February 28, 2007 at 11:07 am

I wonder what Patrick Holford will have to say about this study:

uk.news.yahoo.com/28022007/397/vitamins-increase-risk-death-0.html

Have you seen this study yet, Ben? Just wondered what your take on it was.”

I tell you what, some people are idiots. That report says vitamin C does not increase longevity, that has no bearing on whether or not it helps HIV patients. Antibiotics regularly taken to not increase longevity you imbocile but taken at the right time with the right dosage they kill bacterium. Point made, this man was a lapdog for Ben Goldacre.

What to do in the Bad Science column – got anything on supermarket petrol?

I myself, a mere kibitzer, thought “A-ha!” when a fuel company named “Greenergy” was fingered, forgetting that a cuddly name doesn’t mean that their stuff isn’t made by mixing conflict oil with the mashed brains of baby seals and other marine mammals. Nevertheless, being even a little genuinely green means doing some things differently to common practice, and doing things differently can lead to unique mistakes. Too much ethanol? But now whatever happened seems to be a problem that any supplier could have suffered. Along the way we must have had lots of Bad Science. On the good side, I hope, one of the latest BBC News Online story pages had a neat little box explaining silicon and silicone, which maybe should just be renamed – “vowellised silicon product” perhaps?

By the way, your cat got a passing mention on yesterday’s (Friday’s) You & Yours.

Take selenium – we need it, although deficiency in it is fairly rare, the US recommended intake is 55 ug a day, but it’s toxic at over 400 ug. So why are most selenium supplements at 100 to 200 ug levels? Pop too many, or combine with a diet high in selenium anyway (by eating a perfectly normal healthy diet) and you can cross the line or at least get not pleasantly close. Just spotted, one ounce of GMcK’s favourite Brazil Nuts takes you well over the limit at 544 ug/ounce (apologies for mixing units). To quote the NIH: Symptoms of selenosis include gastrointestinal upsets, hair loss, white blotchy nails, garlic breath odor, fatigue, irritability, and mild nerve damage. Selenium toxicity is rare in the U.S. The few reported cases have been associated with industrial accidents and a manufacturing error that led to an excessively high dose of selenium in a supplement.

Likewise with chromium, yes we need it, but in stupendously, vanishingly small amounts, ‘cos it is very very toxic at not very high levels…

However, if he is so inclined, a good target will present itself next week on Thursday, on Channel 4 – Martin Durkin’s documentary ‘The Great Global Warming Swindle’. Where, I daresay, arguments against anthopogenic global warming that were discredited several years ago will be trundled out and presented as important new evidence that public attention must be drawn to.

This is the same Martin Durkin who made a documentary in 1999 about silicone implants being preventative factors against breast cancer. And who made a documentary series in 1997 attacking environmentalists which Channel 4 later had to issue an apology over because of extensive use of selective editing to misrepresent the views of those interviewed.

Well, if nothing else this documentary will afford us an excellent chance to play ‘Global Warming Skeptic Bingo!’

http://timlambert.org/2005/04/16

quoted in the Grauniad…?! yes he is, quoted as being a misguided fraudster who peddles vit C as a cure for HIV/AIDS when he has the scantest of supporting ‘evidence’. that’s like saying george bush is quoted daily in the Iraq Times – as the devil incarnate no doubt – but he is quoted nontheless…!

re # 26:

It could raise your child’s IQ by seven points in six months, slash most children’s hyperactivity and concentration problems in a month and, if widely adopted, solve South Africa’s skills crisis, reverse the crime wave, cut many chronic illnesses in half — and even energise the economy.

[Eh…?! Really…?!]

And all it will take is changing the contents of your child’s school lunch box.

This is the stunning claim world- renowned nutritionist and best selling author Professor Patrick Holford will make on a seminar tour to South Africa.

Armed with a “dramatic” series of new studies on nutrition and the brain, Holford, head of the UK’s Food for the Brain charity, said he would seek to “spark a revolution for South Africa’s school kids” .

Pupils at Crawford and St Stithians primary schools were given lunch box menu options from baby carrots, tuna and slow sugar-release, “low-GI [Glycaemic Index] bread” to apple quarters dunked in peanut butter.

[newsflash – good food is good for you. Stunning claim…]

Holford hit the headlines in the UK last month for dramatically turning around the results of two schools by educating parents on healthy cooking, changing kids’ lunches, and adding two cheap pills to each lunch, daily.

[nooo…. Don’t go there…]

In the world’s first combined trial of diet, vitamins and “essential fats” on school kids, the eleventh worst-performing school in Britain found that even “yob behaviour” had been significantly cut in just two weeks.

[trial…? Feck off… significant…? Show me the Data Jerry McVitamin…]

In an independent study, children given fish-oil supplements gained nine months of reading ability in three months, while others showed a nine point increase in IQ after taking a daily multivitamin.

[again, data…? Oh right, goto equazen.com/secret_corporate_results_not_peer_reviewd/htm]

Looked up the Lancet article in question (bored at work). According to my search of the pdf, there are 0 instances of the word ‘holford’. So any contribution he made went unacknowledged (I know that feeling…)

Given that Holford is not an author, I suppose he might be mentioned in the acknowledgments if it had anything to do with him…

A pubmed search on (Holford[Auth]) AND (“Lancet”[Jour]) yields “no details found” so I think the naswer is a definite “no”.

“Next Issue – 30 February 2007″

So I guess we’ll be waiting a long long time for that one. Shame, it looks interesting.