THE VIEW FROM HERE
BEN Goldacre is a doctor whose book, Bad Science, has brought much happiness to those of us unconvinced by the shenanigans of quackery and hocum within the therapeutic, pharmaceutical and cosmetic industries.
And industries they are, eager to mount up the hopes and take the money of those ready to believe in anything, particularly if it’s labelled with words like "antioxidant" or "retinol correxion" and sold by a self-styled nutritionist or somebody with letters after their name. Get a few letters from somewhere — anywhere — and you’ll haul in the suckers. Dr Goldacre gives a hefty kicking to those who misuse science and his mauling of homeopathy is a particular joy.
No, please don’t write in. If you believe an ingredient diluted by one in 1,000,000,000,000,
000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 (that’s 60 noughts there) will cure you, go right ahead.
"You might read Dr Goldacre’s fascinating chapters on the placebo effect first but I don’t expect it’ll convince you.
The funny thing is, nobody ever seems to request a homeopathic gin and tonic ("Just dilute mine down to 60 noughts, it’ll do me the world of good.")
I’ve given up arguing. As Dr Goldacre observed recently: "The best outcome you can possibly hope for if you start a fight with an idiot is that you win a fight with an idiot."
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| Mike Lambert. |
The 'pain of a new idea’ gives rise to questions
I AM no scientist but I was startled to read on the website of the Island-based Shen Clinic that "Cancer is a fungus." According to a book heavily flagged up by the clinic: "There is only one cause of cancer: candida … at the moment, sodium bicarbonate is the only remedy capable of making the tumours disappear completely."
Can this be so? Quick, mother, get out the baking soda! Alas, Cancer Research UK is unequivocal. "Cancer is not a fungus. Candida, the fungus, causes thrush, not cancer," says Dr Jodie Moffat, the charity’s health information manager.
"We do not recommend alternative therapies as a substitute for conventional medical treatment for cancer because conventional treatments have been through a robust research process to establish how effective they are. Alternative therapies are not based on the same quality of research evidence."
You would have thought Mike Lambert, who heads the Shen Clinic at the Westridge Centre, Ryde, would have known cancer is not a fungus, particularly as the website also claims: "The Shen Clinic (UK) is the only centre dedicated solely to complementary and alternative medicine ever to be listed by the Royal Society London."
The Royal Society is the world’s oldest scientific academy, so this is extremely impressive, is it not?
Again, unfortunately, it is not. A spokeswoman at the RS said: "The Royal Society hosted a very large conference in 2007 on behalf of Co-Reach, an organisation co-ordinating research between Europe and China. We did not invite Mike Lambert but he asked if he could attend.
"We allowed him to come but that is his sole connection with the Royal Society. He has attended one conference. We have never endorsed his organisation."
When I asked Mike Lambert about this, he agreed to take the Royal Society’s 'endorsement’ off his website.
He said: "There was so much to gain from that conference. I have been asked if I would be interested in attending future events.
"This Island needs investment and the link ups with highly rich Chinese organisations could be beneficial."
Let’s look under "New Physics" in the clinic’s remedy section. That sounds properly scientific.
Here we go: "In all investigations, the answers you get depend on the questions you ask: the questions you ask depend on the assumptions you make and the assumptions you make depend on how much you think you know, even more on how much you take for granted and most of all, in serious investigation, on how willing you are to accept what William James called the pain of a new idea."
And that’s all it says.
As I said, I’m no scientist but surely that’s very peculiar physics, new or otherwise?