Former Visiting Professor Patrick Holford is still Head of Science and Education at Biocare so presumably they must believe that he enhances their reputation and scientific credibility with his advocacy of tests such as those for homocysteine (Hcy) levels and recommendations that people with high levels (as defined by him) should lower it by taking various supplements (see related reading). (more…)
Entries from August 2008
Homocysteine: Really Not a Crystal Ball
August 30, 2008 · 2 Comments
Categories: Holford · home test · homocysteine · patrick holford · supplements
Tagged: patrick holford, Holford, supplements, homocysteine, james braly, CVD, folic acid, cardiovascular disease, BPSDB, Hcy, B6, B12
Somatosphere: Medical Anthropology, Vasectomania and a Vaccine Against Fatigue
August 28, 2008 · 1 Comment
Just to add to the mix if you haven’t seen it in the miniblog - h/t to Dr Vaughan Bell for the medical anthropology blog Somatosphere. As Bell says, Somatosphere brings together:
the study of how culture influences our understanding of health, illness and medicine.
While we tend to think of illnesses as specific encapsualted ‘things’ that happen to the body, it turns out that our culture and psychology has a huge influence on not just what we think of illness, but how we actually become ill.
Culture also shapes what we think of as ‘healthy’ and ‘unhealthy’, ‘normal’ and ‘abnormal’ and this is one of the main driving forces behind how we express physical or psychological distress and expect it to be treated.
Somatosphere has an intriguing article on Ritalin - your grandmother’s helper. (more…)
Categories: blogging
Tagged: antikenotoxin, fatigue, gland doctors, sloth, Somatosphere, vaccine, vasectomania, Weichardt
Skeptics’ Circle
August 28, 2008 · No Comments
Ranaban of Reduce to Common Sense has posted The Skeptic Games which is a digest of sceptical blogging over the last two weeks. (more…)
Categories: skeptic's circle
Tagged: skeptic's circle
You and Yours on Which? Investigation into Food Intolerance Tests
August 26, 2008 · 9 Comments
Listen again while you can: BBC Radio 4’s You and Yours on Which?’s Investigation into Food Intolerance Testing with participation from Dr Mike Walker of Cambridge Nutritional Sciences Ltd.
One note that should be of particular interest to Patrick Holford, given his claims for IgG testing in the diagnosis of food intolerance, is a significant change in stance by the companies who promote, distribute and carry out such tests. We shall write more about this at a later date but Walker was at pains to stress that the Cambridge Nutritional Sciences’ IgG test is indicative of food intolerance but not diagnostic of food intolerance. The tap-dancing on this point was painful and brought a similar episode to mind involving Patrick Holford and his qualifications. (more…)
Categories: allergies · food intolerance · patrick holford · yorktest
Tagged: allergy, BPSDB, Cambridge Nutritional Sciences, food intolerance, IgG test, Mike Walker, Which?, yorktest
Update on Which?, YorkTest and Selective Quoting in Google Sponsored Links
August 26, 2008 · 1 Comment
Today’s Google is remarkably free of YorkTest sponsored links such as the one that we highlighted in our discussion of Which?, YorkTest and Cambridge Nutritional Sciences. The Google ad claimed: “Which? Magazine Report Says “Validated Scientific Test”" which is as blatant an example of quote mining as most people will ever encounter. The sponsored links have switched back to highlighting “Endorsed by Allergy UK”. (more…)
Categories: IgG tests · food intolerance · yorktest
Tagged: allergy, BPSDB, food intolerance, IgG, IgG tests, quote mining, Which?, yorktest
Ben Goldacre and Placebo (Part 2) Radio 4: Lacking In Cheese or Missing An Eye
August 26, 2008 · 20 Comments
Bad Science’s Dr Ben Goldacre has collaborated with Radio 4 to produce a 2-part exploration of the potent, intriguing power of placebo. Both Part 1 and Part 2 discussed the history, science and theatre of this fascinating phenomenon and it has been notable that the examples spanned from Perkins Tractors, Mesmer and animal magnetism, to work that was published only this year. Placebo has such an extensive and rich history and encompasses so many issues aside from medicine such as social influence and trust that it isn’t practical to present more than a tasting menu of it in 2 half-hour programes. Nonetheless, at the risk of sounding like Brillat-Savarin, it was strangely unsatisfying that neither of the programmes addressed the issue that some researchers argue that the placebo is both over-rated and ineffective and that there is no role for it in medicine, outside the context of a clinical trial. (more…)
Categories: Ben Goldacre · children · placebo
Tagged: ADHD, Ben Goldacre, Bodfish, CAM, children, clinical trials, Cochrane Review, doctor patient relationship, epilepsy, ethics, Gøtzsche, Hickner, homeopathy, Houston, Hróbjartsson, Kirsch, Lewith, Moerman, placebo, R4, Radio 4, Sandler, Shapiro, Sherman, trust, Walter Brown
YorkTest, Hardman & Hart: there’s a difference between the BMJ and Nutrition and Food Science
August 24, 2008 · 5 Comments
A surprising mistake?
Categories: IgG tests · allergies · food intolerance · patrick holford · yorktest
Tagged: allergy, BPSDB, food intolerance, Hardman, Hart, Holford, IgG, IgG tests, Nutrition and Food Science, patrick holford, yorktest
Which?, YorkTest and Cambridge Nutritional Sciences Ltd
August 21, 2008 · 40 Comments
Former Visiting Professor Patrick Holford is still Head of Science and Education at Biocare. It is possible that such impressive titles convince the unwary that Holford has an evidence-base for his supplement, health, lifestyle or self-empowerment-through-testing advice.
Holford frequently recommends IgG testing for the diagnosis of food intolerance although there is currently no clinical validation for such a recommendation and several associations of clinical allergists and immunologists have declared that the tests are without merit.[a],[b] (more…)
Categories: Holford · allergies · allergy · food intolerance · food sensitivity · patrick holford · yorktest
Tagged: patrick holford, Holford, food intolerance, yorktest, home test, BPSDB, food allergy, Cambridge Nutritional Services, IgG test, Which?, chutzpah, blood test, Cambridge Nutritional Sciences
Patrick Holford Now A Partner in Birmingham’s TriHealth Consultants Ltd
August 21, 2008 · 12 Comments
Former Visiting Professor Patrick Holford is still Head of Science and Education at Biocare so presumably they must believe that he enhances their reputation and scientific credibility. TriHealth Consultants Ltd must think likewise as the Birmingham Mail has announced that Holford has just joined the company as a partner. (more…)
Categories: Holford · University of Teesside · patrick holford · supplements
Tagged: patrick holford, Holford, University of Teesside, BPSDB, TriHealth Consultants
The Elmhurst Epidemic: classic example of the cultural and scientific clash between CAM and medicine
August 20, 2008 · 9 Comments
Dr Scott Gottleib has reviewed Trick or Treatment? Alternative Medicine on Trial for Wall Street Journal. He also recounts an intriguing anecdote from his own experience. (more…)
Categories: complementary and alternative medicine
Tagged: BPSDB, CAM, cancer, complementary and alternative medicine, culture clash, Di Bella, Dichloroacetate, Edzard Ernst, Elmhurst Epidemic, folk therapy, liver damage, repetitive pattern, research, science, Scott Gottleib, Simon Singh, somatostatin, Trick or Treatment
