August 25th, 2008 by Ben Goldacre in podcast, onanism, placebo, bad science | 29 Comments »
So tonight at 9pm on BBC Radio 4 (Monday) you can hear the second episode of my two-part miniseries on the placebo effect, one of the most effective and neglected evidence based treatments known to man.
In this show we look at the ethical and practical implications of research into the placebo effect, and discuss whether it’s okay - or even necessary - to lie to patients. The answer, from me at any rate, is “no”. Read the rest of this entry »
August 23rd, 2008 by Ben Goldacre in placebo, bad science | 33 Comments »
Ben Goldacre
The Guardian,
Saturday August 23 2008
What I particularly enjoy is the spectacle of fat people – ideally drinking beer – watching television, while somewhere on the other side of the world citizens of all nations are getting some nice exercise in the Olympics (throwing javelins, jumping over metal bars, climbing lamp posts with banners, and running away from the water cannon). These are the people I imagine paying for gyms they never visit, while I am cheerfully cycling to work and carrying the shopping up the stairs. Read the rest of this entry »
August 18th, 2008 by Ben Goldacre in onanism, placebo, bad science | 38 Comments »
I’ve been so busy I completely failed to spot that this show went out earlier this evening. It’s a smashing programme I made with Matt Silver from the BBC Radio 4 Science Unit on the placebo effect.
We charge through some of the most fun experiments in the field, and in part two we get all philosophical about what it means for mankind. Read the rest of this entry »
August 16th, 2008 by Ben Goldacre in publication bias, bad science | 29 Comments »
Ben Goldacre
The Guardian
August 16, 2008
There’s not exactly a whole bunch of news going on right now. According to the Mail we are witnessing the “Invasion of the killer jellyfish” (except Portuguese Men O’ War have been reported on British shores since at least 2003), the hunt for the Yeti continues, and there’s always room for another “equation for” story.
Read the rest of this entry »
August 9th, 2008 by Ben Goldacre in badscience, pseudodiagnoses, detox, homeopathy, nutritionists, quantum physics, bad science | 60 Comments »
Ben Goldacre
The Guardian,
Saturday August 9 2008
Silly season is in full swing. At the Telegraph, their correspondent has gone for a bioenergetic health audit. “The resident homoeopath, Katie Jermine, quizzed me about my diet, stress levels and lifestyle. She then strapped on a wristband and plugged me into an electronic device called the Quantum QXCI, which scanned my system for vitamins, minerals, food intolerances, toxicity, organ function, hormone balance, parasites, digestive disorders and stress levels.”
Read the rest of this entry »
August 8th, 2008 by Ben Goldacre in laws, stifling criticism, alternative medicine | 20 Comments »
The CAM world meets a new all time low this week - even by their own standards - as the New Zealand Chiropractors Association threaten the New Zealand Medical Journal with legal action for criticising their ideas and practice.
Read the rest of this entry »
August 5th, 2008 by Ben Goldacre in onanism | 13 Comments »
Admin note really, do ignore. Sorry to be busy elsewhere Read the rest of this entry »
August 2nd, 2008 by Ben Goldacre in cash-for-"stories", celebs, bad science | 20 Comments »
Ben Goldacre
guardian.co.uk
Saturday August 2 2008
It must be August. The Daily Mail is hunting for the Yeti again (they sent their own expedition out in 1954) and mathematical formula season has begun in earnest. PR guru Mark Borkowski’s “fame formula” was gushingly reported in the Telegraph, the Express, the Star, OK, Channel 4, ITN, and more. The Guardian were lucky enough to obtain the rights to extract his book at length, focusing on the formula. I trust the deal permits me also to reproduce large tracts of it here.
Read the rest of this entry »
July 25th, 2008 by Ben Goldacre in media, regulating nonsense, BANT, dangers, detox, nutritionists, telegraph, alternative medicine | 64 Comments »
Ben Goldacre
The Guardian,
Saturday July 26 2008
Like many professions who kill people with some regularity, doctors have elaborate systems for seeing what went wrong afterwards, and the answer is rarely “Brian did it”. This week the papers have been alive with criticism for quack nutritionism after the case of Dawn Page, a 52 year old mother of two who ended up being treated on intensive care, with seizures brought on by sodium deficiency, and left with permanent brain damage, after following the advice of “nutritional therapist” Barbara Nash. She denies liability. Her insurers paid out £810,000.
I will now defend the nutritional therapist Barbara Nash. Read the rest of this entry »
July 19th, 2008 by Ben Goldacre in badscience, telegraph, nutritionists, bad science | 47 Comments »
Ben Goldacre
The Guardian,
Saturday July 26 2008
The newspapers are so profoundly overrun with pseudoscience about food that there’s no point in documenting it any longer. They will continue with their Sisyphean task of dividing all the inanimate objects in the world into the ones that either cause or cure cancer, and I will sit at the sidelines, making that joke over and over again.
This week, however, the Telegraph, which has lost its science editor and its science correspondent in two months, deserves special attention, because two of its food stories went beyond stupid, and managed to give actively harmful information. Read the rest of this entry »
So tonight at 9pm on BBC Radio 4 (Monday) you can hear the second episode of my two-part miniseries on the placebo effect, one of the most effective and neglected evidence based treatments known to man.
