Dr Goldacre has read my comments on the blog and responded accordingly - please see below.
Dr Goldacre's comments stirred emotions among practitioners in complementary medicine and I was no exception.
I have written my comments on the spur-of-the moment, and regretfully, used words that may not have been appropriate. I apologies unreservedly to anybody who may have found them offensive. I work 14 hours a day, 7 days a week and have very little time to watch TV or listen to the radio, as in this instance.
I wish to thank Dr Goldacre for his response (and criticism). I appreciate his comments. I also wish to assure him that our industry does ‘engage in thoughtful critical appraisal of its own practice’ and if I left wrong impression, I apologies again.
Principal & Founder BCNH
Please see Dr Goldacre’s cooments below:
I think it’s pretty astonishing that the BCNH should make these kinds of comments and simultaneously admit not listening to the programme.
"on his website he is slagging off Sue McGinty from BANT who courageously stood up to him and defended nutritional therapy."
sue mcginty was excellent, i think it's a real tragedy that you're not able to engage in a sensible discussion as well as she was. i have not "slagged her off" (how old is the person writing this…) in fact far from it, we had a very engaging discussion, we got on very well, i certainly liked her a lot, and i have said as much on my site.
in fact these are all my comments about sue from the page where you say I “slag her off”:
"i actually thought sue mcginty from BANT was very nice, and although our discussion was very revealing about the culture within the profession, i wouldn’t want anyone to be mean about her as an individual. don’t mean to be sanctimonious, but i guess it’s just rare to find anyone from this kind of world who is at least willing to engage in a sensible discussion. and she was actually nice, and we did have a really interesting longer chat about all kinds of stuff in the field of nutritionism."
"yeah it’s interesting, i think the sensible stuff is the obvious lifestyle advice, and then there’s a layer of pills and odd diets and tests all justified with pseudoscience. i think it’s fascinating that this industry has completely changed our perception of our bodies, diets, and ranking of the importance of lifestyle risk factors for ill health. it’s brilliant and inspiring, really, that they’ve achieved such prominence. it’s also funny how intolerant they can be when presented with a mere 27 minutes of some academics questioning their ideas. (i wouldnt include sue mcginty in that)."
For the BCNH, an educational institution, to describe this as “slagged her off” really only suggests how difficult you find it to engage in a sensible discussion.
every other healthcare profession from nursing through medicine to physiotherapy engages in thoughtful critical appraisal of its own practise. it seems to me that your industry is so open to criticism because you do not, and so ludicrous ideas go unchallenged.
sue mcginty was robust, charming, and ready to try and engage sensibly on the issues. you do her a great disservice, and since you speak on behalf of an educational institution this can only raise concerns that the lack of critical self reflection in your industry will continue. as i have repeatedly said, diet and lifestyle are important factors in ill health, and it is possible to do a great deal of good here without resorting to dubious health claims.
after our discussion sue and i discussed organising a meeting where i could talk to some nutritionists, perhaps through BANT/NTC, to explain why people have concerns about many aspects of the industry's practices. i felt rather optimistic about that. it seems that not all of you are as capable of engaging in a sensible discussion as she is.
Ben Goldacre
www.badscience.net
