Skeptic Zoners

The following videos were in an unedited version of the TANK Vodcast last year – here they are now in properly formated condition.

Interview with Professor Jeff Malpas – Dr Jeff Malpas interview on the origins and efforts with primary school students in Australia and the need for wider society to encourage critical thinking in schools.

Interviews with Dr Stephan Millett and Dr Alan Tapper – interview on the efforts in Western Australia to implement critical thinking into mainstream secondary education.

The Australian Skeptics have produced an open letter to the parents of Australia, warning them about the dangers of taking vaccination advice from The Australian Vaccination Network.

To download a high resolution pdf version, click here. We encourage you to distribute this widely; drop off a copy at your local child care centre or pin one of the community notice board.

We need as many parents as possible to see this information to warn them about the dangers and consequences of taking advice about vaccines from scaremongering groups such as the AVN.

Big thanks to Stefan Sojka of the show!

Have you ever heard of a friend having a bad time with an alternative practitioner? Maybe their acupuncturist left them bruised and battered or their homeopath told them they could cure their incurable disease with an expensive potion, only it wasn’t to be? Maybe it’s happened to you? But what would you do if this did happen to you? Who could you turn to for help or to make a complaint?

For many years, unregistered practitioners such as naturopaths, acupuncturists, reiki practitioners, massage therapists, iridologists and the like, have been without any accountability for selling bogus or dangerous products or services.

In Australia, we have the federally controlled Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) which is responsible for “safeguarding public health and safety in Australia by regulating medicines, medical devices, blood and tissues”. But this does not include unregistered and alternative health practitioners. In NSW, a Code of Conduct for Unregistered Practitioners was released on August 1st, 2008. The code consists of 17 sections, covering such matters as;

practitioners are to provide services in a safe and ethical manner, are not to financially exploit clients and practitioners are required to have a clinical basis for their treatment”.

The code is designed to fill a loophole for the regulation of health providers who are not covered by a registration body, meaning that although the public could lodge a complaint about a practitioner, the regulatory bodies could do little more than slap them on the wrist. Whereas this new legislation means they can be banned from practicing either for a specific period or permanently. The code is administered by the Health Care Complaints Commission (HCCC) and if breached,

the Commission has the power to impose a prohibition order and/or issue a public warning about the practitioner and their services. A prohibition order bans a practitioner from providing health services, or places conditions on their provision of health services, for a specified period or permanently. It is a criminal offence to breach the order”.

But not every state in Australia has such a code for alternative health practitioners. (One wonders if Queensland is exempt since there seems to be so much woo in this state). For example South Australia (SA) does not, but a parliamentary inquiry is currently underway which plans to change this. Labour MP Trish White set-up a Social Development Committee inquiry in 2007. Its brief was to investigate “bogus, unregistered and deregistered health practitioners” and to develop a way to regulate the growing number of people making false claims about their ability to cure. White hopes the inquiry will expose the charlatans and work out ways to stop them popping up again under different names.

The current inquiry is spearheaded by the state head of the Australian Medical Association (AMA), Dr Peter Ford, the proposal is modelled on the NSW code. The impetus for the introduction of such a code came from Dr Ford as a mechanism for regulating quacks. Dr Ford told the inquiry that the unregulated practitioners are a “relative risk to patient health and have enjoyed immunity and lack of scrutiny from the legal and regulatory authorities which apply to the medical profession”.

In his submission about “bogus” doctors, he highlights colonic irrigation, thermography, subluxation and cancer cures as some of the more dangerous alternative medicine treatments. AS previously mentioned on Dr Rachie Reports, colonic irrigation can result in tearing of the colon and septicemia, or chronic depletion of electrolytes and death.

Thermography is a tool promoted as a way to detect breast cancer, but the AMA says it is unreliable, missing known cancers and diagnosing non-existent cancers – and further it is expensive. Chiropractic subluxations or spinal problems, can lead to other health complaints. The AMA is concerned about children being subjected to unnecessary X-rays for what is a controversial diagnosis and treatment (see here for more information). Regular listeners to Dr Rachie will remember that chiropractic manipulation has lead to death from tearing of arteries in the neck.

Dr Ford also cites fanciful claims of cancer cures as particularly insidious. And as is evidenced by some of the complaints currently being heard as part of the inquiry, it seems this is an urgent inclusion. He also cited other therapies, such as alternative massage therapies, Vega testing and coffee or chamomile enemas are “untested and potentially harmful”. Vega testing is as food allergy test, reminscent of alternative hair analysis, which claims to identify different food allergies and then prescribes you a special diet.

QuackWatch describes the Vega test as “…used to diagnose nonexistent health problems, select inappropriate treatment, and defraud insurance companies. The practitioners who use them are either delusional, dishonest, or both. These devices should be confiscated and the practitioners who use them should be prosecuted”.

Recently an article appeared in the local Adelaide press about a health practitioner treating cancer sufferers with massage, home-made remedies, and Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC). The Favira Clinic, run by “miracle worker” Elvira Brunt uses a type of massage to change the way blood flows through the body, and this is supposed to cure terminal illnesses. Her supporters call her a gifted healer who can cure cancer. Her detractors have told a parliamentary committee that she takes money from vulnerable people, charging hundreds of dollars for a few precious minutes, paid in cash, with no receipt.

The AMA claims that she tried to convince the parents of a young leukemia victim to delay giving her treatment. The girls’ GP eventually told the committee the delays had a devastating effect;

….the interventions by the bogus practitioner served only to reduce the opportunity of giving the girl the best chance of a cure…..and when the cure could not be achieved she was deprived of optimal palliative care”.

Even more bizarre, Brunt apparently advised the girl’s father to give her the aforementioned KFC to get her kidneys functioning properly. The girl has since died. Her GP said; “People battling serious or terminal illnesses can be desperate and will sometimes hand over large amounts of money for quite useless treatments. We would like to think that the public is protected from such charlatans”.

Also reported to the inquiry is a man known as Lubo Bitelco who is alleged to have promised a woman a “50 percent” cure for cancer through a technique known as vaginal blowing, during which she had to move up and down on the bed saying “oh boy!”

In NSW, making claims of curing cancer or other terminal illnesses was outlawed in August 2008 with the introduction of the code. According to section 5, part 1 of the code; “A health practitioner must not hold himself or herself out as qualified, able or willing to cure cancer and other terminal illnesses”.

Also according to section 17 of the Code, Health Practitioners (with some exceptions such as the ambulance service and private hospitals) must display the Code and information about the way in which clients may make a complaint to the HCCC if necessary. These documents are available as easily downloadable pdfs from the Department of Health and the HCCC websites.

I am currently making enquiries as to whether it is an offence if the code is not displayed. If this is the case, it should make for an interesting visit to the Mind body Wallet festival at the end of this month, where all manner of fantastical woo is on display, with only the NSW department of health and the TGA are conspicuous by their absence.

I am personally very pleased to see the code introduced and hope that SA expect something similar. One expects Dr Peter Ford is not going to let these “wide-ranging ratbags” get off the hook that easily. He is a very active campaigner for science based medicine and features regularly on local ABC radio in SA.

What interested me most about the code is how it will be implemented. For example, can I dob in a website that claims to treat cancer with oxygen, water, sunlight and sleep? In accordance with Section 5,

health practitioners are not to make claims to cure serious illnesses”

including cancer, but do they actually have to state the word “cure” in their promotional material? What if they just infer they can cure an illness?

I was particularly interested in Section 12 which states that health practitioners are not to misinform their clients. Part 2 states that a health practitioner must provide truthful information to his or her qualifications, training or professional affiliations if asked. So, does this mean the end for people posing as doctors with bogus or on-line PhDs? One can only hope.

Section 3 is also interesting and has potentially far reaching consequences.

A health practitioner must not make claims about the efficacy of treatment or services if the claims cannot be substantiated”.

Sounds like curtains for KFC and “water can cure incurable diseases”. I will be very interested to see what impact the code has on alternative and unregistered practitioners in NSW.

A teaser for the Skeptic Zone interview with Tim Minchin – here he discusses the creative process, communicating skepticism via comedy and the popular beat-poem ‘Storm‘. Downloadable audio-only full version at www.skepticzone.tv and www.angry-feet.com.

Summary: There is no need to read this entire post, it is long and full of science. If you want the take home message, then here it is. Lifewave patches are placebo. In other words, they are very expensive pieces of gauze with a sticky bit. If someone has told you that they cure certain conditions, then you should ask them for evidence, since there is nothing to show that these patches work, none, ever. They are making it up, or they are deluded, or they are lying. You decide. Search for evidence. I bet you don’t find it.

How would you like your pain reduced by 50 -100% in just 2 minutes?

Increase your energy and strength endurance within minutes of use.

Lose weight fast! Remember, if you are overweight, it is not your fault…

Imagine rapid, drug-free sleep…

Elevate your blood glutathione levels by over a whopping 300% in just 24 hours!

The next miracle cure has arrived. Lifewave miracle patches are currently touring Australia giving seminars on how to become a distributor.

The series of five pads are known as Energy Enhancer, Icewave, Silent Nights, Glutathione and Sp6. And like most miracle cures these guys can treat or “assist with” everything and anything.

For example the energy pads, relieve symptoms of fatigue, loss of sleep, nervousness, exhaustion, muscle weakness, drowsiness etc. and support energy production, breathing and stamina.

Icewave is the pain relief pad, and assists with the temporary relief of arthritis related joint pain, general body aches, stiffness; soreness, swelling & bruising due to falls or blows, headaches due to stress, strain or illness, spasms & cramps due to strain or injury from overexertion.

Silent night plus is for symptomatic relief due to exhaustion; inability to fall asleep, restlessness, tossing and turning, sleeplessness, due to stress or worry. Light sleeping, overactive mind, tension/anxiety, nervous exhaustion, and insomnia.

The glutathione booster is anti-ageing (and anti-autism but more on that later) and Sp6 is a weight loss and appetite control patch.

Who are Lifewave?

David Schmidt, Education: Unknown Degrees: Unknown Previous Employment: Unknown Scientific Background: Unknown Nanotechnology Background: Unknown Previous MLMs: BioForce and Vitagenix

Do a Google search for LifeWave and you get a lot of hits for scam websites, pyramid marketing and multi-level marketing (MLM). On the Worldwide scam network website they get an entire page dedicated to their dubious claims.

Lifewave is headed by the patch inventor and president, David Schmidt. He is not a doctor or a scientist. According to WWSN, he has no apparent history, no formal education, no professional experience in his field, no published peer review of any research into any of the so-called technology associated with his patches or any science whatsoever.

But the health and science director of the company, Dr Steve Haltiwanger is a proper doctor with qualifications from the Medical College of Georgia. Dr. Haltiwanger has a public record which establishes him as an educated professional with degrees in psychiatry, neurology, medicine, chemistry and pathology, professional memberships, awards, publications, academic appointments, medical licenses, and an impressive work history that spans 34 years. However he also has a wide range of interests that run the gamut of alternative medicine, unconventional therapies, and radical theories.

Evidence that even highly educated people can believe ridiculous things.

How do the patches work?

Firstly, the patches are self adhesive, round and about the size of a nicotine patch. According to the website, they are a “non-transdermal patch that does not put any chemicals or drugs into the body” but “by stimulating acupuncture points on the body with a combination of pressure and infared energy….what that means is they will reflect specific frequencies of infrared light to the body to improve circulation and relieve pain.”

This sounds a lot like someone has put some sciencey words in a hat and pulled them put at random Mr Schmidt.

Let’s look first at the claims about infared light. Photobiomodulation is a term peppered throughout their material and this is in fact, a legitimate scientific technique. It has been shown to be effective in wound healing, but this requires light to be shone on the wound. I can’t see any evidence for light being chanelled into these pads. It just doesn’t make scientific sense.

Whilst infared light does exist and can be used for some therapies, exactly how these pads apparently do this is not explained.

The Energy Enhancer patches apparently “stimulate acupuncture points on the body for improving the flow of energy and producing drug-free energy enhancement within minutes of use”. This apparently has something to do with light being chanelled down the meridian lines.

Well I’m afraid people have been searching for the elusive meridian lines for centuries and we have yet to find them. There is still no physiological evidence that meridian lines exist.

There is also a patch called glutathione which is supposed to be anti-ageing since it will apparently; “elevate your anti-oxidant levels by over 300 percent in one day”. And the website proudly displays a graph demonstrating this increase (see left). There are articles all over the website under the research tag, but none appear in peer reviewed scientific journals. Sorry to be boring Lifewave but as a scientist, I require evidence for such extraordinary claims.

And I’m not sure how “stimulating acupuncture points through light can increase levels of glutathione”. It’s very difficult to critique this statement, because scientifically it just doesn’t make sense.

Of course there are plenty of testimonials from satisfied customers, even some pretty important people like Olympic athletes and National Football League players. But I will get onto this a bit later.

In any case, none of this is important when you discover that LifeWave products are homeopathic. Which means that they likely have nothing in them. So what’s the point in discussing the science if what we really have here is a piece of guaze and some water, maybe. Mr Schmidt claims they contain amino acids, oxygen sugars and water and it’s the amino acids that do all the work. But all I found on the website was a list of homeopathic ingredients.

So if they contain water and oxygen how can they cure autism?

According to an audio testimonial buried in the bowels of the website, the glutathione patch has been helping kids with autism. There are two testimonials, one from a father of a 6 year old boy who says he has tried everything including foot baths (?) and as a last resort sought a blood transfusion for his son, to remove the mercury from his system deposited following immunisation. I assume the reference to mercury comes from the scaremongering about thimerosal, the organomercury compound used as a preservative in some vaccines (but as I discussed last week, thimerasol was removed from childhood vaccines in the year 2000 as a precaution and recently the Autism Omnibus case in the States ruled there is not link between autism and thimerasol).

You might be wondering how Lifewave get away with making such extraordinary claims about a homeopathic patch that likely contains no active ingredients. Well here’s the trick. They don’t officially claim their glutathione pads assist kids with autism – a couple of satisfied customers do. You won’t find this claim in any of their promotional material or on their website. And whilst it is clear from the testimonial that the client was told this by a Lifewave distributor, Lifewave do not have control over what the their distributors say. Whilst they can request they do not say this, ultimately they do not have control. So that’s them off the legal hook.

Dubious and deceitful. Especially when it come to an emotive and debilitating illness like autism for which there is currently no cure.

Lifewave are currently in Australia doing seminars and recruiting distributors.

Stay well away.

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Postscript: According to the WWSN, Lifewave backed out of the JREF 1 million dollar challenge because as they said; “the challenge is for testing claims of the paranormal”. Randi responded, “If this thing works as claimed, it is paranormal. There is no scientific principle by which it can work, so it is – by definition – paranormal. In any case, we agree to accept it as paranormal for purposes of the challenge, without reservation.”

A paper from Dr Steve Haltiwanger, entitled The Science Behind Lifewave Energy Patches, not published in a peer review journal, makes for some fairly entertaining reading.

Basically all medications and drugs and vaccines are supposed to go through a double blind placebo study where one group is given the treatment and another group is given a placebo or like a sugar pill and in over 200 years of vaccine history, this has never been done for any vaccine. So anything we know or think we know about vaccinations is purely guess work.
Meryl Dorey, The Australian Vaccination Network, 2006.

With recent talk about how the anti-vaccine crowd have effected rates of vaccination in the UK and the States, I thought it might be interesting to look closer to home to see how Australia stacks up.

This week Medicare, Australia’s government run health body released figures from the Australian Childhood Immunisation Register detailing the rates of immunisation in this country.

The latest figures are from December 2008. On the face of it, it seems we are doing pretty well. For kids aged up to 15 months, the national average for immunisation is 91% with the lowest levels being 89.9% for Western Australia. The national average falls to 88.4 % in the up to 5 years of age group with the lowest compliance of 85.5% in South Australia. When you consider that approximately 90% vaccination is needed to obtain herd immunity, but this depends on the vaccine and the disease, these figures are encouraging.

Rob Menzies, from the National Centre for Immunisation Research and Surveillance, said low vaccination rates were often more prevalent where well-educated parents did their own research and believed the myths that vaccines did more harm than good. This was reflected in figures for Sydney’s exclusive Eastern Suburbs, including the harbour view, well-to-do suburbs of Double Bay and Vaucluse, which were ranked the worst, with only 80 per cent of children immunised. This was followed closely by the areas of Lismore, Alstonville and Byron Bay, areas known for “alternative lifestyles” so these figures are not overly surprising.

There has been much discussion and speculation about why the wealthy suburbs are less likely to get their kids vaccinated. One journalist described the parents as, “Selfish dummy mummies need consciences pricked”. Adele Horin, reporting in the Sydney Morning Herald explained; “These are women who spend too many hours on wacky internet health sites and become convinced immunisation is a giant conspiracy”. She further described them as “The educated mother who thinks she knows better than the overwhelming majority of the world’s scientists and doctors…” These statements are supported by Arthur Allen, author of the book Vaccine, A History of Immunisation. He observed that “living in a place with a high percentage of PhDs is a risk factor for whooping cough”.

Scathing stuff indeed. But in a case of backward logic the anti-vaccers have actually claimed this for themselves loudly proclaiming, “parents continue to be accused of being ignorant, uncaring and stupid for refusing vaccines which the medical community claim will keep their children healthy when the truth is older, highly educated parents form the basis of the [sic] anti-immunisation lobby’.

Not something to be proud of I would have thought. However, one wonders if these are the parents glued to morning television when the likes of Meryl Dorey from the Australian Vaccination Network (AVN) can regularly be seen, spouting her misinformed anti-vacc. nonsense. She is like a watered down version of Jenny McCarthy, without all the cash and the hilarious boyfriend.

The innocuously titled AVN, fronted by the screeching Meryl Dory, go by the catch phrase, “love them, protect them, never inject them”. Meryl is regularly given a platform on morning television shows in Australia, such as Mornings with Kerri-Anne. In defence of Kerri-Anne, they usually have a representative from the sensible side, in this case Dr Penny Adams. However just like the overseas breeds, Meryl is not shy about exposing her ingnorance to a national audience.

As a demonstration of how little the AVN understand about science and medicine, I will use an article written by them called “10 reasons why parents choose not to vaccinate”.

Reason 1: Vaccines have never been tested.
A true indication of how little AVN know about how the drug development process works. I won’t bore you with the details of this process today, but I will tell you it takes millions of dollars, around 10 years and at least 4 phases of testing, which continues even after the drug is released.
Evidence that this process works can be found in the case of a vaccine for the rotavirus called Rotashield which was released in the US in August 1988. In pre-licensure trials, the vaccine appeared to be safe, but in post-licensure surveillance it was associated with an increased risk of intussusception (a rare form of bowel obstruction occurring in infants). As soon as this problem was discovered, the vaccine was withdrawn from the market. Rotashield® was never released in Australia, and each new rotavirus vaccine has undergone testing in around 70,000 young children to rule out a risk of bowel obstruction.

Reason 2: Vaccines contain toxic additives and heavy metals
Here they are of course scaremongering with thimerosol, a mercury-based preservative that has been used in very small amounts in some vaccines since the 1930s to prevent bacterial and fungal contamination. There is no evidence that thiomersal in vaccines has caused any health problems, except perhaps minor reactions, such as redness at the injection site. THimerosol was removed from childhood vaccines as a precaution in 2000. Some vaccines, such as pneumococcal vaccines, MMR and other live attenuated viral vaccines, never contained thiomersal. Whilst there are certain vaccines for adults that stil contain thimerosol, the levels are extrememly low. Much lower than the level of exposure we get to mercury in our daily lives.

I don’t have time to discuss all their claims, except to day that they are full of accusations and conspiracies we have come to expect from such ignorant people, such as pharmaceutical companies have paid for all the vaccine studies to date, and this outrageous statement;

“Some childhood illnesses have beneficial aspects and therefore prevention may not necessarily be in the interests of the child”

You really think so Meryl Dorey? Why don’t we use one example of a childhood illness, whooping cough, (which can be vaccinated against) and look at whether it’s in the interest of the child to contract it. I chose whooping cough since Australia is currently experiencing an epidemic.

According to some reports, more than 13,000 cases were diagnosed across Australia – a 15 year high. In October 2008, there were more than 40 confirmed cases in the Bega Valley region, most were in school aged children, from the same school and the health service said that most of the cases were in children who have not been immunised.

Whooping cough is caused by the bacterium Bordetella pertussis. Babies are vaccinated against pertussis at 2 months, then 4 months, 6 months and 4 years. Whooping cough is particularly serious in young children, where one in every 200 babies who contract the infection will die. Some can even crack ribs through violent coughing attacks. A recent report about the current epidemic cited the story of a 14 week old girl, who has had whooping cough since she was two weeks old. Her terrified mother explained how she had turned blue several times, whilst gasping for air following long coughing fits.

The ‘whoop’ (which is not always obvious) is due to a deep breath at the end of a bout of coughing. Vomiting after coughing is common. Severe complications which occur almost exclusively in unvaccinated people include seizures and pneumonia. In babies under 6 months of age the symptoms can be severe or life threatening and include;

• Haemorrhage (bleeding)
• Apnoea (stopping breathing for long periods of time)
• Pneumonia
• Inflammation of the brain
• Convulsions and coma
• Permanent brain damage
• Death.

Whooping cough is not a disease you want to mess with. According to health officials, the recent Australian epidemic of whooping cough is likely a result of a reduction in vaccination. North Coast Area Health Service director of public health, Paul Corben said, “Communities with low vaccination rates have had more than eight times the rate of disease seen in those areas with the highest vaccination rates”.

Although the AVN are a relatively small organisation they are well organised and active, therefore they can do significant damage.

Australian listeners may remember the case of parents who fled hospital and the authorities with their new born in August 2008, to avoid having to have him vaccinated for hepatitis B. The sad thing is the mother has hepatitis B herself. Although it is not compulsory to be vaccinated in Australia, it is health department policy that children born of hepatitis B positive mothers are offered immunoglobulin for the child within 12 hours of birth and four doses of the vaccine over six months. In a tragic tale of ignorance, the mother told reporters that the couple believed aluminium in the vaccine could cause him more damage than the child contracting hepatitis B. And of course the father is a member of the Australian Vaccination Network, by which the couple are now touted as heroes.

Australia also has the usual suspects, the chiropractors who don’t proclaim it from the rooftops but upon questioning will tell you not to vaccinate. They will also follow the MMR-autism line. I had one tell me this at a recent Mothers, Babies, and pregnancy expo. And of course we can’t forget the despicable homeopaths who will also tell you on the sly that you can use homeopathy to vaccinate your kids. (BTW, there is no such thing as a homeopathic vaccine or a process known as homeopathic vaccination. It is called homeopathic immunisation, sometimes known as homeoprophylaxis, according to the irresponsible website homeopathyplus.com.au).

For more information about the myths and realities of vaccinations, see the Australian government’s publication “Vaccination; myths and realities, responding to arguments against immunisation” (see below). This is a thoroughly researched and easy to read resource which addresses fact and fiction about vaccination. Also useful even if you are not in Australia and particularly good for passing on to anyone you know who might have some dodgy ideas about the merits of vaccination.

References and further reading:
Immunisation, myths and realites. Responding to arguments against immunisation. A guide for practitioners. Australian Government Department of Health Ageing. 4th edition.

Current immunisation schedule

The MMR Decison Aid from the National Centre for Immunisation Research and Surveillance, Australia.

Fact sheet – A guide to homeopathic vaccination.

Only listen to these homeopathy podcasts if you are sitting down. The stupid, it burns.

Feeling blocked up and bloated? Over-tired and stressed? Digestive system not functioning optimally? One of the many physical symptoms resulting from a poorly functioning digestive system is a production of excessive ear wax. Now there is an easy way to flush your system of ear wax, whilst detoxing and relaxing all at the same time.

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Summary:

Edzard Ernst, the professor of complementary medicine at the University of Exeter and co-author of the book Trick or Treatment, published a review article in 2004 in the Journal of Laryngology and Otology entitled: “Ear candles: a triumph of ignorance over science”. He concluded; “Ear candling is one of those CAM modalities that clearly does more harm than good…..it’s mechanism of action is first implausible and second, demonstrably wrong..in my view, therefore, it should be banned (1)”.

Many scientific studies have been conducted on ear candling, several examining the claim that they remove ear wax. In order to do this, they would need to draw a vacuum. A study by Seely et al., (2) using 2 different brands of ear candles, demonstrated this not to be the case.

The Seely study also contains a clinical arm, where 122 ear nose and throat specialists were surveyed. The authors reported 21 cases of serious injury caused by ear candling. In 6 of these cases, patients temporarily lost their hearing. Other problems reported among the group included, 13 cases of burns, 7 cases where the wax from the candle had blocked the ear canal and 1 case of a punctured ear drum (2).

Based on this evidence and studies conducted by their own laboratories, the Canadian authorities have banned ear candles from sale and import into Canada.

When you look at the evidence, ear candling is dangerous. What part of putting burning sticks in your ears sounds like a good idea to you?

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Introducing ear candles!

This week I present to you an alternative modality that encompasses just about every misconception made by CAM, defies the laws of science in every possible way, and above all is dangerous. Most of us would remember our mothers telling us not to put anything in our ears smaller than our elbows rght? I don’t remember her ever mentioning burning sticks, but then why would she, she knew I was not that gullible. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for other people….

What is ear candling?

My Mum always told me not to put anything smaller than my elbow in my ear. A naked flame? Ummmm

An ear candle, ear cone or Hopi ear candle is a narrow, hollow cone that has been soaked in beeswax or paraffin and allowed to harden. The process of ear candling involves the patient lying on his or her side while someone else inserts the point of the cone inside the ear. The top of the cone is then set on fire and left to burn for 5 – 15 minutes.

The health claim most often made for ear candling is that the flame creates suction, which draws ear wax out of the ear canal. Proponents say the evidence for this is in the candle itself – when you have finished candling, you cut open the candle to expose the brown waxy mush at the bottom which they claim is ear wax and “toxins”. Promoters also say that ear candling can cure a wide range of medical problems, including ear aches, headaches, sinus pain/infections, sinus pressure, tinnitus, vertigo. In addition, they are said to remove impurities from the ear passages by drawing excess yeast, fungus, and bacteria from the sinuses and lymph glands and even revitalize the chakras. Of course, I could go on, but I think you get the idea…

Yet, absolutely none of this is true.

Ear candling does more harm than good.

oooh, yukky ear wax and toxins...oh hang on, it's just candle wax. Science says so.

I’m almost embarrassed to tell you that good science from proper scientists and doctors has been wasted testing these things. The seminal study on the safety and efficacy of ear candles was published in the journal Laryngoscope in 1996. The authors were particularly interested in the claim that the candles create a vacuum so they used a pressure device to measure changes in pressure for the duration of the burn. In 20 trials with 2 different candle types, they detected no negative pressure at any point during the trial.

In a clinical trial also conducted as part of this study, 4 people (2 with ear wax and 2 without), the authors reported the candles did not remove ear wax as proposed and in fact, in some cases candle wax was actually deposited in patient’s ears (2).

The authors also conducted a survey of 122 ear nose and throat specialists and found 21 cases of serious injury caused by ear candling. In 6 of these cases, patients temporarily lost their hearing. Other problems reported among the group included, 13 cases of burns, 7 cases where the wax from the candle had blocked the ear canal and 1 case of a punctured ear drum (2).

Edzard Ernst, professor of complementary medicine at the University of Exeter and co-author of Trick or Treatment, published a review article in 2004 in the Journal of Laryngology and Otology entitled: “Ear candles: a triumph of ignorance over science”. He concluded; “Ear candling is one of those CAM modalities that clearly does more harm than good…..it’s mechanism of action is first implausible and second, demonstrably wrong..in my view, therefore, it should be banned” (1).

The website quackwatch also published a frequently cited article where they illustrate the dangers of ear candling with the following stories;

A Canadian woman who experienced stuffiness in the nose and ear pains while scuba diving went to a local health-food store and was referred to a “qualified” candler. During the “treatment,” she felt an intense burning in her ear. At the emergency room, attempts to remove wax that had dripped from the candle onto her eardrum failed. Surgery was required, and a hole in her eardrum was discovered, which presumably was caused by the procedure. She recovered fully and luckily her hearing was not affected. The practitioner apologized, compensated the woman, and stopped performing ear candling.

In addition, instances of house fires associated with ear candling have been reported in Alaska, one of which led to the user’s death. On January 27, 2005 a 59-year-old woman ignited her bedding when she dropped an ear candle that she was attempting to use the ear without assistance. The candle ignited the bedding then quickly spread to curtains and other combustibles in the room. The woman escaped the fire however, suffered an asthma attack in hospital and later died.

Ear candles are banned for sale or import in Canada, but sold in Australian Pharmacies.

Based on this evidence and studies conducted by their own laboratories, the Canadian authorities banned ear candles from sale and import into Canada. The Health Canada website has this to say about ear candling;

…the sale of this product for therapeutic purposes in Canada is illegal. As well, both Canada and the United States have issued directives that ban the importing of ear candles. Some promoters try to avoid the Regulations by advertising that ear candles are for entertainment purposes only. However, Health Canada maintains that these people are selling the product illegally, for medical purposes, as there is no other reasonable use for ear candles.”

Which makes it even more preposterous that in Australia they are listed with the TGA meaning they can be sold in pharmacies alongside science-based medicine.

This is a complete failure on behalf of the TGA with respect to protecting the public from harm. The Australian Register of Therapeutic Goods Devices lists 13 different types of ear candles including this nonsense, Alternet Detox Spa Series Ear Candles and these from Why Karma Natural Health Products described as “to apply a simple treatment of ear cleansing directly to the ear”. You know, one has to wonder what the role of this clearly constipated government body is in protecting the public from harm when they register this nonsense. You only need make a cursory glance at PubMed, to determine that these things are not only nonsense, but dangerous.

I personally have had experiences with staff in pharmacies regarding these devices, one who old me she wouldn’t recommend then to customers but they sell really well so what can you do, and another who looked at me blankly when I suggested that ear candles have no place in a pharmacy. Of course, I don’t expect a kid with an after school job to know that these things are a scam and worse still, can perforate your eardrums, but I do expect the pharmacist to know. And I do expect the government to not turn a blind eye.

Ear candling does not stem from ancient Indian tribes.

Here’s an example of one ear candle company who have hijacked the history of an ancient Indian tribe to add legitimacy to their product.

The Biosun company claims that their “Hopi Ear Candles are” based on “the formula that is traditional to the Hopi Indians of the USA- cotton, beeswax, honey, sage, chamomile and St John’s Wort. The Hopi who are renowned for their great medicinal knowledge collaborated with Biosun to pass their formula on to the rest of the world”.

Pfft. Well not according to Vanessa Charles, the public relations officer for the Hopi Tribal Council, who has stated there is no such treatment within traditional Hopi healing practices. Vanessa has said that ear candling “is not and has never been a practice conducted by the Hopi tribe or the Hopi people”. And even though The Hopi tribe has repeatedly asked Biosun, to stop using the Hopi name Biosun has not complied with this request and continues to claim that ear candles originated within the Hopi tribe.

If I have still not convinced you that ear candles are a load of rot, why not become an earconologist? Become a Certified Earconologist with a Correspondence Course from The Awareness Institute and perform a wonderful service to yourself and others. “The course consists of learning about the History of Ear Candling, Ear Anatomy, Candling Procedure, Cause and Effect, and much more”.

It just goes to show, people will believe just about any nonsense.

The take home message:

1) EAR CANDLES ARE DANGEROUS AND STUPID.

2) THEY DO MORE HARM THAN GOOD.

3) THEY WILL NOT REMOVE WAX FROM YOUR EARS.

4) IN SOME CASES THEY HAVE DEPOSITED WAX.

5) DON’T USE THEM.

1. The Journal of Laryngology and Otology. “Ear candles: a triumph of ignorance over science”. Ernst, E. (2004) 118: pp 1-2.

2. Seely DR, Quigley SM, Langman AW. Ear candles- efficacy and safety. Laryngoscope. 1996: Oct;106(10):1226-9.

Kylie Sturgess interviews Jon Ronson author of “The Men Who Stare at Goats” from www.jonronson.com.

Items discussed include:

The film The Men Who Stare At Goats at IMDB.com.

Jon Ronson and Robbie Williams investigate UFOs.

Jon Ronson Guardian Article on Sylvia Browne.

Extra special addition: Interviews from “The Amazing Adventure 2″ – North To Alaska.

Includes James Randi, Susan Hurst, Dr Phil Plait, Rebecca Watson and Dr Harriet Hall.

The silly season has ended for another year and many of us are feeling the effects of overindulgence. This time of year there is much talk about getting healthy, cutting back on the bad stuff and “detoxing”. But what exactly is detox and is it really effective? Today on Dr Rachie Reports, we delve in to the weird world of detox to look at the science (or lack there-of) behind this multi-billion dollar industry.

What exactly is detox?

Conventional detox has an established place in medicine, where it refers to weaning addicts off drugs or alcohol or eliminating poisons that have been ingested or injected (1). In alternative medicine the word detox has been hijacked to include a grab bag of pills, powders, supplements, kits, diets, magic water/drinks, colonic irrigation, chelation therapy and even shampoos and body brushes. Indicative of this, no two companies selling detox products use the same definition, as outlined by the Oxford English Dictionary as the removal of toxic substances or qualities. The word detox has simply been hijacked as a method for marketing expensive kits and supplements.

Taken from the Network of Young Scientists 'Debunking Detox" flyer

Why detox?

Many detox products refer to the large number of toxins – from cigarette smoke, exhaust fumes and pesticides to caffeine, alcohol and medicinal drugs – that our bodies are exposed to in today’s world. They talk of how toxins accumulate in the body, and of the extra burden this places on the body’s natural detoxification mechanisms. And they point the finger at this toxic overload as being behind a host of ills including constipation, bloating, flatulence, poor digestion, heartburn, diarrhoea, lack of energy and fatigue (2).

Claims on detox products include “stimulate your body’s natural detoxifying functions”, “improve the functioning of your digestive system”, “work like an intestinal broom”, “flush away potentially harmful toxins from your system” and generally give your body a “spring clean” and “improve your general health and wellbeing “and leave you feeling “revitalised” (2).

Does detox work?

Conventional detox can be life saving, however in alternative medicine, detox is a scam (1). In 2005, Choice (Australia’s consumer watch dog) conducted a study of 7 detox kits and concluded that, “Detox supplements provide little or no known benefit over a healthy diet. A week or two on a detox program won’t absolve you from a year of unhealthy eating, smoking or drinking too much alcohol. We suggest you save your money.” For full details see the report here.

Taken from the Network of Young Scientists 'Debunking Detox" flyer

Furthermore, a 2009 report from the Voice of Young Science Network (VoYS) and published by Sense about Science UK, reviewed 15 products from bottled detox-water to face scrub and concluded that “…at worst, some detox diets could have dangerous consequences and, at best, they were a waste of money”. You can read the full detox dossier here.

This report was the topic of a discussion between Dr Ben Goldacre (of the excellent BadScience column and website ) this week and the managing director of Detox-in-a-Box on the Today programme on Radio BBC 4. When asked if we ever need to detoxify, Dr Goldacre responded with an emphatic “No”. He went on to explain “..it is a purification ritual, it’s symbolic. The idea that you can fix things in just a month of healthy eating…is…dangerous because it means that people will imagine they are doing something quite useful for their lives when actually they’re not.” And in the words of Simon Singh and Edzard Ernst from their book Trick or Treatment; “the only substance that is being removed from a patient is usually money” (1).

Detox products that deserve ridicule

Detox foot pads

This gem is based on the concept that “toxins” can be removed through the soles of your feet. Now please. Just stop and think about this. The human body is well equipped with organs whose primary role is to get rid of waste products. You may have heard of them; the liver, the kidney and the skin, NOT THE FEET. Seriously, is science literacy so bad and are humans so gullible that we spend money on this stuff? My advice is, just don’t.

Here’s a brief overview of what how this thing “works”. Foot pads are like nappies or diapers for your feet. A pouch, reminiscent of a tea bag, containing a mixture of dried ingredients is secured to the soles of your feet usually overnight. When you wake up in the morning and peel of the pads, they will appear brown and sticky. Manufacturers will tell you the brown sticky stuff are the “toxins” which seeped out of your feet whilst you slept. If it sounds too good to be true that you can detox in your sleep, that’s because it is.

Foot pads contain various ingredients, including wood/sap or tree vinegar and hydrolysed carbohydrate or starch. Wood vinegar (or any other name) is a by-product of wood combustion and is highly hydroscopic, meaning it attracts and absorbs moisture readily (a little like silica beads which you find in foods to absorb moisture) upon which it turns brown. The sticky feeling described on the packaging is none other than the hydrolysed carbohydrate or sugar, which upon becoming wet feels sticky. As you can imagine, when these things are stuck to your feet overnight, you wil perspire. A recent investigation into foot pads by the NoYS reported this response from customer service upon enquiring about the reason for the foot pads turning brown and sticky; “Yes, the footpads turning brown is due to the ingredients getting wet...”(3).

Colonic irrigation

Enemas, colonic irrigation, colon hydrotherapy or colonics are marketed as a deep, whole-system cleansing method designed to remove toxins from intestine and “cleanse our body’s elimination system“. This treatment is sometimes administered with coffee (made popular by celebrities) or with various herbs. Based on the popular misconception that toxins build up over time in our bodies, this treatment is supposed to be effective against gastrointestinal disorders, migraine, obesity, allergies, bloating, cramping pains, acne and other skin complaints, arthritis and many other chronic conditions including chronic fatigue syndrome. Treatment involves insertion of a narrow tube via the rectum and flushing with considerable amounts of fluids. The fluid is flushed out through a viewing tube, so that what is eliminated may be monitored (nice!).

There is no scientific evidence that colonic irrigation has any benefit, as previously stated our bodies are perfectly equipped to eliminate toxins through various physiological processes. There have been reports of colonic irrigation causing harm by perforating the bowel or depleting the body of electrolytes. I can’t understand why anyone would voluntarily place a tube up their bottom and want to examine the resulting deposits; it’s a waste of money and a hazard to your health (1).

Is detox safe?

If these products do nothing then there’s no harm in detox right? Not necessarily. Many detox kits or detox diets involve several facets, such as pills, drinks, exfoliants and may even include a booklet advising about exercise and increasing fluid intake. Many of them recommend increasing the amount of water you consume, under the false pretence that this will assist your liver with detox and flush your system.

In July 2008, an English court awarded a woman 800,000 pounds after she suffered permanent brain damage whilst on a detox diet. Dawn Page began vomiting uncontrollably after commencing “The Amazing Hydration Diet” in 2001 and later suffered a seizure which damaged her memory, speech and concentration. She was diagnosed with hyponatraemia, a condition involving dangerously low salt concentrations induced by excessive water consumption.

Hyponatraemia or water intoxication occurs when a person drinks too much water, diluting salts and electrolytes in the blood which can then essentially “flood” cells and tissues. All cells in the body are bathed in a “salty” environment, but if the outside fluid becomes more dilute, it can rush inside the more salty cells, essentially flooding them and causing them to burst. In extreme cases, this causes organs such as the brain to swell up, and can stop it working properly, putting the drinker in serious danger.

In an article from the BBC entitled “The Dangers of too much detox Professor Graham McGregor of St George’s University of London “In normal circumstances, when people should drink when their body tells them to – when they get thirsty. Anything else is completely unnecessary, and will just leave you standing in the queue for the toilet. Detox diets are a complete con in that respect.”

Some people are a little slow to catch on it would seem. Here’s a quote from naturopath Spiro Sindos from the Naturopath Practitioners Association taken from an interview on the breakfast magazine-show Sunrise in Australia. Listen to his response about what detox is; “…what you’re trying to do is clean your body out I suppose, is the best way to put it, the best way to do that is to improve your diet, improve your lifestyle and drink copious amounts of water”. Ummm, Spiro, drinking copious amounts of water can kill you. I guess that sorts out your detox, when you’re dead you won’t need to bother.

Taken from the Network of Young Scientists "Debunking Detox" flyer

Should we detox?

The short answer is no. The bottom line is that no studies have shown that a detox regimen increases the elimination of toxins (4). As Trick or treatment reminds us; “Detox, as an alternative medicine is based on ill-conceived ideas about human physiology, metabolism and toxicology. There is no evidence that it does any good and some treatments such as colonic irrigation (enemas) and chelation therapy can be harmful”.

If you’ve overindulged this silly season, the best thing you can do is eat fresh fruit and vegetables, get some sleep, drink some water and stay off the booze and fags. Just like most things in life there is no quick fix for detox.

Further reading and references

(1) Trick or Treatment: alternative medicine on trial. Simon Singh and Edzard Ernst, 2008, Bantam Press, London, UK.

(2) choice.com.au

(3) Bad Science. Ben Godacre, 2008, Forth Estate, London, UK.

A recent article from Fairfax press about one person’s experience with a 10 day post-Christmas detox