Big Pharma And Pill Peddlers

September 23rd, 2006 by Ben Goldacre in bad science, equazen, fish oil | 50 Comments »

Ben Goldacre
Saturday September 23, 2006
The Guardian

So where were we? Oh yes. Durham Council is running a highly dubious “trial” of a food supplement that is methodologically crippled, and largely incapable of giving meaningful data, but in the process Durham Council staff are appearing all over the papers and television in news stories to promote a pill called Eye Q made by Equazen, suggesting it is effective at improving concentration and learning in normal children, an assertion that is not supported by published trial data, as we have discussed (although it might be if Durham simply did their trials properly). Meanwhile Equazen say they have Read the rest of this entry »

Looking Deeper Into My Fishy New Friends

September 16th, 2006 by Ben Goldacre in bad science, equazen, fish oil, media, nutritionists, references, regulating research, statistics | 79 Comments »

Ben Goldacre
Saturday September 16, 2006
The Guardian

Regular readers will have established by now that most journalists are so scientifically inept, and so eager to run with “pill solves complex social problem” stories, that companies like Equazen selling their Eye-Q fish oil tablets for children with blanket media coverage can come out very nicely indeed.

So here’s the background you might have missed. Firstly, it costs 80p a day for you to feed your child these Eye-Q omega-3 fish oil tablets that Read the rest of this entry »

The Trial That Ate Itself

September 9th, 2006 by Ben Goldacre in adverts, bad science, channel 4, equazen, fish oil, ITV, mail, nutritionists, references, statistics | 121 Comments »

Ben Goldacre
Saturday September 9, 2006
The Guardian

Fish oil is clearly a matter of huge national importance. Channel 4 and ITV (and the Daily Mail, and the BBC) all report on a plan by education officials in County Durham to give £1 million worth of omega-3 fish oils, to 5,000 children as they approach their GCSE’s, and see how it improves performance.

http://www.lems.brown.edu/vision/people/leymarie/Images/Paintings/Magritte_pipe.jpg

Contrary to what the pill-peddlers would tell you, the evidence for omega 3 Read the rest of this entry »