One of the things I really love about the skeptic movement is that its full of passionate grassroots activists who have managed to really make a difference.   There are a lot of scams and scam artists out there and all to many of them have never been challenged.   If you see something and know it’s wrong, speak up, challenge the claims being made and look for evidence.

A great example of this is one 16 year old in the UK.   You may remember “Miracle Mineral Supplement,” a product being sold as a cure-all which is actually an industrial grade bleaching agent. Rhys Morgan has Chron’s Disease and when he saw a website advertising “Miracle Mineral Supplement” to treat his condition he was skeptical enough to do some more investigating. After discovering the facts he reported the scam to the Food Standards Agency leading to the scam being shut down, at least in the UK.

Via the BBC:

Cardiff teenager to target more ‘miracle’ cure websites
A 16-year-old praised for campaigning against a so-called miracle cure has welcomed a change in advertising rules.

The actions of Rhys Morgan, of Cardiff, who has the bowel condition Crohn’s disease, helped close websites offering Miracle Mineral Solution (MMS).

The Food Standards Agency has warned people not to consume the product.

From 1 March UK-based websites must comply with advertising rules which means they cannot publish testimonials to the alleged effectiveness of MMS.

From next month, the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) says its rules will apply in full to such online marketing.

The Food Standards Agency says MMS is equivalent to industrial-strength bleach and when consumed as directed “could cause severe nausea, vomiting and diarrhoea, potentially leading to dehydration and reduced blood pressure”.

It has ordered councils to be on the lookout for retail outlets selling the product.

Rhys, who won praise from the Food Standards Agency for his campaigning, said the advertising rules change will mean more websites selling the product could be closed down.

He said: “This will be amazing. Testimonials will count as advertising so people will have to substantiate their claims [about MMS].

“It’s going to make it much easier to get stuff taken down.”

Unfortunately, shutting down the UK-based scams won’t really stop this product from being sold on the internet. The nature of the web allows for offshore servers to continue to sell the product and the fact that it has legitimate uses in water purification, sanitation, sterilization and industry means that the chemical will still be fairly easy for quacks to get and resell. What may turn out to be the bigger achievement of Rhys is simply getting the world out and getting media attention for a horrific quack product that had previously been sold with virtually no information published about its dangers.

Rhys deserves a lot of credit for not backing down and assuming there wasn’t anything he could do about a scam. He may be just a young, middle-class student, but he’s already got a lot to be proud of.

This should be an inspiration to others. If you see a dangerous scam product, don’t just shrug your shoulders and assume there’s nothing you can do. You can make a difference. If you’re not sure what you can do, there are also a lot of skeptic advocacy groups and organizations out there who may be able to help. Ultimately though, it only takes one person to make a difference.

The Australian Vaccination Network is arguably one of the worst anti-science medical advocacy groups in any modern society. The founder, Meryl Dorey, is actually not Australian but an American transplant. The organization discourages vaccination in Australia and around the world, linking it with every evil one can imagine, from causing autism to involvement in massive international conspiracies. Dorey herself is an advocate of homeopathy and always has something stupid and offensive to say.

How could this crazy lying bitch (and I don’t usually resort to name calling, but in this case I’ll break that rule) possibly do one worse and actually surprise me with the sheer offensive gal she is throwing out.

Excuse me while I pick my jaw up off the floor.

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Our friend James Randi has been promoting critical thinking and opposing ridiculous nonsensical and unproven beliefs for decades, including homeopathy. It’s therefore not really news that he is actively going after the medical sham that has taken hold across the world.

However, a renewed effort by the James Randi Educational Foundation, the 10:23 campaign and others has recently kicked in to take on quackery. Efforts now have begun to target the mainstream companies that support this scam and are focused on raising awareness of the ineffectiveness of homeopathy, which, as it was recently pointed out, is becoming increasingly integrated into pharmacies, right along side real medicine.

For his part, Mr. Randi has been promoting the fact that his foundation is offering one million dollars to prove homeopathy works.

Despite the growth of scientific and technical education and achievement in India, the country still has a food solidly in the dark ages, in part thanks to a government that seems to do more to encourage than discourage superstition.   Ripe with healthfraud like homeopathy, Indians have suffered enormously due to the persistence of superstition-based scams in their country.

Yet even considering how bad things can get in India, I am left at a loss having read this news report.

Via the Times of India:

Astrology is a science: Bombay HC

MUMBAI: Astrology has been debunked by most world scientists including India’s renowned physicist Prof. Yash Pal. However, it is “science” in India.

The Bombay High Court reaffirmed this on Thursday when it dismissed a PIL that had challenged astrology as science.

The PIL was filed by an NGO, Janhit Manch that had sought action against ‘fake’ astrologers, tantriks, practitioners of Vastu shastra etc.

“So far as prayer related to astrology is concerned, the Supreme Court has already considered the issue and ruled that astrology is science. The court had in 2004 also directed the universities to consider if astrology science can be added to the syllabus. The decision of the apex court is binding on this court,” observed the judges.

Yeah, you read right. And I thought that law makers trying to get “intelligent design” into the curriculum were bad. Hell, at least they have been shot down by the courts. But apparently in India, the courts have ordered that astrology should be considered for inclusion in scientific instruction.

I can’t imagine how this must play with the various professors and scientists in India who actually are seeing a court order their institutions to consider astrology a science. Despite how boneheaded this court is, there are many very learned Indians and institutions of higher learning have been growing by leaps and bounds in recent years. The frustration of having some idiot superstitious judge step in and try to undo it all must be maddening.

The judges also took on record an affidavit submitted by the Union government. The Centre had in its affidavit stated that astrology is 4000 years old ‘trusted science’ and the same does not fall under the preview of The Drugs and Megical Remedies Act (Objectionable Advertisements) Act, 1954.

“The said Act does not cover astrology and related sciences. Astrology is a trusted science and is being practiced for over 4000 years,” said an affidavit filed by Dr R Ramakrishna, deputy drug controller (India), west zone.

“The said Act is aimed at prohibiting misleading advertisements relating to drugs and magic remedies. The Act does not cover and / or relate to astrology and / or allied sciences like Palmistry, Vaastu Shastra etc. In view thereof, a purported ban on practices promoting astrology and related sciences sought by the petitioner, which is a time tested science more than 4000 years old is totally misconceived and unjustifiable,” says the affidavit.

The (PIL) filed by Janhit Manch and its convener Bhagwanji Raiyani, along with his associate Dattaram Kumkar, had questioned the validity of predictions by many well-known astrologers.

The PIL, which ran into more than 100 pages pointed to several cases, including that of Indira Gandhi and Charan Singh becoming prime ministers, despite opposite predictions.

Representing the Union government, advocate Advait Sethna told the court that even the SC had accepted that astrology was a science and many universities had included it as a subject.

Advocate for Maharashtra government, Bharat Mehta too supported the stand taken by the Union government. Mehta submitted an affidavit filed by the food and drugs administration (FDA) department which said that necessary action is being taken against the guilty under the Drugs and Megical Remedies Act.

The PIL had urged the authorities to ban articles, advertisements, episodes and practices promoting astrology and its related subjects like vastu, reiki, feng shui, tarot, palmistry, zodiac signs and rashifal.

“Trusted science…for over 4000 years” Is that all it takes? The fact that something has been around for a long time and was trusted in ancient times makes it immune from ever becoming non-trusted?

I’ve got some news for Ramakrishna: There are lots of things that were believed thousands of years ago and are now considered hogwash. One thing about science is that it does not stand still and ideas that are found to be flawed are rejected regardless of their age. Not that this is a new thing, though, most serious scientists have rejected astrology for hundreds of years.

Maybe we should bring back bloodletting, witch burning, virgin sacrifices, geocentrism and all the other ideas that were trusted for thousands of years before we knew any better.

Finally, to the judges involved: you may want to reconsider your decision in light of your charts for the past day. Here’s your horoscope: The stress of the daily grind has been getting to you. Be careful about making big decisions. It would be better to wait until you’ve had time to relax and think them through. Now might be a good time to break from the routine by contacting some old friends and enjoying some activities you haven’t done in a while. Tonight: stay home and go f*** yourself.

This study was supposed to be pro-homeopathy, supporting the contention that even after homeopathic dilution, the preparation had measurable differences from plain water.

Via the Times of India:

IIT-B team shows how homeopathy works
MUMBAI: Six months after the British Medical Association rubbished homeopathy as witchcraft with no scientific basis, IIT scientists have said the sweet white pills work on the principle of nanotechnology.

Homeopathic pills containing naturally occurring metals such as gold, copper and iron retain their potency even when diluted to a nanometre or one-billionth of a metre, states the IIT-Bombay research published in the latest issue of ‘Homeopathy’, a peer-reviewed journal from reputed medical publishing firm Elsevier.

IIT-B’s chemical engineering department bought homeopathic pills from neighbourhood shops, prepared highly diluted solutions and checked these under powerful electron microscopes to find nanoparticles of the original metal.

”Certain highly diluted homeopathic remedies made from metals still contain measurable amounts of the starting material, even at extreme dilutions of 1 part in 10 raised to 400 parts (200C),” said Dr Jayesh Bellare from the scientific team.

His student, Prashant Chikramane, presented the homeopathy paper titled, ‘Extreme homeopathic dilutions retain starting materials: A nanoparticulate perspective’, as part of his doctoral thesis.

“Homeopathy has been a conundrum for modern medicine. Its practitioners maintained that homeopathic pills got more potent on dilution, but they could never explain the mechanism scientifically enough for the modern scientists,” said Bellare.

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Homeopathy is not exactly the kind of thing that one tends to associate with things like logic, accuracy or sanity, but this statement from a new homeopathy page really took my breath away.   The site is like most homeopathy sites:  a lot of claims about how the “skeptic” movement is corrupt and run by big evil corporations and how homeopathy is good medicine and supported by volumes of evidence.

Via “Extraordinary Medicine”

The skeptical movement is an offshoot of the Communist Party. (Really: see the top two links below.) Its top organizers were hired by pharmaceutical company and medical industry representatives to recruit malcontents in bars to spread hate propaganda against non-conventional medical systems. One of the first such skeptic groups referred to itself as “Skeptics in the Pub”. Not surprisingly, their rants against Homeopathy sound like the drunken cacophony of soccer hooligans.

A “who’s who” tour would not be complete if we neglected to mention Sense about Science. This group features a prominent spokesperson who is an advertising “consultant” to pharmaceutical and oil companies. It’s been scrubbed from their website as of this writing, but they get large donations from Big Pharma.

It’s impossible not to encounter ties to the prevailing medical industry among any of the individuals or groups who currently identify themselves with the skeptic moniker. The mainstream media, which depend on advertising revenues from pharmaceutical companies and are always in search of a scandal are often co-opted by business interests that have little regard for the welfare of the average individual.

Sir, I am not and have never been associated with the Communist Party!

Seriously, I’m not a communist. Not that I feel the need to defend myself against such a ridiculous allegation, but I’m just not.  I’m a member of multiple skeptic organizations, but I’m not a communist.

Most skeptics I know are also not communists. In fact, skeptics come from just about all political persuasions. There are certainly many libertarian skeptics, and many who would be considered to be social progressives, modern fiscal conservatives or something else. There are some who are legitimately supporters of socialism, and a few who are unabashedly pro-communism. I have not met any self-described skeptics who are supporters to hardcore, rigidly-enforced Marxism, but I can’t say that they don’t exist.

Whatever the case, the notion that the skeptic movement is at all related to communism is preposterous.

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It’s often claimed that there’s some spectacular new technology, miraclel cure or secret that is being suppressed to keep profits of a certain industry from suffering. It’s one of the most common claims in “alternative” medicine, with the big pharmaceutical companies being blamed for keeping down the truth about cancer cures or natural treatments that would result in huge losses. Another common claim is that the oil industry is responsible for stopping technologies that would allow cars to be powered by water or increase gas mileage ten-fold from seeing the light of day.

Such claims tend to ignore some big problems with the whole idea of a conspiracy to keep down a technology. For one thing, companies and industries have tried to stop the proliferation of competing technologies before and have failed. At best, expensive lawsuits and lobbying have managed to stifle adoption for a short time, but have never kept a truly revolutionary technology from seeing the light of day. It’s impossible to keep information about something big and beneficial contained, especially these days and once it gets out, the incentive to implement it will always exceed the incentive to keep it under wraps.

Above all else, despite the fact that there are companies and industries which would suffer losses, there are others that would reap enormous rewards. Many of these companies and sectors are extremely powerful in their own right, and taken together represent a very powerful force whose own self-interest offers motivation to oppose the suppression of such technologies.

Does anyone really think that Walmart Corporation would continue to happily pay hundreds of millions of dollars a year to fuel their delivery trucks if they could just as easily be fueled by water? Would the massive corporations continue to happily pay billions and billions in worker health plans and lost productivity knowing that homeopathy was capable of solving every health problem known to man?

Lets consider a few common claims and who exactly stands to gain or lose if they were really true.

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Echinacea is a flowering daisy-like plant native to North America, which has long been a mainstay in alternative and “natural” medicine. The plant has long been used in traditional remedies and now is found in numerous supplements and “natural” remedies for conditions like the common cold.

Products containing the plant are most commonly marketed as “immune boosting” or claiming to have the ability to reduce the length or severity of the common cold or to prevent the infection in the first place. It is also found in numerous general purpose herbal supplements. It is one of the active ingredients in the supplements sold under the trade name Airborne.

Up to now, there has been very little solid data on the effectiveness of echinacea in treating the common cold. A few studies have been done, and although their conclusions were inconstant, a review conducted in 2007 found that the preponderance of evidence did indicate the herb to possibly be effective. Still, given the scope and quality of available data, this was never considered conclusive.

A new study has now been published that may begin to put this issue to bed. The study looked at more than 700 subjects who received echinacea supplements or a placebo at the first sign of the cold. Overall, there was no statistically significant difference in the duration of the infection or on the symptoms surveyed, which included low grade fever, nasal congestion, airway inflammation and others.

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Imagine the following situation:  You’re home from work sick.  You have a severe cold or some other virus that has you in a miserable state of congestion, fatigue, headache and low grade fever.  Unable to get restful sleep and suffering from these symptoms you venture out to your local corner drug store seeking an over the counter remedy to provide some temporary relief to your symptoms so you can get some rest.

It’s certainly reasonable to expect that the cold and cough isle in a pharmacy would have products that would provide some basic symptomatic treatment for minor ailments like colds, allergies or sore throat.   A number of OTC products exist that contain safe and effective ingredients such as antihistamines, decongestants and general purpose pain relievers.

After looking over the medications available, you select a product that appears to be a good match for what you’re looking for.   The label offers some straight forward indications for use, “Non-drowsy formula:  for relief of stuffy or runny nose, sinus congestion and headache.”   So you buy it, never even realizing that it does not have a single active ingredient in it and will do absolutely nothing to help your condition.   Most of the other products on the same shelf are totally legitimate and do contain some kind of therapeutic ingredient.

Is this a realistic scenario?   Could a person seeking a legitimate over the counter medication end up spending money on a completely sham product containing absolutely nothing?  Many pharmacies in the US and elsewhere stock homeopathic products right alongside the real thing, often in similarly styled packaging with only a small, easily overlooked mention of the fact that they are homeopathic.

Consider this image.   Most of the products shown here are legitimate over-the-counter medications.  They contain ingredients that are actually proven to be safe and have value in providing some level of temporary symptomatic relief.   One or more, however, are homeopathic and thus contain no active ingredient and do not provide any direct therapeutic benefit.

The image above is made intentionally small to illustrate that glancing over these products does not provide much insight into which are homeopathic and which are real.  If you read this blog frequently or a self-described skeptic then  chances are you are well aware of what homeopathy is and know to keep an eye out for that word on labels because it means the product is worthless, but does the general public even know this?

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It’s really amazing that a product like the Power Balance Wristband could be considered “controversial” or that there would be any kind of debate or inquiry over this.   The Power Balance Wristband is a rubber bracelet with a cheap hologram, like those put on credit cards stamped on it.  It sells for as much as 60 to 75 US dollars and claims to help rebalanced energy fields, improve endurance and do all manner of other things to improve health and athletic performance.

Could there be a more obvious scam product?   I’d have a hard time imagining one.  There is no biological energy field known to science by which such a product would work nor is there any reason to think holographic images would have any effect on the human body simply by being present.

Despite this, the product in question has sold quite well, in the United States, Europe, Australia and elsewhere.  It continues to sell quite well and gets rave reviews on many sites, such as Amazon.com It also has the endorsement of numerous athletes and has even inspired a slew of knockoffs.   By some reports, its maker has already made 87 million dollars off the product .

It is utterly astounding that these kind of things sell so well. It is the kind of thing that makes me worry very deeply about where human society is going and ask how so many could be so boneheaded. It’s both very sad and extremely scary.

The following report is from Australia, but the product is originally from the United States and sold in numerous countries. I’m glad to see my friend Richard Saunders managed to get some media attention for the skeptical side of things. Australia happens to have an especially strong skeptical activism community, and Richard especially has done an excellent job in appealing to the media to confront this kind of nonsense. He also was nice enough to give me a very large number of TimTam cookies last time I saw him, and showed me that they can be used to suck up a beverage – which, as it turns out, probably should not be beer (the flavor of beer and TimTam does not mix well.)

The product has been out for a few years and only recently has the controversy (if you can call it that) over its validity shown up in the media.   There have been other reports in the US press, a few doing a pretty good job of completely debunking the product, showing that relatively simple experiments can easily demonstrate that it does not actually improve performance.

Still, it’s a damn shame that it even had to come to this.   Something in our culture is failing catastrophically.  I don’t know whether it’s the educational system or the media or the scientific community, but clearly something is very very wrong.