Archive for the 'KKKly Mail' Category

Detection of breast cancer by hair

Published
by
badchemist
on February 7, 2008
in Bad reporting, Good Science, KKKly Mail and Science Communication
. 0 Comments

From the KKKly Mail today:

Hair test to detect breast cancer could be on sale ‘within months’
A revolutionary test that detects the first signs of breast cancer from a few strands of a woman’s hair could be on sale within months.

Having scanned the references from the website of Fermiscan there doesn’t appear to be anything wrong with the research. I can only assume that when they say on sale they mean to someone with a lot of money. According to there latest paper (free when I tried) they used the Advanced Photon Source at the Argonne National Lab (US), this is a rather large synchrotron and not going to be available for the routine analysis of hair samples.

According to the Daily Hate:

When normal hair is put under a microscope, it appears as series of arcs. In people with breast cancer, a distinctive ring is superimposed on to these arcs, New Scientist magazine reports.

Yet the papers and website all take about synchrotron x-ray diffraction, a bit harder than popping under a microscope. From what I can read of the NS article there’s know mention of microscopes. If anyone can enlighten me please do. This just seems to be the Mail getting excited a little too early. At least this time the research seems to right (cf. MMR) it’s just got a way to go.

Update

I’ve been in contact with the (very nice) people at Fermiscan, once I have permission I’ll post some of their response.

Voluntary regulation of CAM - more psuedo-regulation

Published
by
badchemist
on January 6, 2008
in Badscience, KKKly Mail, Regulatory Bodies and Society of Homeopaths
. 0 Comments

It’s been a while since I posted: thesis writing, job hunting and Xmas have taken their toll. Anyway hopefully I’ll be able to find some more time now.

Now for the point of this post. According to the Daily Hate there is to be new regulation of CAM. beginning in April. I’m all for proper regulation of CAM, too many charlatans have been peddling their snake oil for far too long, so this should really make me happy - unfortunately it doesn’t.

The Foundation of Integrative Health the organisation set up by probably the worlds most famous CAM advocate, HRH the Prince of Wales, are behind the scheme. More info about it can be found here. Apparently the scheme is

… being modelled on the General Medical Council and will follow Government guidelines for self-regulatory bodies.

but, with current legislation,

Although the council will be able to strike practitioners from the register there is nothing to stop them continuing to give treatments.

So although this will give the public a single place to see if their preferred charlatan CAM practitioner is recognised to practice to a professional standard there is still no way of preventing sub-standard quacks from practising their ‘art’ except in a few areas where statutory regulation already exists (chiropractors and osteopaths) or where such regulation is to be introduced (trad. chinese medicine and acupuncture). Hopefully this body will take their responsibilities more seriously than the SoH fiasco and the like and actually remove practitioners who fail to meet guidelines as otherwise this will be an utterly useless list.

UPDATE: When I wrote this earlier I was in a bit of a hurry and forgot one major point. The treatments/practices covered by this new regulatory body have very little, if any, evidence for their efficacy. Now I don’t care if someone wants to waste their money on useless treatments as long as the treatments are not being mis-sold as effective and they are being used for self-limiting conditions where the placebo effect can be of particular benefit. Unfortunately producing a regulatory body for snake oil only adds credence to the claims particularly as it is, in part, funded by the NHS.

EDIT: By way of Freudian slip I managed to put the Princess of Wales.

Alternative Health Screening: lunacy of lifesaver?

Published
by
badchemist
on October 9, 2007
in Badscience, KKKly Mail and Medicine and Health
. 3 Comments

In Mail today, there is a surprisingly sensible article on alternative health screening with a road test to boot.

Prior to trying out this “screenings” the author, Charlotte Dovey, rather more sensibly paid BUPA to screen using conventional methods - blood tests and the like. According to the BUPA Wellwoman Health Assessment (£265 a go):

After the £265 test (okay, that’s not cheap either - but it includes blood checks, lung function and smear tests) I’m told I’m in fine fettle and there is nothing ominous on the horizon. But what will the alternative diagnosticians say?

Ms. Dovey then visited three clinics for three different screenings using the Quantum Xerox machine, the AMI machine and the NES machine. A quick google for these results in very little information apart from the NES machine but I assume that Mario and Yoshi will not be doing the diagnosis.

All these machines seem to work only the principal of measuring electrical fields/energies and there are several mentions of “quantum physics”, “biophysics” and even “yin and yang”. All methods conveniently found that, despite the clean bill of health from BUPA, Ms. Dovey had a rather miserable future ahead with health problems ranging from relatively minor (IBS and anaemia) to some life-threatening and devastating diseases (Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, heart and kidney disease).

This is incredibly irresponsible and unethical “health care” and, thankfully, the Mail has reported this rather well with an expert opinion from Dr Graham Archard, vice chairman of the Royal College of General Practitioners, following each “diagnosis” and pointing out the flaws in the diagnoses. Conveniently all of these practitioners also had something to sell to cure these ills from homeopathic remedies and food supplements to acupuncture.

I presume that, unfortunately, such bullshit as these tests are unregulated and, as such, any snake oil selling charlatan or quack can “measure your bodyfield”, concoct a diagnosis and sell you an ineffective cure. Stay well clear.

Sugar confusion and some (relatively) sane advice from Holford

Published
by
badchemist
on October 6, 2007
in Badscience, KKKly Mail, Medicine and Health, Nutribollocks and Pilltrick Healthfraud
. 0 Comments

There’s a story in in the Mail regarding obesity and sugar consumption. The content in itself is rather dubious, Professor Glenn Gaesser of Univ. of Virginia is claiming that carbohydrates are not fattening but he is part funded by the baking industry. Conflict of interests may arise here I feel.

In the comments we also have some great confusion about what is and isn’t a complex carbohydrate. One comment says:

I’ve limited my carbohydrate intake to complex carbs only (veg and such) and all but eliminated simple carbs (breads, pasta etc) and in the past 6 weeks have lost over 2 stone. Not only that, but I’m less tired, and have had more motivation to exercise and be healthy.

- T. Wolf, Manchester

<pedant>

Complex carbohydrates are things like starch, i.e. polysaccharides, which are found in abundance in bread and pasta. Simple sugars (glucose, fructose) on the other hand are found in “veg and such”.

</pedant>

Most amazingly in this piece is some actually rather sane words everyones favourite pill-peddling media nutritionist Mr Prof. Patrick Holford.

His findings were questioned by British nutritionist Patrick Holford, who said animal studies had shown high-carbohydrate diets “convert rapidly into fat”.

He added: “The old idea was that the way to lose weight was to eat less calories, which is what Gaesser is advocating.

“Gaesser is supporting what has been done for the last 20 years and clearly it’s not working.

“The human body is much more complicated and blood sugar is much more important.”

(emphasis mine)

Yes Patrick, the human is much more complicated which is why some of us would wish you’d leave the health advice to those who are qualified.