Grief knows why, but, from time to time, people send us email from Orthomolecular Medicine News Service (Visiting Professor Patrick Holford was the UK representative for some Orthomolecular organisation or other). It’s possibly a subtle plan to wreck our digestion so that people can photograph us taking an OTC Tums lozenge (other products are available) so that there can be a huge exposé of the state of our guts and faux expressions of concern that we really need an IgG food intolerance test or some hugely expensive analysis of our metabolic by-products.[a] Their latest cyberblast is ostensibly about dental amalgams but more about how people’s lack of understanding of thar interwebs leads to all sorts of embarrassing conspiracy theories. (more…)
Entries categorized as ‘health’
Down for Everyone or Just Me: Use It People, Use It Before Generating Conspiracy Theories
November 22, 2008 · 1 Comment
Categories: health · patrick holford
Tagged: BPSDB, conspiracy theories, dental amalgam, Orthomolecular Medicine, patrick holford
Patrick Holford and His Alternative to Anti-Depressants
February 28, 2008 · 16 Comments
Professor Patrick Holford has a remarkably agile PR team with helpful lacunae in their collective memories. 27.02.2007, Holford’s email subscribers received an email, What’s the alternative to ineffective anti-depressants? (more…)
Categories: Food Is Better Medicine Than Drugs · GL diet · Goldacre · Holford · Mental Health · chromium · depression · glycaemic load · glycemic load · health · nutrition · patrick holford · supplements
Tagged: 5-HTP, anti-depressants, depression, drugs, fish oils, Food Is Better Medicine Than Drugs, glucosamine, health, Holford, Mental Health, omega 3, patrick holford, supplements, tryptophan
Life’s 4 Living: bizarre energy-medicine ‘cure’ for MS
February 25, 2008 · 19 Comments
Another break from Patrick Holford, to look some more at Life’s 4 Living (L4L). They are offering a “unique opportunity” for young people with Multiple Sclerosis (MS) to participate in a documentary on an ‘alternative’ MS treatment. Participants are asked to spend 3 months in China, for a documentary by Creation Film and TV (apparently they would like to broadcast this on Channel 4, although we hope that Channel 4 will be forewarned and will avoid this documentary). We’ll look over their PDF document on this ‘opportunity’, and find that L4L combine a highly stereotyped attitude to Chinese people with an unfounded denigration of evidence-based medicine, unjustified claims to cure MS, and demands for young people with MS and their families to commit a lot of time and money. However, we will also consider how - despite the serious problems with L4L’s treatment plans - they are still likely to be able to produce a TV documentary showing MS to be ‘cured’.
Firstly, it’s a fascinating coincidence that L4L chose to do a documentary on MS: a condition that can naturally go into remission. (more…)
Categories: Life's 4 Living · Mental Health · children · health
Tagged: alternative medicine, CAM, children, Chinese Medicine, energy healing, health, Life's 4 Living, Life's for Living, Life's4Living, MS, multiple sclerosis, TCM
Food for the Brain: Child Survey: Review Part 10
February 11, 2008 · 4 Comments
Professor Patrick Holford of Teesside University (and also Head of Science and Education at Biocare) and Drew Fobbester are joint researchers and authors of the Food for the Brain Child Survey, September 2007 (pdf). We have previously examined the overview of the literature in this report and found that it was misleading and irrelevant. Unfortunately, the reporting and analysis of the survey data look to be even worse: there are frequent errors in the graphs and even more frequent misinterpretations. Because of these mistakes, it looks as if few of the claims are accurate.
For Part 8 of this review we looked at the alleged benefits of eating dark green leafy vegetables. For this post, we look at the claims for fried/and or takeaway food (FTF): however, Holford Watch can not find evidence to support any of the important claims. (more…)
Categories: Food for the brain · Holford · children · education · health · patrick holford
Tagged: children, diet, education, food, Food for the brain, health, Holford, patrick holford, vegetable, vegetables
Food for the Brain: Child Survey: Review Part 8
February 7, 2008 · 14 Comments
Professor Patrick Holford of Teesside University (and also Head of Science and Education at Biocare) and Drew Fobbester are joint researchers and authors of the Food for the Brain Child Survey, September 2007 (pdf). We have previously examined the overview of the literature in this report and found that it was misleading and irrelevant. Unfortunately, the reporting and analysis of the survey data look to be even worse: there are frequent errors in the graphs and even more frequent misinterpretations. Because of these mistakes, it looks as if few of the claims are accurate.
The FFTB report was heavily publicised at its launch. Much of the publicity highlighted the purported benefits of eating dark green leafy vegetables, both for behaviour and good SAT scores. After examining the data, Holford Watch can not share the optimism for these claimed benefits and finds that there is insufficient data to support them in a robust manner. (more…)
Categories: Food for the brain · Holford · education · health · patrick holford
Tagged: children, diet, education, food, Food for the brain, health, Holford, patrick holford, vegetable, vegetables
Food for the Brain: Child Survey: Review Part 5
February 1, 2008 · 6 Comments
You might recall that in early January we had mail from Professor Patrick Holford of Teesside University. We responded to him and took the opportunity to ask some questions about the Food for the Brain Child Survey 2007 (FFTB) (pdf) for which he is co-author. Well, we wrote that email 3 weeks ago and have received no response. (more…)
Categories: Food for the brain · health · patrick holford
Tagged: children, diet, education, food, Food for the brain, health, Holford, patrick holford
Holford’s Health Products for Life breaches ASA rules on truthfulness and substantiation
January 30, 2008 · 6 Comments
Today, the ASA have ruled against Health Products for Life (HPFL): a supplement company that Professor Patrick Holford (Head of Science and Education at Biocare) sold to Biocare, and which has a website - and sells pills - with a picture of Holford’s face on. Holford is beginning to amass a collection of ASA rulings both for his own offerings and those for products that he endorses. (more…)
Categories: ASA · IgG tests · food intolerance · health · health products for life · patrick holford · yorktest
Tagged: food intolerance, IgG, health, food allergies, Holford & Associates, 100% Health, Substantiation, Truthfulness, self-testing kit
Food for the Brain: Child Survey: Review Part 3
January 25, 2008 · 6 Comments
Professor Patrick Holford of Teesside University (and also Head of Science and Education at Biocare) and Drew Fobbester are joint researchers and authors of the Food for the Brain Child Survey, September 2007 (pdf). This is the third of three Holford Watch posts in which we explain why the literature overview in the FFTB Child Survey is inadequate: some of the claims made in the review are not supported by relevant references or studies of sufficient quality. Part 1 discusses the claims relating to supplements and children’s diet. Part 2 examines the claims made for the benefit of a balanced glycaemic load diet for children. For Part 3, we discuss the claims for the alleged incidence of food sensitivities and gluten sensitivity.
(more…)
Categories: Food for the brain · Food for the brain foundation · food intolerance · health · patrick holford
Tagged: patrick holford, Holford, supplements, food intolerance, health, Food for the brain, children, diet, food
