UK Quacks Winning the Game

I spend a lot of time complaining about the state of health reporting from the UK. See, just as the most recent example More Bad Info from the UK and especially take a look at the series of comments made.

I'm not alone. A huge controversy has erupted because an English professor's anti-quack blog was removed from the server of the University of London because of a complaint from the quack!

James Randi has a report in the June 15, 2007 issue of his SWIFT newsletter. A reader reported there:

I have come across the worst news of its kind I have encountered from the UK (lately, at least). Professor David Colquhoun has been ordered to remove his very informative and entertaining anti-quack site from the University College London server by the Provost at the request of Alan Lakin, husband of nutritionist Ann Walker. Colquhoun commented that "cleanser of the lymphatic system," a claim Walker made for red clover, was "meaningless gobbledygook." This was enough to get him kicked off.

Events have moved swiftly, pardon the pun. Colquhoun's DC's IMPROBABLE SCIENCE page has a new home and will soon be readmitted to the University's servers.

As Randi wrote, however:

And we highly recommend readers to read the Goldacre account, then go to this new website, but be prepared to spend an hour there just assessing the sad state of affairs in UK medicine as it competes with quackery.

Beware of any health claims made by any product that can't be backed up. Beware of health claims made for or against dairy that you might read in newspaper articles from those who have no idea what they're talking about. Fight the quacks. It may not be the most inspirational slogan ever devised, but it will do the world a world of good.