Dan's Journal of Skepticism

You may or may not have heard about this shill for Homeopathy called Dana Ullman. He happily promotes the bogus medicine of Homeopathy and has even written some books on it; handy if you happen to run out of toilet paper.

But it seems Dana doesn’t like criticism

However such legal threats will do nothing to suppress criticism. Instead it would appear that a shitstorm is now brewing on Twitter. With more and more people openly accusing @HomeopathicDana (Dana Ullman) of being a “conman”. Apparently Dana had never heard of The Streisand Effect whereby an attempt to silence a critic backfires dramatically. Was Danas tweet supposed to be a legitimate warning? I don’t know but it failed miserably and now he will face the consequences of making it.

Don’t think you can attempt to silence legitimate criticism and get away with it. This is the Internet, using threat of litigation will get you nowhere.

Japan is currently struggling to deal with a natural disaster that has left thousands of people either Dead, Injured or Missing. However no disaster is tragic enough to deter crooks from taking advantage of the suffering.

An Australian homeopathy syndicate called Homeopathy Plus! sent this newsletter to it’s members.

In the wake of the major earthquake and tsunami that hit Japan on Friday, an explosion has just occurred at the Fukushima nuclear power plant.

 

It was reported that radiation had already leaked from the plant prior to the explosion and Japanese officials now fear a meltdown with further contamination has now taken place.  

 

People are being evacuated from surrounding areas as engineers scramble to contain the damage.

 

Should the situation worsen, radioactive material carried by wind and air currents may spread contaminated material to neighbouring islands and countries.

 

For all concerned, there are protective steps that can be taken with homeopathy.

 

Key remedies that have been used either in research or historically to prevent  or treat radiation poisoning include the following:

 

1. Cadmium iodide

2. Cadmium-sulph

3. Phosphorus

4. Strontium-carbonicum

5. X-ray

 

If at risk of radiation exposure, any one of the above remedies may be taken as an emergency response, three times a day in a 30C potency. Do not exceed 6 doses without guidance from your homeopath. If radiation sickness has developed, your homeopath can also advise on treatment dosages. –Homeopathy Plus; Newsletter

Homeopathy Plus is actually recommending that people use Homeopathic treatments to cure them of radiation sickness. These frauds selling fake medicine are going to cost people their lives; I have already written about the tragic case of homeopath Francine Scrayen killing Penelope Dingle by selling her homeopathic remedies that do not work.

If the Australian government does not act to shutdown Homeopathy Plus they will only continue to defraud people not only out of money but also out of health. The Therapeutic Goods Administration has already ordered Homeopathy Plus to retract misinformation on it’s website. Unfortunately the TGA is a toothless dragon and I believe people are going to suffer as a result of the frauds who take advantage of sick and vulnerable people. We have seen it before and unfortunate we will continue to see people suffer at the hands of these con-men until the government starts taking it’s responsibility seriously.

On 25 August 2005 Penelope Dingle passed away from rectal cancer. At the time she was being treated by Homeopath Francine Scrayen. Who told her that homeopathy could cure her cancer. This tragic storey was covered last year.

Perth’s Penelope Dingle, the wife of prominent Perth environmental and nutritional toxicologist Peter Dingle, agreed to be treated with alternative therapies and refused to have surgery to remove the cancer soon after she was diagnosed in 2003.

Instead, she adhered to a strict diet and regular homeopath treatments before becoming so unwell she had to have emergency surgery to remove a bowel obstruction.

By this stage, the cancer had spread and two years later, in 2005, Dingle died from complications of the cancer. –Perth Now

But now the Coroners report has been released and the conclusion is quite damming of Francine Scrayen.

In my view the deceased’s rectal cancer was present and causing bleeding and other symptoms from at least 31 October 2001.  During the period 31 October 2001 until at least the end of November 2002, the deceased regularly described the symptoms of her rectal cancer to a homeopath, Francine Scrayen.  It was not until November 2002 that Mrs Scrayen and the deceased discussed the possibility of reporting her rectal bleeding to a medical practitioner and it was not until 5 December 2002 that she first reported those problems to a doctor.

I accept that Mrs Scrayen  believed that the deceased had suffered from haemorrhoids years earlier and the bleeding and pain was “an old symptom coming back”, but a competent health professional would have been alarmed by the developing symptoms and would have strongly advised that appropriate medical investigations be conducted without delay.

Mrs Scrayen was not a competent health professional. I accept that Mrs Scrayen had minimal understanding of relevant health issues, unfortunately that did not prevent her from treating the deceased as a patient.

This case has highlighted the importance of patients suffering from cancer making  informed, sound decisions in relation to their treatment.  In this case the deceased paid a terrible price for poor decision making.
 
Unfortunately the deceased was surrounded by misinformation and poor science.  Although her treating surgeon and mainstream general practitioner provided clear and reliable information, she received mixed messages from a number of different sources which caused her to initially delay necessary surgery and ultimately decide not to have surgery until it was too late. –Coronors Report; conclusion.

Until our authorities start taking consumer protection seriously, callous individuals like Francine Scrayen will cheat, exploit and swindle the sick and desperate in the pursuit of profit. Francine Scrayen scammed Penelope Dingle to death by selling ineffective treatments that do not work. Had Penelope Dingle made better choices about treatment she may very well have survived her cancer; unfortunatly she became the victim of a fraud who ultimately took not just her money but also her life.

Francine Scrayen who is not a medical professional killed her victim by selling bogus treatment in place of legitimate medicine. Mrs Scrayen is a fraud happily endangering lives in the pursuit of profit.