Comments on: Patrick Holford: “conventional medicine, doesn’t have a very good track record”

By: Albernon

Albernon — Sat, 07 Feb 2009 04:32:57 +0000

As opposed to his own, well-documented, clinical histories taken from thousands of patients that he could pop into an Excel sheet and summarise - just so that we know just how much better his own mysterious ways are than conventional medicine. Mysterious becuase I don't include the bog-standard 'Eat your greens' that you get from your own mother or every health education leaflet that you ever pick up. Remind me - does this mean his recommendations for kinesiology or dowsing for allergies have been shown to out-perform conventional medicine? Some of us really want to know. Admin edit: Yes, these would be special studies to show this because all of the ones done by the usual researchers and scientists show that they don't work. Agreed on the rest. As has been said, with Patrick Holford's work, all too often, the parts that are original aren't good; the parts that are good aren't original.

By: wimsum

wimsum — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 09:56:18 +0000

Too many people are taken in by this sort of hucksterism. I don’t understand why they are happy to take pills that are ‘natural’ when they don’t know what is in them but object to pills from the doctor where you do not what is in them, there is a package insert, and someone who understands what they are monitoring.

And to do this with a less than stellar academic background like this man Patrick Holford seems to have – Barnum said it best, “There’s one born every minute”.

By: dvnutrix

dvnutrix — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 07:55:55 +0000

It is remarkable that the ION is taking time out to reflect that it has accrued 25 (interrupted, discontinuous) years of ‘service to mankind’ but they seem insouciant that in all that time, there seems to have been no decent research to have surfaced from there, at all.

Before someone mentions it, the Lancet article that Holford discusses so foundly, one might consider it his first-born, he is not named as an author, nor does he appear in the acknowledgements – this usually indicates quite a lot about someone’s actual involvement in a paper.

Ewan, relatively speaking, yes. Conventional medicine has only been around for a comparatively short time, so to speak, and has contributed to some remarkable health and longevity gains in that time.

By: ewan

ewan — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 21:22:02 +0000

even if you grant the point that there are bad things about conventional medicine (Ben Goldacre has a chapter with a title like “Is Pharma Evil?” isn’t it possible that in an advantages, disadvantages assessment, the positive side of conventional medicine wins out?

there are lots of people in my family who talk about preferring natural medicine and refusing to take pills. but they are happy to try and have medical effects on the body by taking pills where there is no guarantee that they contain the substances, vitamin,s minerals that they claim, in the quantities they claim.

if you ask me, other forms of medicine had a clear run for a very long time. conventional medicine may not have perfect track record but it is still in its infancy and working hard to improve itself.

By: Wm Thacker

Wm Thacker — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 02:46:06 +0000

I think I add my voice to those who think that this shouldn’t be allowed. I didn’t think that CAM practitioners were allowed to derogate (medical) doctors in the absence of good quality evidence.

If he is so personally wealthy on the back of all this salesmanship, why doesn’t he set up a research foundation and do some of this properly? All those students going through that institute and no worthwhile research? In 30 years?

By: LeeT

LeeT — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 22:47:06 +0000

Ohhh noooo, I missed that. Normally, the words “collaborative” and “university” are quite inoffensive, but place them together in a sentence with soon-to-be-professor-again Holfrd and and the consequences are too fearsome to contemplate …

By: dvnutrix

dvnutrix — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 22:21:07 +0000

Or – they might have chucked you a nice pack of seeds with added magnesium – we hear that it is very calming.

If anybody knows which university has agreed to sponsor this research, please don’t keep it to yourself.

By: LeeT

LeeT — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 21:29:31 +0000

“Ah, Lee. You may be entertained by the latest missive from Food for the Brain”

I plucked up the courage to open and read that email earlier today. It caused me to shake, swear and attempt to throw the PC monitor out of the window and on to the street outside.

Fortunately, no Holford fans were passing by otherwise an ION ambulance may have rushed me to the Brain Bio for immediate treatment ..

By: dvnutrix

dvnutrix — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 14:54:28 +0000

jdc, how odd I saw that Twain recently and meant to make a note of it so thanks for the reminder. I’m wondering about adopting it as a maxim, maybe painting it on a banner, stencilling it on a bike frame.

By: jdc325

jdc325 — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 14:00:17 +0000

“As for “staying informed” and Holford helping readers…Time and time again, Holford’s scholarship is demonstrated to be shoddy and inaccurate.”
Yes. When I read about Holford’s newsletters, I’m reminded of Mark Twain. If you don’t read newspapers you are uninformed. If you do, then you are misinformed.