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)

Daniel Ryan reports from the front line of the battle against the anti-fluoridationists. The members of Fluoride Action Network NZ and its spin-off groups are vociferous about the urgent need to ... (1303 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)

_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)

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)

Flaky diagnostic tool fans toxin scare fire Hard on the heels of the Bent Spoon awarded to the Poisoning Paradise 'documentary', the NZ Herald has produced an appalling piece on alleged pesticide ... (1228 words)

Alison Campbell considers the evidence for the efficacy of parachutes. Recently a teacher sent me a paper titled: 'Parachute use to prevent death and major trauma related to gravitational challenge: ... (437 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)

Today, gonorrhoea infections in young girls are taken as certain evidence of sexual abuse. Yet there is an extensive but now-forgotten literature showing that this is not necessarily the case. This ... (4091 words)

Extravagant claims are often made for the health-giving effects of anti-oxidants in the foods we eat. But sorting out the truth from the hype is not at all easy. In the window of a health-food shop, ... (2199 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)

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)

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)

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)

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)

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)

Increased litigation will do nothing to reduce the rate of medical misadventure In a recent decision the Privy Council has ruled that a New Zealand patient dissatisfied with a diagnosis can take ... (1021 words)

This article was originally presented on National Radio's Sunday Supplement Be wary of "the health professional you see most often". In some cases be afraid, be very afraid. Why? Well in some cases, ... (734 words)

Dummy pills just the trick The best paper in New Zealand (Waikato Times, May 6 - and it's got nothing to do with the fact that I work there) reports that depressed patients tricked into thinking they ... (614 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)

False Memory re Subs? In the latest NZ Skeptic, beside the chair-entity's report, there is a false history of subscriptions. From written records: the sub was $10 for '86 to '88, then $20 for '89 to ... (703 words)

Not a Bad Start to the Millennium I'm pleased to welcome you officially to the 21st century, which I suspect will need Skeptics every bit as much as the last century, judging by the general level of ... (485 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)

It wasn't a dark and stormy night but a gaggle of skeptics got together recently to listen to ghost stories in Hamilton. Professional story teller Andrew Wright sent shivers down the groups' ... (438 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)

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)

The risks of third-generation contraceptive pills have been much in the news. But assessing risk can be a tricky business. Twenty-nine years ago, I was about a week into my first job as a doctor, as ... (3073 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)

At last year's conference, John Scott spoke on the problems of mixing misinformation and medicine. Early in my medical career I became aware of the enormous distorting forces which operate upon ... (2506 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)

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)

This is a copy of a presentation given to the New Zealand Skeptics 1995 Conference in Auckland When Denis Dutton asked me to prepare some comments on this topic he gave me a very wide brief covering, ... (5405 words)

Surprising results from a US study of the effectiveness of counselling on reducing juvenile crime. In the March NZ Skeptic, Dr John Welch's excellent column mentioned an article in the British ... (832 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)

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)

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)

Rejuvenation! The wish of many a tired old man, and not so old: to regain the physical and sexual vigour of youth. During the early decades of this century it was widely though not universally ... (1692 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)