Cure Oil?
- Having been hunted to extinction in Arabia and Syria the only remaining
wild ostriches live in Africa. They are now commercially farmed in various parts of the
world including Canada and Australia. They have been reared and hunted
principally for their meat and feathers and also for their fat which is
rendered into oil. The use of ostrich oil for creams and soaps goes back
to Roman times and earlier. (In some Asian countries their ground up feet
are used as an aphrodisiac.) Other than its cosmetic properties the oil is
also believed to be beneficial for various skin conditions such as
psoriasis, eczema and for burns - none of which are surprising uses for
such an oil. But some people go further, much further, in promoting the
medical uses of ostrich oil for a surprisingly wide range of ailments. Now
80 is such an old skeptic that when a single nostrum is trumpeted as
something approaching a cure-all alarm bells begin to sound. This happened
when a longtime subscriber (thanks Dale!) sent 80 a web page all about
Delalta Ostrich Oil - and
impressive stuff it would appear to be. Back in 1993 a couple of folk,
Clint and Dianne Cornelius, set up an ostrich farm at Delacour, outside
Calgary, Alberta, Canada. They claim to have founded a feeding program
which produces a very high quality oil from the birds. But the claims they
make go far beyond this - they say that use of their oil is beneficial in
a very wide range of ailments. Among those listed on their site are "Multiple
Sclerosis, Cystic Fibrosis, Rheumatoid Arthritis, Fibromyalgia, Diabetes,
Eczema, Psoriasis, Shingles, Muscular Dystrophy, Cerebral Palsy. Acne, Dry
Skin, Chronic Fatigue, High Blood Pressure, Headaches, Age Spots, Sinus,
Burns/Sunburns, Varicose Veins, Muscular and Joint Pain, Sport Injuries."
Whew! Now as 80 has just said when someone claims the product they are
selling is effective with such an amazingly diverse number of ills we should be, at
the very least, cautious about the need for proper supporting evidence.
For to say your product is helpful in such serious and debilitating
conditions as "Multiple Sclerosis, Cystic
Fibrosis.....Muscular Dystrophy" you'd better have some damn
good evidence, including results of blind testing, performance against
control groups and hopefully an explanation of the mechanism by which your
product has near panacean properties. Also, anecdotal evidence, no matter
how heartfelt or moving, is useless in this regard. So, what lies behind
Delalta's incredible claims?
Fat Chance
- It is true that the oil has a high level of essential fatty
acids - these are fats that the body does not produce and have to come
from your diet. Omega 6 fatty acids are common and are found in corn oil,
sunflower oil and soybean oil. Omega 3 ones are harder to come by but are
present in flax seeds, pumpkin seeds and, above all, in fish such as
trout,
salmon or tuna. The claim from Delalta is that such omega fatty acids are
more easily absorbed from their oil than from fish oil owing to the
smaller molecular size. How molecule size affects the emulsification of
fats necessary for the digestive process is not explained and is not supported by any evidence visible on
the web site bar their own statement. There are several pages listing the
illnesses and conditions mentioned above, followed by a short paragraph
about how ostrich oil can help - here are a couple of examples.
Cystic Fibrosis - oil and water do not mix,
therefore, when Delalta Ostrich Oil is massaged into our bodies, it
displaces anything that is water based, such as mucous, phlegm and fluids.
(blood?)
Muscular Dystrophy - by massaging Delalta Ostrich Oil on a daily basis the
following has been noted: muscle mass increase, braces have to be changed,
noticeable weight gain and growth in height.
Delalta Ostrich oil has also helped with headaches, sinus, high blood
pressure, burns/sunburns, age spots and varicose veins.
None of the above statements is supported by a shred of evidence that 80
could see - it seems these amazing claims are to be taken on trust. There
are other pages looking in more detail at certain conditions and how
ostrich oil
treatment has helped individuals. In other words testimonials, anecdotes. One in
particular is the story of
Al Bryant, who has multiple sclerosis. This condition is thoroughly
debilitating. Put very simply it is an autoimmune inflammatory disease
that destroys the insulating sheath around the nerves causing a breakdown
in the function of the nervous system. This leads to a progressive and
eventually fatal loss of control over bodily functions. (To be fair this
is a great oversimplification - take a look
here for detailed
information) One factor with this disease are periods of remission which
can lead to false hopes of cure - although as yet no cure is known. The
story of Bryant is one of apparent partial recovery from MS after having
ostrich oil rubbed into his skin. There is nothing on the page that proves
a connection between the use of the oil and Bryant's improvement - he may
well just be in a period of extended remission. The only reference to a
medical practitioner's opinion is mention of one
Dietrich Klinghardt "who is internationally
renowned for his holistic practice." and is a proponent of the use
of omega oils in medicine. He apparently believes MS is a catch-all
diagnosis for "mercury toxicity, chronic infection
(often originating in the teeth), and essential fatty acid metabolism
disorder." Dr Klinghardt (and related medical research) surely
deserves a short paragraph of his own.
ART Artifice
- Klinghardt's main claim to fame is that he is the developer of
Autonomic Reponse Testing. According to this page ART utilises "Applied
Kinesiology, Electroacupuncture (EAV), O-Ring testing, Nogier pulse,
Chinese pulse, hearth (sic) rate variability and other techniques to
assess the health or dysfunction of the autonomic nervous system."
Here are some interesting little items - what is Nogier's pulse for
example? It says in a page grandly entitled "Quantum
Hologramic Bio-Cybernetics" which is partly about Chinese Traditional
Medicine, "Today, apart from acupuncture, the
phenomenon of the pulses has been used by many students of the theme, like
Dr. Paul Nogier, from Lyons (France), founder of
Auriculomedicine,
who uses the left radial pulse in its positive-negative aspects."
Well, how about O-ring testing? Here is a
patent on the subject
which makes for a baffling read but basically "It is
the primary object of the present invention to provide a method which
permits imaging of internal organs, localizing exact organ representations
at the front and back of the body of a patient and to provide significant
diagnostic capabilities. This object is realized by the present invention
which relates to a method of imaging an internal organ of a patient for
purposes of medical diagnosis which comprises having the patient place the
finger tips of his thumb and any one of his other fingers of one of his
hands together to form an O-ring shape." It would seem to 80
that far
from lending veracity to Delalta's claims Klinghardt is up to his ears in
complementary quackery and for those seeking scientific acceptance the
presence of his name is the equivalent of shooting yourself in the foot.
His main "medical" achievement would appear to be the development of ART,
which technique could almost be cited as a textbook example of
unsubstantiated nonsense.
Snakes Alive!
- Examination of other pages from Delalta show that they themselves are
well versed in the pseudoscientific doubletalk adopted by the
alternative/complementary medicine world when trying to appear acceptably
"scientific". This is from an anecdotal
story about a
sufferer of cerebral palsy - for which, naturally, the Delalta
snake/ostrich oil is beneficial - "Clint theorizes
that the mechanisms by which the ostrich oil works have to do with
nutrient and cellular electromagnetics. Delalta ostrich oil has a high
negative charge, and since oxygen is positively charged, using ostrich oil
attracts more oxygen into the body." and "Grocery
store oils are not "alive", that is, they do not carry the negative charge
necessary to attract the positively charged oxygen and protein into the
body's cells. However, since Delalta ostrich oil is very much "alive", its
oxygen and protein attracting functions enhance the essential metabolic
processes of those with health challenges." This leaves the
relatively simple claims of a high level of essential fatty acids a long
way behind. In fact, statements such as
these with no supporting evidence or references are effectively useless
waffle.
Anatidae Antics
- Now many people would say so what? Maybe some people do believe the use
of Delalta's ostrich oil is beneficial - and doubtless for skin problems
and some other conditions it is. However, when someone claims the stuff is
useful for life threatening, debilitating and tragic afflictions like MS
they had better have some pretty good evidence to back up their claims. By
selling the oil in the way that they do Delalta are asking people in great
mental and physical distress to put their faith in them and their product
- and yet provide no conclusive evidence of its efficacy - merely
anecdotes and untested suppositions. This is nowhere good enough when you
hold out hope to the chronically ill with one hand and take payment with
the other. It may well be ostrich oil but to 80 another bird is involved
here - if it walks like a duck and ducks like a
quack.........................
Shaved Daily
- with Ockham's razor. Some while back 80 wrote a piece called
Sites for
Sore Eyes referring to "web sites that act as a
welcome counterbalance to the flood of nonsense coming from the TV news
and tabloid (read gutter) press." You will find links to many of
them at Links from
Number 80 - including a new one -
The Skeptomaniac,
self-described as "Evil Internet Skeptic And Plumber
Of Human Belief Systems". Not only that but also the writer of some
excellent pieces that are sharp, witty and informative. Martin Richer,
creator of the site, may well be familiar to some of you as a denizen of
various message boards and mail lists who has not attracted much love from
the irrational folk he engages with. Now here is his own site, full of
good stuff - including essays on Critical Thinking, Applied Skepticism and
the aptly titled Believerism, which looks at the reasons for, and types
of, consoling, ie comforting, beliefs that have no basis in reality. For
80 a favorite page is Ask the Skeptic!
Here you will find the Skeptomaniac's answers to questions posed via email
such as “How can skeptics say there's no UFOs when
there has been thousands and thousands of reports and so many people
believe in them?” and “Show me one damn thing
a skeptic ever proved wasn’t real.” and “Why
are all skeptics so ugly? I’d believe them more if they were just a little
more damned polite.” It would be doing a disservice to quote the
answers given - go along to
The Skeptomaniac
and see for yourself. Reading this stuff is for 80 a "damn, I wish I had
said that" experience - highly recommended - the only complaint being that
there is not yet enough of The Skeptomaniac.
Planet Search
- Google is 80's search engine of choice for its uncluttered interface and
speed. (You will find a Google search window on the home page that can be
configured to search the whole web or just 80's maunderings.) But one problem
with a web search can be the very all-inclusiveness of the
results. Sometimes this can be a boon leading to the serendipitous
discovery of a web site that would otherwise remain unknown, but often the
results need to more focused, giving fewer and more directly relevant
answers. This is where Skeptic
Planet proves so handy. Subtitled "Helping You
Search for Intelligent Life on Earth" this search page indexes 40
or so sites of rational, skeptical content thereby for particular
inquiries saving a lot of time otherwise spent trawling fruitlessly. For
more refined searching click on the Options button. This is a useful
resource which sadly does not seem to have been updated recently.
Prax Prattle
- Just such a serendipitous page as mentioned above turned up when 80 was
looking for something else entirely.
Prax's pages are the
personal pages of a Roman Catholic christian of the "old school" - think
Mel Gibson
and his folks. Prax has little original to say, believing that he is
an adherent of the one True Religion. Mark Twain had a view on that
malarkey "Man is a Religious Animal. He is the only
Religious Animal. He is the only animal that has the True Religion -
several of them." No, what made Prax's pages of religious bigotry
worth mentioning at all was a sentence that made 80 laugh out loud. "Christians
are united in rejecting the pretensions of Charles Wojtyla to be pope, as
the second John-Paul, because he is a heretic and a Modernist Protestant."
Anybody that has that opinion of the authoritarian old man in the Vatican
has got to be pretty extreme. Prax is the religious equivalent of the
conservative politician described as being "Just a
little to the right of Atilla the Hun."
The Breakthrough
- that wasn't. Now and again one comes across a
newspaper article or a
book claiming to have proved the reality of mediumistic powers of various
kinds. Oddly, rather than scoop up
Randi's million dollars
, asking ASKE for their prize or
taking up the
Australian skeptics on their challenge, the writers carry on peddling
their momentous discoveries the hard way. Now why would this be so if
their methodology is good enough to convince themselves sufficiently well to
trumpet the results? The fairness of the prize tests available can be
independently verified - even by someone as challenged as
Sylvia Browne if she
looked - so why not scoop the cash and have the extra kudos/publicity of
having fleeced those pesky skeptics? In Browne's case it is obvious that
she is making enough money from peddling her drivel not to want to risk it
all on Randi's test - despite saying on nationwide TV that she would do
so. Others test mediums or psychics within "controlled" conditions that
are easily circumvented - like Puthoff and Targ falling for
Geller's conjuring tricks.
Garry Schwarz's book, called The Afterlife
Experiments - Breakthrough Scientific Evidence of Life After Death
clearly falls into the latter category. Unfortunately for Schwarz his book
and methods came under the scrutiny of
Ray Hyman
writing in Skeptical Inquirer magazine. The title of his piece,
now happily online,
says it all - How Not to Test Mediums - Critiquing
the Afterlife Experiments. Hyman, Professor Emeritus of Psychology
at the University of Oregon, is an expert in alleged psychic readings and,
most pertinent here, the psychology of deception and self-deception. When
dealing with someone like that parasite of the bereaved and grieving,
John Edward, one of the test
subjects, it is wise to be fully aware of all the tricks of the trade. Not
that many tricks are needed as becomes obvious when Hyman takes apart the
unbelievably sloppy testing procedures. It is an example of how someone as
well qualified as Schwarz, a professor of psychology, medicine, neurology,
psychiatry, and surgery at the University of Arizona, can be deceived by
his test subjects and ultimately himself. Here is a summation from Hyman's
article "Probably no other extended program in
psychical research deviates so much from accepted norms of scientific
methodology as this one." By the way, the book seems to be selling
well - the majority of customer reviews at Amazon.com are favorable,
giving the book an overall rating of 4 out of a maximum 5 stars. It was
interesting to note that a number of the unfavorable reviews quote
Hyman's article in SI. For a completely opposed view do look at
this - an
ad hominem attack on Hyman from an Australian lawyer - stand back from
your screen as this guy's spluttering (and ineffectual) indignation will
leave you covered in his outraged spittle. When will people learn that
personal attacks like this make the writer seem little more than petulant and
childish - "Retired Lawyer of the Supreme Court of
New South Wales, and the High Court of Australia" he may be, but he
has done nothing to advance his case with this bitter diatribe.
Quotes
"I stopped believing in Santa Claus when
my mother took me to see him in a department store, and he asked for my
autograph."
Shirley Temple
"Any belief that does not allow others
the right to believe something else is based more on fear than on faith."
Roger Ebert
“Never let the future disturb you. You
will meet it, if you have to, with the same weapons of reason which today
arm you against the present.”
Marcus Aurelius
"I certainly can't see any sensible
position to assume aside from that of complete scepticism tempered by a
leaning toward that which existing evidence makes most probable. All I say
is that I think it is damned unlikely that anything like a central cosmic
will, a spirit world, or an eternal survival of personality, exist. They
are the most preposterous and unjustified of all the guesses which can be
made about the universe, and I am not enough of a hair-splitter to pretend
that I don't regard them as arrant and negligible moonshine. In theory I
am an agnostic, but pending the appearance of rational evidence I must be
classed, practically and provisionally, as an atheist. The chances of
theism's truth being to my mind so microscopically small, I would be a
pedant and a hypocrite to call myself anything else."
H P Lovecraft
"What you do in this world is a matter of
no consequence," returned my companion, bitterly. "The question is, what
can you make people believe that you have done." Sherlock Holmes, in
"A
Study in Scarlet"
"A religion old or new, that stressed the
magnificence of the universe as revealed by modern science, might be able
to draw forth reserves of reverence and awe hardly tapped by the
conventional faiths. Sooner or later, such a religion will emerge."
Carl Sagan
