Here are some common medical myths that are easy to dispel: We Only use 10% of our brain This is a fairly innocuous start to the list. As with any truth claim, it's good to come at this one through ... (1686 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 heartstring-tugging appeal in the NZ Herald doesn't tell the full story. Jesse Bessant is a little boy from Auckland with a very rare brain tumour. He has a ganglioglioma, a tumour that arises from ... (765 words)

Autism paper binned Twelve years after it induced panic among parents world-wide, a paper linking the measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine to autism has been withdrawn (NZ Herald, 4 February). The ... (1184 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)

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)

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)

Placebos may contain no active ingredients, but they have real effects on the human brain. This article is based on a presentation to the NZ Skeptics 2008 conference in Hamilton, September 26-28. ... (2648 words)

Many pharmaceuticals originate from nature, but their development is very different from that of so-called natural health products. This article was originally presented at the 2005 Skeptics ... (1839 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)

Pseudoscientific beliefs can be dangerous when they form the basis of government policy In my last column, I mentioned that conspiracy thinker Phillip Day travels the world (he again toured New ... (775 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)

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)

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)

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)

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)

Ritalin and ADHD Professor JS Werry deserves thanks for his contribution in these pages regarding the present use/abuse of methylphenidate (Ritalin) and ADHD. Despite the Professor's reassurances ... (443 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)

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)

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)

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)

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)

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)

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)

Many moons ago I packed into a dimmed lecture theatre along with 400 other keen-eyed stage I psych students to listen to a presentation on psychic ability. The mood was festive - it was almost the ... (466 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)

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)

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)

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)

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)

Soft Targets Like Noel O'Hare, I attended the September Skeptics' conference. Noel, winner of an NZ Skeptics Bravo Award "for critical analysis and common sense for his health column throughout ... (760 words)

Counselling, Criticism and Skepticism I was interested to read the letters by Jim Ring and Felicity Goodyear-Smith to my article with the above title [NZ Skeptic 47]. Jim reiterates his view that the ... (1142 words)

NEW AGE theory holds that practically all cultures had a tradition of using medicines (mostly herbal) and that there is a danger that "Western medicine" will replace these, so losing irreplaceable ... (1167 words)

THERE'S no denying it. We're a strange lot. Sitting in the small hall during the annual Skeptics get-together and listening to the varied, and often colourful, discussion, it struck me how dissimilar ... (615 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)

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)

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)

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)

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)

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)

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)

On Thursday, 19 August 1993, the Christchurch Press carried a full-page advertisement for the initial New Zealand opening of the "Matrol Opportunity". The product, Matrol-Km, was described as "a ... (1897 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)

Many people will remember Dr Bill Morris's entertaining autobiographical talk at the last Skeptics' conference in Wellington. From his presentation, we extract this discussion of what is still the ... (1651 words)

Lewis Jones Can a cotton wristband and a plastic button alleviate seasickness? The British Consumer's Association thinks so, but scientific evidence indicates otherwise. The sea has always brought ... (1288 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)