaths, apparently as proof that a homeopathic remedy can cure cancers, including the very nasty pancreatic cancers. Paper 1 (published in a sensible-looking oncology journal) is just an abstract from a meeting, and paper 2 (published in Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine) is the actual paper with all the juicy details – but they essentially detail the same study.

Taken on face value, the results are pretty amazing, with 5-year survival rats of around 40% for patients with stomach, gall bladder pancreatic and liver cancers (paper 2, table 3).

Compare these with current 5 year survival rates for stomach and pancreatic cancers of roughly 12% and 2% respectively.

So, if kosher – these results would be a fantastic addition to the arsenal in the war on cancer.

But…

… the studies were conducted without any controls whatsoever. The mind boggles. Why bother going to the effort of a 5 year study, and not including a control arm? Whether it be an ‘untreated’ arm, a placebo arm or a comparison against current best practices and therapies, a control arm would have increased the viability of this study no end. Even if they failed to recruit any more patients, and just split the patients into to two randomised groups with 20-odd patients in each arm, the power and impact of the study would be massively enhanced. To not control anything is just a massive fail.

This massive fail is then compounded by a failure of peer-review at eCAM. Did the reviewers not ask themselves where the controls in this study where? However, this was published in eCAM and this is clearly labelled as a prospective study – maybe I am being too harsh.

However, for those totting this paper as evidence for homeopathy curing cancer, let’s make this absolutely clear: the only conclusions that can be drawn from this study are that the study is ultimately a waste of 5 years and is utterly meaningless in it’s current form. It should have been designed properly 5 years ago, and it should have contained some sort of control arm, and should have been properly randomised and blinded.

The authors are clearly aware of this and allude to it themselves in the final sentence of the paper:

“…randomized double-blind clinical trial, detailed molecular, pharmacokinetics,and pharmacodynamics studies should be conducted for further scientiﬁc exploration of this alternative cancer treatment to determine if it can be integrated into the mainstream oncology.”

However….

It is perhaps telling that in this final sentence in the paper, that the authors mention “detailed molecular, pharmacokinetics,and pharmacodynamics studies.” That use of the word ‘molecular’ is the only appearance of the word molecular or derivatives thereof in the entire paper, maybe unsurprising given that this is a homeopathic study.

The wonder remedy that the researchers are testing out is ‘Psnorium’ – a homeopathic remedy made from the fluid from scabies blisters (yuck) – that apparently has indications for a large number of symptoms, including, “generalities; sensitive; to pain” – well, that rules out the ~48 people on the planet that suffer from CIPA, then…

Of more note to people with an interest in molecular mechanisms (myself included), is the fact that the dilution factor used in the study is only 6x. So, 1 in 1,000,000.

Wait a minute! That’s cheating! There is an outside chance that Psnorium 6x actually has “something” in it!

Let’s assume for a minute that the results are genuine, and Psnorium 6x has had an effect on these cancers. The fluid from scabies blisters will likely contain serous fluid – but depending upon the exact contents of the blister it could contain all manner of biochemical goodies.

Given that scabies blisters are apparently intensely itchy, there may be some histamine around. The fact that the scabies mite (a foreign object) has penetrated the skin, means that some sort of immune response will have been mounted, and therefore it is inconceivable that scabies blisters would not contain some cytokines or chemokines. Was the remedy prepared from crusted or normal scabies? Because patients with crusted scabies secrete higher levels of cytokines IL-5 and IL-13, and lover levels of IFN-gamma than normal patients [3]. Other studies have shown that scabies mites, or extracts thereof alter secretion levels of a whole range of cytokines:

Active mites on the surface of the HSE induced secretion of cutaneous T cell-attracting chemokine, thymic stromal lymphopoietin, interleukin (IL)-1alpha, IL-1beta, IL-1 receptor antagonist (IL-1ra), IL-6, IL-8, monocyte chemoattractant protein-1, granulocyte/macrophage colony-stimulating factor, and macrophage colony-stimulating factor.

So, biochemically speaking, scabies blister fluid likely contains some very interesting molecules, some of which may have an effect on cancer cells. Oral administration of Interleukins has been shown to have physiological effects in some studies, and cytokine therapy is an avenue being explored in the fight against cancer.

Let’s assume that the DBRCT has been done properly, and it shows a clear, statistically significant effect in cancer patients. What next? Would it be the killer blow that shows that skeptics have been wrong and homeopathy works? Sadly not – because of the likely presence of actual molecules of something. That being said, if there is an effect to be seen, it does at least give us the possibility of conducting an interesting experiment to test homeopathy:

Take the scabies blister fluid.
Give one-third of it to a homeopath, get them to make up their remedies as usual, with all the serial dilutions and succussion.
Give another third to a competent postgraduate student. Get them to make a 1 in 10⁶ dilution of it, but without the homeopathic rituals like succussion.
Give the final third to a well-equipped, well-staffed biochemistry lab. Get them to fractionate the fluid by HPLC or FPLC, and then test the fractions for biological activity in a suitable assay, and identify the molecules present are responsible for the effect, (assuming it’s not some arm-wavy, unsubstantiated guff about the vital force or EM fields) they will presumably isolate one or more fractions that contain the molecules responsible for the therapeutic effect. These molecules could then be purified for trial in patients.

If only the homeopathic remedy recapitulates the results of the DBRCT, then homeopathy works. Elseif, science works, and someone just got lucky feeding diluted extract of scabies blister to cancer patients.

Simples.

Homeopathy Pseudoscience at the HuffPo (theness.com)
How homeopathy works (scienceblogs.com)

Anomalous Distraction

I am still alive.

I suffer from S.I.N.

How to combat S.I.N.

S.I.N.ing is not a sin

Quickie – Homeopathy for Radiation poisoning?

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Homeopathic guide to “conflict of interest”

The Wonders of the Universe Drinking game rules!

“You know you’ve worked in the lab too long when…”

Homeopathic Suicide is Painless…

Psorinum therapy – homeopathy for cancer?

But…

However….

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