HolfordWatch has just learned that Patrick Holford has resigned his post of Visiting Professor at Teesside; a call to Teesside confirms that the reception don’t have a record of any Professor Holford at the University. We don’t have any more details at the moment: we will post information as it arrives.
Clearly, this is good news: Holford does not produce professorial-standard work. We trust that Holford will update his CV ASAP, and that Teesside will soon put out a press release to clarify the situation.
It should, however, be emphasised that – while there is much excellent work on nutrition carried out at Teesside, in the School of Health and Social Care – there remains real cause for concern. For example, Teesside’s Cactus Clinic (in the School of Social Sciences and Law) suggests that children with ADHD might identify food intolerance “using a simple pinprick of the finger”; however, there is (unfortunately) no reliable pin-prick test that can diagnose the range of food intolerances.
We are pleased to hear that Holford has resigned his Visiting Professorship at Teesside. However, we would emphasise that there is much work for Teesside to do if they are to repair the damage to their reputation: there is a real need for the University to end its association with non-evidence-based approaches to nutrition, and instead work to enhance its reputation for good quality research which can feed into evidence-based practice.
UPDATE: We have now received an e-mail from a reliable source, telling us that Teesside’s Cactus Clinic has ceased to operate. This is welcome news: while it is always sad to think that people may lose work, it was not appropriate for Cactus to apply non-evidenced-based approaches to treating children as seemed to be the case with the nutritional assessment programme, and having it act in this way was not good for Teesside’s reputation. We are awaiting confirmation as to the details of this change: for example, whether Cactus will continue to function in any form away from the University. There is no information about the closure or change of affiliation on the Uni of Teesside Cactus Clinic information page.
80 Comments
June 29, 2008 at 7:09 pm
[...] 29, 2008 · No Comments Former Visiting Professor Patrick Holford but still Head of Science and Education at Biocare is keen on promoting the value of his 100%health [...]
July 8, 2008 at 5:14 pm
[...] 8, 2008 · No Comments CAM Magazine has – to their credit – run a news item covering Patrick Holford’s resignation of his visiting professorship at Teesside University. In the July edition, CAM Magazine reports that “Holford’s appointment outraged [...]
July 8, 2008 at 9:54 pm
[...] who can forget the extraordinary, mis-guided and unjustified attack that former Visiting Professor Patrick Holford who is still Head of Science and Education at Biocare made on the integrity of the authors of a [...]
July 12, 2008 at 7:58 pm
[...] 12, 2008 · No Comments Former Visiting Professor Patrick Holford is still, unaccountably, Head of Science and Education at Biocare. This senior appointment might [...]
July 14, 2008 at 1:25 pm
[...] 14, 2008 · No Comments Former Visiting Professor Patrick Holford is still, unaccountably, Head of Science and Education at Biocare although Biocare prides itself on [...]
July 15, 2008 at 6:18 pm
[...] so we have replaced it with the JKN version. Original link. We should mention that Holford is now a former Visiting Professor at the University of Teesside, following his [...]
July 16, 2008 at 3:17 am
[...] 16, 2008 · No Comments Former Visiting Professor Patrick Holford is still Head of Science and Education at Biocare. We look at Holford’s advice in [...]
July 23, 2008 at 7:40 pm
[...] 23, 2008 · No Comments Former Visiting Professor Patrick Holford is still Head of Science and Education at Biocare so presumably they must believe that he enhances [...]
July 26, 2008 at 5:07 pm
[...] 26, 2008 · No Comments Former Visiting Professor Patrick Holford is still Head of Science and Education at Biocare so presumably they must believe that he enhances [...]
August 1, 2008 at 2:17 am
[...] 1, 2008 · No Comments Patrick Holford and Bioharmony advertFormer Visiting Professor Patrick Holford is still Head of Science and Education at Biocare. This senior appointment might give the wary some [...]
August 3, 2008 at 12:56 pm
[...] have previously noted that former Visiting Professor Patrick Holford has been Head of Science and Education at Biocare since 2007. Given Holford’s documented [...]
August 5, 2008 at 3:51 pm
[...] offers you an example of this phenomenon. You may recall that former Visiting Professor Patrick Holford is not only part of Biocare’s crack team of “qualified nutritionists and [...]
August 11, 2008 at 3:32 am
[...] 11, 2008 · No Comments Former Visiting Professor Patrick Holford is still Head of Science and Education at Biocare so presumably they must believe that he enhances [...]
August 21, 2008 at 6:46 pm
[...] 21, 2008 · No Comments Former Visiting Professor Patrick Holford is still Head of Science and Education at Biocare so presumably they must believe that he enhances [...]
August 22, 2008 at 4:40 pm
[...] 21, 2008 · No Comments Former Visiting Professor Patrick Holford is still Head of Science and Education at Biocare. It is possible that such impressive titles [...]
August 31, 2008 at 3:14 pm
[...] 30, 2008 · No Comments Former Visiting Professor Patrick Holford is still Head of Science and Education at Biocare so presumably they must believe that he enhances [...]
September 6, 2008 at 11:48 am
[...] 6, 2008 · No Comments Former Visiting Professor Patrick Holford is still Head of Science and Education at Biocare so, presumably, they believe that he enhances [...]
September 7, 2008 at 8:01 pm
[...] am a masochist. This is why I signed up for ex-Visiting Professor Patrick Holford’s health e-news bulletins. Normally these emails consist of a plug for some [...]
October 5, 2008 at 3:02 am
[...] 5, 2008 · No Comments Visiting Professor Patrick Holford has his own dedicated chapter in Ben Goldacre’s Bad Science: Chapter 9; pp 161-80. Both [...]
October 14, 2008 at 7:11 pm
[...] services etc. but, lulled as they were, they were startled to read a promotional piece for Visiting Professor Patrick Holford and his latest book in which the man of countless specialities (e.g., diabetes, autism, [...]