Updates made to The Millenium Project in March 2012

I found this on Facebook. If anyone knows who invented it, tell me and I will do the right thing.

The SIDS and Vaccine Seminar (3/3/2012)
On March 1 I attended a talk about Sudden Infant Death Syndrome and the horrors of vaccination, presented by Stephanie Messenger from Healthy Lifestyles ... Naturally, author of a bizarre children's book called Melanie's Marvellous Measles, a book designed for young children to teach them about the cheerful benefits of measles. Remarkably, nobody in the room, including Ms Messenger, thought that vaccines cause SIDS, but it was all downhill from there.

I might write a full report here next week. I had to order in a bulk pack of yellow highlighters from the stationery store and there was just too much material to work through in the time available if I wanted to do a good job. It is probably sufficient to say that I can't think of any standard anti-vaccination lie that was not presented, although I'll know more after I have gone through my copious notes from the event.

Another reason for waiting is I want to have a good read of Stephanie's newsletter, which appears to contain samples of all sorts of woo, from cancer cures to organic foods (with an article on this written by a homeopath who allowed his wife to die instead of getting her to a doctor) to the purity of water, plus the usual lies about vaccines.

The night wasn't completely wasted because I was able to get a free sample of one of the products Ms Messenger sells ( although I couldn't get a free sample of the $30 negative-ion toothbrush). It was a packet of ten negative-ion-charged feminine hygiene pads.

These things emit negative ions which can cure a range of medical and physical conditions. It almost goes without saying that they cure PMS, but it is the other things they work on that make them worth every cent of the price. They came with an A4 page covered on both sides with testimonials in very small type. The first one of these is from "Garry", who put them in his underpants to take away the pain and discomfort of diverticulitis. Not only that, but Garry had a PSA reading of 14.2 (doubled in a year!) and the pads took away the incontinence and "irritating pain" caused by his enlarged prostate. (Note – while PSA is not a terribly reliable indicator of prostate problems, most doctors start twitching if they see a reading above 4. Seeing 14.2 on the scale would have most competent doctors reaching for an oncologist referral form.) Stephanie provided her own anecdote of a man who had a severely swollen and discoloured leg as the result of a septic spider bite. A pad on the sole of his foot and another on the site of the bite had him back to normal in minutes. And they are cheaper than a trip to Lourdes. Stephanie suggested that the pads should be included in any well-equipped first aid kit.

Can you see why I needed more yellow markers?

 
See more Cectic here

Just a reminder (3/3/2012)
Last week I mentioned the result of the court case between the Australian Vaccination Network and the NSW Health Care Complaints Commission. Following the decision the HCCC took its Public Warning about the AVN down from its web site. That doesn't mean that anyone else has to stop publicising it, so here it is.

And here it is in a form that can be found by the search engines.

The Atheist Cartoons site disappeared in 2014

sCAM works! It really does. (24/3/2012)
Promoters of Supplementary, Complementary and Alternative Medicine (or SCAM for short) have been very happy lately because the Australian Therapeutic Goods Administration has produced a list of 25 SCAM products that have apparently shown themselves to be effective for something. The Australian Register of Therapeutic Goods lists about 63,000 medicines and devices but it is difficult to get a count of those which fit into the SCAM category, although it is safe to assume that it is much more than 25.

Here is the TGA's list of things that work.

Here are some comments about the list:

• At least 16 of the 25 are manufactured by the hated pharmaceutical corporations. So Big Pharma is not averse to making things that can't be patented and which carry the reputation of being "alternative" or "complementary".
• 10, 11, 12 and 13 are not only made by Big Pharma but they are iron supplements that actually address a relatively rare dietary deficiency. The Red Cross used to hand out iron supplements to blood donors but they stopped when it was found that healthy people can recover from the loss of iron in half a litre of blood quite quickly and there is the potential for harm from consuming too much iron. Put another way, the risk exceeded the benefit.
• 14, 15, 16, 17, 20 and 21 are all forms of indigestible dietary fibre (of only two sorts) and there is little dispute in real medicine that the consumption of ispaghula or psyllium husk can have beneficial effect in maintaining bowel regularity with little risk. And look at the manufacturers - Big Pharma all the way.
• Number 23 is an insecticide for the control of head lice. I am reminded of the fly spray manufacturers who are now offering "natural" sprays that contain pyrethrum, extracted from daisies and used in insecticides since the first fly spray was invented. Three versions of Moov are listed on the ARTG but it seems that only one of them works.
• Numbers 3, 4, 7, 8 and 24 are calcium supplements. (Elevit is targeted at pregnant women and also contains iron, iodine and folate.) It's hardly a secret that these can be useful for certain medical conditions, particularly in people who for some reason can't get enough calcium from their diet or in the case of pregnancy are eating for two. (I know someone who has had calcium supplementation suggested by a real doctor to counter the osteoporosis caused by multiple myeloma. Like chicken soup it might do some good and it probably won't do any harm.)
• 5 and 6 are multi-vitamin tablets. Like it says on the bottle, "May be useful in cases of dietary deficiency". They do have the effect of providing colourful, expensive urine and they certainly work for anyone with rickets, scurvy or any other deficiency, although how many of these people are around is a mystery. (It is interesting to note that the TGA is taking action against another vitamin manufacturer for using the expression "You'll feel better with ..." in their advertising. Surely that's all that vitamin supplements offer.)
• Number 22 is a bit worrying. There certainly can be an effect from taking E. coli orally, but it's not one I would like to experience. It's a cure for constipation and I'm sure it's very effective..
• Number 9 is that old stand-by, Vitamin C. It is interesting to note that there are three forms of Ester-C listed on the ARTG, but apparently only one of them is effective for anything. It prevents colds. (No, it doesn't.)

Which of the 25 can really be described as alternative medicines (none of these pretend to complement any form of real medicine)?

• Blackmore's Flexagil – this is a cream containing Symphytum officinale, extracted from the comfrey plant. It has anti-inflammatory qualities (something that has been known for a very long time) but there are more effective topical anti-inflammatories available, so it's sole use is to provide a product for people who believe that tradition is better than science.
• Iberogast – A liquid supposedly useful for internal upsets. Its ingredients are a witch's brew of things with magical meaningless names, drawn from ancient traditions.
• Kaloba - contains Pelargonium sidoides, a plant extract that has been shown to have a decongestive effect. This is another thing which has better alternatives but is marketed to people who like their medicines to be natural and old even if they don't work as well as artificial and new.
• Clove oil for toothache – my grandmother knew about that so it must be good. I've found the similarly-unpatentable paracetamol works rather well too. Sunspirit have 20 different essential oils listed on the ARTG but this is the only one in this list of things that work.
• Mutaflor - lower intestine bacteria to turn constipation into diarrhea. There is a reason your mother told you to wash your hands after going to the toilet.

So, out of 25 efficacious "complementary" medicines there are only five that aren't mainstream. They are all alternatives to real medicines that work better, none are complementary to anything, and one of them contains a list of ingredients that only a naturopath could love (or understand).

Inspires confidence, doesn't it?

Homeopathy – so diluted there's no evidence left. (24/3/2012)
My latest article at Yahoo!7 was about homeopathy;

I woke up this morning to my usual radio station to hear a discussion about the pros and cons of homeopathy. There was the President of the AMA being careful to say that homeopathy is "implausible" (he probably wanted to say "impossible" and "ridiculous", but was being polite) and the obligatory phone callers who had had marvelous results from using magic water.

This was the result of an internal document from the National Health And Medical Research Council that had somehow fallen into the hands of a journalist. The draft statement from the NH&MRC suggested that it was "unethical for health practitioners to treat patients using homeopathy, for the reason that homeopathy (as a medicine or procedure) has been shown not to be efficacious".

This seems perfectly reasonable. Doctors should not be telling patients to take medicines unless those medicines have been demonstrated to have some effect on whatever medical condition the patient might have. This is in line with recommendations such as not prescribing antibiotics for viral infections and not prescribing certain psychiatric medications without some investigation of the underlying cause of the apparent illness.

You can read the rest here.

See more Matt Bors here.

Stuff gets written by me. (24/3/2012)
My latest column for Australasian Science magazine is on the newsstands and in subscribers' mailboxes now. It deals with the way we have to accept what we read because we don't have the time, experience or resources to check all the facts that we are presented with. Purveyors of pseudoscience and pseudomedicine rely on this, and even when they give references they rely on the fact that people won't check.

A few years ago I developed a list of the sort of things that you find in the citations in quackery literature, and it could possibly bear repeating:

• Ancient works, sometimes more than a century old, which predate much of modern medicine
• Preliminary findings which have subsequently been shown to be either erroneous or dead ends
• Research which refutes what the citer claims it supports
• Publication so far in the past that family doctors or general practitioners are unlikely to have access to the relevant journal issues to check the relevance of the work
• Letters to the editors of journals, rather than peer-reviewed articles
• Papers in non-peer-reviewed journals edited by proponents of doubtful treatments
• Newspaper articles
• Papers in foreign language publications which may not have an English edition
• Outright fabrications, where sometimes the journal does not even exist
• The use of non-standard abbreviations for journal names, making it difficult to search library catalogues
• Research which is irrelevant to, or barely tangential upon, the matter under discussion.

You can read the article here.

Stuff gets written to me. (24/3/2012)
I have received some email from people who are not happy with me or who are confused.

Subject: Skeptics
From: Olga
Date: Sun, 04 Mar 2012 16:45:30 +1000

I thought skeptics where supposed to look at everything skeptically. Obviously not , they seem happy to be brainwashed on certain issues !!!! Maybe you should consider a more productive , unbiased path . Instead of just trying to interrupt free choice . Also realize that science has many sides , and be skeptical about them all . Outrages things you publish . Such a lack of knowledge ,lateral thinking ,science and healthy scepticism . Real rat bags , that's one truth .

Hello Olga,

Did you have a specific complaint or is it all too overwhelming for you?

I suspect that Sabrina probably just doesn't understand what I do here.

Date: Mon, 05 Mar 2012 11:42:28 -0800
Subject: {Disarmed} Question re: your website
From: Sabrina Jackson

Hi,

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Bestfreedatingsites.net is an independent website exclusively dedicated to providing the singles community with information on how to safely and affordably use online dating sites.

I'd like to ask if you'd take a look at bestfreedatingsites.net, and if you agree that it's a valuable resource, perhaps consider adding a link to it from your site https://ratbags.com/rsoles/comment/godhatesfags.htm?

If you have any questions or concerns please don't hesitate to contact me via email.

Thank you for your time and consideration,

Sabrina Jackson
Blogger | Owner
Best Free Dating Sites

Date: Sun, 18 Mar 2012 06:02:40 -0700
From: Jim

I've never met Dr. Pearl, but I do know several people that have been healed by him. RATBAGS for sure!!

Hello Jim,

These people were either very lucky or not sick. If they got better then Mr Pearl had nothing to do with it. Magic works on the stage, not in real life.

See more at Bizarro.com

The Burzynski fraud train steams onwards (24/3/2012)
On April 11, notorious cancer quack Dr Stanislaw Burzynski MD, not-PhD, is due to appear before the Texas Medical Board to explain his actions. His fans and supporters don't like to talk about this and whenever it's mentioned they go into full non sequitur mode and change the subject. Just to keep everyone up to date, here is some reading matter.

Burzynski and the TMB

Burzynski and fraud 1994

An investigator investigates

Here is a statement from the Burzynski Patient Group web site in 2000. (The patient group site is an advertising vehicle for Burzynski. By pretending that it is independent he can claim that it isn't him saying that he has cured anyone.)

The patient site listed 50 names of cured people in 2000. Here is something that was on the main Burzynski clinic web site in 2003.

So he had treated 5,000 patients in the three years in between. That is impressive, except that the patient group site listed only 57 cured people in 2003 but only 41 of the names had carried over from 2000. That means that nine people must have died in the three years and only 16 extra people had been cured out of the 5,000 new patients.

Fast forward to 2012 and the patient site now lists 103 cured people. Take away the 31 survivors from 2000 and you have 72 people cured in 12 years. This is about the same rate (6/year) as for period 2000-2003, so it looks like it is consistent. Assuming that Burzynski was able to keep up the recruiting rate of 5,000 over three years he should have added a further 15,000 since 2003, giving a total of 28,000. With only 103 people still alive.

So, Burzynski gets about 1,700 new patients each year and cures six. That's not very good numbers, but as he is making it all up it doesn't really matter. The idea that he is getting 32 new patients every week is just too ridiculous, which is probably why he has stopped giving the number of patients to date on any of his sites.

Can Stanislaw Burzynski cure cancer? As he publishes nothing from all the "clinical trials" he is supposed to be running the only valid assumption is that he can't. And he knows it. The man is a crook.

Sneak preview (24/3/2012)
The next column by me in Australasian Science will be about Burzynski. The magazine won't be out for about a month but you can get a sneak preview of the article here. I didn't want to wait until after the Texas Medical Board cancelled his licence.

And now for something completely different (24/3/2012)
The Australian Vaccination Network is conducting a survey of readers of its magazine to determine what they want to see in the rag in the future. The results of one of the questions is causing some amusement.

OK, I know it's bad survey design to have more choices than possible correct answers, I know that it should have had a "Don't care" choice, but I really like the idea that 43% of AVN members think that there are more than the normal seven days in a week. It fits with their rejection of facts and common sense. Perhaps that other day is the one on which vaccines are dangerous and don't work, a day unknown to the rest of us. There's an old insult: "He wouldn't know what day it is". Could this condition be endemic in AVN supporters?