If your baby is crying, what do you do? Stick pins in it
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This piece is almost identical with today’s Spectator Health article.
This week there has been enormously wide coverage in the press for one of the worst papers on acupuncture that I’ve come across. As so often, the paper showed the opposite of what its title and press release, claimed. For another stunning example of this sleight of hand, try Acupuncturists show that acupuncture doesn’t work, but conclude the opposite: journal fails, published in the British Journal of General Practice).
Presumably the wide coverage was a result of the hyped-up press release issued by the journal, BMJ Acu...
Source: DC's goodscience - January 20, 2017 Category: Science Authors: David Colquhoun Tags: acupuncture Bad journalism badscience Bait and switch BMJ BMJ Group CAM Dangerous advice evidence false discovery rate honesty Michael Cummings Quackery statistics TCM alternative medicine false positives George Lewith Source Type: blogs
More on bullying at Imperial College London. What ’ s being done?
The last email of Stephan Grimm has had more views than any other on this blog. “Publish and perish at Imperial College London: the death of Stefan Grimm“. Since then it’s been viewed more than 210,000 times. The day after it was posted, the server failed under the load.
Since than, I posted two follow-up pieces. On December 23, 2014 “Some experiences of life at Imperial College London. An external inquiry is needed after the death of Stefan Grimm“. Of course there was no external inquiry.
And on April 9, 2015, after the coroner’s report, and after Imperial’s internal inquiry, “The death of St...
Source: DC's goodscience - December 21, 2016 Category: Science Authors: David Colquhoun Tags: Academia assessment bullying HR bollocks Imperial badscience Imperial College managerialism performance management sexism Stefan Grimm women Source Type: blogs
More on bullying at Imperial College London. What ’ s being done?
The last email of Stephan Grimm has had more views than any other on this blog. “Publish and perish at Imperial College London: the death of Stefan Grimm“. Since then it’s been viewed more than 210,000 times. The day after it was posted, the server failed under the load.
Since than, I posted two follow-up pieces. On December 23, 2014 “Some experiences of life at Imperial College London. An external inquiry is needed after the death of Stefan Grimm“. Of course there was no external inquiry.
And on April 9, 2015, after the coroner’s report, and after Imperial’s internal inquiry, “The death of St...
Source: DC's goodscience - December 21, 2016 Category: Science Authors: David Colquhoun Tags: Academia assessment bullying HR bollocks Imperial badscience Imperial College managerialism performance management sexism Stefan Grimm women Source Type: blogs
More on bullying at Imperial College London. What ’ s being done?
The last email of Stephan Grimm has had more views than any other on this blog. “Publish and perish at Imperial College London: the death of Stefan Grimm“. Since then it’s been viewed more than 210,000 times. The day after it was posted, the server failed under the load.
Since than, I posted two follow-up pieces. On December 23, 2014 “Some experiences of life at Imperial College London. An external inquiry is needed after the death of Stefan Grimm“. Of course there was no external inquiry.
And on April 9, 2015, after the coroner’s report, and after Imperial’s internal inquiry, “The death of St...
Source: DC's goodscience - December 21, 2016 Category: Science Authors: David Colquhoun Tags: Academia assessment bullying HR bollocks Imperial badscience Imperial College managerialism performance management sexism Stefan Grimm women Source Type: blogs
Hotshot. A supplement scam with a difference?
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The "supplement" industry is a scam that dwarfs all other forms of alternative medicine. Sales are worth over $100 billion a year, a staggering sum. But the claims they make are largely untrue: plain fraudulent. Although the industry’s advertisements like to claim "naturalness". in fact most of the synthetic vitamins are manufactured by big pharma companies. The pharmaceutical industry has not been slow to cash in on an industry in which unverified claims can be made with impunity.
When I saw advertised Hotshot, "a proprietary formulation of organic ingredients" that is...
Source: DC's goodscience - October 25, 2016 Category: Science Authors: David Colquhoun Tags: Academia supplements Bruce Bean cramp dietary supplements DSHEA Harvard Hotshot Muscle cramp Rockefeller university Rod MacKinnon TRP receptors Source Type: blogs
Hotshot. A supplement scam with a difference?
Jump to follow-up
The "supplement" industry is a scam that dwarfs all other forms of alternative medicine. Sales are worth over $100 billion a year, a staggering sum. But the claims they make are largely untrue: plain fraudulent. Although the industry’s advertisements like to claim "naturalness". in fact most of the synthetic vitamins are manufactured by big pharma companies. The pharmaceutical industry has not been slow to cash in on an industry in which unverified claims can be made with impunity.
When I saw advertised Hotshot, "a proprietary formulation of organic ingredients" that is...
Source: DC's goodscience - October 25, 2016 Category: Science Authors: David Colquhoun Tags: Academia supplements Bruce Bean cramp dietary supplements DSHEA Harvard Hotshot Muscle cramp Rockefeller university Rod MacKinnon TRP receptors Source Type: blogs
Hotshot. A supplement scam with a difference?
Jump to follow-up
The "supplement" industry is a scam that dwarfs all other forms of alternative medicine. Sales are worth over $100 billion a year, a staggering sum. But the claims they make are largely untrue: plain fraudulent. Although the industry’s advertisements like to claim "naturalness". in fact most of the synthetic vitamins are manufactured by big pharma companies. The pharmaceutical industry has not been slow to cash in on an industry in which unverified claims can be made with impunity.
When I saw advertised Hotshot, "a proprietary formulation of organic ingredients" that is...
Source: DC's goodscience - October 25, 2016 Category: Science Authors: David Colquhoun Tags: Academia supplements Bruce Bean cramp dietary supplements DSHEA Harvard Hotshot Muscle cramp Rockefeller university Rod MacKinnon TRP receptors Source Type: blogs
Food the Forgotten Medicine: More bait and switch from the “ College of Medicine ”
‘We know little about the effect of diet on health. That’s why so much is written about it’. That is the title of a post in which I advocate the view put by John Ioannidis that remarkably little is known about the health effects if individual nutrients. That ignorance has given rise to a vast industry selling advice that has little evidence to support it.
The 2016 Conference of the so-called "College of Medicine" had the title "Food, the Forgotten Medicine". This post gives some background information about some of the speakers at this event. I’m sorry it appears to be too ad homine...
Source: DC's goodscience - August 21, 2016 Category: Science Authors: David Colquhoun Tags: anti-oxidant Anti-science antioxidant antiscience Bait and switch CAM causality College of Medicine Continuing med education corruption Cyril Chantler Foundation for Integrated Health fraud Graeme Catto herbal medicine Michae Source Type: blogs
Food the Forgotten Medicine: More bait and switch from the “ College of Medicine ”
‘We know little about the effect of diet on health. That’s why so much is written about it’. That is the title of a post in which I advocate the view put by John Ioannidis that remarkably little is known about the health effects if individual nutrients. That ignorance has given rise to a vast industry selling advice that has little evidence to support it.
The 2016 Conference of the so-called "College of Medicine" had the title "Food, the Forgotten Medicine". This post gives some background information about some of the speakers at this event.
Quite a lot has been written here about the ...
Source: DC's goodscience - August 21, 2016 Category: Science Authors: David Colquhoun Tags: anti-oxidant Anti-science antioxidant antiscience Bait and switch CAM causality College of Medicine Continuing med education corruption Cyril Chantler Foundation for Integrated Health fraud Graeme Catto herbal medicine Michae Source Type: blogs
Cupping: bruises for the gullible, and other myths in sport
This is my version of a post which I was asked to write for the Independent. It’s been published, though so many changes were made by the editor that I’m posting the original here (below).
Superstition is rife in all sports. Mostly it does no harm, and it might even have a placebo effect that’s sufficient to make a difference of 0.01%. That might just get you a medal. But what does matter is that superstition has given rise to an army of charlatans who are only to willing to sell their magic medicine to athletes, most of whom are not nearly as rich as Phelps.
So much has been said about cupping during ...
Source: DC's goodscience - August 10, 2016 Category: Science Authors: David Colquhoun Tags: acupuncture Anti-science badscience Bait and switch CAM Quackery Sports alternative medicine antiscience chiropractic cupping health fraud sports medicine TCM Traditional Chinese medicine Source Type: blogs
Cupping: bruises for the gullible, and other myths in sport
This is my version of a post which I was asked to write for Indy Voices. It’s been published, though so many changes were made by the editor that I’m posting the original here (below).
Superstition is rife in all sports. Mostly it does no harm, and it might even have a placebo effect that’s sufficient to make a difference of 0.01%. That might just get you a medal. But what does matter is that superstition has given rise to an army of charlatans who are only to willing to sell their magic medicine to athletes, most of whom are not nearly as rich as Phelps.
So much has been said about cupping during the ...
Source: DC's goodscience - August 10, 2016 Category: Science Authors: David Colquhoun Tags: acupuncture Anti-science badscience Bait and switch CAM Quackery Sports alternative medicine antiscience chiropractic cupping health fraud sports medicine TCM Traditional Chinese medicine Source Type: blogs
NICE rejects acupuncture for low back pain
Of all types of alternative medicine, acupuncture is the one that has received the most approval from regular medicine. The benefit of that is that it’s been tested more thoroughly than most others. The result is now clear. It doesn’t work. See the evidence in Acupuncture is a theatrical placebo.
This blog has documented many cases of misreported tests of acupuncture, often from people have a financial interests in selling it. Perhaps the most egregious spin came from the University of Exeter. It was published in a normal journal, and endorsed by the journal’s editor, despite showing clearly that acupunct...
Source: DC's goodscience - March 24, 2016 Category: Science Authors: David Colquhoun Tags: acupuncture Back pain NICE LBP Low back pain NSLBP Source Type: blogs
NICE rejects acupuncture for low back pain
Of all types of alternative medicine, acupuncture is the one that has received the most approval from regular medicine. The benefit of that is that it’s been tested more thoroughly than most others. The result is now clear. It doesn’t work. See the evidence in Acupuncture is a theatrical placebo.
This blog has documented many cases of misreported tests of acupuncture, often from people have a financial interests in selling it. Perhaps the most egregious spin came from the University of Exeter. It was published in a normal journal, and endorsed by the journal’s editor, despite showing clearly that acupunct...
Source: DC's goodscience - March 24, 2016 Category: Science Authors: David Colquhoun Tags: acupuncture Back pain NICE LBP Low back pain NSLBP Source Type: blogs
Statistics and the law: the prosecutor ’ s fallacy
Conclusions.
Although this argument uses an artificial example that is simpler than most real cases, it illustrates some important principles.
(1) The likelihood ratio is not a good way to evaluate evidence, unless there is good reason to believe that there is a 50:50 chance that the suspect is guilty before any evidence is presented.
(2) In order to calculate what we need, Prob(guilty | evidence), you need to give numerical values of how common the possession of characteristic x (the evidence) is the whole population of possible suspects (a reasonable value might be estimated in the case of DNA evidence), We also ne...
Source: DC's goodscience - March 22, 2016 Category: Science Authors: David Colquhoun Tags: Law statistics Clive Stafford Smith false conviction false discovery rate False positive risk false positives FPR lawyers Michael Mansfield Philip Dawid Squier Waney Squier Source Type: blogs
Statistics and the law: the prosecutor ’ s fallacy
Conclusions.
Although this argument uses an artificial example that is simpler than most real cases, it illustrates some important principles.
(1) The likelihood ratio is not a good way to evaluate evidence, unless there is good reason to believe that there is a 50:50 chance that the suspect is guilty before any evidence is presented.
(2) In order to calculate what we need, Prob(guilty | evidence), you need to give numerical values of how common the possession of characteristic x (the evidence) is the whole population of possible suspects (a reasonable value might be estimated in the case of DNA evidence), We ...
Source: DC's goodscience - March 22, 2016 Category: Science Authors: David Colquhoun Tags: Law statistics Clive Stafford Smith false conviction false discovery rate false positives lawyers Michael Mansfield Philip Dawid Squier Waney Squier Source Type: blogs
