John Welch

Money well spent? Tim Hume (Sunday Star Times June 21) has written a good account of traditional Maori Medicine (Rongoa Maori). The Health Ministry provides $1.9 million annually for this nonsense. ... (1127 words)

White-tail spiders: a web of misconceptions Linley Boniface is to be congratulated for her humorous take on the prevailing hysteria around alleged "white-tail spider bites" (Dominion Post 9 March). ... (1126 words)

Bogus chiropractor? I thought they were all bogus! A Motueka man, Michael Dawson, was fined $4000 for describing himself as a chiropractor. This upset Nelson chiropractor Dr John Dawson who was ... (1437 words)

Poison for Profit There is something rotten in the state of China, a country where greedy people are quite happy to poison their own citizens in the name of profit. Milk powder is assayed for protein ... (1154 words)

Drink your way to good health Don't scoff. A magazine as authoritative as Woman's Day reports a case where a woman treated her breast cancer by drinking her own urine. Following a mammogram and ... (1173 words)

One hand wash for the road? A surgeon claimed that an alcohol-based hand wash had been responsible for a failed evidential breath alcohol test (EBA). He had been operating all day, went home, had ... (1072 words)

Yet another military syndrome I imagine that most people joining the Armed Forces would expect the likelihood of a posting to an area of conflict. I know I did. I spent six months in Iraq between ... (1155 words)

Skull manipulation takes a lot of 'training' Cranial osteopathy is based on the notion that the bones of the skull can be manipulated. Even doctors have been taken in by this nonsense. The following ... (1145 words)

The Indian Files: Gopal's Ayurvedic Beach Resort and Research Centre I recently spent several weeks motorcycling around southern India and was on the lookout for interesting examples of folk remedies ... (1104 words)

Doctors challenge Alternative Medicine Members of the Royal Society and other eminent doctors have written to every hospital in the UK urging them not to suggest anything but evidence-based medicine ... (1218 words)

Debunking debriefing It has become a cliché that whenever something bad happens, a horde of counsellors descend on the survivors to make their lives a misery. It's true. Counselling does make you ... (1122 words)

Liquor still quicker There is little doubt there are criminals who are prepared to drug women in order to sexually assault them. History records the commonest drug used was chloral hydrate in an ... (1204 words)

Alternative medical practitioners often start out in the mainstream, but other currents may take them into new channels. This article is adapted from a presentation at the 2006 NZ Skeptics ... (2570 words)

Dark Eddies in the Mainstream So-called conventional medicine isn't immune to nonsense. I do not confine myself to examining the conduct of alternative medicine. The conventional medical literature ... (1071 words)

Silent scientologists and hot cold treatments Pill Popping PHARMAC is the Government drug-purchasing agency. Pharmac's 2005 Annual Review showed that about eight prescription items were issued per ... (914 words)

Alternative health care - there are better alternatives During my recent overseas trip I had two stopovers in Hong Kong. The South China Morning Post (3 October) reports that demand from patients ... (1081 words)

Body Enhancer's benefits are Bogus Fresh from a visit to Iraq, John Welch is ready to embark on a jihad against quackery... The product Body Enhancer, marketed by the Zenith Corporation, costs $95 ... (1605 words)

Of feeding tubes and foetuses Now that Terri Schiavo has been allowed to die peacefully there is an opportunity to reflect on the matter free from the hysteria and religious arguments advanced as an ... (1304 words)

Agent Orange: Déjà vu all over again? If you don't get the answers you want from a Government inquiry, press for another inquiry. Vietnam war veterans have continued such a campaign and have produced ... (1354 words)

Dioxin "Poisoning" or Hormesis in action? It will be interesting to see how the government handles the latest health scare which is being helped along by the usual sensationalist media reporting. How ... (1215 words)

Vitamin B12-the new placebo? A drug company has been perplexed at a shortage of Vitamin B12 created by a surge in use. A spokesman for the company said "doctors had so far failed to come up with a ... (1155 words)

Selenium - Too Much of a Good Thing? New Zealand soils are deficient in selenium and this can cause serious health problems for animals. A 500kg animal needs about 1mg selenium daily. There is no ... (1259 words)

Hokum Locum talks with one of the unsung victims of the Christchurch Civic Crèche The New Zealand Judiciary has consistently refused to face up to that gross miscarriage of justice, the Christchurch ... (554 words)

Cellulite - Just a Euphemism for Fat Cellulite is the term used by women's magazines to describe dimpled fat. It has no scientific or anatomical validity and it is simply ordinary fatty tissue that ... (1333 words)

Confidence Based Medicine This is restricted to surgeons. British homeopath suspended The British General Medical Council (GMC) has found family practitioner Michelle Langdon guilty of serious ... (986 words)

Nervousness based medicine Fear of litigation is a powerful stimulus to over-investigation and over treatment. In an atmosphere of litigation phobia, the only bad test is the test you didn't think of ... (1181 words)

Diffidence based medicine Some doctors see a problem and look for an answer. Others merely see a problem. The diffident doctor may do nothing from sense of despair. This, of course, may be better ... (914 words)

Providence based medicine If the caring practitioner has no idea of what to do next, the decision may be best left in the hands of the Almighty. Too many clinicians, unfortunately, are unable to ... (1523 words)

Yet Another Alternative to Evidence Based Medicine Eloquence based medicine The year round suntan, carnation in the button hole, silk tie, Armani suit and tongue should all be equally smooth. ... (1284 words)

Another Alternative to Evidence Based Medicine Vehemence based medicine: The substitution of volume for evidence is an effective technique for brow-beating your more timorous colleagues and for ... (1058 words)

Alternatives to Evidence Based Medicine I will detail these seven alternatives in forth-coming issues of the magazine. For now here is Eminence based medicine: The more senior the colleague, the less ... (1166 words)

Get in Now While the Getting's Good John Welch finds that the sexual abuse industry rolls on unabated. Sexual Abuse Rort ACC (aka "Aggrieved Clamouring Claimants") has thrown the doors wide open for ... (1132 words)

MBChB, DipAvMed, MRNZCGP, MRAes Warfare has always been stressful for its participants. Before the psychological impacts of the conflict in Afghanistan became apparent, our regular medical columnist ... (2328 words)

The Women's Weekly and Other Medical Journals Dr John Welch goes eyeball to eyeball with the iridologists, and takes a look at some famous faces Chiropractic Treatment of Infertility During idle ... (917 words)

Re-birthing Finale A Colorado colour therapist was jailed for 16 years after being found guilty of causing the death of a 16 year old girl. It must have been quite traumatic for the jury who watched ... (1072 words)

Recently returned from a posting in Saudi Arabia and now suffering from a cold and a bleeding nose, John Welch continues his column on medical matters. Dilutions of Grandeur As a Fellow of the Royal ... (910 words)

Quack Aids Remedies The Prevalence of HIV disease has continued to increase across the African continent and is a major public health concern due to cultural attitudes to sexuality and a degree of ... (1169 words)

Colon Cleansing Thanks to reader Alan Pickmere for drawing my attention to colon cleansing. In a radio advertisement Alan heard the claim that the average adult has up to 10kg of preservatives and ... (1301 words)

John Welch started writing for the magazine in Issue 16, but a posting with UNSCOM to Iraq meant he had to relinquish responsibility for the column. He is delighted to once again have the opportunity ... (1233 words)

Joint Manipulation An article in NCAHF reminded me of past activities with respect to joint manipulation. Following a one week course I embarked on a short-lived career in spinal manipulation which ... (2012 words)

Sickness and Psychogenic Illness The Canterbury ME (chronic fatigue syndrome, or CFS) are up in arms over proposed tighter controls on patients receiving both invalid and sickness benefits. CFS ... (2070 words)

No Medical Ghetto In the last issue I warned of the dangers of a medical ghetto developing on the Auckland North Shore. Fifty new doctors set up practice in Auckland last year and even more overseas ... (1361 words)

ACC Decisions The recent decision to award compensation to a lawyer who suffered depression because his bank loan was turned down is but one example of increasingly bizarre decisions by the ACC ... (1881 words)

NZ Qualifications Authority An editorial in the Christchurch Press (23 Nov 94) was critical of the Universities who are seeking approval from the NZQA and argued that they should continue to set ... (1495 words)

MSG Myth Laid to Rest Another sacred cow from my medical school days has been laid to rest. A letter in the New England Journal of Medicine in 1968 triggered a rash of anecdotal reports about facial ... (1690 words)

A Menu of Dietary Delusions Neither Nutrasweet nor sugar-rich diets produce any change in children's behaviour. (New England Journal of Medicine 330:301-307, 1994) The subjects were tested in a ... (1871 words)

Arthritis and Placebos In Skeptic 30, John Britten outlined the tragic results which can occur when patients fall into the clutches of quacks. In this case, a man with rheumatoid arthritis was not ... (1889 words)

Manipulation of the Colon Some time ago I remember reading a letter in the Listener from a frustrated doctor who accused the public of being medically illiterate. Sometimes I feel this way myself but ... (1589 words)

The sting Following his own empirical observations that bee "treatments" helped his arthritis, a Levin bee-keeper is claiming that he is being ignored by the medical profession. (Press 3/8/93) Not ... (1336 words)

Skin Lighteners The pop star Michael Jackson has denied that he uses chemicals to lighten his skin and claimed to be suffering from a disorder called "vitiligo," which is a spontaneous loss of skin ... (1528 words)

Quackery In the last issue I discussed how quackery can be practised by New Zealand doctors with impunity, "if they do so honestly and in good faith." Alaska has a similar clause which only ... (1839 words)

More on Chronic Fatigue Syndrome An American study reported in the GP Weekly (2 Sep 1992) found that chronic fatigue syndrome was indistinguishable from depressive disorders. (Refer also Skeptic 21) ... (2202 words)

Vitamins One of the techniques used by quacks is to attack conventional medicine as being a conspiracy against the laiety. For example, in an article entitled "GP says vitamins wrongly dismissed as ... (1416 words)

Last year there was an excellent article published in Metro magazine about a young boy, Kurt Boyle, with a mysterious illness causing paralysis. The family had featured earlier on the Holmes show ... (1060 words)

Myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME) has been described as epidemic neuromyasthenia, Iceland disease, Royal Free disease and post-infective fatigue syndrome. I will refer to it as chronic fatigue syndrome ... (1591 words)

It's beginning! I have long wondered when our health system would give in to public demands for fringe medicine, and I see that the West Auckland Health District has appointed a part-time naturopath ... (1265 words)

In issue 16, I reported on an AIDS treatment scam run by a British doctor, James Sharp, and an Iraqi vet. This had been exposed as such by an investigative journalist. Lancet Vol 1 No 8642 p856 An ... (1183 words)

RSI "Repetitive strain injury": an iatrogenic epidemic of simulated injury. This brilliant analysis is by Dr David Bell and examines the rapid rise in new cases which earned the condition the ... (911 words)