SleepDrops is a New Zealand company which sells small vials of liquid drops which are supposed to help you get to sleep and stay asleep. Their ingredients are a mixture of small doses of herbs and ... (485 words)

The NHS recently decided to stop funding homeopathy. Until recently, taxpayers' money was used in the UK to fund homeopathic hospitals (in London, Bristol, Glasgow, Liverpool and Tunbridge Wells) and ... (206 words)

An organised group of homeopaths offering bogus treatments for autism has been written about in the Guardian newspaper in the UK. The article talks about how more than 120 homeopaths in the UK are ... (346 words)

Georgian College in Toronto has cancelled a course in homeopathy, due to negative feedback. The proposed new course was going to cost about $5,000 a term, and included a module on homeopathic ... (93 words)

One of the issues with fundraising sites like IndieGogo and Kickstarter is that there's a lack of adequate oversight to ensure that the products being offered are actually plausible. Sometimes things ... (267 words)

Homeopathic products are made by diluting a substance that causes similar symptoms to the condition they're meant to treat. In the case of Hyland's Teething Tablets, that substance is belladonna, ... (172 words)

Here's a press release that was sent out recently about a complaint I'd made to the ASA. As a result of the complaint, we uncovered the fact that Medsafe "grandfathered" in over a thousand of ... (477 words)

Mark Hanna at the Society for Science Based Healthcare has complained recently about the Napier Courier's column written by a local homeopathy business, called "Homeopathy Hub". the weekly column ... (294 words)

Mark Hanna at the Society for Science Based Healthcare has complained recently about the Napier Courier's column written by a local homeopathy business, called "Homeopathy Hub". the weekly column ... (172 words)

A petition on change.org has been signed by 1,000 vets asking for the UK to blacklist homeopathy as a treatment that vets can prescribe for animals. Over 2,500 people have signed it in all. Danny ... (200 words)

Last year professor Paul Glasziou from Bond University in Australia headed up a team that wrote a systematic review of systematic reviews on homeopathy as part of a report for Australia's National ... (355 words)

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)

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)

Vicki Hyde announces the Bent Spoon and Bravo Awards for 2012. CONSUMER magazine has won its second Bent Spoon Award from the NZ Skeptics for continuing to promote homeopathic products as a viable ... (566 words)

Scientologists get government money A drug awareness programme run by the Church of Scientology has received government funding to spread its views through schools and community groups (Sunday Star ... (1174 words)

Having a basic knowledge of the principles of chemistry can help one evade the pitfalls of many pseudosciences - but it's not infallible. This article is based on a presentation to the 2011 NZ ... (2610 words)

Top scientist turns to alternative medicine Prominent physicist and science commentator Sir Paul Callaghan is resorting to vitamin C megadoses and Chinese medicine to treat his terminal cancer ... (1250 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)

Fault is with Creationism Bernard Beckett (Skeptic 95 , p8) says the ability of Creationism to make the same predictions as evolutionary psychology shows that the latter is not a scientific process. ... (145 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)

Martin Wallace particularly likes two of the five definitions of 'pitfall' in the OED: A trap or crafty device to catch by surprise the unsuspecting or unwary Any hidden or unperceived danger or ... (2099 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)

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)

More bad news for homeopaths The leading medical journal The Lancet recently published yet another analysis of trials of homeopathy. After examining 110 such trials, the Swiss researchers concluded ... (558 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)

The Tertiary Education Commission was suffering from "dilutions of grandeur" when they identified homeopathic training as a nationally important strategic priority for New Zealand. That's the reason ... (458 words)

A widely publicised trial which appeared to show prayer was effective in enhancing fertility now appears to have been fraudulent. In 2001 an extraordinary paper, from the highly regarded Columbia ... (908 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)

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)

Government hypocrisy is rife amid the talk of a "knowledge-based economy" Homeopathy does not work. There is no debate about this fact among rational, informed people. Homeopathy is a sham system of ... (769 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)

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)

Death was "the Biggest Gift" A Feng Shui practitioner who died while on a life mastery course in Fiji was ready to leave his body, his widow believes. Stephanie Challis, pictured in the Nelson Mail ... (1345 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)

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)

More Brocken sightings I enjoyed Jim Ring's "the Spectre of Kahurangi" (Autumn 2001). In Kahurangi National Park there is a bridge called "Brocken Bridge", quite close to Ghost Creek. Could this be ... (932 words)

There has been a considerable easing of international tensions since the dark days of the mid-twentieth century. John Riddell thinks he knows why. Take Two Dictators and Call Me in the Morning AT the ... (702 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)

Bernard Howard proposes an answer to a curly question. During the recent drought I was asked by a friend if I could explain why her cucumbers were growing with such a pronounced bend. Some indeed ... (196 words)

Creationist Tactics I am sure Jim Ring is correct when he says we are on the winning side of the creationist battle [Forum, Summer 1997], but there is no room for complacency. As he says, the ... (1298 words)

Creationism Again Ten or twenty years ago, prominent overseas creationists once toured in a blaze of publicity. They spoke in public schools and received plenty of air time on National Radio and ... (464 words)

Two Nobel prizewinners are being sued for libel by Jacques Benveniste, the controversial French scientist whose research on the "memory of water", first published in 1988, appeared to provide a ... (422 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)

Skeptics can take an active stance in their daily lives, according to this abridged version of the Chair-entity's after-dinner speech from the Conference. It's been four years since I stood before a ... (2409 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)

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)

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)

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)

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)

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)