The new year has brought an interesting development in the relationship between the state and the alternative medicine industry. On Monday the Complementary and Natural Healthcare Council (CNHC), a register for practitioners of alternative medicine opened its doors for the first time. At first glance …
What kind of a person names a miracle cure after themselves? Ádám Kovács Damian Thompson has already dissected the vacuous puff-piece that appeared this week about the so-called miracle cure CellAdam. If one ever needs to find a perfect example of the modus operandi of quackery, …
Uh-huh. Charlie Brooker writes today about a new TV station crammed full of conspiracy theories, Edge Media TV, which broadcasts programmes with titles like Question Everything and Hidden Agenda, and a talkshow called Esoteria, which according to the host is “a SHOW, not a PROGRAMME …
Let's hope she's got a big enough wand This article by “holistic healer” Phylameana lila Desy [sic] needs such little commentary that I’m simply going to reprint it in full. Former President George W. Bush and wife Laura evacuated the White House yesterday, making room for President Barack Obama, his …
“Imagine a medicine that has a staggering 75 per cent success rate in treating cancer, and yet is a natural and ethical product, owned by a nonprofit company headed by devout Catholics.” Well, yes, it does take a bit of imagining, not least because the …
Simon Singh The agents of counterknowledge are busy in the legal courts. The British Chiropractic Association (BCA) is bringing a libel claim against the eminent science writer Simon Singh. The libel case brought by the vitamin salesman Matthias Rath against The Guardian and Ben Goldacre …
Regular Counterknowledge readers will know that there is no shortage of charlatans ready to take money from people in dire straits. Whether they have money problems, anxieties about the future or a life-threatening illness, there will be someone around to profit from their ignorance. The …
I couldn’t resist sharing this Amazon review of Rhonda Byrne’s The Secret with Counterknowledge.com readers. Please allow me to share with you how “The Secret” changed my life and in a very real and substantive way allowed me to overcome a severe crisis in my personal life. …
Prestigious medical journal The Lancet has just published research that will be depressingly predictable to Counterknowledge.com readers. A study into outbreaks of measles over the past twelve months has shown the UK to have one of the highest infection rates in Europe, which will heavily …
Oh, we have Brisbane, Australia. The Brisbane District Court recently passed sentence on the father of an 11-year-old girl who had refused his daughter hospital treatment for a heart infection. Instead, he kept her at home and force-fed her a form of “glyconutrients” – essentially, sugar pills …