Grab your tin foil hats readers, Fran Sheffield has jumped the shark.
Fran Sheffield runs the woo-fest website that is Homeopathy Plus! The same website that was the subject of a recent Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) investigation which found her website contained misleading information. Including such gems as “homeopathic immunisation” is as effective as vaccination and that homeopathy can treat cancer, AIDS and other terminal diseases.
Regular readers might remember her being responsible for the e-newsletter alerting us to the “homeopathy cures breast cancer study” which myself and David Gorski subsequently took to pieces. Sadly, only a few weeks ago this study ended being tabled as evidence for an EDM submitted by UK MP David Tredinnick (the one who believes blood does not clot under a full moon therefore surgeons do not operate) in the House of Commons. Thanks to the quick action of Simon Singh and Evan Harris, the EDMs were modified pointing out the utter fail that this study is, including the fact that one of the authors publicly dissociated herself from the study in a comment left on my blog.
As a result of an investigation into the HP! site, the TGA recommended Fran Sheffield publish a retraction in a prominent position on her website. But as is her want, she has refused to do so and since the TGA have no powers to enforce the ruling, so her website remains unchanged.
Following the finding by the TGA, Steve Cannane’s Lateline did a story where he interviewed Fran Sheffield about her reasons for not putting up the retraction. It was clear to me from the story that she sincerely believed the nonsense spouted on her website, thus saw no reason why she should conform with a TGA ruling to the contrary.
But it seems that since the TGA ruling and Lateline story, Fran has made even more outrageous claims and jumped the shark.
She even wrote a response on her website to the Lateline story where she Gish galloped references in support of homeopathy as an effective treatment for cancer and AIDS.
In her most recent flyer (below) for a seminar running in early August she claims homeopathy works for fractures (ummmm, okay), fear of flying (??), workaholism (huh?) and nose bleeds (I have one from reading this BS).
To be fair, she does get some things right. She says homeopathy works for hangovers – well sure it does, a nice big glass of water can be great for dehydration resulting from excessive alcohol consumption. And homepathy is good for plants – I add homeopathy/water to my plants water about once a week, they love it!
But seriously, Fran Sheffield, if I fractured a bone in my body, I reckon the first place I would go is a hospital, for some good old fashioned plaster – not run my leg under the tap. This information is wrong and dangerous. About the only thing homeopathy is good for is dehydration. And the TGA sits back doing nothing. Disgraceful.
Speaking of homeopathy for burns, Arnica Montana made these claims for the victims of the the Bali bombings and the Victorian bushfires back in February 2009.
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Comments ( 14 )
[...] Ms Sheffield continues to claim that magic vibrating water can cure everything. In a flyer sent out for a workshop last year she stated “homeopathy works for autism, infections, anxiety, [...]
» Homeopathy Plus! jumps a flotilla of sharks added these pithy words on Mar 19 11 at 07:15[...] order you to remove them. Whether this be from a website – as has happened several times now with Homeopathy Plus! – or a television commercial, as is the case for [...]
» The TGA get flipped the bird. Again. added these pithy words on Sep 12 11 at 22:04Fiona added these pithy words on Aug 02 10 at 00:58Hi Maggie,
Thanks for an interesting read. I’m one of Fran’s patients. When my daughter broke her arm I went to the hospital and told them I think my daughter has broken her arm, they looked at it while she screamed at them, they gave her a Panadol, sent me back home and said nothing was wrong. Then I took my daughter to Fran. And, Fran sent me back to the doctor and told me to demand x-rays. She also gave my daughter (2 years old at the time) a dose of Symphtum 30c from memory and my daughter stopped crying within 30 seconds. She had cried the whole way to Fran’s in the car. The remedy Fran gave me worked, but the Panadol did almost nothing. I don’t know or care how the remedies work, all I care about is they work.
Bastard Sheep added these pithy words on Aug 02 10 at 14:00“It was clear to me from the story that she sincerely believed the nonsense spouted on her website, thus saw no reason why she should conform with a TGA ruling to the contrary.”
.
From the way she constantly ups the ante every time she and homeopathy are outed I actually get the impression she is knowingly doing it, that she knows it is false and just upping the claims in spite (note: I am not saying it is what she is doing, I am just saying I get the impression this is what she is doing by her words and actions).
Michael Kingsford Gray added these pithy words on Aug 07 10 at 21:23Fiona: What did the X-Rays reveal?
Did your daughter have a broken arm, in fact?
Ken McLeod added these pithy words on Aug 09 10 at 10:22Yes, Fiona, I am curious also. What did the X-rays reveal? As an observation from a father and grandfather’s perspective, children who have suffered an injury eventually stop crying, usually after receiving some placebo like icecream.
Michael Kingsford Gray added these pithy words on Aug 09 10 at 21:54If “a dose of Symphtum 30c” can cure broken bones “within 30 seconds”, then a Nobel Prize is going to waste, Fiona, let alone the myriad drop in global suffering caused by bone fractures around the globe.
Why do you not nominate Fran for the Nobel Prize in Medicine?
This is a serious question, by the way.
If you have an hesitation about completing the paperwork, I am more than happy to assist as, I expect, would be, Doctor R. Dunlop, amongst many other luminaries.
Michael Kingsford Gray added these pithy words on Aug 12 10 at 19:36I wonder if a 30C dose of “The Sound of Crickets from Fiona & her non-existent XRays”® would be a remedy for ignorance?
I must Patent® it at once.
Fiona added these pithy words on Aug 13 10 at 03:50“Did your daughter have a broken arm, in fact?”
I love that sentence. You make it sound like you are performing a magic trick. LOL. A line like that, must be delivered with a really cheesy grin and lots of gesticulating.
The X-Ray’s showed she had two greenstick fractures. She was in a lot of pain. The Symphutum stopped the pain.
John added these pithy words on Aug 23 10 at 23:06Fiona: so your daughter was given a painkiller? And stopped crying when the pain stopped?
Symphutum is comfrey. Since when is this a painkiller?
Could this mean this woman has given a two-year-old a dose of some unknown analgesic? And you’re defending her…
y6u67 added these pithy words on Oct 15 10 at 05:34John: it’s not her fault she’s an idiotic parent. Wait, it is. The fact that she doesn’t see any other reason why her daughter would stop crying other than because some transvestite donkey witch injected her is pathetic (Fiona even mentions her daughter cried the entire way there in the car, and we ALL know that a child get tired of crying, right?).
GC added these pithy words on Jan 17 11 at 23:19A malicious person would ask Fran Sheffield to use herself as a case study to investigate the effectiveness of homeopathy in treating self-inflicted gun-shot wounds to the head.
Maggie added these pithy words on Jan 17 11 at 23:29@GC, ah, but you see it doesn’t work like that. Many homeopathy proponents admit they use surgeons and emergency physicians when necessary. They only use homeopathy for self-limiting illnesses like colds, flus, and other non-life threatening conditions. Even Meryl Dorey, the anti-vaccine, HIV & germ theory denier, says this.
GC added these pithy words on Jan 19 11 at 19:04I see Maggie, homeopathy is best used for diseases from which people normally recover without any intervention. Speaks volumes for its effectiveness.
