Well here I am again getting pretty irate about the plethora of bad science reporting and useless information being spread by every media outlet from the broadsheet newspapers of the UK, to every nutjob podcast around. When is it going to stop?! I can answer that question myself, easily: Never. I could be wrong on that one. you see, there must be a possible chance, all things considered, that, as we head blindly into an era where science is looked upon with suspicion, scientists are vilified and mistrusted, alternative therapies are growing in popularity, homeopathy is sanctioned by governments, people are seemingly more interested in reality TV than reality as and how it affects them personally, Ie. their health, there is definitely the possibility that, as all these variables continue to increase in weight, human society and culture could reap the dire consequences. As the antiVax crew continue to persuade people against vaccines, the first thing we may notice is a return to the days of horrific childhood (and adults!) illnesses like Polio, Rubella etc. These are not trivial. As more people adopt mistrust of medical science and Doctors, more will turn to homeopathy or acupuncture or any of the many 'alternatives' out there, to treat their diseases. this will result in lots more people DYING and being very ill as the lack of actual measurable effect of such 'treatmentas' is so lacking, there really is no hope that such methods will treat disease effectively, or at all. We should be teaching our children about the history of mankind. where we come from, how we learned to develop our ideas and how these ideas eventually were turned into the science and technology that we enjoy today. Alternative therapy is nothing more than a falsehood. It is a scam and a big one at that. A multi billion dollar industry. There is NO evidence for the efficacy of homeopathy and not for the lack of studies. there is NO evidence for the efficacy of Acupuncture and, again, not for the lack of studies. (There are some debatable small effects in certain types of back pain so this needs to be looked into further.) There is NO evidence for the eficacy of Chiropractic therapy. Let me tell you again this is NOT because of a lack of studies into the treatment. (sorry, calling it a treatment there was a bit over the top!) There is NO evidence for the efficacy of Flower Remedies, Colonic Irrigation, Osteopathy, Crystal Therapy/healing, Ear Candling, Feng Shui, Hypnotherapy, Magnetic therapy, Naturopathy, Reflexology, Reiki, Chinese Medicine and not forgetting faddy diets and so-called 'Detox' regimes. No Evidence. Does that mean nothing to most people these days? It certainly seems like it. Everyone you know or, at least someone out of your circle of friends and possibly quite a few of them will have some belief or connection to one or more of the above mentioned therapies. They will defend them and even urge you to try them. they will probably have an anecdotal story about how amazing the treatment is, how it worked for them or how they kept an open mind but are amazed at how the psychic/healer managed to get things so accurate, was professional, managed to cure them, went straight to the heart of the problem without being told of it in advance, worked out their true personality traits after just a few questions, helped realign/readjust/fix the flow of energy through the body resulting in a health benefit...etc etc I could go on and on. I wince at the sound of any of these type of hollow and unquantifiable testimonies. It is human nature to believe what you hear or see with your own eyes and ears right? Yet most people will have no knowledge of the basics on just how fallible our minds are ... to ourselves! We are an irrational being. We have bad memories and the mind, when it cannot remember sometimes will just make it up! We are very easily misled or confused either by scientific terms being thrown around or by someone showing a supposed position of authority (even if that only amounts to them wearing a white coat and telling you they KNOW what you need). We are not to be trusted as Ben Goldacre put it in his book, 'Bad Scince' which I encourage all to read. The media is very much to blame for the mistrust in science AND also for the increase in love for Complimentary and Alternative Medicine or CAM. I am not blaming the media solely of course. Though we now have such a huge part of our lives and our culture - from birth - controlled (or maybe just influenced, to avoid sounding a bit 9-11 truther about it!) by some form of mass media. They find a snippet of a press release on a danger from a new drug and they pounce on it. Next day the headlines are blazing of the DEATH DANGERS caused by scientists mistakes' or something like that. They grab info from the CAM camp (sorry) and then the headlines blazing the morning paper go something like 'ACUPUNCTURE Helps Cancer patients!' or more recently I remember one along these lines: 'Turmeric could cure Cancer, Reduced tumour growth after usage'. what they don't tell you in that headline is that the dosage was on mice and the 'turmeric' wasn't actually turmeric but one of the many compounds FOUND IN turmeric. this does not in any way translate to the headline or concept they raised. Also worth noting is the fact that it didn't cure the mice anyway! So the media is to blame. Alternative therapists are to blame. Government is to blame. But aren't WE to blame? US? the people who buy into this rubbish year after year? The people who CHOOSE to ignore scientific data over the glory headlines about Reiki or homeopathy? What are we doing? I know it isn't a simple question and there is no easy answer. I will return to this at a later date.