OK the judges have finished their deliberations, all the votes are in and it is time to roll out the blushing red carpet of shame and announce the worthy winner of this year’s Silver Bullet for the most egregious medical quackery. Many thanks to all of you who took time out from your busy on-line […]
The link between South Staffs hospital scandal and losing weight
February 10, 2013 by 2 Comments
The Francis report on the dreadful doings at the Mid Staffordshire hospital can only be welcomed. The events were horrific, something went terribly wrong and heads should roll. But could what happened be a symptom of a wider problem? Does it tell us anything about the way medicine is practised in general? The most common explanation for […]
Prescribing drugs with no evidence just got a bit easier
February 3, 2013 by Leave a Comment
Recently I had a revealing “discussion” with a very senior and respected academic about whether illegal marketing by drug companies was putting patients at risk. By the end he was claiming my view – it clearly is dangerous and even heavy fines were not enough – merely enriches lawyers and pushes up prices paid by […]
Big oil and big pharma: brothers in harms
January 27, 2013 by Leave a Comment
I got to thinking about big pharma’s similarities with big oil reading Fred Pearce’s article in New Scientist this week. It was about plans for a massive pipeline – Keystone XL – to deliver Canadian tar sands to refineries in the Gulf of Mexico. There were the obvious and familiar dangers – the large carbon […]
Coconut outtakes: what the Mail didn’t say
January 8, 2013 by 13 Comments
So you’ve read the Daily Mail story today about how it’s possible that coconut oil can help with some of the symptoms of Alzheimer’s. No one knows for sure because the idea has never been properly tested but there is a good reason why it might work – by supplying the brain with a natural […]
Possible Alzheimer’s treatment? Try patient power
November 27, 2012 by 1 Comment
Ever been on a high-fat/low carb Atkins-type diet? Upside of rapid weight loss; downside of constipation and bad breath. How about if you could get the benefits without having to endure the rigours of the diet? That’s the promise of some fascinating research that I’ve written about in the Daily Mail today. Professor Kieran Clarke,an […]
The dream that has become a nightmare
October 10, 2012 by Leave a Comment
Millions of us have a problem sleeping; it’s one of the top reasons for GP visits. Unfortunately for insomniacs the way it is generally treated provides a vivid case history of why our current system of evidence based medicine needs a radical overhaul. The dream of improving medicine with system that would separate good […]
Ben Goldacre’s new book. Too late, too little
September 23, 2012 by 17 Comments
Drug companies exaggerate their successes, hide their failures and generally fail to abide by the rules of evidence based medicine. This ongoing fraud is the subject of the latest book from Guardian columnist Ben Goldacre, better known as merciless scourge of “woo” merchants cynically flogging worthless complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) treatments. An extract from […]
Positive acupuncture trial sets critics spinning
September 12, 2012 by 1 Comment
The headline to a Guardian story this morning reads: “Acupuncture useful but overall of little benefit – study shows”. Actually that is not what the study showed at all. I reported on this study in the Daily Mail yesterday and read the report carefully. Instead the study showed two positive things about acupuncture. Firstly that […]
Statins: why you should think twice
September 8, 2012 by 6 Comments
If you’re over 45 there’s a good chance that you are taking or have at least been offered a statin drug to lower your cholesterol and so cut your risk of heart disease but is it good idea? Your doctor obviously thinks it is, but there is another side to the statin story. The link […]
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