pseudoscience

Gullibility and pseudoscience, bridged by headlines

Posted 6 June 2013 by Kausik Datta

Much have been made in the media recently, of a February 2013 paper, published by a German group in the Annals of Internal Medicine, claiming that acupuncture may help relieve seasonal allergies. Always interested in examining the bold claims of efficacy by various forms of pseudoscientific, wannabe-medicine modalities (such as homeopathy, naturopathy, and so forth), I elected to go to the source; the paper was behind an annoying paywall, but thankfully, I had institutional access, and dove in. The paper... Read more

Posted in acupuncture, alternative medicine, Inflammation, pseudoscience, Public Health, Research Blogging, Science, Scientific Research |

6 Comments | Permalink

BMC Cancer Journal: Open Access, Not Open to Critiques?

Posted 7 March 2013 by Kausik Datta

My fellow Scilogs Blogger Lee Turnpenny recently described his dissatisfaction with a pro-homeopathy research paper published in the Open Access journal, BMC Cancer. The article, by a European group, is titled: "Classical homeopathy in the treatment of cancer patients - a prospective observational study of two independent cohorts", rather deceptively in my opinion, because the title makes it seem that the study involves the use of homeopathic remedies in cancer. However, on close examination of the paper, it appears that... Read more

Posted in alternative medicine, homeopathy, Peer Review, pseudoscience, Publishing and Publication, Science Communication, Scientific Research |

2 Comments | Permalink

Papaya And the Flushing of Wee Toxins, Forsooth!!

Posted 5 October 2012 by Kausik Datta

As many of you, gentle readers, no doubt know, many rank idiocies emanating from the world of pseudoscience irritate me to no end. But very few of them come close to the R-A-G-E (Hulk SMASH!) that ebulliates in me when I hear 'toxin', that standard catchphrase from all manners of peddlers of pseudoscience. A chance encounter on Twitter brought me in contact with this cosmetic dermatologist, whose name and twitter handle I have redacted for privacy reasons. Suffice it to... Read more

Posted in alternative medicine, pseudoscience, Public Health, Science Communication, Science Education, Scientific Research |

0 Comments | Permalink

“Water memory” – a myth that wouldn’t die

Posted 28 December 2011 by Kausik Datta

Holy pseudoscience, Batman! Homeopathy websites (too many to list; I found the material for this post here) are all gleefully abuzz today** with the following factoid – New Research From Aerospace Institute of the University of Stuttgart Scientifically Proves Water Memory and Homeopathy. A simple experiment by researchers and professors at the prestigious Aerospace Institute of the University of Stuttgart in Germany is confirming Dr. Jacques Benveniste’s 1988 assertion that water has an imprint of energies to which it has... Read more

Posted in homeopathy, pseudoscience, Uncategorized |

30 Comments | Permalink

et tu…? Acupuncture and pain in Nature, part deux

Posted 25 December 2011 by Kausik Datta

Continued from Part 1… As I was saying, a study by Goldman et al. in the July 2010 issue of Nature Neuroscience, postulates that “Adenosine A1 receptors mediate local anti-nociceptive (i.e. pain reducing) effects of acupuncture.” I stumbled a little right at the title. Anti-nociceptive effects of acupuncture? Where is the evidence that such an effect exists? Evidence schmevidence. I needn’t have worried, for the introductory paragraph reassured me of the benefits of acupuncture in pain management, by indicating –... Read more

Posted in acupuncture, pseudoscience, Research Blogging, Science, Scientific Method, Scientific Research |

10 Comments | Permalink

et tu…? Acupuncture and pain in Nature, part one

Posted 24 December 2011 by Kausik Datta

Physician and blogger Harriet Hall, MD, once coined an exceptionally apt phrase to describe research in many alternative medicine modalities – “Tooth Fairy Science”; it refers to research undertakings into a phenomenon whose existence is yet to be established. In a post in her blog Science-based Medicine, she explained: You could measure how much money the Tooth Fairy leaves under the pillow, whether she leaves more cash for the first or last tooth, whether the payoff is greater if you... Read more

Posted in acupuncture, pseudoscience, Science, Scientific Method, Scientific Research |

0 Comments | Permalink

Homeopathic Belladonna in Japanese Encephalitis? Naah!

Posted 26 April 2011 by Kausik Datta

Heh! Right now I have this stupid grin on my face, because I caught this glaring error in a published paper. Okay, it is a paper on homeopathy referenced in a godawful homeopathy website (that I mentioned in my yesterday’s write-up), but nevertheless. Imagine, I start the introduction to a scientific paper like this: Disease A is very important and prevalent in certain regions like blah-blah-blah. The causal organism of disease A is known to be virus X with wide... Read more

Posted in homeopathy, pseudoscience |

9 Comments | Permalink

Of All Things That Are Wrong…

Posted 25 April 2011 by Kausik Datta

… the one I am going to describe really takes the cake: Australia-based Homeopathy Plus! is advocating the use of homeopathy to prevent and protect against meningococcal diseases. This is not merely burning, incandescent stupidity, but potentially lethal as well. The Gram-negative bacterium Neisseria menigitidis (commonly known as meningococcus) is the etiological agent for meningococcal disease.1 This disease usually manifests as bacterial meningitis (occurring in ~50% of all cases), and may often be associated with rapidly progressing sepsis syndrome. Characterized... Read more

Posted in homeopathy, pseudoscience |

3 Comments | Permalink

What’s the harm?

Posted 18 February 2011 by Kausik Datta

In my last post on Homeopathy, a commentor, Mike Fowler, mentioned an interesting fact: Here in Spain, “Homeopathy” basically means something different. Many “Homeopathico” preparations sold in pharmacies here contain trace and greater concentrations of the active ingredient, so they are probably more like “herbal” remedies. Spain notwithstanding (I agreed with Mike when he further said that it might be a cultural or linguistic issue here), there is an important distinction to be made – not just by the proponents... Read more

Posted in homeopathy, pseudoscience |

5 Comments | Permalink

Homeopathy in Hemorrhoids: ouch or aahh?

Posted 22 January 2011 by Kausik Datta

In the last post, I mentioned the conversation I had with my friend regarding homeopathic remedies. During this conversation was revealed the source of my friend’s strange and firm beliefs in this quackery. He presented several anecdotes about members of his family as living proofs of the benefits of homeopathy. Well, it turns out that the symptom – that homeopathy had apparently helped him and others to be rid of – was the occurrence and persistence of painful hemorrhoids (a.k.a... Read more

Posted in homeopathy, pseudoscience |

18 Comments | Permalink