Holford Watch in the BMJ! (OK, in a BMJ rapid response)

I’ve previously written about Holford’s failure to declare his competing interests when submitting a BMJ rapid response. I’m pleased to say that the BMJ have now posted a rapid response from me (as well as an excellent post from the dietician Catherine Collins). Cool – Holford Watch, as featured in the BMJ! OK, as featured in a rapid response on the BMJ website…

Anyway, I’ll reproduce my rapid response below:

Patrick Holford argues that he did not need to declare any competing interests in his first rapid response to this article because he does not “run an Indian restaurant [and therefore] didn’t feel there were any conflicts involved in recommending curry”. However, Holford does acknowledge that he owns shares in Health Products for Life (a company which sells Curcumin, extracted from tumeric).

In his first rapid response, Holford states that “1834 studies are cited in PubMed on turmeric or curcumin, thought to be the active ingredient in this spice, many of which demonstrate clear anti- inflammatory and immune enhancing properties, 648 of which relate specifically, and consistently, to it’s anti-cancer properties”. I would therefore argue that shares in a company that sells curcumin supplements are a competing interest – and should have been declared as such from the start.