Confidence Based Medicine
This is restricted to surgeons.
British homeopath suspended
The British General Medical Council (GMC) has found family practitioner Michelle Langdon guilty of serious professional misconduct and banned her from practising for three months. According to press reports, Langdon had advised a couple that the gastrointestinal symptoms of their 11-month-old were caused by “geopathic stress patterns” beneath their home and then “dowsed” for a remedy by swinging a crystal attached to a chain over a book of herbal remedies. A hospital emergency department subsequently found that the child had gastroenteritis. The GMC also examined evidence that another patient had been prescribed an herbal remedy for a sore throat after the doctor dowsed for the treatment.
http://www.homeowatch.org/reg/langdon.html
Bi-Digital O-Ring Test
This is what got Dr Gorringe into trouble with the Medical Practitioners Disciplinary Tribunal (MPDT). This test is part of the pseudoscience known as kinesiology. Dr Gorringe got the patient to pinch the thumb and forefinger together and then attempted to separate them. By introducing several homeopathic substances into an electrical “circuit” he claimed to be able to demonstrate a weakness of pinch-strength caused by “paraquat poisoning” and other equally ridiculous diagnoses. Dr Gorringe refused an offer to test his diagnostic method. Several patients suffered illhealth as a result of Dr Gorringe’s diagnostic methods and treatments and he has been struck off the Medical Practitioners Register and ordered to pay more than $100,000 in costs.
The full judgment is at www.mpdt.org.nz under Recent Events. It runs to 142 pages but makes fascinating reading. I often wonder how anybody can go through several years at medical school and then fall victim to these foolish and unscientific sidelines. Gulp! I just remembered that I did — acupuncture and spinal manipulation — but I was protected from getting too excited and committed to these modalities by a natural curiosity about how they worked. After all, curiosity or thoughtfulness is what scepticism is all about. Once I looked at the evidence and learned the significance of the placebo effect, I ceased these practices.
Gulf War Syndrome — the Continuing Quest for Compensation
Despite all of the evidence showing that there is no such thing as Gulf War Syndrome (GWS), the alleged victims are now suing the various corporations that supplied Iraq’s chemical weapons programme. This is to be expected and follows the same pattern that has been followed over nuclear test veterans and those exposed to Agent Orange. GWS is in reality a “post-war” syndrome, formerly called war neurosis or shell shock. The symptoms are presented in a context appropriate to the conflict. In the case of GWS the alleged list of causes includes chemical poisoning, immunisations, pollution, depleted uranium. Every conceivable cause has been investigated and scientists, whose naivety is exceeded only by their ignorance of history, continue to clamour for research funds to investigate ever more ludicrous theories.
For an excellent account read Hystories, by Elaine Showalter, Columbia University Press, 1997.
I can also forward by email an electronic copy of a paper I presented to a Military Medicine Conference.
Gulf War Syndrome — A Historical Context, 8th Asia Pacific Military Medicine Conference, 3-8 May 1998, Auckland.
Chemical Phobia?
Firemen had to wear breathing apparatus to clean up a hydrogen peroxide spill. This “toxic chemical” was described as “fizzing and bubbling” as it “reacted with the asphalt”. Of course it was fizzing and bubbling! The hydrogen peroxide was breaking down and releasing “toxic” oxygen and water. These emotively worded reports foster ignorance and hysteria about common chemicals. I recall a similar piece of ignorant journalism where a toxic spill was revealed to be the chemical equivalent of rust!
Dominion Post 6/8/03
Bee Products (Pollen-ate?)
These are currently popular with that segment of the NZ population who would eat sheep dropping sandwiches if they were properly advertised as benefiting health. That reminds me of the cruel jibe by Dame Edna Everidge (aka Barry Humphries) that NZ was a country of 60 million sheep, 3 million of which think they are people.
An advertisement in the Sunday Star Times, (20 July) contains the claim that “BIO BEE” is “the only Potentiated Pollen available that uses Dr Kelly Duncan’s (former Dean of Science, Canterbury) patented potentiation process”. Refer http://www.biobee.co.nz
I duly visited the website and some of the claims made for this product appear suspiciously close to health claims. I would welcome readers’ opinions.
I subjected Dr Duncan to a “google” which produced a number of interesting hits including him being a party to a complaint to the Advertising Standards Complaints Board. www.asa.co.nz/decisions/FULL/Fd0106.rtf
[Chair-entity’s note: A concerned member has been forced to tout bee products as part of his media-related job. We now have a new information flyer examining the case for various bee products available as a PDF here]
Herbal Medicine
“Kentucky Fried Medicine” is such an easy target but can always be counted on to provide material for your correspondent. As we all know, most, if not all such preparations are completely useless. The latest ploy is to illegally include effective prescription medicines, particularly in the area of erectile dysfunction. (New Ethical Journal, July 2003) It is perfectly obvious to a consumer when a product has not worked for erectile dysfunction so it makes perfect sense to cheat by adding a drug that does work. Such fraud invites a stiff fine.
Hua Fo VIGORMAX was withdrawn in Canada when it was found to contain tadalafil, marketed as the legitimate drug “Cialis” in New Zealand.
Likewise in the US, a product called Viga was withdrawn because it contained sildenafil, marketed in New Zealand as “Viagra”.
One possible benefit of these frauds is at least the Chinese might stop trafficking in endangered animal species in the preparation of these products.
An American study of 443 Web sites (reported in Manawatu Evening Standard, 24 September) found that most Web sites marketed herbal remedies with misleading or unproven health claims that violate US Law. I suspect that there would be similar findings in any survey of such sites in New Zealand.
