Blogs / Bad Astronomy

The British Chiropractic Association may need to hire a chiropractor to work on themselves: they’re shoveling so hard they’re likely to hurt their backs.

Fifteen month ago, the BCA sued journalist Simon Singh for libel after he called some of their claims "bogus". Mind you, they didn’t say, "He’s wrong and here’s the stack of scientific tests that have been performed to show just how chiropractic works". They simply sued. In the UK, libel laws are such that defending yourself against them is time-consuming and very costly, a fact the BCA could not help but understand when they sued Singh. One might almost call this action "spineless".

After an uproar on the internet as well as in the media — with some predictable results — the BCA is now, over a year later, suddenly claiming there is evidence to back them up, and issued a press release about it. I read it with some amusement, as even to my non-medical eye I could see that many of the references were totally ridiculous. A study of colic in children with no control cases? Colic tends to go away after time on its own, so without a control group how do you know manipulating their spines is what did it? Why did the BCA reference its own code of practice as evidence chiropractic works? And why did so many of the references talk about osteopathy, which is different than chiropractic (though laden with its own share of dubious claims)?

I didn’t write anything yesterday when this came up because I figured others with more experience would, and would be able to give more details than I could. And that’s just what happened: chiming in are The Ministry of Truth, Zeno’s blog, DC’s Improbable Science, and of course the awesome Jack of Kent.

The BCA is struggling mightily here to make itself look like the victim, but it’s hard to see it any other way than them trying to bully a member of the free press into silence, and creating an atmosphere where other critics would be afraid to speak. Whether they were hoping to silence the media or not, what they’ve really done is let millions of people know just how thin their "supporting evidence" is, and set themselves up for a PR disaster.

I will reiterate my support of Simon, and for the right of journalists to freely investigate claims made by anyone without having to wonder if they are going to be sued frivolously or otherwise. And in this case, the claims are about not just the health of adults but of a questionable practice being applied to babies. I think the least we can do is ask for the usual standard of evidence to support those claims, and in fact they should be held to an even higher standard. The list given by the BCA… well, to be polite it leaves much to be desired.

Simon’s not backing down, nor should he. A lot is riding on this, so we need to keep shining a light on what the BCA is doing. Keep your browsers pointed to Sense About Science to stay on top of the latest news.

Well, antiscience is taking major body blows the past week or so, and it’s a wonderful, wonderful thing to see. It started with Newsweek taking down the quackery promoted by Oprah Winfrey, and has taken off from there:

1) Reader’s Digest jumped on the anti-Oprah ride… and when the milquetoast middle-of-the-road offend no one RD takes you on, it’s time to rethink your very existence.

2) Deepak Chopra — who couldn’t find reality with both hands, a compass and, evidently, the aid of centuries of scientific advancement — ran to Oprah’s defense, and, as usual, mangled more logic in one essay than can be humanly possible without the aid of quantum healing. Massimo Pigliucci magnificently takes him down, as did JREF’s Jeff Wagg at the Swift blog.

3) The Australian government has ruled that Arnica Montana, a homeopathy company, falsely advertised the efficacy of its product — which, in the case of homeopathy is everything they advertise — and they had to post a humiliating retraction. I weep non-diluted tears for them. Dr. Rachie has more info. Also, Steve Novella has written a lengthy and complete destruction of homeopathy on his NeuroLogica blog. If you are a homeopathic believer and feel you must spout your undiluted nonsense in the comments below, read his essay first, because if you make any of the claims he debunks I will allow everyone free reign to mock you. Because that’s better than allowing babies to die due to homeopathy.

4) Simon Singh is being sued by the British Chiropractic Association because he wrote about their "bogus" claims. BCA vice-president Richard Brown then posted a flailing essay titled In Defence of Chiropractic in New Scientist magazine, a piece laden to the hilt with astonishingly poorly thought-out logic. Apgaylard thoroughy dismantles the claims from Brown, leaving the emperor looking a little naked out there.

This kind of antiscience antireality antihealth garbage will always be with us, but I can hope to help amplify the chorus of voices being raised against them. It’s important, as I have been hammering home for months. They will never rest as long as people credulously accept their claims, so we need to make sure as many people as possible examine their claims as critically as possible.

First, familiarize yourself with Simon Singh’s situation.

Then, go read Crispian Jago’s take on it.

Mynd you, chirøpractic subluxatiøns Kan be pretty nasti…

Now, don’t get me wrong: San Francisco is one of my absolute favorite cities ever. I love it there, I loved it there, and moving away from that area was a tough decision (I still miss driving over the Golden Gate Bridge, which I will always think of as my bridge). And it’s not like Boulder doesn’t have its share of New Age goofiness.

But still.

Did these scientists talk to the moon? Tell her what they were doing? Ask her permission? Show her respect?

You know what? We did ask the Moon first, but being a gigantic ball of lifeless rock, it didn’t answer back.

Tip o’ the tin foil beanie to John Schroer.

Here’s a shocker for you: after a decade and 2.5 billion (with a b, folks) dollar spent, a government study shows that almost no alternative medicines worked.

Echinacea for colds. Ginkgo biloba for memory. Glucosamine and chondroitin for arthritis. Black cohosh for menopausal hot flashes. Saw palmetto for prostate problems. Shark cartilage for cancer. All proved no better than dummy pills in big studies funded by the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine. The lone exception: ginger capsules may help chemotherapy nausea.

So, they used actual scientific testing processes instead of anecdotes, and found that most of these simply don’t work. Like I said: shocker.

Let me be clear: I am not opposed to testing any so-called alternative medicines. A lot of our medicine today is based on herbs and such; aspirin comes from willow bark, for example, and ginger has been tested before for nausea and shown some promise. A lot of people comment on my blog when I talk about this stuff and call me closed-minded, which makes me chuckle ironically, since most of these people are so anti-science their minds are clamped tight. And in fact I want to test these techniques to separate what works from what doesn’t.

But I am decidedly against these techniques that have been tested and shown to be no better than placebos. This includes homeopathy, intercessory prayer, and the like. Chiropractic, which I dissed just today, may have some efficacy for some skeletal issues, but curing a toothache? C’mon.

My point: when the tests are done, and the technique is shown not to work as promised or even at all, then into the trash bin it goes. That’s science. That’s reality.

Of course, that’s if the tests are done correctly. According to the MSNBC article linked above, that wasn’t always the case. Not surprisingly, when the testers have some stake in the tests then science is out the window.

But even so, the studies have shown that most of these remedies don’t work. And will this change the minds of their advocates?

HAHAHAHAHAHAhahahahahahaha! Oh man, sometimes I crack myself up.

This is just one more arrow in our quiver, but the alternative medicine believers will continue to move the targets around. Stay vigilant, and remember: people waste money, people get sick, and people die because of this antiscientific thinking. That’s why testing this, publicizing it, and fighting the misinformation is so important.

Tip o’ the child-proof cap to Krelnik.

The first panicky retreat in the war on free speech in the UK has begun.

As I wrote last week, the British Chiropractic Association is suing science journalist Simon Singh for saying that chiropractors practice "bogus" medicine. Instead of defending what they do with research and testing, they are acting to silence Singh and chill anyone else who may want to expose what they do.

This attack on free speech has been rippling outward over the past few days, and now there is an ironic twist: the McTimoney Chiropractic Association has strongly warned its practitioners to take down their websites and replace any information on their techniques with just brief contact information. Why would they do that?

Because of what we consider to be a witch hunt against chiropractors, we are now issuing the following advice:

The target of the campaigners is now any claims for treatment that cannot be substantiated with chiropractic research. The safest thing for everyone to do is […] [i]f you have a website, take it down NOW.

Heh. Gee, why the heck would anyone want to make sure that a chiropractor — a person who will be futzing around with your spine — be able to substantiate their claims with (gasp) RESEARCH?

It’s very telling, isn’t it, that the McTimoney group isn’t telling its people to only stick with proven methods, but instead to take down any claims that might get them sued.

Interesting.

If you go to the McTimoney website, all it has now is a terse note with contact information, with no other information on the technique at all.

Interesting.

Of course, this being the web and all, the missing websites are archived and can be found online.

Very interesting!

And the word is spreading; this is on Quackometer, Sys-Con Media, and ChiropracticLive. You can expect to see it lots of other places soon as well.

Maybe the British Chiropractic Association and other such practitioners should have looked up the Streisand effect before acting. But then, "Ready, fire, aim!" is the mantra for a lot of groups like this.

The backlash has begun, folks. Let’s make sure it keeps going.

Does a smackdown of homeopathy sound better in Italian? You can find out for yourself here, where Spaghetto Volante has translated my homeopathy rant from last week.

I know very little Italian ("I am wounded", learned from my dad’s old WWII phrase books, may some day come in handy however), but I must admit that reading that page does make me sound a little more romantic.