pseudo-science
Dr. Mehmet Oz is one of the most influential promoters of outright quackery. I once (many years ago) met him at a meeting where we both were lecturing. My impression was that he does not believe a single word he speaks. Oz later became a TV star and had ample occasion to confirm my suspicion.
Oz’s wife, Lisa, is a Reiki master and has spoken widely of her insights into energy and health. Mehmet Oz appeared as a health expert on The Oprah Winfrey Show. In 2009, Winfrey offered to produce a syndicated series. The Dr. Oz Show debuted in September 2009 and became the most successful promotion of charlatanery in the US. During a Senate hearing on consumer protection in 2014, Senator Claire McCaskill stated that “the scientific community is almost monolithic against you” for airing segments on weight loss products that are later cited in advertisements, concluding that Oz plays a role, intentional or not, in perpetuating these scams, and that she is “concerned that you are melding medical advice, news, and entertainment in a way that harms consumers.” This judgement was supported by a 2014 analysis published in the BMJ; here is the abstract:
Objective To determine the quality of health recommendations and claims made on popular medical talk shows.
Design Prospective observational study.
Setting Mainstream television media.
Sources Internationally syndicated medical television talk shows that air daily (The Dr Oz Show and The Doctors).
Interventions Investigators randomly selected 40 episodes of each of The Dr Oz Show and The Doctors from early 2013 and identified and evaluated all recommendations made on each program. A group of experienced evidence reviewers independently searched for, and evaluated as a team, evidence to support 80 randomly selected recommendations from each show.
Main outcomes measures Percentage of recommendations that are supported by evidence as determined by a team of experienced evidence reviewers. Secondary outcomes included topics discussed, the number of recommendations made on the shows, and the types and details of recommendations that were made.
Results We could find at least a case study or better evidence to support 54% (95% confidence interval 47% to 62%) of the 160 recommendations (80 from each show). For recommendations in The Dr Oz Show, evidence supported 46%, contradicted 15%, and was not found for 39%. For recommendations in The Doctors, evidence supported 63%, contradicted 14%, and was not found for 24%. Believable or somewhat believable evidence supported 33% of the recommendations on The Dr Oz Show and 53% on The Doctors. On average, The Dr Oz Show had 12 recommendations per episode and The Doctors 11. The most common recommendation category on The Dr Oz Show was dietary advice (39%) and on The Doctors was to consult a healthcare provider (18%). A specific benefit was described for 43% and 41% of the recommendations made on the shows respectively. The magnitude of benefit was described for 17% of the recommendations on The Dr Oz Show and 11% on The Doctors. Disclosure of potential conflicts of interest accompanied 0.4% of recommendations.
Conclusions Recommendations made on medical talk shows often lack adequate information on specific benefits or the magnitude of the effects of these benefits. Approximately half of the recommendations have either no evidence or are contradicted by the best available evidence. Potential conflicts of interest are rarely addressed. The public should be skeptical about recommendations made on medical talk shows.
During the presidential campaign in 2016, Oz supported Trump and hosted him on his TV show. In 2018, Donald Trump appointed him to the President’s Council on Sports, Fitness, and Nutrition, Oz was criticized as an example of choosing “pundits over experts”. Recently, Oz announced he intends to run for the U.S. Senate as a Republican.
In April 2020, Oz also spurred controversy because he said that children should be sent back into schools despite the fact that the novel coronavirus pandemic had only just begun and there were no vaccines or therapeutics yet available. “I tell you, schools are a very appetizing opportunity,” he said, claiming that resuming classes “may only cost us 2 to 3 percent in terms of total mortality,” according to his “reading” of medical journals. The mistake was so substantial that Oz later provided a kind of half-apology, saying that he “misspoke.”
“There is a battle raging for humanity”, claims Dr Carrie Madej, a US osteopathic doctor (in the US, osteopaths are [almost] conventional physicians). She thinks she has discovered how Big Tech collaborates with Big Pharma introduced new technologies in the coming vaccines, that will alter our DNA and turn us into hybrids. This, she submits, will end humanity as we know it, and start the process of transhumanism: HUMAN 2.0 They use vaccines to inject nanotechnology into our bodies and connect us to the Cloud and artificial intelligence. This will enable corrupt governments and tech giants to control us, without us being aware of it.
Dr. Carrie Madej is from Dearborn, Michigan, and received her medical degree from Kansas City University of Medical Biosciences in 2001. She then completed her traditional internship at The Medical Center in Columbus, Georgia, and internal medicine residency at Mercer University in Macon Georgia. Dr. Madej served as a private clinician and medical director of clinics in Georgia until 2015. Dr. Madej also served as an attending physician for the Pennsylvania College of Osteopathic Medicine. She has served as a public speaker and was featured in the documentary, “The Marketing of Madness” about the overuse of prescription psychotropic medicines. Dr. Madej now dedicates her time educating others on vaccines, nanotechnology, and human rights via multiple platforms and speaking engagements.
IN HER NEWEST SCORCHED EARTH DISCUSSION, Dr. Carrie Madej simply Can NOT stay silent about the ABSOLUTE DANGERS of the Covid-19 “vaccines” any longer! In fact, in this SCATHING PRESENTATION, she literally describes the ‘Killer Concoctions’ as ‘THE FRANKENSTEIN CODE” and HAMMERS the ‘Purveyors of the Poison Jab’ as ‘Murdering Psychopath Witch Doctors’ who are HELL BENT on the TOTAL DESTRUCTION & ANNIHILATION of the ENTIRE HUMAN RACE, as we know it today.
The ‘Kung Flu’ (as it’s been referred to by none other than POTUS Trump), is only ‘KILLING PEOPLE who are already suffering from cancer, diabetes, heart disease and a plethora of other autoimmune problems’ – so now WHY IN THE WORLD IS EVERYBODY being told to get the ‘Killer Jab’ when the risk of DIRE & GROTESQUE INJURY FAR OUTWEIGHS the risk of dying from Covid-19 or the fake Delta Variant, or Beta, or Gamma or WHATEVER ELSE THE DEMONIC FAUCI & GATES CONCOCT NEXT?! Get ready for a BEATING unlike you’ve seen in recent days, as Dr. Madej RIPS THE THROATS straight out of these Deep State Demons in this ‘DO NOT MISS’ Epic Video! Grab the popcorn, and get ready for a trip down the Rabbit Hole and a takedown of Satan’s Army!
This was published by the ‘REPUBLIC BROADCASTING NETWORK’ (RBN) who also published articles such as ‘Who are the Jews behind the coronavirus vaccines?‘
Dr. Carrie Madej is certainly no fan of COVID vaccines: Doctor Carrie Madej says she personally examined multiple vials of the vaccines that are being forced into people’s arms, and she was horrified by what she saw. She says she cried harder than she ever has before. Elsewhere she explained in detail:
“First it looked just translucent. And then as time went on, over two hours, colors appeared. I had never seen anything like this. There wasn’t a chemical reaction happening. It was a brilliant blue, and royal purple, yellow, and sometimes green,” she said.
She later shared that when she asked nanotech engineers what the emerging brilliant colors might come from, the engineers said the “only thing they knew that could do that” was a white light, over time, causing a reaction on “a super-conducting material.” In this case, Madej noted, white light came from the microscope itself.
She pointed out that an example of a super-conducting substance would be “an injectable computing system.”
Madej went on, “These fibers were appearing more and more. Some of the fibers had a little cube structure on them, I’m not sure what that was. And also metallic fragments were in there. They were not metallic fragments I’m used to seeing. They were exotic. They were very opaque.”
In time, Madej said, “all the particulates, all these colors started moving to the edge” of the cover slide. “There was self-assembling going on, things were growing. They looked synthetic.”
Madej noticed something else quite strange: “There was one particular object or organism, I’m not sure what to call it, that had tentacles coming from it. It was able to lift itself up off of the glass slide. It appeared to be self-aware, or to be able to grow or move in space.”
She found it disturbing but said she thought, “Maybe that was a fluke in a way, maybe that was just that one vial.”
Some time later, the same lab obtained more vials from a different batch of Moderna shots, as well as a J&J vial. Madej was concerned to see the same things she had observed in the first vial.
“Another one of those tentacle-like structures appeared,” she said. “This was now completely under the cover slip, so there was no movement because it wasn’t on the edge, but I just couldn’t believe I saw another one. Same thing.” Madej also saw the “same colors” appear over time, as well as the fibers.
In the J&J vial, Madej said, there was “definitely a substance that looked like graphene. They all had graphene-like structures in there. Whether or not they were, I don’t have the capability of testing them in order to know at this lab, but that’s what they appeared to be.”
The vial’s contents also had “fatty substances, a sticky glue-like substance that would be considered a hydrogel in those, both of them.”
The J&J vial “also had colors appear.” “Their colors were different, like a fluorescent pastel kind of color. Again, a lot of synthetic structures in there as well.” Madej also noticed many “spherical ring structures” in the J&J contents.
“I’ve never seen anything like this before. They’re not supposed to be in these injections. What are they going to do to somebody? What are they going to do to a child? I started crying when I saw these the second time under a microscope, because it was confirmation of everything I saw the first time,” Madej said.
Madej again appeared on the Stew Peters show on October 20 to discuss her findings from a Pfizer jab vial as well as another J&J vial. “What I’m seeing in all of these manufacturers are synthetic substances, graphene-like, also these nano-carbon tubes,” Madej said.
“In this particular J&J” vial, Madej saw “round spheres, which were not air bubbles.” She continued, “There’s many of these rings, and as time went on they would get thinner and thinner and expand out and then finally extrude out some gelatinous material — I’m not sure what it was, but different kinds of things were inside these spheres. So they’re almost like a delivery structure, that’s what they were doing.”
On one of these rings, Madej saw what “looked like a translucent organism that went around, and back and forth.” Madej first “thought it was another water parasite,” but after continuing to observe its movements, “thought perhaps it was moving in a more robotic way.”
Madej saw the “same kind of synthetic things” in the Pfizer jab, as well as “something that looks similar to teslaphoresis. That’s when these little graphite-like black, metallic particles start to coalesce into strings, like a spider web. They do that through any external force — it could be light, it could be a magnetic force, it could be an impulse, like a frequency. Anyhow, all these little particles would then coalesce and form their own neural network, or their own fibers, or wires.”
After listening to Madej’s findings and seeing the photo and video documentation she provided, Peters commented, “It’s like I’m watching a seriously bad B-movie, a horror thriller.”
Madej believes the tentacled entity she found in the Moderna jabs has a connection with the organism hydra vulgaris. “It is one of the model organisms that the transhumanists like to study and look at. They feel that this is an amazing organism for humanity,” said Madej, in part because “it’s immortal in the lab setting” and “continuously produces its own stem cells.”
“It never stops. You can chop it up into little bits, put it in a petri dish and it forms itself again and again,” she continued. “They’re thinking, wouldn’t this be great if we could put this inside of a human body’s genome, and then if your hand was chopped off by a trauma, you could grow a new hand.”
My friend Joe Schwarcz recently wrote a brilliant article about Dr. Madej. He concluded by asking: Is Dr. Madej a maddeningly malicious malfeasant, or does she just have a few loose marbles? I fear that it might be both.
The complex links between so-called alternative medicine (SCAM) and the pandemic have been a regular subject on this blog. Here is more:
This study investigated if people’s response to the official recommendations during the COVID-19 pandemic is associated with conspiracy beliefs related to COVID-19, a distrust in the sources providing information on COVID-19, and an endorsement of SCAM.
The sample consisted of 1325 Finnish adults who filled out an online survey advertised on Facebook. Structural regression analysis was used to investigate whether:
1) conspiracy beliefs, a distrust in information sources, and endorsement of SCAM predict people’s response to the non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) implemented by the government during the COVID-19 pandemic,
2) conspiracy beliefs, a distrust in information sources, and endorsement of CAM are related to people’s willingness to take a COVID-19 vaccine.
The results indicate that individuals with more conspiracy beliefs and lower trust in information sources were less likely to have a positive response to the NPIs. Individuals with less trust in information sources and more endorsement of SCAM were more unwilling to take a COVID-19 vaccine. Distrust in information sources was the strongest and most consistent predictor in all models. In addition, the analyses revealed that some of the people who respond negatively to the NPIs also have a lower likelihood to take the vaccine. This association was partly related to lower trust in information sources.
The authors concluded that distrusting the establishment to provide accurate information, believing in conspiracy theories, and endorsing treatments and substances that are not part of conventional medicine, are all associated with a more negative response to the official guidelines during COVID-19. How people respond to the guidelines, however, is more strongly and consistently related to the degree of trust they feel in the information sources than to their tendency to hold conspiracy beliefs or endorse CAM. These findings highlight the need for governments and health authorities to create communication strategies that build public trust.
I also believe that these findings highlight the urgent need for improvements in education. In my view, it should start at school and continue into adult life. It should focus on a better understanding of science and – crucially – on the ability to differentiate facts from fiction and conspiracies.
Guest post by Richard Rasker
Last summer, I strolled through my garden, enjoying the abundance of flowers and insects. At the far end, the garden gave way to shrubs and reedy grass and a tiny pond that, contrary to past years, hadn’t dried out completely yet.
And right there, at the water’s edge, is where I stumbled upon IT.
At first I thought the small white object was a twig or something similar, but upon closer inspection it turned out to be a small bone – looking remarkably like a human femur, albeit a bit eroded. So I looked around in the vicinity, to see if I could find any more bones. This was not the case, but what I DID find was even more breathtaking: a slender, 2-inch long gauze-like wing.
Immediately a mind-blowing realization dawned: there are fairies in the back of my garden!
Of course I had to be careful not to get carried away based on this single observation, so I spent the following months painstakingly searching for more corroborating evidence. And what I found was astounding: at least a dozen similar bones and wings, and even a very small tuft of brownish hair. And the bogs and marshes a few miles from my home proved an even richer treasure trove. Of course I also identified remains of numerous dead animals, mostly mice and other small rodents, but the femur-like bones I found were definitely too long for mice.
So I can now safely reveal my findings: fairies do exist after all! This is truly world-shattering!
Now what does this have to do with homeopathy, one may ask? The answer is simple: the gathering of evidence for the viability of homeopathy (and many other alternative modalities) is fully analogous to the way that I found scientific evidence for the existence of fairies:
- People (scientists or homeopaths) believe that they stumbled upon something special.
- They almost immediately consider their finding as either a type of revelation, or as something that lends strong support to their prior belief.
- They then set out to gather more evidence in support of the phenomenon they found, thus affirming their belief.
- And after a lot of painstaking work, the conclusion is reached that the observed phenomenon indeed exists!
Recently, a commenter on this blog tried to bolster the validity of homeopathy by naming a couple of scientists who did exactly this: they started believing in homeopathy, not because of proper clinical trials with homeopathic medicines, but because of revelation-type experiences, or because of hypotheses and/or observations that appeared to explain and support one important prerequisite of homeopathy, the so-called ‘water memory’.
These scientists come up with all sorts of hypothetical mechanisms how this water memory is supposed to work. Usually, quantum physics is invoked – even though real quantum physicists are unanimous in condemning this as nonsense, because quantum physics doesn’t work the way that homeopaths say it does. Nevertheless, these believers in homeopathy come up with ‘explanations’ that involve entanglement, or ‘coherence domains’, or stable nanostructures in water. And there are still lots of other mechanisms dreamed up by believers in homeopathy that aim to explain the all-important water memory.
First of all, most of these hypotheses are completely bonkers, without any real-world evidence to back up the suggestions and claims made – and none of these scientists have so far succeeded in distinguishing an arbitrary homeopathic dilution from plain water, even though some claim that they can find minute differences for a few very specific substances. Just too bad that these results have not been replicated by other scientists, and that they have not been published in any peer-reviewed scientific journal. And even if these results are legitimate, the effect found is absolutely tiny – just like all other homeopathic research with positive results.
But for the sake of the argument, let’s assume that these findings with regard to water memory are real (although no two researchers agree on even the basics of the purported mechanisms). Does this provide enough evidence to make us accept that homeopathy is a viable system of medicine?
No, of course it doesn’t!
Even if water would retain certain ‘nanostructures’ or ‘coherence domains’ or ‘quantum-entangled particles’, this means just that: that an almost undetectable ‘something’ apparently persists in water. It says NOTHING about how this tiny something can have a huge range of highly specific therapeutic effects, necessitating a hugely intricate structure (of which not a trace has ever been found). It says nothing about how this something finds its way from the water to the specific parts of the body to exert those beneficial effects, or about the way that this something interacts with the organism. It does not tell us why this something only ends up in water if it is shaken, or why this something becomes more potent with higher dilutions, or how this something can pass from homeopathic water to sugar pellets while retaining its very special water-based(!) structure – or why, in spite of this all, literally nobody can distinguish a homeopathic dilution from plain water.
Saying that the existence of water memory proves that homeopathy is real is like saying that the existence of those bones and wings I found proves that fairies exist. It is a totally unwarranted inference, and an excellent example of, in the words of Dr. Harriet Hall, Tooth Fairy science: these people spend lots of time, effort and money doing very serious research into all sorts of mechanisms and effects to explain how homeopathy works, but totally neglect to answer the primary question first: does homeopathy work at all? And even worse: these people think that the tiniest glimmer of an effect supporting their hypothesis immediately proves all of homeopathy right. Which is not so much jumping to conclusions, but making leaps of astronomical proportions that would have made even Neil Armstrong jealous. This is not how science works.
For homeopathy, I think that the primary question is answered pretty definitively: even after 227 years, homeopaths have not succeeded in coming up with even ONE ‘remedy’ that is efficacious beyond a shadow of a doubt. NOT ONE.
And to add insult to injury, nothing in science even remotely supports the very core tenets of homeopathy, the similia principle and the law of infinitesimals. ‘Like’ does NOT ‘cure like’, and higher dilutions most certainly were never found to become more potent medicines – quite the contrary, as is observed on a daily basis literally everywhere.
Most other ancient and traditional forms of medicine have come up with at least some treatments or herbs that turned out to have scientifically proven efficacy and have become part of modern medicine – but not homeopathy. Homeopathy DOES NOT WORK, PERIOD.
(Although, to be fair, homeopathy has given us one important insight with regard to medicine: that for many ailments, simply doing nothing is often the best choice. Because most conditions resolve naturally, without medical intervention.)
On a friendlier note: I do not think that those people who study water memory mechanisms and other similarly elusive effects are useless as scientists. Their painstaking research into things like nanostructures in water may one day produce interesting and useful new scientific insights. But it would benefit them greatly if they would distance themselves from homeopathy and its associated pseudoscience, because that is truly a dead-end street, bringing them nothing but scorn and derision.
And oh, about those bones and wings that I said I found? Those were of course likely from frogs and dragonflies, respectively. Or maybe I was the victim of a prank, or maybe I simply made up the whole story. Believe what you will, but you probably agree with me that almost any explanation one can think of is more likely than the fairy scenario. And this again is analogous to homeopathy: almost any explanation one can think of is more plausible than the explanation that mere shaking and diluting magically transforms water into a highly specific medicine.
What on earth is ‘reincarnation therapy’?
Here is a website that explains it quite well:
The concept of reincarnation is that our souls can experience many lifetimes directly thru centuries, perhaps even thousands of years. Life gives more meaning when you have a deeper understanding of the bigger picture. Earlier life regression has been recognized as a legal form of spiritual healing. No matter what religion you follow or not, you get the feeling that you are more than a physical body. You meet the essence of your soul, connected to a greater universal energy, perhaps for the first time in your life. For those who experience this, they get inner peace…
Reincarnation therapy is a technique that has been and has been used successfully for many years, and is a comprehensive therapy for body, mind and soul based on cause and effect (karma). Reincarnation can help people cure emotional trauma or an injury that you have transferred from a past life or in this life. The technique has not only been used by monks and theologians for many years, but has been more embraced by today’s psychologists, psychiatrists and science. If reincarnation is not a true phenomenon, but just an indefinite theory, how is it that the technique is so successful in healing?
The concept of reincarnation has been present in almost any culture since ancient times. Egyptians, Greeks and Romans, and all believed in the “transfer of souls” from one body to another after death. Although reincarnation is not part of official Christianity, many Christians believe in it or at least accept the opportunity. No matter what we know about this awareness, there is still so much we do not know. The most important thing we can say about previous reincarnation therapy is that it is a method that provides deep and permanent healing in a short time. You do not have to believe in reincarnation to receive healing from this amazing technique.
Reincarnation therapy can change your life! It will help you find your potential, create more compassion and love, gain access to wisdom, peace and guidance for you and others. It can reveal the purpose of life and the reason for incarnation, strengthen the clarity of the spiritual nature of the spirit and help you overcome fear of death. After several regression sessions, many clients report after the regression, about a greater sense of inner peace and love when they understand their choice of living conditions and what they need to learn.
Another website offers more concrete explanations:
Everyone can do reincarnation therapy, but it is especially important for people who experience recurring experiences in current life. Such as, for example, health problems or recurring relationship problems, fears, phobias, family problems, mental disorders, etc. Through the therapy, the problems can suddenly disappear by gaining insight into the cause. It is also interesting for people who are just curious what they have been in the past life. A person can experience the most special experiences. You may remember people or places where you have never been before in current life. There are cases that people suddenly spoke a language they could never speak before. The main purpose for experiencing of Reincarnation Therapy is to confirm for yourself and to know that there is always life even after death. This will change your way of thinking and give you more insight about life.
… Reincarnation therapy takes +/- 3 hours. You wil get into a trance, through which you feel, see, smell, taste everything, etc. We do not work with Hypnosis. Hypnosis is not good for the subconscious mind and many people don’t remember anything after that either. We want you to really experience everything and to experience this as a development.
So, reincarnation therapy is similar to or even identical with past life regression therapy, a so-called alternative medicine (SCAM) that we have recently discussed. 
What conditions does it treat or cure? Yet another website provides the answer to this question:
- all kinds of phobias;
- relationship problems;
- depression;
- addictions;
- chronic pain;
- panic attacks;
- insomnia;
- headache,
- etc.
The ‘etcetera’ presumably means that reincarnation therapy is a panacea. That sounds most encouraging! There is just one tiny little problem: there is not a jot of evidence. Yet, I am sure that reincarnation therapy can change your life: in case you are gullible enough to believe all the BS, pay through your nose for an endless series of sessions and thus end up poor.
There are many fans of so-called alternative medicine (SCAM) who think that vitamin C is the answer to COVID (and many other ailments). Here, for instance, is a press release from Damien Downing (we already encountered him in my last post):
Vitamin C and COVID-19 Coronavirus
by Damien Downing, MBBS, MRSB and Gert Schuitemaker, PhD
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Orthomolecular Medicine News Service, Feb 28, 2020
There is only one existing treatment for the new coronavirus: vitamin C.
Vitamin C supports your immune system. Vitamin C helps to kill the virus and reduces the symptoms of infection. It’s not a COVID “cure,” but nothing is. It might just save your life, though, and will definitely reduce the severity of the infection.
If someone tells you it’s not proven, consider two things:
-
- Nothing is proven to work against COVID-19, because it is a new virus.
- Vitamin C has worked against every single virus including influenzas, pneumonia, and even poliomyelitis.
What to do
If you do nothing else, start taking vitamin C right away; at least 3 grams a day, spread right across the day. That’s a 1,000 milligram capsule every 8 hours, or a level teaspoon of powder dissolved in a pint or so of water, drank all through the day.
If you’re smart and motivated, do all the other things recommended in our previous release Vitamin C Protects Against Coronavirus (http://orthomolecular.org/resources/omns/v16n04.shtml)
When and if you catch a bug that might be COVID-19, simply increase your vitamin C intake: a rounded teaspoon (that’s 4 to 5 grams) in water (which helps to keep you hydrated) every 3 or 4 hours. And keep on taking it.
Do you consult a doctor? Do you self-isolate? Yes and yes. Of course you do; that’s your duty to others.
Vitamin C and the other measures are what you do for yourself…
Damien Downing’s press release did not age all that well, I fear. The evidence to support his claims is not just flimsy, it is negative. Let me show you the most recent (October 2021) systematic review of the subject:
Background and aims: Vitamin C has been used as an anti-oxidant in various diseases including viral illnesses like coronavirus disease (COVID-19).
Methods: Meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials (RCT) investigating the role of vitamin C supplementation in COVID-19 was carried out.
Results: Total 6 RCTs including n = 572 patients were included. Vitamin C treatment didn’t reduce mortality (RR 0.73, 95% CI 0.42 to 1.27; I2 = 0%; P = 0.27), ICU length of stay [SMD 0.29, 95% CI -0.05 to 0.63; I2 = 0%; P = 0.09), hospital length of stay (SMD -0.23, 95% CI -1.04 to 0.58; I2 = 92%; P = 0.57) and need for invasive mechanical ventilation (Risk Ratio 0.93, 95% CI 0.61 to 1.44; I2 = 0%; P = 0.76). Further sub-group analysis based on severity of illness (severe vs. non-severe), route of administration (IV vs. oral) and dose (high vs. low) failed to show any observable benefits.
Conclusion: No significant benefit noted with vitamin C administration in COVID-19. Well-designed RCTs with standardized control group needed on this aspect.
What does that tell us?
I think it suggests three things:
- Damien Downing might be suffering from proctophasia,
- we would be ill-advised to follow the advice of such pseudo-experts,
- vitamin C is not the solution to COVID-19 infections.
Thanks to Richard Rasker, a regular commentator on this blog, I learnt a new word – a word that I intend to use regularly from now on:
proctophasia
You won’t find the term in the dictionary, and even the most decorated specialist might not (yet?) be familiar with it. Proktophasia afflicts predominantly the most ardent evangelists amongst the proponents of so-called alternative medicine (SCAM), COVID-deniers, and anti-vaxxers. And this is, of course, the reason why the affliction surfaces regularly on this blog, and why Richard was able to recognize it and give it its proper terminology.
The symptoms of proctophasia are easily remembered, once we know that this medical term is derived from ‘speaking out of one’s arse’, a less than polite term for talking utter rubbish. Accordingly, proctophasia shows itself in the following manner:
- talking rubbish,
- talking rubbish,
- talking rubbish,
- talking rubbish,
- talking rubbish,
- talking rubbish,
- talking rubbish,
- talking rubbish,
- talking rubbish even after being corrected,
- repeating one’s own stupid arguments ad nauseam,
- repeating one’s own stupid arguments ad nauseam,
- repeating one’s own stupid arguments ad nauseam,
- repeating one’s own stupid arguments ad nauseam,
- repeating one’s own stupid arguments ad nauseam,
- being offended when, eventually, someone arrives at the correct diagnosis of ‘speaking out of one’s arse’,
- being nevertheless undeterred and repeating one’s own stupid arguments ad nauseam.
As such, the diagnosis is not all that difficult to make. The crucial question, however, is this:
can proctophasia be treated successfully?
It does seem unlikely that any form of SCAM is effective in the management of proctophasia. Formal trials have, as far as I know, not been conducted. Yet, we can assume from the fact that the proctophasia victims who made themselves known in the comments sections of this blog are on multiple SCAM treatments, and their condition does not seem to improve noticeably. On the contrary, one could even speculate that SCAM is the cause of the disease (but, of course, this hypothesis would need to be tested before we should accept it as fact).
Until there is a cure, what can be done?
I am afraid not much. In the past, I have had to ban some particularly seriously afflicted individuals. No doubt, I will have to take such drastic measures again in the future. But I always do that with a heavy heart.
Why?
Because one feature of the typical proctophasia victim has not yet been mentioned. These people can be hilariously funny – more so than any stand-up comedian. And that is the reason why I will continue to be as patient with them as I possibly can. In other words, proctophasia significantly increases the entertainment value of this blog.
Thanks, guys!
In a recently published study, the willingness to be vaccinated of parents of underage children and persons without underage children was examined. The study was based on a random sample (telephone survey, n = 2014, survey between 12.11.2020 and 10.12.2020).
The results revealed that parents consistently show a lower propensity to vaccinate with a COVID-19 vaccine than respondents without minor children (54.1% vs. 71.1%). Fathers showed a more pronounced own willingness to vaccinate than mothers. Furthermore, men were more willing than women to have their own child vaccinated with a COVID-19 vaccine.
The overall sample also showed that a rejection of so-called alternative medicine (SCAM) was associated with a significantly higher willingness to be vaccinated. There was also a significant correlation between the attitude towards homeopathy and one’s own willingness to be vaccinated. If homeopathy was supported, the willingness to vaccinate was lower. This correlation between the attitude towards homeopathy and willingness to vaccinate was also evident in the sub-sample of parents. Among the parents, it was again the women who significantly more often had a positive attitude towards homeopathy than men, who more often do not think anything of it.
This new evidence ties in neatly with many of my previous posts on the subject of SCAM and vaccination, for instance:
- More information on homeopaths’ and anthroposophic doctors’ attitude towards vaccinations
- The anti-vaccination movement is financed by the dietary supplement industry
- The UK Society of Homeopaths, a hub of anti-vaccination activists?
- HOMEOPATHY = “the complete alternative to vaccination” ?!?!
- Are anthroposophy-enthusiasts for or against vaccinations?
- Far too many chiropractors believe that vaccinations do not have a positive effect on public health
- Andrew Wakefield, Donald Trump, SCAM, and the anti-vaccination cult
- Naturopaths’ counselling against vaccinations could be criminally negligent
- HOMEOPATHS AGAINST VACCINATION: “The decision to vaccinate and how you implement that decision is yours and yours alone”
- Use of alternative medicine is associated with low vaccination rates
- Integrative medicine physicians tend to harbour anti-vaccination views
- Vaccination: chiropractors “espouse views which aren’t evidence based”
- Faith-healing as an alternative to vaccination?
- Learning about homeopathy the hard way: the story of Aaron Rodgers
- Patients consulting chiropractors, homeopaths, or naturopaths are less likely to agree to the flu jab
- Parents’ Willingness to Vaccinate with a COVID-19 Vaccine: strongly influenced by homeopathy
- “The uncensored truth” about COVID-19 vaccines” … as told by some chiro loons
- Beliefs and behaviors of US chiropractors
- Many naturopaths, homeopaths, and chiropractors are a risk to public health
- Homeopaths (and other SCAM practitioners) are peddling dangerous myths
- Misinformation and fraudulent claims about boosting immunity during the pandemic
Collectively, this evidence tells us that:
- the effect has been shown in many different ways,
- it can therefore be assumed to be real,
- it is not confined to COVID vaccinations,
- it is not confined to one particular branch of SCAM,
- it even affects MDs (who surely should know better) dabbling in SCAM,
- it has a long history,
- it is prevalent in many, if not most countries,
- it does real harm.
So, the next time someone tells you that SCAM and SCAM practitioners have a positive influence on public health, tell them to think again.
If you are not American, you will ask: Who the Dickens is Aaron Rodgers? I too had to look it up. He is an American football star. And it seems that US football fans are worried about him and his rather brainless idea of homeopathic vaccination.
Yesterday it was confirmed that the ‘Green Bay Packers’ quarterback, Aaron Rodgers, had tested positive for Covid and will thus have to miss at least 10 days of crucial games. Only the unvaccinated players are forced to miss a mandatory 10 games following a positive test — while vaccinated players can return at any point, as long as they provide two negative tests 24 hours apart and are not experiencing symptoms.
Everyone had assumed that Rodgers was vaccinated – after all, he had confirmed it when asked about his vaccination status by a reporter prior to the start of the season. Presumably, he thought so himself when he affirmed, with a straight face, that he was immunized.
But now it has been revealed that Aaron Rodgers was given a homeopathic vaccination for COVID from his personal doctor. When the NFL reviewed his treatment, they did not deem it suitable to appropriately label him as “vaccinated.”
Per NFL.com:
Rodgers received homeopathic treatment from his personal doctor to raise his antibody levels and asked the NFL to review his status. The league pointed Rodgers to the NFL-NFLPA protocols, which do not account for such an exemption for players. So, Rodgers remained subject to a variety of restrictions, including daily testing, mask-wearing and high-risk close contact protocol that would force him to isolate for five days based on interaction with a positive individual, even if he tested negative.
Now, as an unvaccinated player, Aaron Rodgers will have to sit out the next 10 days, at least. That means he won’t play for the Packers this Sunday against the Kansas City Chiefs. The soonest he can return to the team is Saturday, November 13, one day before the Packers’ week 10 matchup with the Seattle Seahawks.
I don’t suppose that Aaron Rodgers is an avid reader of my blog. Pity! Because, if he had followed our discussions, he would have known what to think of homeopathy in general and of homeopathic vaccination in particular:
- HOMEOPATHY = “the complete alternative to vaccination” ?!?!
- Homeopathic vaccines do not evoke antibody responses
- Helios abandons ‘homeopathic vaccines’
- Homeopathic immunisation is dangerous, unethical madness
- Homeopaths should carry public health warnings!
- Is this the crown of the Corona-idiocy? Nosodes In Prevention And Management Of COVID -19
- Recommending homeoprophylaxis is unethical, irresponsible and possibly even criminal
- Let’s be blunt: homeopathy is bogus – but homeoprophylaxis is worse, much worse!
Some people seem to insist on finding out the hard way about homeopathy. Personally, I hope Aaron Rodgers recovers fully from both his COVID infection and his homeopathic fantasies. Oh, I almost forgot: I also want to thank him for his sacrifice; it hopefully leads to a better understanding in the US of the fact that homeopathy is a placebo treatment.
PS
This is what the man himself had to say:
Well-conducted systematic reviews (SRs) should in principle provide the most reliable evidence on the effectiveness of acupuncture. However, limitations on the methodological rigour of SRs may impact the trustworthiness of their conclusions. This cross-sectional study was aimed at evaluating the methodological quality of recent SRs of acupuncture.
The Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, MEDLINE, and EMBASE were searched for SRs focusing on manual acupuncture or electro-acupuncture published during January 2018 and March 2020. Eligible SRs needed to contain at least one meta-analysis and be published in the English language. Two independent reviewers extracted the bibliographical characteristics of the included SRs with a pre-designed questionnaire and appraised the methodological quality of the reviews with the validated AMSTAR 2 (A MeaSurement Tool to Assess systematic Reviews 2). The associations between bibliographical characteristics and methodological quality ratings were explored using Kruskal-Wallis rank tests and Spearman’s rank correlation coefficients.
A total of 106 SRs were appraised. The results were as follows:
- one (0.9%) SR was of high methodological quality,
- no review (0%) was of moderate quality,
- six (5.7%) were of low quality,
- 99 (93.4%) were of critically low quality.
Only ten (9.4%) provided an a priori protocol, only four (3.8%) conducted a comprehensive literature search, only five (4.7%) provided a list of excluded studies, and only six (5.7%) performed a meta-analysis appropriately. Cochrane SRs, updated SRs, and SRs that did not search non-English databases had relatively higher overall quality. The vast majority (87.7%) of the 106 reviews included in this analysis originated from Asia. Conflicts of interest of the review authors were declared in only 2 of the 106 reviews.
The authors concluded that the methodological quality of SRs on acupuncture is unsatisfactory. Future reviewers should improve critical methodological aspects of publishing protocols, performing comprehensive search, providing a list of excluded studies with justifications for exclusion, and conducting appropriate meta-analyses. These recommendations can be implemented via enhancing the technical competency of reviewers in SR methodology through established education approaches as well as quality gatekeeping by journal editors and reviewers. Finally, for evidence users, skills in SR critical appraisal remain to be essential as relevant evidence may not be available in pre-appraised formats.
On this blog, I have often complained about the lack of critical input and the poor quality of systematic reviews of so-called alternative medicine (SCAM), particularly of acupuncture, and especially of Chinese reviews, and even more especially Chinese reviews of (mostly) Chinese studies. This new paper is a valuable confirmation of this fast-growing deficit.
One does not need to be a prophet to predict that this pollution of the literature with complete rubbish will have detrimental effects. Because poor reviews almost always draw an over-optimistic picture of the value of acupuncture, this phenomenon must seriously mislead the public. The end result will be that the public believes acupuncture to be effective.
I cannot help thinking that this is, in fact, the intended aim of the authors of such poor, false-positive reviews. Moreover, a glance at the subject areas of the reviews in the list below gives the impression that China is heavily promoting the idea that acupuncture is a panacea. Yet there is good evidence to show that acupuncture is little more than placebo therapy.
In my last post, I have reported that I am an author of many of the frequently-cited systematic acupuncture reviews. You might thus assume that I am a significant part of this pollution by rubbish reviews. This would, however, be an entirely wrong conclusion. The above analysis covers a period when my unit had already been closed, and I am thus not responsible for a single of the papers included in the above analysis.
List of included systematic reviews
| ID | Included systematic reviews |
| 1 | Acupuncture for primary insomnia: An updated systematic review of randomized controlled trials |
| 2 | Efficacy and safety of acupuncture for essential hypertension: A meta-analysis |
| 3 | Acupuncture for the treatment of sudden sensorineural hearing loss: A systematic review and meta-analysis: Acupuncture for SSNHL |
| 4 | Effectiveness of Acupuncturing at the Sphenopalatine Ganglion Acupoint Alone for Treatment of Allergic Rhinitis: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis |
| 5 | Acupuncture and clomiphene citrate for anovulatory infertility: a systematic review and meta-analysis |
| 6 | Acupuncture for primary trigeminal neuralgia: A systematic review and PRISMA-compliant meta-analysis |
| 7 | Acupuncture as an adjunctive treatment for angina due to coronary artery disease: A meta-analysis |
| 8 | Conventional treatments plus acupuncture for asthma in adults and adolescent: A systematic review and meta-analysis |
| 9 | Optimizing acupuncture treatment for dry eye syndrome: A systematic review |
| 10 | Acupuncture using pattern-identification for the treatment of insomnia disorder: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials |
| 11 | Efficacy and Safety of Auricular Acupuncture for Cognitive Impairment and Dementia: A Systematic Review |
| 12 | Acupuncture for cognitive impairment in vascular dementia, alzheimer’s disease and mild cognitive impairment: A systematic review and meta-analysis |
| 13 | Effectiveness of pharmacopuncture for cervical spondylosis: A systematic review and meta-analysis |
| 14 | Acupuncture combined with swallowing training for poststroke dysphagia: a meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials |
| 15 | Scalp acupuncture treatment for children’s autism spectrum disorders: A systematic review and meta-analysis |
| 16 | Acupuncture for Post-stroke Shoulder-Hand Syndrome: A systematic review and meta-analysis |
| 17 | Systematic review of acupuncture for the treatment of alcohol withdrawal syndrome |
| 18 | Acupuncture for hip osteoarthritis |
| 19 | Clinical Benefits of Acupuncture for the Reduction of Hormone Therapy-Related Side Effects in Breast Cancer Patients: A Systematic Review |
| 20 | Combination therapy of scalp electro-acupuncture and medication for the treatment of Parkinson’s disease: A systematic review and meta-analysis |
| 21 | Acupuncture for migraine: A systematic review and meta-analysis |
| 22 | Acupuncture to Promote Recovery of Disorder of Consciousness after Traumatic Brain Injury: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis |
| 23 | Acupuncture Compared with Intramuscular Injection of Neostigmine for Postpartum Urinary Retention: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials |
| 24 | Acupuncture for the relief of hot flashes in breast cancer patients: A systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials and observational studies |
| 25 | Effectiveness and Safety of Acupuncture for Perimenopausal Depression: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials |
| 26 | Acupuncture plus Chinese Herbal Medicine for Irritable Bowel Syndrome with Diarrhea: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis |
| 27 | Electroacupuncture as an adjunctive therapy for motor dysfunction in acute stroke survivors: A systematic review and meta-analyses |
| 28 | Acupuncture for Acute Pancreatitis: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis |
| 29 | Acupuncture for chronic fatigue syndrome: a systematic review and meta-analysis |
| 30 | Compare the efficacy of acupuncture with drugs in the treatment of Bell’s palsy: A systematic review and meta-analysis of RCTs |
| 31 | The effectiveness and safety of acupuncture for the treatment of myasthenia gravis: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials |
| 32 | Acupuncture therapy for fibromyalgia: A systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials |
| 33 | The effectiveness of acupuncture therapy in patients with post-stroke depression: An updated meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials |
| 34 | Fire needling for herpes zoster: A systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized clinical trials |
| 35 | Comparison between the Effects of Acupuncture Relative to Other Controls on Irritable Bowel Syndrome: A Meta-Analysis |
| 36 | Manual Acupuncture for Optic Atrophy: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis |
| 37 | Effect of warm needling therapy and acupuncture in the treatment of peripheral facial paralysis: A systematic review and meta-analysis |
| 38 | The Effect of Acupuncture in Breast Cancer-Related Lymphoedema (BCRL): A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis |
| 39 | The Efficacy of Acupuncture in Chemotherapy-Induced Peripheral Neuropathy: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis |
| 40 | The maintenance effect of acupuncture on breast cancer-related menopause symptoms: a systematic review |
| 41 | The effectiveness of acupuncture in the management of persistent regional myofascial head and neck pain: A systematic review and meta-analysis |
| 42 | Acupuncture for the Treatment of Adults with Posttraumatic Stress Disorder: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis |
| 43 | The effectiveness of superficial versus deep dry needling or acupuncture for reducing pain and disability in individuals with spine-related painful conditions: a systematic review with meta-analysis |
| 44 | Effects of dry needling trigger point therapy in the shoulder region on patients with upper extremity pain and dysfunction: a systematic review with meta-analysis |
| 45 | Is dry needling effective for low back pain?: A systematic review and PRISMA-compliant meta-analysis |
| 46 | The effectiveness and safety of acupuncture for patients with atopic eczema: a systematic review and meta-analysis |
| 47 | Comparing verum and sham acupuncture in fibromyalgia syndrome: a systematic review and meta-analysis |
| 48 | Acupuncture for symptomatic gastroparesis |
| 49 | The Efficacy and Safety of Acupuncture for the Treatment of Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis |
| 50 | Acupuncture Versus Sham-acupuncture: A Meta-analysis on Evidence for Non-immediate Effects of Acupuncture in Musculoskeletal Disorders |
| 51 | Acupuncture Treatment for Post-Stroke Dysphagia: An Update Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials |
| 52 | Effectiveness of Acupuncture Used for the Management of Postpartum Depression: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis |
| 53 | Clinical effects and safety of electroacupuncture for the treatment of post-stroke depression: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials |
| 54 | Placebo effect of acupuncture on insomnia: a systematic review and meta-analysis |
| 55 | Acupuncture for Chronic Pain-Related Insomnia: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis |
| 56 | Evidence for Dry Needling in the Management of Myofascial Trigger Points Associated With Low Back Pain: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis |
| 57 | Warm needle acupuncture in primary osteoporosis management: a systematic review and meta-analysis |
| 58 | Acupuncture for overactive bladder in adults: a systematic review and meta-analysis |
| 59 | Traditional acupuncture for menopausal hot flashes: A systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials |
| 60 | The effectiveness of acupuncture for osteoporosis: A systematic review and meta-analysis |
| 61 | Long-term effects of acupuncture for chronic prostatitis/chronic pelvic pain syndrome: Systematic review and single-Arm meta-Analyses |
| 62 | Does acupuncture the day of embryo transfer affect the clinical pregnancy rate? Systematic review and meta-analysis |
| 63 | Acupuncture treatments for infantile colic: a systematic review and individual patient data meta-analysis of blinding test validated randomised controlled trials |
| 64 | Acupuncture performed around the time of embryo transfer: a systematic review and meta-analysis |
| 65 | Is Acupuncture Effective for Improving Insulin Resistance? A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis |
| 66 | Efficacy of acupuncture in the management of post-apoplectic aphasia: A systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials |
| 67 | Acupuncture for lumbar disc herniation: a systematic review and meta-analysis |
| 68 | Traditional Chinese acupuncture and postpartum depression: A systematic review and meta-analysis |
| 69 | Acupuncture for Chronic Pain: Update of an Individual Patient Data Meta-Analysis |
| 70 | Acupuncture Therapy for Functional Effects and Quality of Life in COPD Patients: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis |
| 71 | Electroacupuncture for Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy after Stroke: A Meta-Analysis |
| 72 | The Effect of Patient Characteristics on Acupuncture Treatment Outcomes |
| 73 | The efficacy and safety of acupuncture in women with primary dysmenorrhea: A systematic review and meta-analysis |
| 74 | Role of acupuncture in the treatment of insulin resistance: A systematic review and meta-analysis |
| 75 | Appropriateness of sham or placebo acupuncture for randomized controlled trials of acupuncture for nonspecific low back pain: A systematic review and meta-analysis |
| 76 | Evidence of efficacy of acupuncture in the management of low back pain: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomised placebo- or sham-controlled trials |
| 77 | The effects of acupuncture on pregnancy outcomes of in vitro fertilization: A systematic review and meta-analysis |
| 78 | Acupuncture for migraine without aura: a systematic review and meta-analysis |
| 79 | Acupuncture for acute stroke |
| 80 | Acupuncture at Tiaokou (ST38) for Shoulder Adhesive Capsulitis: What Strengths Does It Have? A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials |
| 81 | Acupuncture for hypertension |
| 82 | The effect of acupuncture on Bell’s palsy: An overall and cumulative meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials |
| 83 | Effects of acupuncture on cancer-related fatigue: a meta-analysis |
| 84 | Acupuncture for adults with overactive bladder |
| 85 | Electroacupuncture for Postoperative Urinary Retention: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis |
| 86 | Meta-Analysis of Electroacupuncture in Cardiac Anesthesia and Intensive Care |
| 87 | Acupuncture therapy improves health-related quality of life in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: A systematic review and meta-analysis |
| 88 | The effect of acupuncture on the quality of life in patients with migraine: A systematic review and meta-analysis |
| 89 | Cognitive improvement effects of electro-acupuncture for the treatment of MCI compared with Western medications: A systematic review and Meta-analysis 11 Medical and Health Sciences 1103 Clinical Sciences |
| 90 | Oriental herbal medicine and moxibustion for polycystic ovary syndrome: A meta-analysis |
| 91 | The Effect of Acupuncture and Moxibustion on Heart Function in Heart Failure Patients: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis |
| 92 | Acupuncture therapy for the treatment of stable angina pectoris: An updated meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials |
| 93 | Traditional manual acupuncture combined with rehabilitation therapy for shoulder hand syndrome after stroke within the Chinese healthcare system: a systematic review and meta-analysis |
| 94 | Effects of moxibustion on pain behaviors in patients with rheumatoid arthritis: A meta-analysis |
| 95 | Acupuncture Treatment for Chronic Pelvic Pain in Women: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials |
| 96 | The effectiveness of dry needling for patients with orofacial pain associated with temporomandibular dysfunction: a systematic review and meta-analysis |
| 97 | Acupuncture for postherpetic neuralgia systematic review and meta-analysis |
| 98 | Acupoint selection for the treatment of dry eye: A systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials |
| 99 | Warm-needle moxibustion for spasticity after stroke: A systematic review of randomized controlled trials |
| 100 | Acupuncture for menstrual migraine: a systematic review |
| 101 | The efficacy of acupuncture for stable angina pectoris: A systematic review and meta-analysis |
| 102 | Acupuncture and weight loss in Asians: A PRISMA-compliant systematic review and meta-analysis |
| 103 | Effects of Acupuncture on Breast Cancer-Related lymphoedema: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis |
| 104 | Acupuncture for infertile women without undergoing assisted reproductive techniques (ART): A systematic review and meta-analysis |
| 105 | Moxibustion for alleviating side effects of chemotherapy or radiotherapy in people with cancer |
| 106 | Acupuncture for stable angina pectoris: A systematic review and meta-analysis |
