Watch out for pointy-heads

Here’s a gem of a quote from a master of medical counterknowledge. “I’m not sure how much credibility these pointy-heads have,” says Dr Michael Dixon, trustee of The Prince of Wales’s Foundation for Integrated Medicine, quoted in today’s Daily Telegraph guide to “top health gurus”.

And why is that? “The efficacy of complementary treatments, he insists, simply cannot be measured by standard scientific ‘double-blind’ tests in a lab.” Because they fail them – a fact that, in Dr Dixon’s opinion, casts doubt on the scientists who point this out rather than the treatments themselves.

Dixon is also visiting professor of integrated medicine at the University of Westminster, one of six universities to offer “degrees” in homeopathy. Presumably the pointy-heads at Westminster have to ignore those pesky double-blind tests of the type that homeopathy routinely fails.

I’ve written about this on my Daily Telegraph blog. I’d like to go through the claims of each of the 20 “top health gurus”, but quack-busting is awfully time consuming. My eye was caught, however, by this gentleman:

Nabeeh Marar, homeopathy: “Somewhat bird-like, he sits there listening intently as you ramble on. Then he wriggles his eyebrows, puts a few drops of one of his magic liquids on a pill and away you go,” says a mother who was wowed by his treatment for her daughter’s hay fever. Marar has been in practice for more than 20 years and claims a 90 per cent success rate with children’s ailments.

I have a real problem with applying homeopathy to children, so I looked at one of Marar’s web pages and discovered this:

He is a specialist in his field, specialising in homeopathy and clinical ecology, but also offering the Quantum Xeroid Lifeforce system, a program for testing and bioresonance treatment. He is highly effective in his work especially in chronic cases where conventional medicine has failed and demonstrates a 90% success rate with children’s ailments especially Eczema and related conditions.

Ah, the Quantum Xeroid Lifeforce system. Did you see that episode of Star Trek? And which “related conditions” are we talking about? Where’s the data?

Finally, no list of top 20 health gurus would be complete without Patrick Holford and, sure enough, here he is:

Are men of almost 50 meant to look so youthful and trim? Holford’s pioneering nutritional theories evidently work brilliantly for him and beautifully preserved women hang hungrily on his every word at packed seminars around the country. A founder of the Institute of Optimum Nutrition, he has an impressive track record as an early advocate of Omega-3 oils and antioxidants.

Yes indeed, how does Holford look so young and trim? I put it down to never having had to go through the stress of acquiring university qualifications in medicine or nutrition. And, while we’re on the topic of Holford’s theories, let’s just remind ourselves of one of them: “AZT, the first prescribable anti-HIV drug, is potentially harmful and proving less effective than Vitamin C.” Meaning what? You’d better not speculate, or you’ll be hearing from Patrick’s lawyers.

The Telegraph supplies a link to one of Holford’s websites. Let me suggest an alternative: Holford Watch.