Archive for the 'Society of Homeopaths' Category

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.

Jazz to cure all ills

Published
by
badchemist
on November 18, 2007
in Badscience, Barking, Medicine and Health, Resonance, Society of Homeopaths and homeopathy
. 5 Comments

I realise that I seem to be posting a lot tonight but boredom, beer and thesis avoidance has led to me following some interesting links. Thanks to the comments on DC’s latest post of homeopathy I’m come across this gem from Peter Chappell.

Those of you who read Bad Science will already have heard of this chap and his supposed ability to cure AIDS with iTunes. Not only can he do that but he cure H5N1 bird flu in humans with it too. You can download a free version of his resonance recordings from that site or you can download it here.*

Now to my, admittedly untrained, ear this just sounds a bit like rather mediocre jazz. Consequently I propose that if we take the Miles Davis back catalogue and use it to cure all ills. Although, as Peter Chappell is a homeopath, we may need to dilute it infinitesimally - Robbie Williams’ swing album should suffice.

Disclaimer

*According to the original download site:

In the event of Bird Flu (avian influenza - H5N1), we will endeavour to sustain pressure on our servers due to any increase in traffic however we are unable to guarantee uptime. Not only failure of the servers that support our site but electricity might fail, other unforseen factors may come in to play. For this reason, it is much wiser if you get supplied now.

Therefore I am mirroring the file here to reduce load on their servers in the event of a H5N1 break out. If the owners of the file wish for me to remove this file contact me at the email address here.

Quackometer vs. Society of Homeopaths

Published
by
badchemist
on October 30, 2007
in Badscience, Bullying, Society of Homeopaths and homeopathy
. 0 Comments

A couple of weeks there was a bit of a fuss in the sceptical section of the blogosphere as the Society of Homeopaths tried to silence the Quackometer using bullying tactics. As is to be expected in this day and age bloggers responded and the Society of Homeopaths must have felt rather silly. Le Canard Noir has contacted the Society of Homeopaths regarding this matter but has so far been ignored.

Since the event Quackometer has refused to be silenced and has published another damning article about the Society of Homeopaths. Follow the link and read it. You’ll find it to be a strongly worded but polite article revealing the SoH to be a meaningless organisation who appear to have little interest in regulating their members or in defending their position using rationality and argument. Instead turning to bullying tactics and ignoring their critics.