Why Write About Alternative Medicine? Part Two: Entertainment
Part one of this series of posts was a po-faced commentary on the uncritical promotion of alternative medicine in the mainstream media. I pointed out the poor reporting of non-mainstream therapies, the inaccuracy and the incompleteness of press articles. I argued that this was a worthy reason for blogging about alternative medicine.
Another reason is that of entertainment. Proponents of alternative medicine might be wrong, but some of their ideas are fascinating. And, occasionally, hilarious. Read the rest of this entry »
An A-Z of Alternative Medicine
An incomplete list of alternative therapies, and comment on some of the benefits and risks. Read the rest of this entry »
Why Write About Alternative Medicine? Part One: The Media
Anyone who writes critical articles about alternative medicine is likely, at some point, to be asked why. Some commenters will ask why bloggers write about alternative medicine while ignoring the failings of conventional medicine. Some go so far as to invent a reason themselves and suggest that the blogger might be a pharma shill. There are many reasons for blogging about alternative medicine. One is to address a perceived media bias; my perception is that (while publishing both praise and criticism of conventional medicine) the media tend to publish uncritical, wholly positive articles that, in essence, promote unproven or disproven treatments. Read the rest of this entry »
Dr Sarah Myhill and Food Supplement Regulations
The webpages here and here marketed supplements and contained statements implying that a balanced and varied diet cannot provide appropriate quantities of nutrients in general. For example: “I believe that if you wish to stay healthy, or recover from almost any illness, then taking nutritional supplements is essential. My reasons are given in Nutritional supplements – why we all need them.” Read the rest of this entry »
Hitler and Vaccines
What’s more convincing than a Youtube video? Nothing. With that in mind, I draw your attention to this: Hitler and Vaccines, posted on Youtube by 101numbat. You can stop reading now and go watch the video. Read the rest of this entry »
Dr Sarah Myhill – Yet More Dangerous Advice?
I’ve written about Dr Myhill several times now. Previously, I’ve pointed out various incorrect assertions and unsubstantiated claims relating specifically to vaccination. Read the rest of this entry »
GMC Complaint Regarding Dr Sarah Myhill
Having originally written about Dr Sarah Myhill’s views on vaccination in April last year, detailing some of the most obviously incorrect assertions on her website and noting the changes made to Dr Myhill’s site after correspondence with her, I followed up on this in August this year in this post: the wrongness of Dr Sarah Myhill. I noted that Dr Myhill had substantially amended her website, removing many of the factually incorrect statements, but that some of her website content was still unsupported by evidence, misleading, or untrue. Further correspondence with Dr Myhill proved fruitless, so I contacted the GMC. I have now heard from the GMC regarding my concerns. Read the rest of this entry »
Daily Mail Health Articles
The Daily Mail is known to some as The People’s Medical Journal for its love of health stories. Particularly health stories that involve unlikely cures, or anecdotes about alleged side effects of vaccination. I took a look at some of the latest stories in the Mail’s Health section. Caution: this article contains links to the Daily Mail’s website. PDFs are available for those who do not wish to visit the Mail’s website. Read the rest of this entry »
PCC Upholds Daily Mail’s Right To Distort
Recently, I wrote about the zombie Daily Mail article on MMR. I made a complaint to the PCC about the article in question, and have now received notice of their decision. Read the rest of this entry »
