NZ Skeptics Articles

Articles tagged with "doctor"

Dr Sam Bailey: viruses and germs don't exist!

7 February 2022

Another person I've written about in the past is Dr Sam Bailey. To refresh your memory, she's a doctor, previously practising as a GP, based in Christchurch. She appeared on a TVNZ medical show - The Check Up.

The Girouard Sting

13 December 2021

No doubt this week you will have seen the “sting” executed by Paddy Gower from Newshub.

Stolen Identity Keto pill Scam

7 December 2020

The ABC News website published a story about a keto pill scam using a famous (in Australia) NZ born TV Doctor (Dr Brad McKay) to promote their nonsense without his knowledge. Dr McKay was not happy with the fact they had stolen his identity to promote their products, but is still struggling to get the posts removed as Facebook has given him the equivalent of a sorry-about-that shrug and taken no action. He has approached multiple authorities and agencies in Australia but (at the time of writing) is still waiting to hear back from them.

News Front

1 November 2019

Skeptic summary: A brilliant piece on CEASE therapy, the bogus autism 'cure' made from watered down vaccines. CEASE stands for the Complete Elimination of Autisim Spectrum Expression, and was invented by a homeopath, Tinus Smits, who followed the basic (false) principal of homeopathy that like cures like. So assuming that vaccines and toxins cause autisim (which they don't—the cause is still unknown, and there is no link between vaccines and autism), it was thought that diluting vaccines and toxins (which ones?) would cure autism.

Can natural health products be bad for you?

28 October 2018

Herbal remedies are very popular these days, with many pharmacies in New Zealand happy to promote products that don't work as treatments for medical conditions, or even just as a preventative measure - a way of keeping healthy.

Forum

1 February 2009

Nikos Petousis, in his article Skepticism Greek-style answers many questions which have previously puzzled me, for which I thank him sincerely.

Hokum Locum

1 May 2008

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 two glasses of wine went out again, and failed an EBA. He argued that "the moderate amount he had drunk was not enough to have put him over the limit." He claimed that an alcohol-based hand wash had been absorbed by his skin. What was he doing? Drinking it?

Newsfront

1 November 2003

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).

Going Grey with Colloidal Silver

1 August 2003

The Skeptics flyer on colloidal silver (see the resources section on the Website) prompted this interesting correspondence from a doctor dealing with it.

Hokum Locum

1 November 2000

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 toxic waste in their colon. The actor, John Wayne had 20kg removed at autopsy, doubtless dating from the time spent venting his spleen against commie actors facing Senator Joe McCarthy's inquisition. Come to think of it, perhaps he should have "vented" more often.

A Bitter Pill?

1 August 2000

The risks of third-generation contraceptive pills have been much in the news. But assessing risk can be a tricky business.

Skepsis

1 August 1998

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 condition, whatever you choose to call it, is not what it's cracked up to be.

Hokum Locum

1 August 1994

Neither Nutrasweet nor sugar-rich diets produce any change in children's behaviour. (New England Journal of Medicine 330:301-307, 1994)

Hokum Locum

1 February 1994

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 it is not a good practice to attack one's audience. Public education cannot be achieved within the context of traditional ten-minute medical consultations compared with quacks who may spend up to an hour providing mis-information. Drug companies are on record as cynically exploiting a gullible public eg. "...neither government agencies nor industry, including the supplement industry, should be protecting people from their own stupidity".

Hokum Locum

1 February 1993

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) Patients diagnosed as having CFS were likely to believe that their illness had a viral cause, but it is more likely that CFS is a new age variant of the 19th century neurasthenia.1

D is for Dog, and for Doctor

1 August 1992

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 latter two may have more in common than is apparent at first glance.

Hokum Locum

1 August 1992

One of the techniques used by quacks is to attack conventional medicine as being a conspiracy against the laiety.

Hokum Locum

1 February 1992

Myocardial infarction (heart attack, coronary thrombosis) is commonly caused by a blood clot blocking one of the three coronary arteries supplying blood to the heart muscle. It is the commonest cause of death (4,000 p.a.) in New Zealand and other Western countries. Specialists have long wondered whether early administration of a fibrinolytic (blood clot dissolving drug) would reduce mortality.

Medical Roundup

1 May 1991

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.

Medical roundup

1 August 1990

A recent leading article in The New Zealand Medical Journal looked at Diet and Behaviour. Food intolerance was strongly associated with the mother's level of education. A little knowledge is a dangerous thing? As regards the putative link between sugar and problem behaviours the article says "'...it is just as likely that restless or aggressive children seek out more sugar as that sugar causes the inappropriate behaviour." The authors conclude "...it should be recognized that modification of a particular child's diet is almost always accompanied by changes in management."

Conference Postscript

1 August 1988

Since the August meeting I have had a number of letters (six to be precise), hardly an avalanche, but they raise some interesting points.

Need Doctors Cringe?

1 August 1987

When I entered medicine more than fifty years ago, few maladies could be effectively treated. Lobar pneumonia, diabetes, pernicious anaemia, malaria and a few others. Patients with other disorders received careful medical attention while the illness ran its natural course,' unless the doctor made it worse. A warm relationship with the doctor eased the burden of serious illness for the patient and his family. Relentless killers which raged then have now vanished; poliomyelitis, tuberculosis, diphtheria, syphilis and smallpox. Childbirth was hazardous to mother and baby. There was no specific treatment for psychotic illness. Psychiatric research related mainly to taxonomy. A quarter of asylum inmates had general paresis, which killed them in a few years; today, thanks to penicillin, it is rare. 50 years ago, surgeons could treat many life-endangering conditions. They thought that physicians were pretentious tinkerers whose professional high spot was a brilliant diagnosis confirmed by a brilliant post-mortem.