quackery
Look what I found on Facebook:
Learn how to offer the healing energy of Reiki to yourself, people, and animals while enhancing your animal connection skills!
From daily support for health or challenges during times of crisis, Reiki helps restore balance on physical, emotional, spiritual, and mental levels for all living beings, enabling the body to do what it does best—heal itself. These benefits extend to other people, animals, trees/plants, and self-healing.
Reiki offers so many benefits for animals and for their human caregivers that I call it the gift that keeps on giving!
Reiki also enables students to connect and communicate more deeply with animals. If you think animals like you now, wait until they discover you’ve got Reiki—you’ll become an animal magnet!
For 25+ years Reiki has blessed me, my animal companions, students, and as a teacher I love sharing those benefits with as many people and animals as possible.
AVAILABLE WORLDWIDE
For many years I’ve taught a LIVE personally-mentored 6-week audio class where students learn all the basic skills needed by a beginning Reiki practitioner in addition to foundational principles of energy healing. And you don’t even need to leave the comfort of your home!
TAKEN REIKI BEFORE but don’t feel confident? Students who have retaken Reiki with me share that the weekly calls, opportunities to practice, online community, and opportunity to ask questions and receive guidance have helped them make Reiki a part of their daily lives and feel confident in offering it to loved ones.
REIKI LEVEL 1 CLASS SERIES
August 3 – September 7, 2022
LIVE WEEKLY CALLS and PERSONAL MENTORING
Every Wednesday at 6:00 p.m. Pacific for six weeks. Each call will be recorded and available for replay for students, including those in other time zones/countries. You do not have to attend live to take this class.
In addition to the 60-90 minute weekly calls, each student receives handouts and personal guidance for practice sessions.
When the class concludes, and all requirements have been fulfilled, each student receives a Reiki Level 1 certificate.
To learn more or register:
AND NOW FOR THE IMPORTANT BIT:
Choose one payment for all six classes. Payment is available with Visa, MC, or PayPal (choose PayPal credit card option for payment with Amex or Discover). PayPal also offers a payment plan option. Confirmation will be sent after registration along with instructions on how to join the first call. If you were unable to register in time to attend the first class live you can very easily catch up with the replay. Final deadline for registration is the day of the second class.
Single Pay Plan: $249.00
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This seems like a good little earner to me!
Congratulations to whoever invented it.
Yet I do feel that something has been forgotten:
the evidence.
If you search for Reiki on Pubmed, you find a baffling array of papers many of which arrive at positive conclusions. If you then check out the primary studies, you realize that most of them are of extremely poor quality, published by members of the Reiki cult (often in 3rd class journals for the nursing professions). If you search for independent systematic reviews that adequately account for the quality of the primary studies, you discover that, in fact, the evidence does not support the notion that Reiki is effective for anything. Here are a few examples:
- There is insufficient evidence to say whether or not Reiki is useful for people over 16 years of age with anxiety or depression or both.
- The serious methodological and reporting limitations of limited existing Reiki studies preclude a definitive conclusion on its effectiveness.
- In total, the trial data for any one condition are scarce and independent replications are not available for each condition. Most trials suffered from methodological flaws such as small sample size, inadequate study design and poor reporting.
And what about Reiki for animals?
As far as I can see, there is no good evidence at all.
So, does this render the above and similar courses fraudulent?
I let you answer this question for yourselves.
The UK Chiropractic Council is inviting you to help them re-formulate their educational standards. It is an occasion, some of my readers might find interesting. I, therefore, copy the relevant part of their announcement:
… Following a scoping review in 2021, which determined that the existing Education Standards, published in 2017, required development and updating, the GCC began revising the Education Standards in January 2022.
The revision will ensure that the Education Standards:
- Provide a realistic and comprehensive set of outcomes to be met by graduates on approved qualifications, demonstrating an ability to practise in accordance with the GCC Code.
- Take into account developments within the profession, increase focus on multi-disciplinary learning and different professions working more closely together across the UK, ensuring that graduates are well placed to meet the opportunities to care for patients in different contexts.
- Remain consistent, as appropriate, with the outcomes set by other UK healthcare frameworks and standards.
Purpose: why we are consulting
This consultation sets out our draft Education Standards for providers and Learning Outcomes for students, which reflect and build on the evidence and feedback we have obtained through our scoping review.
We seek stakeholders’ views on these draft Education Standards to ensure our final proposals are future-proof and fit for purpose.
We welcome all responses to the consultation.
Documents
The draft Education Standards on which we invite comments.
The equality impact assessment of the Education Standards, with comments invited within the consultation.
The GCC Education Standards consultation document in Word format.
Ways to respond
Submissions to this consultation can be made online (see below) or by email at [email protected] (click here to download the consultation document).
It is advisable to make a copy of your submission to prevent the loss of information due to internet, portal or connectivity issues. This should be done before pressing the submit button.
Information in responses, including personal information, may need to be published or disclosed under the access to information regimes (mainly the Freedom of Information Act 2000, the General Data Protection Regulation, the Data Protection Act 2018, and the Environmental Information Regulations 2004).
The GCC is a data controller registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office. We use personal data to support our work as the regulatory body for chiropractors. We may share data with third parties to meet our statutory aims and objectives, and when using our powers and meeting our responsibilities.
Closing date
The deadline for responses to this consultation on the draft Education Standards is 16 September 2022 at noon. The consultation will be publicised and stakeholders will be invited to comment…
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Personally, I think the GCC desperately needs to improve its educational (and other) standards. They claim that, “as the regulator for chiropractors, our role is to protect the public”. The case of the late John Lawler is one of many examples to show how unfit for this purpose the GCC truly is.
So, perhaps you might want to contribute to the consultation with a view to making UK chiropractors less of a danger to the public?
Earlier this year, I started the ‘WORST PAPER OF 2022 COMPETITION’. You will ask what is there to win in this competition? I agree: a competition without a prize is no fun. Therefore, I suggest offering the winner (that is the author of the winning paper) one of my books that best fits his/her subject. I am sure this will over-joy him or her. And how do we identify the winner? I suggest that I continue blogging about nominated papers (I hope to identify about 10 in total), and towards the end of the year, I let my readers decide democratically.
In this spirit of democratic voting, let me suggest to you ENTRY No 6:
This study was to ascertain the efficacy of dry cupping therapy (DCT) and optimal cup application time duration for cervical spondylosis (CS). It was designed as a randomized clinical trial involving 45 participants with clinically diagnosed CS. The eligible subjects were randomly allocated into three groups, each having 15 participants. Each of the three groups, i.e., A, B, and C, received DCT daily for 15 days for 8 min, 10 min, and 12 min, respectively. All the participants were evaluated at the baseline, 7th, and 15th day of the trial using the neck disability index (NDI) as well as the visual analog scale (VAS).
The baseline means ± SD of NDI and VAS scores were significantly reduced in all three groups at the end of the trial. Although all three groups were statistically equal in terms of NDI, group C demonstrated greater efficacy in terms of VAS.
The authors concluded that the per-protocol analysis showed that dry cupping effectively alleviated neck pain across all treatment groups. Although this effect on neck disability index was statistically equal in all three groups, the 12-min protocol was more successful in reducing pain.
Who would design such a study and why?
- The authors claim they wanted to ascertain the efficacy of DCT. A trial is for testing, not ascertaining. And this study does certainly not test for efficacy.
- The groups were too small to generate a meaningful result of what, in fact, was an equivalence study.
- Intra-group changes in symptoms between baseline and time points during treatment are irrelevant in a controlled trial.
- The slightly better results of group C are most likely due to chance or non-specific effects (a longer application of a placebo would generate better outcomes that a shorter one).
- The study participants had cervical spondylosis, yet the conclusion is about neck pain. The two are not identical.
- The title of the paper promises that we learn something about the safety of DCT. Sadly, a trial with just 45 patients has no chance in hell to pick up adverse effects in a reliable way.
- As there is no control group, the study cannot tell us anything about possible specific effects of DCT.
The authors of the study have impressive affiliations:
- Department of Ilaj bil Tadbir, Luqman Unani Medical College Hospital and Research Center, Bijapur, India.
- Department of Ilaj bil Tadbir, National Institute of Unani Medicine, Bengaluru, India.
- Department of Moalajat, Luqman Unani Medical College Hospital and Research Center, Bijapur, India.
I would have hoped that researchers from national institutions and medical colleges should be able to design a trial that has at least a small chance to produce a meaningful finding. As it turns out, my hope was badly disappointed.
HISC (HOMEOPATHY IN THE SUSSEX COMMUNITY) was formed in 2011 and has established effective partnerships with organisations that support those in need. Projects include working with domestic and sexual violence charities as well as supporting people recovering from long-term and enduring mental health illness issues. They enable vulnerable and marginalised members of the Sussex community to access low cost treatment with highly experienced homeopaths.
On 22 July, HISC made the following announcement:
Homeopathy in the Sussex Community (HISC) has been awarded a grant from The National Lottery Community Fund to provide homeopathy to survivors of domestic abuse and sexual violence.
HISC works in partnership with Sussex-based organisations; RISE, and Survivors Network, offering long-term and low-cost homeopathic support to women who have experienced abuse and sexual violence.
This grant will fund these projects for the next year, allowing HISC to build on the valuable work already being done and reaching even more vulnerable women who want access to homeopathic support.
Society Fellow Caroline Jurdon and Registered members Michael Bird, Therese Eriksen, Tara Lavelle and Jo Magowan have all worked on the project with colleagues from the wider community. HISC received one of the Society of Homeopath’s Community Clinic awards in 2018.
HISC also offer volunteering and sitting in opportunities for students.
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The ‘National Lottery Community Fund’ make the following points on their website:
- “Our funding is public money. This means that it cannot be used to give organisations an unlawful advantage.”
- “We fund projects that support people and communities across the UK to thrive.”
I would argue that, for the following reasons, the award is misplaced:
- Public money should not be wasted. It must be invested in projects that have a reasonable chance to do more good than harm.
- A broad consensus exists today that homeopathy has no effect beyond placebo. In fact, the NHS has stopped funding homeopathy and states that “there’s been extensive investigation of the effectiveness of homeopathy. There’s no good-quality evidence that homeopathy is effective as a treatment for any health condition.”
- Homeopathy can endanger lives. If people are misled into believing that it is effective and thus treat serious conditions with homeopathy, they needlessly prolong their suffering or, in the worst case scenario, hasten their death. Awards of the above nature can undoubtedly have this effect.
In my view, this means that the award given to HISC by the National Lottery Community Fund gives an unlawful advantage to an organisation promoting a bogus therapy. At best, it is a waste of public funds, at worst it causes serious harm.
Surely, women who have experienced abuse and sexual violence deserve better!
I have been warning the public about the indirect dangers of so-called alternative medicine (SCAM) for a very long time. It is now 25 years ago, for instance, that I published an article in the ‘European Journal of Pediatrics’ entitled “The attitude against immunisation within some branches of complementary medicine“. Here is the discussion section of this paper:
… certain groupings within COMPLEMENTARY MEDICINE (CM) may advise their patients against immunisation. Within these groupings, there is, of course, a considerable diversity of attitudes towards immunisation. Therefore
generalisations are difficult and more detailed investigations are required to clarify the issue.
The question arises whether the level of advice against immunisation as it exists today represents a real or only a potential risk. One study from the U.K. demonstrates homoeopathy to be the most prevalent reason for non-compliance with immunisation [30]. The problem may not be confined to naturopathy, chiropractic and homoeopathy. Books relating to CM in general [e.g. 19] also strongly advise against immunisation: “Vaccination may provoke the illness which it is supposed to prevent. People who are vaccinated can transmit the illness, even if they are not ill themselves. The vaccine can make the person more susceptible to the illness … The vaccinated child is a contaminated child”.
At present, our data is insufficient to de®ne which proportion of which complementary practitioners share this
attitude. The origin of this stance against vaccination is largely unknown. For instance, there is nothing in Hahnemann’s writings against immunisation [14]. It may therefore stem from a general antipathy toward modern medicine which seems to be prevalent within CM [7, 19, 23]. A more specific reason is that immunisation is viewed as detrimental, burdened with long-term side effects. It is also felt that it is not fully effective and unnecessary because
better methods of protection exist within CM [16].
Anti-immunisation activists are often unable to argue their case rationally, yet they place advertisements in the daily press warning about immunisation. In Britain, one tragic case has recently been publicised. A physician advised parents against measles vaccination for their child who was suspected of suffering from convulsions. Five years later, the child suffered severe brain damage after contracting measles. The doctor was sued by the parents and found guilty of negligence and ordered to pay £825,000 in damages [1].
In medicine we must, of course, always be vigilant about the risks of our interventions. Each form of immunisation should therefore be continuously scrutinised for its possible risks and benefits. Most forms of immunisation are clearly not entirely free of risk [e.g. 22] – in fact, no effective intervention will ever be entirely risk-free. Therefore the risks have to be discounted against the benefits. It follows that any blanket rejection of immunisation, in general, must be misleading. It endangers not only the individual patient but (if prevalent) also the herd immunity of the community at large. Such unreflected rejection of immunisation, in general, will inevitably do more harm than good.
It is concluded that the advice of some, by no means all complementary practitioners in relation to immunisation represents an area for concern, which requires further research. Complementary practitioners and patients alike should be educated about the risks and benefits of immunisation. Paediatricians should be informed about the present negative attitude of some complementary practitioners and discuss the issue openly with their patients.
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I suspect that, had we heeded my caution, researched the subject more thoroughly, and taken appropriate action, the current pandemic might have produced fewer and less vocal anti-vaxxers, and fewer patients might have died.
On 18/7/2022 the ‘WORLD FEDERATION OF CHIROPRACTIC’ published a statement on cervical artery dissection (CAD). Below are a few excerpts to which I have added a few numbers [in brackets] which refer to my comments below:
… On rare occasions, CAD has been reported to have occurred after a patient visited a chiropractor or other provider of manual therapy [1]. However, the best evidence available to date indicates that spinal manipulation does not stress the arteries enough to cause tearing of the arteries leading to dissection-related strokes [2]. Additional studies have concluded that patients are as likely to have consulted a primary care physician as receive spinal manipulation from a chiropractor prior to experiencing a CAD-related stroke [3]…
The provision of safe, high-quality, evidence-based, patient-centered care for these and other conditions is a priority for the chiropractic profession [4]. Rigorous research is core to the pursuit of that objective [5]. We urge caution in making claims that are in conflict with the current state of the evidence.
About the WFC
The World Federation of Chiropractic is an international, non-governmental organization whose members are the national associations of over 90 countries in seven world regions. It is a non-state actor in official relations with the World Health Organization and is the global authority for matters related to the chiropractic profession [6]…
References
Cassidy JD, Boyle E, Côté P, He Y, Hogg-Johnson S, Silver FL, Bondy SJ. Risk of Vertebrobasilar Stroke and Chiropractic Care: Results of a Population-Based Case-Control and Case-Crossover Study. Eur Spine J. 2008 Apr;17(Suppl 1):176–83. Open access here.#
Chaibi A, Russell MB. A risk-benefit assessment strategy to exclude cervical artery dissection in spinal manual-therapy: a comprehensive review. Ann Med. 2019 Mar;51(2):118-127. Open access here.
Church EW, Sieg EP, Zalatimo O, Hussain NS, Glantz M, Harbaugh RE. Systematic Review and Meta-analysis of Chiropractic Care and Cervical Artery Dissection: No Evidence for Causation. Cureus. 2016 Feb 16;8(2):e498. Open access here.
Kosloff TM, Elton D, Tao J, Bannister WM. Chiropractic care and the risk of vertebrobasilar stroke: results of a case-control study in U.S. commercial and Medicare Advantage populations. Chiropr Man Therap. 2015 Jun 16;23:19. Open access here.
Rubinstein SM, Peerdeman SM, van Tulder MW, Riphagen I, Haldeman S. A systematic review of the risk factors for cervical artery dissection. Stroke. 2005 Jul;36(7):1575-80. Open access here.
Whedon JM, Mackenzie TA, Phillips RB, Lurie JD. Risk of traumatic injury associated with chiropractic spinal manipulation in Medicare Part B beneficiaries aged 66 to 99 years. Spine (Phila Pa 1976). 2015 Feb 15;40(4):264-70. Open access here
Here are my brief comments based on the evidence discussed in dozens of posts previously published on this blog:
- As there is no post-marketing surveillance, nobody can say with any degree of confidence that CADs after chiropractic are rare.
- This is not the ‘best’ evidence. In fact, it has been refuted repeatedly.
- This study has also been refuted.
- Chiropractic is very far from being evidence-based.
- Rigorous research fails to show that chiropractic neck manipulations generate more good than harm.
- The WFC is a lobby group for chiropractic; its mission is ” to advance awareness, utilization, and integration of chiropractic internationally”. Its current director is Richard Brown who spear-headed the disaster when the BCA sued Simon Singh, lost, and caused immense reputational damage to chiropractic worldwide.
I recently looked at the list of best-sellers in homeopathy on Amazon. To my surprise, there were several books that were specifically focused on the homeopathic treatment of children. Since we had, several years ago, published a systematic review of this subject, these books interested me. Here is what Amazon tells us about them:
Homeopathic remedies are increasingly being used to treat common childhood ailments. They are safe, have no side effects or allergic reactions, are inexpensive and, above all, effective. In this guide, Dana Ullman explains what homeopathy is, how it works and how you can use it correctly to enhance your child’s health. He recommends remedies for more than 75 physical and emotional conditions, including: allergies, grief, anxiety, headaches, asthma, measles, bedwetting, nappy rash, bites and stings, shock, burns, sunburn, colic, teething, coughs and colds and travel sickness
Without doubt, this is the most comprehensive book on homeopathic pediatrics. Included is a complete guide to the correct use of homeopathy, recommended remedies for the treatment of more than seventy-five common physical, emotional, and behavioral conditions, and valuable information on the essential medicines that all parents should have in their home medicine kits
Tricia Allen, a qualified homeopath, offers a host of practical advice on how to treat illness using natural, homeopathic remedies. Homeopathy differs from conventional medicine in that it does not only alleviate the individual symptoms of an illness, but treats the underlying state to ensure that the disease does not return, something which rarely occurs when using traditional remedies. This guide gives you advice on; what homeopathy is and how to use it; each stage of childhood and how to deal with the complaints that occur at that time of a child’s development; the most common childhood illnesses, how to take your own steps to treating them, which homeopathic remedies to use and when to seek medical help and first aid.
The Homeopathic Treatment of Children is indispensible at giving both a clear overall impression of the various major constitutional types, and also a detailed outline for reference at the end of each chapter. Not only does Paul Herscu draw from various sources (repertories and materia medica), he also adds indispensable original information from his successful practice.
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The fact that such books exist is perhaps not all that surprising. Yet, I do find the fact that they are among the best-selling books on homeopathy surprising – or to be more precise, I find it concerning.
Why?
Simple: children cannot give informed consent to the treatments they receive. Thus, consent is given for them by their parents or (I suspect often) not at all. This renders homeopathic treatment of children more problematic than that of fully competent adults.
Homeopathy has not been shown to be effective for any pediatric condition. I know Dana Ullman disagrees and claims it works for children’s allergies, grief, anxiety, headaches, asthma, measles, bedwetting, nappy rash, bites and stings, shock, burns, sunburn, colic, teething, coughs and colds, and travel sickness. Yet, these claims are not based on anything faintly resembling sound evidence! Our above-mentioned systematic review reached the following conclusion: “The evidence from rigorous clinical trials of any type of therapeutic or preventive intervention testing homeopathy for childhood and adolescence ailments is not convincing enough for recommendations in any condition.”
And what follows from this state of affairs?
I am afraid it is this:
Treating sick children with homeopathy amounts to child abuse.
Yes, it is hot! Very hot. Where I live – Cambridge, UK – we expect records to be broken today and tomorrow, and we are predicted to reach as much as 40 degrees Celsius.
But do not despair – there is help!
As so often, homeopathy comes to our rescue.
I found this source giving us advice about “BEST HOMEOPATHY MEDICINE FOR SUMMER HEAT“:
Homeopathic remedies are non-toxic and a safe way to help the body to replenish its store of the cell salts and nutrients it needs in warmer periods and help to relieve cramps, aches, and fatigue. Some of the most common homeopathic medicines to deal with summer heat are:
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- Calendula: This is an all-purpose medicine for many kinds of skin damage that many of us face during the summer season. When the skin gets damaged due to wounds, infection, prolonged sun exposure, and even excessive pollution and dirt, one can try using calendula.
- Arnica: All that running around on the beach can easily give you sore muscles, while the heat can sap up your energy and leave you fatigued. In such cases, Arnica is the perfect homeopathic answer to your maladies. This homeopathic remedy can be used for topical application if bought in its cream or gel form.
- Belladonna: Sun strokes, dehydration, and over-exposure to the sun, in general, can give you a host of problems and conditions including heat headaches. In order to treat such conditions, one can use homeopathic medicine Belladonna used for sun-stroke related ailments and symptoms.
- Rhus Toxicodendron: This Homeopathy remedy used for Hot Weather Symptom is also known as Rhus Tox. It is made from poison ivy extracts and is an effective drug when it comes to dealing with itchy rashes. These rashes may be caused because of exposure to oak, sumac, and even poison ivy.
- Ledum: Ledum or Ledum Palustre is one of the best homeopathic drugs when it comes to treating insect bites during summers.
- Euphrasia Officinalis: This homeopathic medicine is most commonly used for eye-related problems that may come about due to sun exposure or excessive sweating in prickly heat and other heat-related factors.
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So, now we know. All you need to do is go to a homeopathic pharmacy and buy the remedies (please do not run, this might aggravate your symptoms!).
Which potency?
Good question!
The author of the advice – Dr. Bela Chaudhry, BHMS, MD – Homeopathy, Homeopathy Doctor, Delhi, India – does not disclose this important information. As some of these ingredients are toxic, I would urge you to buy an ultra-molecular dilution – a C30, for instance – this way, you are sure that not a single molecule of what is printed on the package is contained in the actual remedy.
Alternatively, you could save quite a bit of money by staying where you are, taking a cool drink of water (put a pinch of salt in it, if you think you are getting dehydrated), and considering the evidence. It clearly shows that homeopathic remedies are pure placebos. They do not work against the symptoms of overheating nor against anything else.
PS
I suspect, there will be some who disagree with me. To them, I say: please show me the evidence that any of the above-listed homeopathic remedies are effective against the named conditions. If you do that, I promise that I will change my post accordingly. Thank you.
Few people would dispute that a politician who promotes homeopathy as a treatment paid for by the public purse is irresponsible and disregards the scientific evidence. Few people would dispute that such a person is not best-suited for the top job in politics.
THE GUARDIAN reported yesterday that Penny Mordaunt, a leading contender to win the Conservative party leadership contest and become the UK prime minister, has repeatedly advocated the use of homeopathy on the National Health Service (NHS). 
Mordaunt, is currently the bookmakers’ favorite to replace Boris Johnson. In June 2010 she was one of 16 supporters of an early day motion in the House of Commons sharply criticizing the British Medical Association for voting to withdraw NHS support for homeopathy. The motion claimed there was “overwhelming anecdotal evidence that homeopathy is effective, frequently in cases when patients have not found relief through conventional medical treatments”. The statement signed by Mordaunt called on the government to allow health commissioners to refer patients to “homeopathic doctors and approved homeopaths”.
Four years later Mordaunt again intervened on behalf of homeopathy. She declared in a tweet that GPs “should have freedom to decide” if they wished to prescribe homeopathic treatments to NHS patients. In July 2014, Peter Stokes, a data director at the Office for National Statistics, wrote on Twitter that Mordaunt was a “supporter of homeopathy on NHS”, adding: “Hard to vote for people who don’t believe in evidence-based decisions.” In response, Mordaunt wrote: “Hi, I support drinking cranberry juice for UTIs & campaigned for better access to osteopathy. Do pl email me for more info.” Stokes wrote back: “Both reasonable, but you also signed [the 2010 early day motion]. “Homeopathy is the worst kind of bunkum medicine.” Mordaunt replied: “I don’t think GPs referring 2 homeopathy 2 cure cancer. Do think they should have freedom to decide. Pl email for more info.”
Her renewed support for homeopathy came five months after Dame Sally Davies, then the government’s chief medical officer, had dismissed homeopathy as a waste of time and money. “There is no evidence that homeopathy extends life for cancer patients – or indeed for patients with any other condition,” Davies said in February 2014.
Daisy Cooper, the Liberal Democrats’ health spokesperson, said: “It’s alarming that someone who could be appointed prime minister in a few weeks’ time has repeatedly supported homeopathy being provided by the NHS, despite concerns about the practice among health experts. “Penny Mordaunt should make clear that she will focus on fixing the real issues facing the NHS like soaring ambulance waiting times, not on imposing homeopathic treatments.”
Mordaunt has also voted against smoking bans, and consistently voted against restricting the provision of services to private patients by the NHS, according to the website TheyWorkForYou, which monitors the voting records of MPs.
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To me, this looks as though Penny Mordaunt disregards scientific evidence at the cost of public health. Call me old-fashioned, but I do not think that such an attitude is an ideal qualification for becoming our next prime minister.
PS
I was unable to find any evidence related to the other Tory contenders’ attitude towards so-called alternative medicine (SCAM). If any of my readers have such information, please let me know.
Crystal healing is the treatment of all types of illnesses via the ‘healing energy’ of gemstones. It is as implausible as so-called alternative medicine (SCAM) gets. In my recent analysis of 150 SCAMs, I concluded that “there are no rigorous trials testing the therapeutic value of crystal healing”. This assumption is further confirmed by published papers like this one: 
Recently, crystal healing and gemstone therapy, also known as litho- or gemmotherapy, is extensively promoted in the media, newspapers and the internet. There is also a growing interest of cancer patients in this unconventional treatment, resulting in the need for oncologists to give informed advice to their patients and to prevent them from wasting hope, time and money in an ineffective treatment, and at worst to postpone the necessary treatment of this life threatening disease. In the context of the currently ever-growing New-Age wave, believing in crystal healing has spread widely in the population. It is a historical belief similar to that of charmstones, rather than one based on modern scientific practices and advances. Pleasant feelings or seeming successes of crystal healing can be attributed to the strong placebo effect, or the believers wanting it to be true and seeing only things that back that up: cognitive bias. A scientific proof of any positive effect beyond a placebo effect does not exist. Even though this treatment can be generally regarded as harmless and without toxicity, it should not be recommended to cancer patients. Thereby we will help prevent our patients from wasting hope, time and money in an ineffective treatment, and at worst to postpone the necessary treatment of this life threatening disease, resulting in a worsened prognosis.
Yet, it seems that we were not entirely correct. Recently, I came across an article that mentions such a study:
A study conducted in 2001 by British psychologist Christopher French challenged 80 volunteers to differentiate between real and fake crystals after holding them in their hands for five minutes and meditating. Six people felt nothing at all, and the rest reported feeling some energy, whether in the form of tingling in the body or an improved sense of wellbeing. Both groups, though—whether holding the fake crystals or the real ones—reported similar impressions, suggesting the placebo effect could be at play.
“When scientists conduct robust clinical trials, they want to strip the intervention of these placebo effects to figure out if it has a specific benefit,” Jarry explains. “Alternative medicine’s reputation benefits strongly from these non-specific placebo effects. Enough people will start to feel better after using crystals (because of regression to the mean, self-limiting illness, misremembering, etc.), and they will publicly testify to their improvement, giving the illusion that crystals work. What they don’t know is what would have happened had they not used the crystals.”
So, if you want to keep a hunk of amethyst at your desk to alleviate your grief, or a Tiger’s Eye stone to clear the mind, go ahead: they may not be manipulating a sacred energy field around your body to heal you, but they can certainly manipulate your mind.
Unfortunately, the link provided does not lead directly to the study but to the publication list of Chris French. This in turn leads us to the reference in question:
French, C. C., O’Donnell, H., & Williams, L. (2001). Hypnotic susceptibility, paranormal belief and reports of ‘crystal power’. British Psychological Society Centenary Annual Conference, Glasgow, 28-31 March 2001. (Abstract published in Proceedings of the British Psychological Society, 9(2), 186).
Sadly, I cannot find the paper online and I suspect it exists only as an abstract in a conference book (I have emailed Chris and asked him). In any case, his study did not test the therapeutic value; so, my above statement is not entirely false.
