Observer editor is to go: we are more possible than they could powerfully imagine

Observer editor Roger Alton will step down at the end of 2007. It appears that the terrible MMR/autism coverage from the Observer – and their failure to issue a proper retraction or apology – played a role in this. Much more than the ‘mainstream media’, bloggers have been pushing this issue and refusing to let it go quietly away. Le Carnard Noir (the previous host of the Skeptic’s Circle) has even put up a counter marking the number of “weeks without [the Observer offering] a correction of apology about MMR and Autism.

We can’t know exactly why Alton stepped down – and other factors were definitely involved – but it is nice to think that we may have played a part. Alton ran a frontpage story he should have known was incorrect, then refused to offer an adequate apology – it has been 16 weeks now.

ASA Ruling: YorkTest adverts breach guidelines for truthfulness and substantiation

The ASA have just published a ruling where they uphold a complaint against YorkTest (an allergy and intolerance testing company whose products are often recommended by Holford). The ASA found that:

• YorkTest could not substantiate their claim to offer “clinically validated” testing.

• YorkTest could not substantiate their claims of clinical efficacy.
• The claims made in Yorktest adverts could lead to mistaken diagnoses.

Coracle on Statins and Coenzyme Q10

Really interesting post from Coracle, in response to a comment on this blog. Coracle argues that:

Coenzyme Q10 levels may have a role to play, but it is by no means the be all and end all of statin-induced myopathy. And this is where it gets interesting at a social level. By misappropriation and misuse of scientific work, by a blind assumption that supplements are preferable to rigorously tested pharmaceutical products and by market-driven distortion of facts, those in the alternative medicine industry are being closed-minded and profit driven in exactly the manner that evidence-based medicine is accused. Without considering the full range of evidence, seizing a single element of the issue, the alternative medicine crowd blinds itself to further possibilities and impoverishes its’ own world view by a selective short sightedness.

While – I would hope – some of those involved in complementary medicine avoid this trap, I can certainly see the dangers that Coracle refers to.

LOLHolford: I maded u an advert…

Funny lolholford picture here – take a look :)

Dore, Dyslexia and ADHD: ‘unlikely miracle cure’ stories are viewed as newsworthy; ‘negative’ stories aren’t

A short break from your usual Holford coverage to discuss some news about the Dore ‘cure’ for dyslexia, ADHD and a load of other things. Dorothy Bishop recently published a paper showing that the evidence for Dore as a treatment for dyslexia and ADHD is woefully inadequate (it’s also suggested as a treatment for ASDs). Lots of newspapers have ran lots of ‘positive’ stories about the Dore ‘cure’ – but they haven’t found time to cover Bishop’s scathing analysis of Dore research. This is a bad thing: if the media runs ‘positive’ stories about ‘miracle cures’ – but fails to run updates when they are shown to be neither cures nor miraculous – this could make it easier for expensive, unproven ‘cures’ to be sold to their readers. On 3/10/07, I therefore contacted the Guardian, Mail, Manchester Evening News, Times and Telegraph to make sure they knew about this new information. Not one of them even responded to my e-mails.

This took me quite a while to do: most people probably wouldn’t be as obsessive determined to see this through as I was. I really thought that – by putting so much time into this – I would persuade at least some of the papers I spoke to to run the story. However – despite phoning and e-mailing all the papers below – the only response I’ve had is an ‘out of office’ autoreply

Higher Nature say that Holford’s “place has been taken over by more highly qualified doctors and scientists”

LeeT (who comments on this blog) e-mail me about the October issue of Higher Nature’s catalogue [PDF file] – definitely an interesting read. Apparently, they are

saying goodbye to Patrick Holford this month. Patrick has acted as a consultant to Higher Nature for a number of years but has now moved on, as his place has been taken over by more highly qualified doctors and scientists working at Higher Nature (p. 2).

That’s an interesting way of saying goodbye to a valued colleague – I wonder what the atmosphere was like at Holford’s leaving do, if of course there was a leaving party…

‘Dr’ Holford, good blogs and a puzzling Skeptic’s Circle

On his excellent new Counterknowledge blog, Damian Thompson points out that

An article by Bella Blissett in today’s Evening Standard, begins: “A glance at the average British lifestyle makes terrifying viewing for Dr Patrick Holford, the UK’s top nutritionist.” That doctorate makes an impressive addition to an already rather complicated CV. But where is it from?

One of the commenters on this blog noticed that GMTV have made a similar mistake, and apparently quite a few media bodies (GMTV, RTE, etc) have mistakenly assumed that Holford is a doctor.  The google results on this are rather depressing. And people say that bloggers don’t fact-check their articles…

There’s also a new edition Skeptic’s Circle online now. I would think of something interesting to say, but this Circle uses lots of puzzles. For some reason, I can’t do puzzles. Not even the ‘Easy’ section.  If you enjoy playing with that type of thing, go over and have a look – and if anyone wants to give me the answers I’m not opposed to cheating at these things…

Puzzles aside, I was pleased to see that the Bad Chemist blog has a nice ‘nutribollocks‘ section. For some reason, it seems to be dedicated entirely to a certain well-known media nutritionist. For the life of me, I can’t think why…  And, while I’m writing about interwebby stuff, a final thing to note is how bloggers are responding to Society of Homeopaths attempts to censor the Quackometer: it looks as if using legal muscle to (try to) censor bloggers can backfire…

Holford denies AIDS/vitamin C claims, again, and accuses Prof Colquhoun of having invented them

In a letter on the Guardian website, Professor Patrick Holford of Teesside University responds to Prof Colquhoun’s article on Endarkenment. Holford states that an example nutritional claim “given [in Colquhoun’s article], apparently made by me, that ‘vitamin C is better than conventional drugs to treat AIDS’ is [Colquhoun’s] own invention”. Strangely, though, in this very letter Holford links to some of his writing on AIDS where he claims that “AZT, the first prescribable anti-HIV drug, is potentially harmful and proving less effective than vitamin C”. I wonder if anyone on the Guardian staff followed this link, to check the accuracy of Holford’s claims prior to publishing the letter?

Now, I’m neither a ‘qualified’ nutritional therapist nor a lawyer – so I will leave readers to judge whether this claim about AZT constitutes a claim from Holford that vitamin C is better than conventional drugs to treat AIDS, and whether it was appropriate for the Guardian to publish Holford’s claim about Colquhoun’s “invention” unchallenged. I will also leave it to Teesside to decide whether it is appropriate for their new Professor of Nutrition and Mental Health to claim that Prof Colquhoun has ‘invented’ parts of his work.

Doughnuts, the Daily Mail and competing interests

Under the encouraging headline “Doughnuts are not the enemy”, the Daily Mail discusses some interesting new research on diet, carbohydrates and Body Mass Index (BMI). However, they also quote Patrick Holford as an expert: disappointingly, Holford’s claim that high carbohydrate diets lead to fat gain is based only on research in animals. The Mail also fails to mention Holford’s competing interests in this area (although they do mention another professor’s funding source when discussing his academic research).

The Mail article is about some interesting new research by Prof Gaesser – looking at “Carbohydrate Quantity and Quality in Relation to Body Mass Index”. Gaesser’s review of the evidence finds that “Because overall dietary quality tends to be higher for high-carbohydrate diets, a low-fat dietary strategy with emphasis on fiber-rich carbohydrates, particularly cereal fiber, may be beneficial for health and weight control.” In other words, a ‘normal’ balanced diet may be beneficial for health and weight control

Dore pwned in medical journal: expensive and unproven ‘cure’

The Dore programme is an interesting ‘cure’ for all kinds of things: as Dorothy Bishop puts it, “Dore Achievement Centres are springing up world-wide with a mission to cure cerebellar developmental delay, thought to be the cause of dyslexia, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, dyspraxia and Asperger’s syndrome. Remarkable success is claimed for an exercise-based treatment that is designed to accelerate cerebellar development.” Sound great, doesn’t it. Except, as Bishop shows in a new journal article, this is not supported by good evidence and it is therefore the case that “the claims made for this expensive treatment are misleading”. While academic journals are normally pretty restrained, this is about as close as I’ve seen to a thoroughgoing fisking in a journal article: Dore, and their research, are really pwned here. Given that – according to Ben Goldacre in the Guardian – a course of Dore treatment costs around £1,700 (and takes a load of time) I’d want much better evidence of efficacy before splashing out.

Dore is certainly well-promoted. Google “Asperger’s Syndrome” and it brings up an advert for Dore’s “Proven Long Term Drug-Free Solution Relieving the Symptoms of Aspergers”. Google “dyspraxia” and an advert informs one about Dore offering a “Proven Long Term Drug-Free Solution Relieving the Symptoms of Dyspraxia”. Google “dyslexia” and an advert promotes Dore as a “Proven Drug-Free, Exercise Based Dyslexia Remedy”. As a slick Dore promotional DVD puts it: “Now Dore Centres are able to offer real hope to those in despair” due to suffering from ‘learning disorders’. This includes Asperger’s Syndrome, which Dore’s UK site describes as “a problem associated with poor social behaviour.” Dore is apparently “suitable for those with high functioning Asperger’s Syndrome and Autism” (are any alternative treatments nowadays not marketed as suitable for people on the autistic spectrum?).

This marketing might make Dore seem appealing. Bishop notes that, “Although most of the promotion of the treatment is based on personal testimonials, these are backed up by research. Dore pointed to a study showing that treatment led to a nearly fivefold improvement in comprehension, a threefold improvement in reading age, and a 17-fold improvement in writing.” Sounds good, right? But the quality of the research was pretty dismal.