Heidi Stevenson has recently wrote a blog post were she claims that the Welsh Measles Epidemic is faked. In this video Nega talks about the data she presents and her ruthless censorship.

Heidi Stevenson blog post
http://gaia-health.com/gaia-blog/2013…

My blog post about her
http://mylespower.co.uk/2013/05/05/we…

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Website: http://www.mylespower.co.uk
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A recent update on one of my favorite topics!

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Sources:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/…

http://www.nyscf.org/pdfs/NYSCF-PR-20…

In October last year, I wrote an article about a 78-year-old man named Allan Taylor who apparently cured his incurable cancer with a new diet. Back in 2011, Allan was told that he had colon cancer and had around 22cm of his colon removed. He also underwent chemotherapy, but was later told that he would no longer benefit from the treatment and that there was nothing more they could do for him. Faced with his own mortality, Allan decided to investigate alternative treatments out of desperation – as most of us would do in his situation. After researching some theories online, Allan walked into his local health store to ask for further advice. He was sold a new diet and several products that he later believed cured his incurable cancer. His story was quickly picked up by The Sunday Mirror, who then irresponsibly published it, without it containing a medical/scientific rebuttal of Allan’s claims. The paper listed the products in Allan’s diet, along with explanations for how he believed they worked. In my article I discussed some of these products and how their anti-cancer properties are not backed up by evidence. I also talked about how one of the products sold to this critically ill man will have been metabolised within his body to produce the highly toxic hydrogen cyanide.

The truth is that without having access to Allan’s medical records, we have to take his word on his treatment, his diagnosis and his health now. I want to make a point here to say that in no way am I calling Allan a liar, but extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof and neither Allan or the writers of the newspaper article (Dominic Herbert and David Paul) have given any. What really got to me about this story was that Allan is from my home town (Middlesbrough) and so was the health store. I could not believe that a store under my nose was selling false hope to critically ill people by recommending quack medicines that not only have been shown to be ineffective, but are actually potentially harmful. This was the reason I decided to write my first article on the subject in the hope that people who read Allan’s newspaper article would find mine and not waste their time with this bullshit.

Five months later and I had almost forgotten about Allan and his miracle cure, when a family member told me that she had seen the newspaper article posted on the front of a health shop window. I immediately jumped in the car to see it for myself and 20 minutes later I was stood outside the offending shop with a look of utter shock on my face. Apparently not content with selling quack products to a critical ill man, they were now advertising that they had done this and were encouraging other cancer patients, and those who know cancer patients, to come in and ask about their cure.

At this point I was practically frothing at the mouth and could feel the anger building up inside of me. I walked in and began to talk to a rather frail looking woman behind the counter. I introduced myself, explained what I do on the Internet and said that I had come to asked about the newspaper article in the window. I said that I have previously written about it and that I did not believe a word of it. The woman honestly looked surprised that someone would question Allan’s story and immediately began to pass the buck. She said that she was not the one to talk to Allan, but the woman who did would be working in a few days and that I was more than welcome to come back and ask her some questions.

Two days later I returned to the shop, seeing Allan’s newspaper article was still stuck to the glass window, advertising to the ill people of Middlesbrough. The same frail woman was behind the counter and as she looked up gave me a look as if to say, “Oh bollocks, I was hoping you wouldn’t come back.” I smiled, walked over and asked to talk to the woman who sold the cure to Allan. Five minutes later a rather young, attractive woman appeared from the back of the shop. I introduced myself, smiled and explain why I was there.

I began with what I thought would be easy questions about the products sold to Allan, going from left to right in the newspaper article, starting off with barley grass powder. The paper claimed that barley grass powder is “thought to raise the alkaline level of the blood, reducing acid. Cancer loves acid.” I asked where she had heard this information. She picked up a barley grass powder bag from the shelf and frantically started to read the information on the back. There was an awkward silence until I said that I thought I know where this theory comes from. I pulled out my copy of The pH miracle from my bag and began to talk about the book’s interesting theories on treating the sick. At this point I was finding it hard to get a response from either woman and I saw them for what they are… nine ’til five snake oil peddlers. They did not care about their job, nor did they really know what they were talking about. They didn’t even know the basics of the bullshit quack theories they were peddling. I was very disappointed and could see I was wasting my time, so I jumped to my final question. I asked whether, after listening to a scientist (myself) who had spent the past two days researching the claims made within the newspaper article and had found research that debunks ALL of them, they would  take down the newspaper article from their shop window. The young woman quickly dismissed my request by saying something along the lines of, “people will try anything if they are desperate”. First of all, this did not answer my question and secondly, it showed me how morally bankrupt these people are. I was honestly shocked at how someone could say something so horrid. I tried again to convince them that having this newspaper article on their window was potentially dangerous and how it was giving false hope to ill people, but they were not budging. At this point I decided to leave before I lost my temper, but before I did, I asked how she was able to give advice to Allan when she clearly does not know what she is talking about. She told me that she had asked for help from a man named Gareth Zeal, who I later contacted and am planning to meet up with in the future to ask about the miracle cure.

In this video Nega talks about a book written by a man calling himself Dr Robert O. Young, that claim it can help you lose weight, prevent disease and reclaim your health through the pH diet.

The Quack that Broke me
http://mylespower.co.uk/2013/01/21/th…

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Both my Cape Sundew and Sarracenia hybrid have finally flowered. The Cape Sundew is nothing exciting but the Sarracenia hybrid looks amazing and I am so gratefully that is does not smell of cat urine. Unfortunately one of my Sarracenia flowers was partially eaten by a very hungry beetle.

This video contains a discussion of cannibalism. Viewer discretion is advised.

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Google Science Fair Hangout with Iain Couzin:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O7EFbm…

Sources:
All images from Smithsonian/Don Hurlbert:
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history…

Heidi Stevenson was later asked why she deleted my comment that contained a link to my post about her.

As many of you know, when I make a video or write an article about pseudoscience opponents, I like the points I make to be articulate and eloquent. I do this because I realise that as soon as you step away from making valid points with well reasoned arguments and resort to petty name calling you run the risk of having people tune you out. Having said that, I would like to say that Heidi Stevenson is an uneducated moron who needs to keep her unscientific and idiotic theories to her stupid self.

Yesterday, a friend of mine (Tom) sent me a link to one of her blog posts, where she discussed the current measles epidemic in Wales. The website it was posted on looks like a reputable health site but is actually a pro-homeopathy, anti-GMO, anti-nuclear power, let’s-all-eat-organic-food bullshit spewing website in disguise. On it, quite unbelievably, Heidi claims that the current epidemic is fake and nothing more than “fear mongering people into rushing out for the MMR vaccine.” She also insensitively insults the Welsh people who have now received the MMR jab, by respectively calling them sheeple. “Far too many sheeple have been stampeded to the clinics. Baaa!”

You might be wondering what kind of background Heidi has to give her the confidence to write such a bold blog post. Medical background? Journalistic background? Scientific background? Nope! Heidi is a homeopath and a member of the homeopathic world community. Homeopathy, for those who don’t know, is an alternative medicine based on the theory that a substance that causes the symptoms of a disease in healthy people will cure similar symptoms in sick people. They then take this substance and repeatedly dilute it down, long past the point where it could contain even a single molecule of the original substance. It goes without saying that any one who believes this should not be giving out any medical advice or be respected.

Heidi begins her blog post by talking about the death of Gareth Colfer-Williams, a young man from Swansea. She links to a BBC news article and says with confidence that Gareth did not die of measles, even though the article she linked to said that tests were inconclusive. The truth is that at this moment we do not know what killed Gareth, but what we do know is that he had measles. For this reason, an inquest into his death has now been opened, which plans to carry out further tests on his body to discover the cause of death. But even if we later find out that Gareth died of unrelated causes it does not mean that we should be less worried about the disease. Measles is a highly infectious viral illness that can be very unpleasant and in some cases can have serious complications, including blindness and death. Measles is also extremely dangerous whilst pregnant as it can be passed on to your baby and can cause miscarriage or premature labour. You also cannot be given the MMR jab during pregnancy.

Heidi then tells us that the 446 measles notifications reported between January 1st and March 31st of this year were “merely reports” and that only 26 cases were actually confirmed. She also believes (in her professional opinion as a homeopath) that the 83 people reported in on the BBC who needed hospital treatment in Wales for the illness must be fibbing. As proof, she gives links to two NHS monthly reports which she calls “Wales Official Reported Measles Cases” and “Wales Official Confirmed Measles Cases“. The actual titles of the reports are “All Wales surveillance of notifiable communicable diseases” and “All Wales surveillance of laboratory confirmed infections”.

Regarding the number of confirmed cases, she is kinda correct; there have only been 26 cases of measles in Wales which have been truly confirmed by laboratory analysis. However, the fact is that you don’t have to have a laboratory test to diagnose measles.  One of the main (and defining) symptoms of the illness is the appearance of a red-brown spotty rash. The rash usually starts behind the ears, then spreads around the head and neck before spreading to the legs and the rest of the body. If you visited your doctor with this rash and presented with other symptoms of the illness, your doctor would not have to wait for laboratory results to diagnose you with measles. I believe she knows this, which is why she changed the title of the report laboratory confirmed infections to confirmed measles cases.

If we look at the data itself we can see there is a sharp rise in laboratory confirmed infections, with 35 laboratory confirmed in the last six months, compared to the 3 confirmed cases six months previously. As for the 83 people who required hospital treatment, Heidi never gave any explanation for what is, in her mind, a grossly exaggerated number, nor does she give any evidence that contradicts this number. She simply says, “That, though, cannot be true”.

If we look at the data from the reported cases we can see how bad the situation in Wales is. Heidi, however, believes this is a result of paranoid doctors who aren’t “taking any chances with their licenses to practise” and are therefore “reporting anything that bears the slightest resemblance to measles”. She of course gives no examples of misdiagnosis and later goes on to say that the whole situation in Wales is a part of a plan to induce fear in the population to force them into getting vaccinated again without giving evidence.

The fact is that there is an outbreak of measles in the UK at the moment and  South Wales is not the only place affected. Here in my home town of Middlesbrough we are also in the middle of an epidemic (albeit not as severe), many children and young adults are suffering because of the mistakes of their parents. These parents listened to people like Heidi, who have no medical training or scientific background, but do have an Internet connection and a website, where they can post their paranoid, unethical and uneducated bullshit.