The Great DBH Rant

Ok so I am quack-spotting. And it has been fun. Over the past couple of days, I have been looking more into what the science-wannabes is selling to the unsuspecting public (unfortunate to see, even the Royal Family is falling for these fairy and goblin methods of treating your cold and flu). Not wanting to go into details of what they think is legitimate science (I am rather angered by this and so there will be a post soon once I regained some consciousness from my mandatory Saturday night bottle of wine), I will go straight to the point to what can only be described as a full (albeit small) victory for those of us who believe in proper evidence-based science. This is essentially old news (but give me a break – I am new to this), but I believe if there is one more blog post on this it will only amplify the “awareness”. The UCLan, which in “My Quack-Watch #1” I have already talked about how they offer quack degrees, has dropped their first year BSc Homeopathy course (I have a major problem with these courses offering BSc degrees, I have a BSc – they should really be BHDMYBTPUFT for Bachelor of How Daft Must You Be To Pay Us For This). If only they come with a money-back guarantee for second and third year students who are already neck deep into the course! They cite low recruitment levels for making this decision, and I say WhoopDeeDoo to that. Seems like the penny is finally dropping for some people and the quack-bubble might be showing signs of rupture. They also cite “relentless attacks from the anti-homeopathy league” for this decision – apparently requests for teaching materials are considered relentless attacks. I also have a problem with the term “anti-homeopathy league” – it makes it appear as though it’s a minority, and should be re-termed “scientists”. Full credit to those who are making a big effort to eradicate this tumour in medicine. I hope more universities will take heed and follow suit.

I don’t want to be seen as a “Quack-spotter”, nor do I want to blog exclusively on quackery. There are more official places you can go to for that. Nonetheless, I came across this news and it is just delicious. Long story short, vice dean for the University of Central Lancashire (UCLan) has told (nay – ordered) its staff to “refrain from comment or speculation” with regards to courses accredited by the university deemed quackery by outspoken lecturers. UCLan offers degree courses on herbal medicine and acupuncture, and it regards these courses as “satisfied the university’s quality assurance procedures and duly validated”. It begs the question – Why, if you are confident that these courses are valid for the university portfolio and passed so called quality assurances, are you ordering members of staff to keep quiet? Could it be because it seemed like a good idea back then for cashing in on the “boom” in alternative medicine, but deep down you think it’s not really “duly validated”?

I think until these alternative therapies (alternative really meaning “not proven”) lose the alternative tag and become “just therapies”, universities should not offer them as degree courses, but rather teach good science, train good researchers so we could find out more about these alternative therapies. How pissed are people going to be when 5 years from now they find their degrees completely useless (as opposed to almost useless at this moment in time) because science has proved beyond any shadow of doubts that, well, these are indeed quackeries?