A new group advocating a strong basis in rigorous science for the provision of safe and effective healthcare has been established in New Zealand. Mark Hanna explains. There is a lot of medical ... (930 words)

Pills & Potions at the Cotter Medical History Trust, by Claire le Couteur. Otago University Press, 2014. RRP $25. Reviewed by Vicki Hyde. I didn't know whether to laugh, cry or wince as I paged ... (427 words)

"Alkaline and hydrogen-rich" water is being touted as the latest cure-all. There is a sort of health shop in the Johnsonville Mall on the outside of which is this handsome sign: Which is intriguing. ... (819 words)

Alison Campbell learns some interesting facts about water chemistry Following recent events in Hamilton I've found myself involved in several debates on the merits of fluoridated water lately. This ... (712 words)

Siouxsie Wiles takes a look at a new medical journal - available at all good supermarkets. I'm a scientist. I know that the word journal has several meanings, but when I use it I'm referring to a ... (657 words)

Magnetic claims challenged Online claims that magnetic wrist and ankle bands have therapeutic benefits have had to be removed following a complaint to the Advertising Standards Authority (NZ Herald, ... (1234 words)

'Climategate' emails show case not closed Keith Muir (NZ Skeptic 109) ends "I rest my case." But he never makes a case; he only quotes opinion. This is unacceptable in Law or Science. The alarmists ... (515 words)

Iridologist's neglect led to 'avoidable' death A Te Horo iridologist breached the code of human rights and failed, as a healthcare provider, to give a Feilding grandmother proper care, the Human ... (1303 words)

Keith Garratt finds the NZ Homeopathic Society is capable of change. On 2 October 2013, I received this email: Dear Keith, We acknowledge receipt of your letter 16th September 2013. The changes you ... (1114 words)

A 'Wellness Festival' provides a couple of hours' entertainment, if not much more The stallholders at Porirua's inaugural Wellfest in August were a mixed bunch. Among the 50 or so displaying their ... (973 words)

Alison Campbell reviews Charlatan: America's Most Dangerous Huckster, the Man Who Pursued Him, and the Age of Flimflam, by Pope Brock. Three Rivers Press, New York. Goat glands, greed, and the ... (757 words)

Matthew Willey recalls the days before the internet, and an old friend My friend Maggie had a wasting, incurable illness. If that sounds awfully sad, well, it was. But we had a great friendship and ... (633 words)

Hormone supplements derived from plants are widely promoted as more 'natural' than hormones from horses, but they carry the same risks - and some more of their own. The New Zealand Menopause ... (786 words)

Alison Campbell thinks there are better ways to lose weight than one recently touted option. As I've said previously, I find Facebook good for keeping up with friends and family, and profoundly ... (646 words)

Vitamin C is essential to human health, but our understanding of its role has been perverted by practitioners of 'alternative' medicine. The 18th-century discovery that oral citrus juice can protect ... (3244 words)

Making a submission to a parliamentary committee proved to be a worthwhile exercise. When the Natural Health Products Bill was introduced to Parliament in September 2011 with cross-party support it ... (2317 words)

_This could be the shining hour Based on all those mad beliefs In the money oil and angel powder In the new age magazine_ Grant Lee Buffalo, The Shining Hour (1993) Law and medicine have much in ... (2752 words)

A fiasco over a 'Natural Therapy Clinic' at Wanganui Hospital was finally resolved satisfactorily - but for the wrong reasons. The attempted introduction of 'natural therapy' to Wanganui Hospital has ... (2686 words)

A new alternative treatment for Alzheimer's doing the rounds seems to be based on a misunderstanding of the underlying science. The title of this piece is a question posed by the 'health ... (634 words)

How to raise a psychic child All children are psychic, according to one of the stranger items to appear in the NZ Herald (30 May) for a while. Sue Bishop is described by writer (I hesitate to say ... (1334 words)

Gold takes local action against PowerBalance, with encouraging results. PowerBalance Bands are hideously expensive silicon rubber wristbands with a mylar hologram in them. PowerBalance, an American ... (469 words)

Alison Campbell learns how to fine-tune the universe with a didgeridoo. Recently a commenter on Orac's Respectful Insolence blog ( scienceblogs.com/insolence) mentioned the therapeutic use of ... (575 words)

'Suckers' feed on alternative health patients - literally The NZ Herald (10-14 January) must have been having trouble filling its pages during the silly season, looking at its recent series on ... (1235 words)

Proponents of alternative therapies often throw around charges of vested interest when challenged. But often their own interests don't bear scrutiny. As this is the first of what I hope will be a ... (1042 words)

A 'natural' way to manage teething pain has no plausible mechanism. Parents, especially new parents like myself, are a vulnerable group. We tend to be full of anxiety that we are doing the 'right ... (1235 words)

Homeopathic 'vaccines' on sale in New Zealand The website www.endohealth.co.nz is selling such items as homeopathic immunisation and travel kits. On offer are such remedies as Natrium Muriaticum 200C ... (632 words)

A learning difficulties programme that claims to re-train the cerebellum makes some impressive claims which don't stand close scrutiny. DORE is an organisation that claims to treat learning ... (2210 words)

Alison Campbell finds some claims about raw foods hard to swallow. I was reading a couple of articles about 'raw foods' today. This is 'raw foods' as in 'foods that you don't heat above 40°C in ... (572 words)

Fake bomb detector leads to deaths One of the main reasons for the success Al Qaeda has had in getting bombs past checkpoints in Iraq is that the main device used to detect explosives is a uselss ... (1276 words)

As part of the Memorandum of Understanding between the National and Green parties, the Ministry of Health has been developing proposals for a natural health products scheme to regulate such products ... (396 words)

NZ Skeptics link up with a British campaign against homeopathy. On January 30 there was a concerted global mass overdose - but no-one died because the 'medication' was homeopathic. The event grew ... (1451 words)

Noel Townsley continues our series on the psychic roadshows touring New Zealand. From a website to which I subscribe came an email notice of two upcoming events with "well-known psychic" Jeanette ... (3087 words)

A non-remedy for a non-disease I had to wait for my prescription at the pharmacy and while browsing the shelves noticed a new homeopathic remedy for white-tail spider bites. At $18.40 a small bottle ... (177 words)

This excerpt from an NZ Skeptic article of 20 years ago reviewed an evening with self-styled New Zealand 'magnetic healer' Colin Lambert. Presumably the pseudonym 'Alpha Beta' was used to minimise ... (475 words)

Loretta Marron exposes an Australian Australian alternative cancer therapist. On 26 February this year, trailers were run every hour throughout the day in Australia advertising the Channel Nine ... (638 words)

Save the rocks, say Celt theorists THOSE zany Ancient Celt people never give up, do they? Now they're campaigning to protect some boulders on a hillside at Silverdale, north of Auckland, due to be ... (1095 words)

A therapy marketed as a guaranteed way to stop smoking appears to lack a sound theoretical basis and to have little experimental support. As health researchers in the field of tobacco smoking ... (2402 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)

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)

Why is Canterbury University fostering an alternative therapy at its Health Centre? Should Canterbury University be funding pseudo-science? It was implied that this was occurring in a recent ... (1169 words)

A visit to the birthplace of science prompts some thoughts on spatial and temporal patterns in alternative medicine. There is no special reason for skeptics in New Zealand to follow news from ... (817 words)

Female 'sorcerers' tortured and murdered Four Papua New Guinea women, believed by fellow villagers to have used sorcery to cause a fatal road crash, were tortured with hot metal rods to confess, then ... (1225 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)

Mexican cancer clinics continue to do a roaring trade, despite their poor track record. When civil rights leader Martin Luther King was assassinated in 1968, the world lost a voice for decency and ... (744 words)

Early in 2005 Professor Kaye Ibbertson, the relentless grand vizier of the Marion Davis Library and Museum, asked David Cole to offer the Medical Historical Society some comments about the history of ... (2970 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)

This is the text of a letter sent to new Minister of Health Pete Hodgson in November 2005 by Keith Garratt, as a follow-up to his submission to the MACCAH committee in 2003. Dear Minister In ... (887 words)

Magnetic fields are no better for your water or your car than they are for your arthritis Powermax magnetic water-treatment conditioners have been controversial since they were introduced in New ... (754 words)

The Green Party does not have a good record when it comes to scepticism. In 2002, party co-leader Jeanette Fitzsimons was an ungracious winner of our bent spoon award for her support of "etheralised ... (799 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)

There's a stereotype of card-carrying members of the Skeptics Society that we're dour, humour-less, cynical nay-sayers; depressed Eeyores not cheerful Tiggers. Like most stereotypes, it's 95% wrong. ... (673 words)

The medical community in Britain is suffering a severe attack of lèse majesté, and it is feared some distinguished heads will roll on Tower Green. Prince Charles, in his untiring care for the health ... (474 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)

Bob Brockie samples a health food that saw the dinosaurs come and go We've all seen the claims - Spirulina! Nature's Health Solution! The World's Healthiest Superfood! Soulfood! "Spirulina - the ... (410 words)

A London-based New Zealander has been named "World Champion Worm Charmer" after a competition in Devon. Garry Trainer, from Auckland, won the award by convincing 51 worms to come to the surface of a ... (100 words)

Occasionally, the NZ Skeptics receive correspondence from members of the general public. Recently, Chairentity Vicki Hyde took the time to reply to one of these. Portions of the original letter are ... (2279 words)

A French test of a therapeutic touch practitioner generates sympathy, but no positive results We have recently received a message from OZ. Not transtasman Big Brother, but the cousins in France. OZ ... (569 words)

It began like any other Saturday morning, out of bed even later than on weekdays, a leisurely breakfast, dismembering the 10 sections of the Press, and settling to a good long read. It was then that ... (309 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)

Bob Brockie gets himself a qualification in acupuncture Last year a healthy anaesthesiologist, Dr Kinsinger, visited nine chiropractors in Oklahoma, claiming that his chest or back were playing up. ... (430 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)

Global Warming -- Where Should Skeptics Stand? Although I have been receiving free email alerts for a long time, I am a (very) new member. Among the goodies which I received a couple of days ago was ... (2218 words)

Dying is Bad for Business An Auckland law firm was going to court late last year (Dominion Post, November 1) to block the opening of a funeral parlour opposite it. Death (or dealing with it) offends ... (1267 words)

It may be time to expand the principles of the Hippocratic Oath First do no harm. That's the major principle of the doctor's Hippocratic Oath. For the most part, the public are well-served by that ... (735 words)

Vicki Hyde presents the Chair-entity's report for 2003 It's been another busy year, mostly working behind the scenes, with the occasional burst into the public arena. For the second year running, we ... (901 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)

Your Future is not in the Stars Level-headed Virgos everywhere will not be surprised, but a 40-year study of astrology has found it doesn't work (Dominion Post, August 19). More than 2000 people, ... (1369 words)

Traditional Chinese medical practitioners have given herbal remedies to Hong Kong Sars patients along with Western drugs, and public hospital officials said more patients might get similar treatment ... (308 words)

The Skeptics flyer on colloidal silver (see the resources section on the Website) prompted this interesting correspondence from a doctor dealing with it. Argyria and the whole food supplement issue ... (197 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)

The Word-based submission to the CAM discussion document which was sent out in our (NZCSICOP) name is now available for you to read at http://skeptics.org.nz/cam My apologies for not being able to ... (514 words)

ALTERNATIVE MEDICINE FOR DUMMIES, by James Dillard and Terra Diane Ziporyn. Hungry Minds, Inc. These books are all subtitled "A Reference for the Rest of Us!". Perhaps I'm prejudiced but as far as ... (783 words)

Australians turn up the Heat on Pan Breaking news as this issue goes to press (Waikato Times, April 30 and elsewhere) is the recall by Australia's Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) of 219 ... (1276 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)

Skeptics in the Greenhouse I attended the recent Christchurch Conference and greatly enjoyed the excellent standard of presentation and discussion. One small item, however, left me wondering about ... (777 words)

What name do you give to a quirky bunch of people who are scientifically literate, who question fads, and who want their beliefs to rest on evidence from the material world -- the sort of evidence ... (603 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)

Children & Quackery It is hard to be sure what Mike Houlding is on about in his rather opaque letter but I gather that he is lumping the use of clairvoyants, homoeopathic remedies and ADHD under ... (486 words)

Snake Oil And Other Preoccupations, by John Diamond. Vintage, 2001, $29.95 I recently reviewed for NZ Skeptic this author's previous book (C: Because Cowards Get Cancer Too), which described his ... (377 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)

When I spoke at the conference two and a half years ago, argument was rife as to when the next millennium would begin. Now, there is no doubt we are well launched into the third thousand-year period ... (1818 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)

Smile for the camera Singaporean ghostbusters are turning to hi-tech equipment as they search for paranormal phenomena, reports the Evening Post (September 9). Singapore Paranormal Investigators say ... (729 words)

This Bravo Award-winning item originally appeared as the editorial in the March 23 issue of the New Zealand Medical Journal Is it time for the government to investigate a glaring anomaly in our ... (1677 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)

The placebo effect has long been of interest to skeptics for its presumed role in alternative medicine. The Skeptics' Dictionary (http://www.skepdic.com) has a lengthy entry, describing a placebo as ... (527 words)

Because Cowards get Cancer too, by John Diamond, Random House, 1998 So John Diamond is dead; at age 47 killed by his tongue cancer. He may not be well known in New Zealand, but was a popular ... (922 words)

Aoraki Polytechnic has paid former naturopathy students $515 000 for falsely advertising their course had degree status. The students were seeking $4 million in compensation. The long-running dispute ... (90 words)

John Riddell Even in a secular age, it's hard to surrender the religious habits of old Back when our ancestors lived in caves, life was frightening. Anything could kill you. Lions, earthquakes or ... (1234 words)

A new book on alternative medicine has little to add Last year, I wrote to the Minister of Health protesting at her plans to spend $600 000 on a Ministerial Enquiry into Complementary Medicine. Press ... (936 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)

Vicki Hyde presents the year 2000 chair-entity's Report I'm pleased that we all appear to have survived the Millennium melt-down and will have to wait another thousand years for the sky to fall in. ... (592 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)

This year's Bent Spoon Award from the NZ Skeptics has been won by Wellington Hospital for encouraging their nursing staff to claim special healing powers through the laying on of hands. Frankly, I ... (354 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)

Wellington's Healing Touch I was interested to read a recent article in the NZ Skeptic on Healing Touch, as I am a consultant anaesthetist at Wellington Hospital. When I heard this "service" was to ... (340 words)

As Professor Cole explained at the last Skeptics' Conference, "Quantum Booster"-like devices have been around a long time. If you include the Roman physician, Scribonius, who treated patients with ... (2166 words)

Medical Skepticism Skepsis's last article on Menopause Madness [Skeptic 53] reminded me of my recent prescribing of progesterone cream for a well informed patient at her request. The good GP I am (I ... (427 words)

Firstly, I must commend the September 1999 Midland Renal Service Nephrology newsletter. It warned that anyone presenting with unexplained or worsening kidney disease should be questioned about their ... (713 words)

In which John Riddell continues his pub night discussions. Chiropractic and the sin of Onan If you are potentially offendable, and litigious, please do not read this. That said, I was at the pub ... (954 words)

It's my right as a parent to decide what is best for my child. After all, I'm a caring parent who dearly loves her children and would do only what is best for them. Sounds reasonable? But what if I ... (523 words)

Menopausal Madness In the wake of the green-lipped mussel debacle, the Australian Menopause Society (AMS) convened an expert panel of doctors to discuss controversial areas of menopausal medicine. ... (580 words)

TVNZ's Holmes show has taken this year's Bent Spoon Award from the New Zealand Skeptics for promoting extraordinary and untested claims regarding cancer treatments. "We were appalled to see the ... (464 words)

Well, that's another year in the "hot" seat, and more "interesting" times. I've had over 250 messages in my Skeptics email folder build up since January, and that's only the ones I wanted to keep. It ... (554 words)

When the Holmes programme showcased the new "healing touch" service operated by Wellington Hospital, we swung into action with the following fax: September 21, 1999 Dear Mr Holmes, In your item on ... (1015 words)

THE 1999 Skeptics Conference in Auckland was a conference looking for a theme, and in the end none presented itself. We ended up with an eclectic mix of papers, ranging from "Reading Cats' Paws" (Ken ... (680 words)

Winter is here, and it's time for all good skeptics to heed the call and flock to Auckland for the annual conference, where illuminating conversation and inspired addresses await. And then the same ... (646 words)

More from last year's Skeptics conference. A Relatively recent development in Western society has been the increased popularity of health foods and dietary supplements. While initially these health ... (1490 words)

CHINESE CANCER THERAPY. This title of a modest advertisement in the Sunday Star-Times last September caught my eye. Two statements in the ad surprised me: the first, that "usually only three ... (852 words)

ONCE again the medical profession has made a mess of its relations with the public, and I'm not talking about Gisborne smear takers. Little Liam's folks have made a right monkey out of the doctors. ... (554 words)

Fat Chance I START with another example of chemists' lack of ethics and the gullibility of the public. In November 28 issue of the Listener, the ever suspicious Pamela Stirling did a good expose on ... (713 words)

AS A CONFIRMED, but lightweight, sceptic, I have had to endure many jibes from friends and colleagues as I questioned information reported in the newspapers and on the news. Equally, I have had to ... (602 words)

Think Big Hypnotist Lawrence Follas claims he can increase the size of a client's bust by telling her to imagine her breasts are growing (Sunday News 24 May). He says his client's breasts have grown ... (790 words)

Often Overacting Syndrome A ruse by any other name smells just as fishy, and it seems RSI, OOS and OOI are good examples, if a UK surgeon is to be believed. According to Murray Matthewson, the ... (915 words)

EMILY ROSA of Loveland, Colorado, designed and carried out an experiment two years ago that challenges a leading treatment in alternative medicine. Her study, reported in the Journal of the American ... (840 words)

When I was young enough to think Dr Who was scary, I remember thinking it was good to live in times when people didn't believe in superstitions anymore. Recently, US taxpayers coughed up US$350,000 ... (1208 words)

Quack Croaks Perhaps it's a coincidence, but many experts in non-proven schemes fall on their own swords. For example, Hoxsey died of cancer, and recently a Lower Hutt clairvoyant went bankrupt (due ... (1089 words)

Annette Taylor spends an afternoon checking out the alternatives. IF THERE was any doubt as to whether we'd found the right place, the music drifting on the wind guaranteed we were approaching ... (844 words)

Some problems cannot be resolved by just "getting it all out of your system", reports Nigel Hawkes. COUNSELLING, the 1990s remedy for life's problems, is ineffective when used on its own to help ... (596 words)

Sharma Karma Another "I've seen the light" American quack whizzed through New Zealand recently, spreading his own magical brew of antioxidants, lacto-vegetarian diets, bioFlavonoid herbs, and, wait ... (868 words)

John Riddell spends a lot of time in the pub. Ask his wife. Often, over a pint or two, some bloke or blokess spouts forth some new age dogma which naturally requires correction.. Now a seasoned ... (982 words)

In the first of a new series, Tauranga GP Neil McKenzie comments on recent examples of pseudoscience relating to medicine. BEING a busy GP, running a jazz band, playing hockey and squash, and ... (1227 words)

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THE line which sharply demarks mainstream medicine from alternative medicine is the line of science. It is possible to cross that line, however. Any alternative treatment which is tested in a ... (2405 words)

_A crown-of-thorns starfish can cause severe pain if the spines penetrate your skin. Local remedies include placing the offending animal over the injury, presumably in the belief that the sucker feet ... (406 words)

At the Skeptics' conference we were treated to one official's view of the status of scientific medicine relative to alternative treatment systems and beliefs. This presentation reinforced many of our ... (872 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)

Hypnosis TV3 on 20/20 at 8.30pm on Monday 19/06/95 screened an American story titled "A State of Mind". Extravagant claims were made about the medical significance of hypnosis and its therapeutic ... (1059 words)

For a host of reasons which the NZ Skeptic will examine further in a later issue, the so-called "natural health" industry is enjoying a remarkable resurgence. One cannot refute the argument that we ... (1618 words)

Recent issues of the Skeptic have contained expressions of puzzlement at some subjects being taught to tertiary students in New Zealand. The worst example is the Degree in Naturopathy planned for ... (895 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)

Tertiary institutes around the country are beginning to offer courses, and even entire degrees, in subjects that are pure pseudoscience. The Aoraki Polytechnic has applied to the New Zealand ... (1859 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)

A couple of weeks before my medical finals late last year I sat down in the waiting area of the Christchurch rheumatology clinic. I struck up conversation with the only other person there, a man in ... (1033 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)

A jury which in August ordered the Christian Science church to pay $US5.2 million ($NZ9.6 million) in damages in the diabetes death of an 11-year-old boy followed this by adding a further $US9 ... (209 words)

In the medical magazine Patient Management, Denis Dutton last year presented a tongue-in-cheek account of how GPs might incorporate alternative techniques into their practices. The article generated ... (910 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)

"Mind my left ear." cautioned Mrs X, "there's a needle in it." "A needle?" I said, combing up a section of hair on the side of her head to check it out. "An acupuncture needle," she said. Sure ... (832 words)

A CSICOP video library is run by Alastair Bricknell, RD2 Kuaotunu, Whitianga. Tapes may be hired for the cost of postage and packing, around $5 (extra donations gratefully accepted). Homeopathy -- ... (372 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)

Sometimes feeling better isn't a good sign at all... Carl Wyant recalls an occasion when faith healing showed itself better at handling symptoms than causes. The following story is true; the names ... (576 words)

Not surprisingly, the awarding of the Bent Spoon to Consumer magazine saw a vigorous defence mounted by the Consumers' Institute. David Russell, chief executive of the institute, has said on a number ... (1056 words)

The Bent Spoon Award this year created more controversy than usual when it was awarded to Consumer magazine. Why did we feel it necessary to bite our consumer watchdog? I was pleased when my copy of ... (2632 words)

A colouring book for young patients of chiropractors says "A is for alligator and adjustment. B is for bells and for back. C is for caterpillar and for chiropractor. D is for dog and for doctor." The ... (2876 words)

I was struggling with the vacuum hose to reach an awkward corner of the kitchen. "What's wrong? Afraid to bend your back?" my wife asked. I felt a little pain and it didn't go away. It got worse, ... (514 words)