Liverpool NHS to review £30k homeopathy bill

The Liverpool Echo reports the following bit of good news … Liverpool health bosses are spending £30,000 a year of taxpayers’ money on treatment the NHS admits does not work. The Good Thinking Society, a pro-science charity, threatened the Liverpool Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) with legal action over its funding for homeopathy. The organisation has … Read more

Preventing Cancer

My Father had colon cancer, my grandfather had colon cancer, my great-grandfather had colon cancer (are you seeing a pattern here yet?), so if you have a family history like this then please keep reading. Now here is the challenge, colorectal cancer can be present for several years before symptoms develop, and by the time … Read more

Anti-Vax Lunacy “Melanie’s Marvelous Measles” gets trounced on Amazon reviews

Stephanie Messenger, an anti-vaccine advocate who truly believes that giving your kids Measles is the best approach, published a book on Amazon entitled “Melanie’s Marvelous Measles”. In this she advances the following absurd idea … Melanie’s Marvelous Measles was written to educate children on the benefits of having measles and how you can heal from … Read more

Making good choices – why do so many of us not do this?

Harriet Hall, the skeptic-doc, writes over on Science Based Medicine a fabulous article all about why people ignore the facts and instead buy into absurd ideas when it comes to making decisions that can potentially be the wrong side of the line between life and death. (Side note: she is a fascinating person, not only is she … Read more

The Detox myth busted

There is a really really good article over on the UK’s Guardian by Dara Mohammadi. For background, he is a Health and Science writer at the Guardian, also presents the Lancet’s news podcast, and is a senior assistant editor at the Lancet. “Detox” is one of those extra special words that if encountered should trigger … Read more

Clinical trials of integrative medicine: testing whether magic works?

You might perhaps be wondering what the term “integrative medicine” actually means, well if curious and you asked, you would get distinctly different answers. For those that support the concept you will be advised that “it treats the “whole person,” focuses on wellness and health rather than on treating disease, and emphasizes the patient-physician relationship“, however … Read more