In the wake of the green-lipped mussel debacle, the Australian Menopause Society (AMS) convened an expert panel of doctors to discuss controversial areas of menopausal medicine. Alternative therapies are a boom industry in Australia and New Zealand (worth in excess of $1 billion in Australia) with menopausal women the highest users.
Continue readingChair-entity’s Report 1999
WELL, that’s another year in the “hot” seat, and more “interesting” times. I’ve had over 250 messages in my Skeptics email folder build up since January, and that’s only the ones I wanted to keep. It provides a form of diary for what we’ve done throughout the year.
Continue readingNuts and Bolts of the Annual Conference
THE 1999 Skeptics Conference in Auckland was a conference looking for a theme, and in the end none presented itself. We ended up with an eclectic mix of papers, ranging from “Reading Cats’ Paws” (Ken Ring) to the paper on philosophical skepticism based on the work of David Hume (James Allan).
Continue readingHolmes Rapped with Bent Spoon
TVNZ’s Holmes show has taken this year’s Bent Spoon Award from the New Zealand Skeptics for promoting extraordinary and untested claims regarding cancer treatments.
Continue readingWellington’s Healing Touch
When the Holmes programme showcased the new “healing touch” service operated by Wellington Hospital, we swung into action with the following fax:
Continue readingSkepsis
ONCE again the medical profession has made a mess of its relations with the public, and I’m not talking about Gisborne smear takers.
Continue readingOf War and Medicine
WINTER is here, and it’s time for all good skeptics to heed the call and flock to Auckland for the annual conference, where illuminating conversation and inspired addresses await. And then the same good skeptics can generate battle strategies to cope with all the fuss about the Millennium and the imminent end of the world. In the meantime, here’s a copy of the Skeptic to read while making these important plans.
Continue readingCan Sharks Save the Human Race?
A RELATIVELY recent development in Western society has been the increased popularity of health foods and dietary supplements. While initially these health foods could only be purchased through a sparse number of “alternative retail outlets” manned by the converted, as sales have grown and the realisation of the potential profit has become obvious to more people, availability has become easier. There has been a mushrooming of “Health Food Shops”, an increasing number of supermarkets have established “Health Food Bars” and many conventional pharmacies have made the sale of these products a feature of their business.
Continue readingStandards, Authorities and Complaints
CHINESE CANCER THERAPY. This title of a modest advertisement in the Sunday Star-Times last September caught my eye. Two statements in the ad surprised me: the first, that “usually only three treatments are needed”, ie, it is implied that the therapy is a cancer cure, and the second, “…we are currently arranging a scientific Control Group with the Ministry of Health”.
Continue readingSkepsis
I START with another example of chemists’ lack of ethics and the gullibility of the public. In November 28 issue of the Listener, the ever suspicious Pamela Stirling did a good expose on Cellasine, the new herbal cellulite “remedy”, which sold out in a few days when it came here.
Continue readingSkepsis
Hypnotist Lawrence Follas claims he can increase the size of a client’s bust by telling her to imagine her breasts are growing (Sunday News 24 May). He says his client’s breasts have grown 2cm in three months, and some women in the States have added an extra 6cm by the method. The programme involves seven one-hour sessions at $75 each. A tape of Follas’s hypnosis session is given to the woman who must listen to it every day.
Continue readingA Skeptic’s Dilemma
AS A CONFIRMED, but lightweight, sceptic, I have had to endure many jibes from friends and colleagues as I questioned information reported in the newspapers and on the news. Equally, I have had to explain what being a sceptic is really all about — not straight dismissal of, but the opportunity to question information that is presented as fact.
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