By The Quixotic Man, on July 12, 2010, at 7:37 am  Is it wrong to say that an organization should be disregarded due to its name alone? Okay. Probably. Even if that name is “The Department of Ayurveda, Yoga and Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homeopathy,” I probably shouldn’t say they shouldn’t be listened to. That’d be… slightly unskeptical. That said, when they publicly say that they believe homeopathy could prevent and cure swine flu, I think that’s the point where you can say they’re not worth listening to.
Let’s go through the stupidity. First off, it seems that AYUSH (they like to call themselves AYUSH) said that taking “Arsenicum Album-30” every day will fight against “flu-like symptoms.” Well… that’s not the flu. If your nose is stuffed and you’re a little feverish, you probably don’t actually have the flu. If your temperature is spiking and you’re vomiting and just feel generally awful, that’s probably the flu. … continue reading this entry.
By Page, on July 9, 2010, at 7:03 am  (Illustration by The Designer) I’ve been working up to posting something on the Wacky-Woo of Suzanne Somers for quite some time. Somers has now written several books dealing with aging, cancer, and issues related to the female reproductive system suggesting that they may be alleviated or cured by something she calls “bioidentical” hormone replacement therapy (BHRT). This topic of bioidentical hormones makes my woo-meter bleep alarmingly for several reasons. The obvious one is that Somers plugs BHRT as a panacea of sorts. From her website:
Do you want great health and boundless energy? Do you want a fabulous sex life? Do you want endless vitality, at any age? In The Sexy Years I share with you the secrets of how I have remained healthy, happy and vital in the second half of life, or as I call it, “the Sexy Years!” The key to my happiness? Bioidentical hormone replacement therapy. With these natural hormones, I have found the fountain of youth; the elixir that makes me feel thirty years old again. … continue reading this entry.
By Michael Rosch, on July 6, 2010, at 7:03 am  There’s a reason I’ve been absent from the Gotham Skeptic for the last week or so and that’s because I’ve been busy finishing up a certificate program in Paralegal Studies. Although I’m still currently working in television at the moment, I am now officially a Certified Paralegal.
Technically, one doesn’t require certification to become a paralegal but it’s hugely beneficial to have a document proving some solid legal education from an American Bar Association-approved curriculum. Several times here over the past few months, I’ve tried to apply some of the legal knowledge I’d acquired to expose a few misuses of the law by pseudo-scientists, quacks, cranks, and all manner of denialists. … continue reading this entry.
By The Quixotic Man, on July 1, 2010, at 7:03 am Here’s the biggest mystery for me is that people who live near the equator don’t get MS. It’s virtually unknown. And I’ve talked to the scientific community about this, other MS patients, nobody really understands why. But I’ve done some math, and by simply raising the equator as little as five hundred miles, we could reduce the incidence of MS by more than 31%.
- Jonathan Katz
 Is it weird that I have a favorite MS patient? Multiple Sclerosis (MS) is not a disease I’d wish on anyone. It’s a truly terrible, chronic disease that slowly takes away a person’s ability to move. It’s an auto-immune disease, which means that the body attacks itself. Specifically, in the case of MS, it attacks the myelin sheath surrounding neuronal axons. Think of it like an acid slowly chipping away at the insulation around all the electronics in your house. Eventually, your stuff stops working. As with most auto-immune disorders, the causes of MS are not fully understood. Although the disease is not hereditary, it is believed to have a strong genetic component thanks to similarities in the genomes of MS patients. There seem to also be unknown environmental effects. It’s not a sexy disease, the only celebrity I know of who has it is the great comedian Jonathan Katz, best known for his portrayal of a cartoon psychologist whose clients were exclusively comedians. This doesn’t mean that scientists aren’t working on the disease, but we don’t know a ton about it. And sometimes, when our view of a disease is incomplete, that can leave it open for something that seems like it’s very likely to be quackery. … continue reading this entry.
By Page, on June 29, 2010, at 7:03 am  The Skeptical Quacklash
Free and open to the public.
When: Thursday, July 1, at 7PM
Where: Shetler Studios “Penthouse 1″
244 West 54th Street
New York, NY
Simon Perry is an active campaigner against nonsense. Using the ASA, Trading Standards, other regulatory bodies and even gaining help from MPs, his campaigns have helped shut down dodgy allergy test services, prevented traditional chinese medicine salesmen from claiming to cure cancer, and exposed psychic scams. … continue reading this entry.
By Page, on June 25, 2010, at 7:03 am  Mmmm, nothing like hot kopi on a hot Indonesian day. As spring gives way to summer and the heat and humidity settle upon us I find myself often thinking of the old-wives tale that drinking a hot beverage on a hot day is more cooling than drinking a cold one. Our understanding of the physiology of thermoregulation, which I will discuss in a moment, indicates that this really isn’t true. We often like to think that myths like these must have been passed down over the ages because they had a bit of truth to them, the same argument is made for traditional remedies, and sometimes this is the case, but often it is not. … continue reading this entry.
By The Quixotic Man, on June 14, 2010, at 7:03 am  Sure, he's great for hanging out, but do you want George taking out your appendix? I saw a press release this morning for “Acupuncture without needles” coming out of a Canadian Acupuncture clinic. My initial thought was, “Well that should work just as well,” but after doing a little research on the idea, I’m not sure if I should consider it to be better than people practicing traditional acupuncture, or worse.
As usual, let’s start with our terms. For those three of you out there who don’t know, Acupuncture is a part of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) based on the idea of a human energy called Qi (pronounced either Key or Chi, depending on how much Anime you watch). The idea in acupuncture is that this Qi travels throughout the ley lines of your body (pseudo geology influencing pseudo medicine…), but that it can occasionally get blocked, leading to pain. Acupuncturists claim that by poking at various parts of your body with very thin needles, they can release the blockages of Qi, allowing it to flow naturally. In other words, Acupuncture is another form of Vitalism. This particular kind of acupuncture seems to be growing in Canada. What they’re doing is replacing the needles with “Low Level Laser Therapy” targeted at acupuncture points. And in case you were wondering, no, the ancient Chinese didn’t happen to have access to ancient lasers. … continue reading this entry.
By Michael Rosch, on June 4, 2010, at 7:03 am  Professional quack Mike Adams posted a rather interesting blog recently where he asserted that water fluoridation is illegal. According to him, the fact that medical experts claim that water fluoridation “prevents cavities” (scare quotes his), that means it’s a medical claim, according to the FDA (well duh!). Now so far I’m with him. But it’s what he says next that applies a sledge hammer to all logic:
And as such, making this claim instantly and automatically transforms fluoride into a “drug” under currently FDA regulations.
This means that cities and towns all across America are now practicing medicine without a license by dripping liquid medication into the public water supply without the consent of those who are swallowing the medication. … continue reading this entry.
By The Quixotic Man, on June 3, 2010, at 7:03 am  "Can your kid get measles so I can feel like I'm fighting the phantom I'm blaming for my child's autism?" The recent AutismOne conference in Chicago is something I’d like to consider a new low in the American health system. I’d like to consider it a new low because it would mean that this autism/vaccine nonsense hadn’t been going on now for over a decade. Unfortunately, it has, and why AutismOne hasn’t faded against the blaring horn of stupidity constantly playing at us from sources like Generation Rescue, Autism Speaks, and the omni-dreadful Age of Autism is inconceivable. It would have missed my radar completely – I tend to avoid the autism people thanks to a family history of high blood pressure – had the most recent AutismOne conference not attracted the attention of a completely separate group of health ingrates, the “Health Freedom” movement. … continue reading this entry.
By Page, on April 14, 2010, at 7:03 am  There has been a surge of press recently on hookworms. But the press has not been covering any sort of First World outbreak of this Third World affliction. They have made little mention of the dangers to children and pregnant women who are infected with hookworms including anemia, protein deficiency, abdominal pain, and diarrhea. Nope, instead the press is covering a recent interest in using hookworm to suppress allergies.
The idea, based on research by David Pritchard, an immunologist-biologist at the University of Nottingham, is that parasites like Necator americanus, or hookworm, that live inside other animals have to have some serious weaponry to battle the host’s immune system. One tool in their arsenal may be to release agents that simply suppress the immune response of the host. This idea occurred to Pritchard while thinking about the prevalence of allergies and other auto-immune disorders in the First World compared to the Third World. Now immunology is really not my forte, but here is my elementary-level understanding of how our immune system works: White blood cells and the histamines and antibodies they produce are terrific at attacking foreign crud in our bodies, be they viruses, bacteria, parasites, pollen, or whatever. Additionally, our immune system also has the onerous task of not only specifically identifying what they should kill, but also what they should not kill, i.e. our own tissues. Auto-immune disorders are usually an indication that there is a problem in the immune system such that the line between Self=Good, NonSelf=Bad becomes blurred and murky. For instance, alopecia areata, a type of hair-loss that is not due to male pattern baldness, is thought to occur when a person’s immune system begins to attack their own hair, obviously erroneously. The flip side is that the histamines that are produced by our immune system as it fights foreign invaders like pollen can cause the watery eyes and mucus associated with allergies. … continue reading this entry.
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