One main reason that people are attracted to herbal medicines is that they are “natural therefore safe”. This, of course, is a dangerous assumption and is completely wrong. There are two main reasons why ‘natural’ does not necessarily mean safe:

1. Naturally occurring drugs.
   
   If a herbal remedy does work (and almost all of them don’t) then it will be because the herb contains naturally occurring drugs. It doesn’t actually matter whether a drug is manufactured in a test tube or inside a plant, if it has a physiological effect on the body then it may well work; however, this also means it may also have unintended effects – dangerous side effects.
   
   
2. Medical drugs added during manufacture (adulteration).
   
   As most herbal remedies do not work, unscrupulous manufacturers will sometimes add medicinal drugs to their products so that they do get results. The danger here being that the person taking such ‘herbal’ remedies will not be aware of what’s in them and will be prone to possibly dangerous side effects without realising it. (more…)

Claims are often put forward by proponents of alternative remedies and therapies stating that they have tested their treatment and it has passed the test: proof that it works. Skeptics, however, insist that unless a treatment has passed a double-blind, placebo-controlled study, it is not valid.

Why is this? What is so special about the double-blind, placebo-controlled test? To find the answer, we need to look at the different ways that treatments can be tested and what the pitfalls are. (more…)

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John Jackson © UK-Skeptics

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Does aspartame cause cancer? Is Fluoride in drinking water poisoning our children? Are vaccines causing childhood illnesses?

The answer to those questions, of course, is that there’s no evidence to suggest that any of them are true; yet such claims persist, and although completely discredited, show no signs of abating.

It’s disconcerting to see just how willing people are to accept such claims, but we need to understand that there’s a psychological factor involved: we are particularly sensitive to threats of danger, especially when we don’t know who or what to believe. (more…)

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John Jackson © UK-Skeptics

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On the face of it, alternative medicine does not have a lot going for it. The treatments and remedies are often expensive, have various associated risk factors, have to rely on mystical and magical forces to explain how they are supposed to work, and the vast majority of them fail to show any effect in clinical trials. The bottom line is: they do not work.

When looked at logically, alternative remedies make no sense. Why then are so many people placing their faith in these treatments that, essentially, do nothing? (more…)