24 May 2013 by Scott Gavura
Are sugar pills effective substitutes for vaccines? That’s what some are asking about Health Canada’s decision to approve 82 homeopathic “nosodes” which are sold by homeopaths as vaccine alternatives. Homeopathy is an elaborate placebo system of sugar pills. Of all alternative medicine, homeopathy is the most implausible of them all. Based on the absurd notion [...]
Posted in Alternative Medicine, Canada, Health Policy, Skepticism, Vaccines5 Comments
24 April 2013 by Michael Kruse
It’s National Immunization Awareness Week in Canada and across the world, and UNICEF is reporting the failure of Canada to achieve the 95% immunization rate required to protect the community from resurgences of deadly and debilitating infectious disease. At 84%, we are even below the UK, which is experiencing a severe measles outbreak, and we [...]
Posted in Canada, Health Policy, Skepticism, Vaccines3 Comments
05 April 2013 by Michael Kruse
After months of research and hard work from all of our volunteers at Bad Science Watch, we have launched the public phase of our campaign to stop the sale of homeopathic nosodes sold as “vaccine alternatives” in Canada. The website www.stopnosodes.org explains the position of Bad Science Watch and lays out the total lack of [...]
Posted in Canada, Health Policy, Skepticism2 Comments
20 March 2013 by John Underhay
Regulation and licensing of businesses is considered a normal part of government bureaucracy. Some libertarians may disagree with any form of government interference in commercial activities, however, it is generally accepted that regulation is a proper government function, even if the type or level of regulation is controversial. One area that has created some discussion [...]
Posted in Paranormal, Pseudoscience, Skepticism10 Comments
29 January 2013 by Dianne Sousa
Last week, an editorial in the National Post by Tim Caulfield ruffled a few homeopathic feathers. In it, Caulfield argues that when provinces grant regulatory status to alternative practitioners like naturopathy, they are legitimizing rank quackery. This is the case because naturopathy relies heavily on homeopathy, which Caulfield correctly describes as “bogus”. Canadian supporters of [...]
Posted in Alternative Medicine, Canada, Health15 Comments
18 January 2013 by Michael Kruse
This is a repost of an article that appeared on the Huffington Post Canada blog site on January 17 2013. There is a slowly rising tide of uncertainty in Canada over the necessity and safety of vaccines for childhood infectious disease. While the safety and efficacy of vaccines is very well established, doubt continues to be [...]
Posted in Alternative Medicine, Health Policy, Skepticism, Vaccines1 Comment
10 September 2012 by Kim Hebert
Screenshot taken summer 2011 from here. For context, see Part 1 and Part 2. I have outlined some general issues with the alternative medicine industry, I have described Bell Lifestyle Products as an example of the apparent futility of Health Canada’s Natural Health Products Database registration, and I will now describe the complaints I submitted [...]
Posted in Alternative Medicine, Canada, Health, Medicinal Advertising3 Comments
24 August 2012 by Dianne Sousa
Some time ago, our resident pharmacist asked the question “Is there anything the Natural Health Products Directorate won’t approve?” In that post there was a short list of some of the products Health Canada has allowed on the market, including homeopathic insulin and chloroform. Unfortunately, these products are not peculiarities. I’ve made it a habit [...]
Posted in Alternative Medicine, Canada, Health, Health Policy, Medicine, Skepticism1 Comment
22 June 2012 by Scott Gavura
A recurring focus of this blog has been to examine the implications and consequences of the uniquely Canadian approach to regulating the consumer market for what are termed “natural health products”. One of the triumphs of the Canadian natural product and supplement industry was the 1990′s decision to create different regulatory standards for the evaluation [...]
Posted in Alternative Medicine, Canada, Health Policy, Skepticism15 Comments
10 April 2012 by Iain Martel
The following is a guest post contributed by Iain Martel of the Centre for Inquiry Canada’s Committee for the Advancement of Scientific Skepticism (CASS). “Homeopathy: There’s Nothing in it” is the slogan for the 10:23 campaign, a British-based global campaign to educate the public to the fact that homeopathic preparations are typically so dilute that [...]
Posted in Alternative Medicine, Canada, Medicinal Advertising, Skepticism40 Comments
