Get Well, Stay Well?

I've blogged before about Revelation TV and its promotion of Felicity Corbin Wheeler (here and here) but feel moved to do so again. Felicity Corbin Wheeler, who in her present incarnation is no longer described as the Reverend Doctor, has a weekly show titled 'Get Well. Stay Well'. The programme is hosted by Cyrus Fernando, a relatively new presenter on Revelation TV. Mr Fernando is no Jeremy Paxman and the format is for him to ask a series of obviously rehearsed questions which give FCW the opportunity to reel off the details of a wide-ranging number of quack therapies which, she claims, will prevent disease and/or cure disease. Most of these are diet-based with an emphasis on the supposed benefits of juicing.  To emphasise the point, Cyrus and Felicity usually have a glass of freshly prepared juice in their hands. Ironically Cyrus, being conspicuously overweight, is a poor advert for Felicity's methods,  as are many of Revelation TVs presenters.

The programme broadcast on 6th June 2014 was devoted to extolling the supposed benefits of the Gerson Therapy. This particular form of quackery has been around since 1928 and yet in all that time, "Gerson's therapy has not been independently tested or subjected to randomized controlled trials, and thus is illegal to market in the United States". Cancer Research UK says, "Available scientific evidence does not support any claims that Gerson therapy can treat cancer. In fact, Gerson therapy can be very harmful to your health."

Quacks rarely allow scientific evidence to get in the way of a marketing opportunity and Felicity Corbin Wheeler is no exception. She introduces Dr Patrick Vickers who is, it seems, the new face of the Gerson Therapy.According to his website, "Giving up careers in professional golf and entertainment, Dr. Patrick obtained his undergraduate degrees from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Life University before going on to receive his doctorate in Chiropractic from New York Chiropractic College in 1997." He's not a dietician, a medical doctor or an oncologist, he's a chiropractor. In North America,  chiropractors can use the title Dr but in the UK they are not considered to be registered medical practitioners. Felicity Corbin Wheeler avoids making this clear.  Sense About Science has a useful summary which evaluates the evidence for the efficacy of chiropractic.

Most of the programme is taken up with Cyrus Fernando introducing YouTube videos of Patrick Vickers explaining the virtues of Gerson Therapy. As we all know YouTube videos trump peer-reviewed scientific research any day of the week. In between the videos Felicity Corbin Wheeler adds some commentary and it is interesting to note how frequently what Patrick Vickers says is in direct conflict with the advice given by Felicity Corbin Wheeler. She waves this away by saying that different doctors have different ideas.

There is no evidence that Gerson Therapy has ever cured anyone of anything. It's just another way of preying on the weak and vulnerable and separating them from their money. Revelation TV continues to promote this sort of nonsense.

Juicing For Health?

Sky News recently ran a news item entitled ‘Second-Rate Care’ for Heart Attack Patients. It highlighted the difference in heart attack survival rates between Sweden and the UK attributable to how quickly the heart attack victim received primary angioplasty after the event. The report was accompanied by a video which featured someone who had survived a heart attack because of the prompt treatment he received. Unsurprisingly the gentleman concerned has made changes to his lifestyle and in the video is described as a ‘paragon of healthy living’. To illustrate that point, the video includes a scene to show how his life has changed.

Those who aspire to be paragons must take up juicing it seems.

Juicing is a staple of many quack treatments and comes in a variety of forms. One extreme version is the Gerson Therapy which claims to be a cure for a wide range of diseases including cancer. Followers of this therapy are required to drink one glass of juice hourly, thirteen times a day. This, it claims, ‘ boosts the body’s own immune system to heal cancer, arthritis, heart disease, allergies, and many other degenerative diseases.’  Cancer Research UK warns that, ‘Available scientific evidence does not support any claims that Gerson therapy can treat cancer.’

Other proponents of juicing are more modest in their requirement for the volume of juice consumed but just as extravagant in the claims of health benefits. Most of these are centred around the pseudoscientific notion of detoxing, It seems that our unhealthy lifestyles cause a build up ‘toxins’ in our bodies which can only be eliminated by a juicing regime.

We believe there is fundamentally only One Disease and therefore One Solution. The body gets sick due to two basic things – Toxicity and Deficiency. If we remove the Toxicity and replace any Deficiencies, the vast majority of common ailments improve or go away completely. We believe it really is that simple.

The above quote is taken from the website of Jason Vale, the Juice Master, who is, ‘one of the UK’s leading authorities on health, addiction, and most obviously, juicing.’ Despite being a ‘leading authority’ Jason seems to be remarkably ignorant when it comes  to basic human physiology and Germ Theory. (A programme on Revelation TV featuring Felicity Corbin Wheeler alerted me to the internet presence of Jason Vale.)
Jason’s website is littered with the usual quack red flags – celebrity  endorsements, personal testimonies, anecdotes, a complete lack of evidence-based science and of course, lots of things to spend your money on.

Every food on the planet has come under some criticism with the notable exception of fruit and vegetables. These foods nourish every cell in the body, help prevent disease, flush the system of waste and contain more vitamins and minerals than you can rattle a plum at, and there isn’t a single person on the planet with any shred of common sense that could possibly argue against these magnificent foods! Jason Vale – Why Juice?

There are some people who argue against such a sweeping generalisation. David Colquhoun’s blog, Improbable Science has an excellent post entitled ‘We know little about the effect of diet on health. That’s why so much is written about it’. In it he quotes epidemiologist John Ioannidis who says,

Almost every single nutrient imaginable has peer reviewed publications associating it with almost any outcome.

That would seem to rule out juicing as an answer to all our ills.

There is no convincing scientific evidence that extracted juices are healthier than whole foods.
American Cancer Society

Revelation TV & Felicity Corbin Wheeler

In a previous blog post, I wrote about Revelation TV promoting Felicity Corbin Wheeler and her views on diet and health. I made reference to her lack of scientific background and my concern that she was advocating the use of unproven therapies and treatments for the prevention and treatment of cancer. I emailed the channel to express my concerns but, undeterred, they have broadcast two more programmes featuring the reverend doctor once again giving her a platform to tell viewers how cancer can be cured by diet. More of that later. First of all, a little more about Corbin Wheeler.
A section of her website is titled 'Scientific Research'. Purveyors of woo are always keen to legitimise their claims by using science but by so doing, they highlight their ignorance. Trying to validate the use of laetrile for cancer treatment Corbin Wheeler's website contains the extraordinary statement,

In the mid 1950’s, the American biochemist called Ernst Krebs, known to all medical students for the “Krebs Cycle”, took up the research in Nevada.  He was studying the absence of cancer in certain non-industrialised peoples.    There are tribes on earth now such as the Hunzas, who do not have cancer.   When these people start to eat a western diet, high in animal protein, they succumb like the rest of us.

The Krebs Cycle is, of course, named after Nobel Prize winning biochemist Sir Hans Krebs. Ernst Krebs was a quack. Hopefully no medical students would make such an elementary mistake.
Back to Revelation TV. The programmes were hosted by presenter Howard Conder who is quite happy to tell viewers about his lack of science education. He sets the background by declaring that the programme will look at 'both sides'. The 'other side' turns out to be reading from a print-out of the CancerResearch  UK website. Next we have the staple of 'alternative' therapies - YouTube videos. A succession of naturopaths and chiropractors give their views about cancer and diabetes being lifestyle choices. Both programmes ramble through an assortment of quack therapies but fortunately Revelation TV has provided a handy downloadable summary rather oddly called Gary Tunsky on Cells with header.(pdf) In this document Corbin Wheeler sets out the steps we need to take to prevent and treat cancer, complete with scientific explanations. Let's take a look at a few examples:

• All disease originates at the molecular and cellular level, not at the organ or system level as we're led to believe by Western medicine. This is a meaningless statement but the use of the term 'Western medicine' sets the scene for what's to come.
• We need photon light and electromagnetic energy, and our cells need photon light and electromagnetic energy. Photon light? 'Photon' is a sciencey word - that's why it's there.
• The DNA helix coils act as transmitters and receivers of cellular information in the form of electromagnetic pulse energy sent to neighbouring and distant cells, similar to a radio antenna that receives and transmits frequency messages. Absolute gibberish!
• A healthy body functions best when it's slightly alkaline. To measure the body's pH you'd have to put it through a blender first. That's not recommended. There follows a lengthy explanation of how we must have an alkaline body achievable by eating alkaline foods. This nonsense has been thoroughly debunked by Quackwatch.
• Over 90% of western population is dehydrated through over-consumption of acidic and dehydrating foods and beverages ..... . Over 90% of people have kidneys that don't function?
• It's my conclusion based on years of research that cancer and AIDS are nothing more or less than a cellular disturbance of the electromagnetic balance. This is stupidity beyond words.

So Corbin Wheeler has the answer to virtually all our health problems. It is of course, eating raw foods, a vegan diet, juicing, colonic irrigation and an alkaline diet. Scientists, oncologists, and doctors are prevented by their ignorance and the influence of the drug companies from treating us in the appropriate manner.
Howard Conder said the programmes would be looking at both sides. He obviously visited the CancerResearch UK website. He must have missed the pages which show that:

• Half of people diagnosed with cancer now survive their disease for at least five years.
• Cancer survival rates in the UK have doubled in the last 40 years.
• Almost three-quarters of children are now cured of their disease, compared with around a quarter in the late 1960s.

(Source: CancerResearch UK)
These results haven't been achieved by quack diets. They've been achieved by hardworking, dedicated scientists using evidence based medicine to relieve suffering.

The Popularity of Homeopathy

I came across Anarchic Teapot's blog post on homeopathy a few days ago. Titled "At least the title's not misleading - Impossible Cure", it's well worth a read. It deals with the claims of a proponent of homeopathy that almost everything under the sun, including autism, can be treated by this particular form of quackery. I don't need to spend any time examining the claims on the site - Anarchic Teapot does a thorough job of eviscerating the content of the website and the claims made by its author. (For those interested the site can be viewed here.)

I stumbled on the website some while ago after googling 'homeopathy and autism' and like Mr Teapot, was appalled by views expressed. Much of the content is devoted to promoting a book, 'Impossible Cure'. The website features a preview of Chapter 1, Homeopathy Revealed. Part of this deals with the'popularity' of homeopathy and contains the statement,

........ in England, 42 percent of physicans refer patients to homeopaths

Really? Almost half of the doctors in England refer patients to homeopaths? That doesn't fit with my, albeit limited, experience. I sought out the source of this statistic and found it in a paper published in the British Medical Journal. The authors were R Wharton and G Lewith. George Lewith's Wikipedia entry says he 'is a professor of complementary medicine at the University of Southampton, where he leads the Complementary and Integrated Medicine Research Unit. He is a prominent advocate of complementary medicine in the UK.' He was involved with the now defunct Prince of Wales' Foundation for Integrated Medicine and is now vice chair of the inappropriately named College of Medicine.

The full text of the BMJ paper can be viewed here (pdf). The 'research' consisted of sending a postal questionnaire to 200 general practitioners in Avon of whom 145 responded. The questionnaire was made up of twelve questions, one of which asked about referral patterns. 68 GPs (42%) of the sample reported referring patients to homeopaths.These results were published in the BMJ in 1986 and this is the source of the much vaunted claim that nearly half of the doctors in England refer patients to homeopaths. The report itself reads like a poor piece of GCSE coursework and I'm staggered that it ever reached the pages of the British Medical Journal. I can summarise it quite easily,

Over a quarter of a century ago, a shoddy piece of research found that a few GPs in a small part of England  sent a handful of patients for treatment by homeopaths.

Such is their desperation, this bogus statistic appears regularly on the websites of homeopaths. It has been used by Dana Ullman and Nancy Malik. Knowing the weakness of their position, they crave respectability and resort to Argumentum ad populum.

The reality is of course that homeopathy in the UK is in rapid decline. According to the British Homeopathic Association, in 2011 400 GPs used homeopathy in their everyday practice. That's 400 out of 41 000, or 0.98%.

0.98% is a long way short of 42%

A Burzynski Of Red Flags

In the skeptic community, the term 'red flag' is used to denote something which gives cause for alarm, a warning sign that things may not be what they seem. Science-org presents a useful guide to red flags as applied to Quackery. Note that of the sixteen featured, Burzynski has one all to himself. Short and Spiky takes it one stage further and devotes an entire blog post to the red flags raised by the Burzynski Clinic.

The shortcomings, ethical,medical and financial, of Stanislav Burzynski and his clinic, have been extensively blogged and tweeted ever since the Observer published an article about a family in the UK raising money to send their daughter for treatment to the Burzynski Clinic. This was followed by  an article in the London Evening Standard  and a feature on ITV's Daybreak programme seemingly endorsing the work of Burzynski. Anyone wishing to follow the timeline of events should go to Joesphine Jones excellent blog which has a record of posts and blogs about the issues.

Burzynski has been in business for almost thirty years. During that time he has had a number of run-ins with the authorities but nothing has stopped him exploiting the sick and vulnerable. Until now. Andy Lewis has revealed that a former patient of the Burzynski Clinic is sueing Burzynski for, amongst other things, "bilking her of nearly $100 000". The Courthouse News Service gives further details about the nature of the former patient's complaints and Peter Bowditch has posted the court filing on his site. These documents make horrendous reading and justify all the red flags raised by bloggers and tweeters over the last few months.

Can Burzynski survive? Burzynski is a last resort for the desperate and vulnerable who may not be influenced by the proceedings in a Texas Courtroom. They may be unaware of what is happening. We cannot be confident that the Observer, Evening Standard and Dr Hilary Jones will give the publicity to these latest developments that they gave to the 'pioneering researcher'. Burzynski is due to appear in front of the Texas Medical Board in April 2012 and hopefully that will seal his fate.

Edit.

The submission to the Leveson Inquiry on theCulture, Practice Ethics of the Press by the Association of Medical Research Charities, Cancer Research UK and the Wellcome Trust contains the following paragraph:

10. Secondly, and more worryingly, it can often raise false hope among patients. This is particularly true and damaging where it concerns treatments for incurable diseases that are not proven, yet which are portrayed as “miracle cures”. This can lead patients to spend life savings on treatments that are most unlikely to work, or on occasion to eschew the most effective known therapies in favour of alternatives that are untested or disproved.

Observer, Evening Standard and Dr Hilary Jones - please take note.