Comments on: Patrick Holford Likens Himself to ‘de Vinci’ and Denounces Reductionism

By: jdc325

jdc325 — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 17:53:29 +0000

Thanks for the correction Mojo – your memory is clearly better than mine. Have you by any chance been taking Patrick Holford’s Brain Medicine?

By: dvnutrix

dvnutrix — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 13:17:17 +0000

Mojo, thanks for the Bob Park and that is a splendid disclaimer.

LeeT – the correspondences are extraordinary in Holford’s own mind, eh?

The boat/airport /fantasy themepark – duh Holford’s Supplement Land? Courtesy of his SA video, we know that Holford’s preferred promotional theme song is “What the world needs now”.

By: UKdietitian

UKdietitian — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 21:31:35 +0000

LeeT says “Possibly Patrick is hoping the Italians will name an airport after him?”

Nah, if anything Patrick more resembles a ship

the Titanic

By: LeeT

LeeT — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 20:26:27 +0000

Leonardo da Vinci was the archetypal Renaissance man what with his skills as a painter, poet and futurologist. Perhaps Patrick Holford sees himself in that way? After all he is an expert in psychology, nutrition, cancer prevention and alzheimers disease to name just a few things. Possibly Patrick is hoping the Italians will name an airport after him?

By: Mojo

Mojo — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 18:32:22 +0000

Didn’t someone once say “in order to compare oneself to Da Vinci, one must not only be persecuted, but also be right”?

It was Robert Park, and Galileo:
http://dcscience.net/?p=124

He also has the world’s best disclaimer: see bottom of page:
http://www.bobpark.org/

By: dvnutrix

dvnutrix — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 14:06:11 +0000

I feel that that saying should be modified to include, "and have a realistic sense of perspective". Perhaps one might recommend the poet Burns on this point?

O wad some Power the giftie gie us To see oursels as ithers see us!

By: jdc325

jdc325 — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 12:40:53 +0000

Didn’t someone once say “in order to compare oneself to Da Vinci, one must not only be persecuted, but also be right”?

By: dvnutrix

dvnutrix — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 09:28:50 +0000

Professor UK Dietitian, I was a little puzzled as to why blood tests for individual biomarkers such as Hcy or outdated ideas such as IgG levels and food intolerance are not to be considered reductionism (oddly, both may result in commission for duh Holford) likewise promoting the notion of supplements to everyone.

Oddly enough, he does seem to be throwing in references to the broader diet lately (he has obviously been counselled that his zest for promoting supplements above all else doesn’t send the right message) but only, of course, in the context of pill recommendations.

By: UKdietitian

UKdietitian — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 08:35:06 +0000

Patrick likens his views to that of da Vinci regarding ‘reductionism’. although a useful process to identify the active nutrients in foods that alleviated what we know now to be nutritional deficiencies, 21st century nutrition has moved on (about half a century ago, actually) to consider the ‘whole diet approach’, not the ‘reductionist vitamin + mineral + media spin = optimised nutrient pills sales’ promoted ad nauseum by ‘de Holford’.

Poor Patrick. He doesn’t recognise irony when it slaps him in the face….

By: dvnutrix

dvnutrix — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 21:14:37 +0000

Dr Aust, we have reason to believe that Ben Goldacre reveals the story of how ION obtained an ac.uk address and the amazing naivety of JANET in his imminent Bad Science - to be available from all good bookstores. We have no idea on what Holford is founding this over-blown opinion of himself. Kruger and Dunning to the fore, yet again. NB For those who aren't familiar with their work, you may be interested to read an overview of the Justin Kruger and David Dunning paper that discusses how difficulties in understanding one’s own incompetence can lead to inflated self-assessments.

What’s even more amazing is that when they then shared the performance of other participants with the people who performed poorly (hoping that they would then adjust their self-perception downward) people who scored poorly failed to adjust their self-perception of their performance. In other words, they are completely unaware of their own [in]competence, and can’t detect competence in others.

It really it a very helpful paper that explains many otherwise inexplicable actions and beliefs. Likewise, for those who haven't seen it, we recommend A Photon in the Darkness' discussion in: The Arrogance of Ignorance.