Gillian McKeith giving medical diagnosis?

[Paul]

I was unfortunate enough to catch 30 seconds of You Are What You Eat: Gillian Moves In tonight; during that time the mad old witch* told some poor man that she had seen his test results, cells in his liver were breaking down and leaking into his bloodstream and basically he was going to get liver disease which could be fatal.

My question is, can someone with no recognised medical qualifications go on TV in the UK and give medical diagnoses?





*just my personal opinion

[andyandy]

mad old witch*

*just my personal opinion

i prefer rat-faced bint.....:)

[brodski]

I was unfortunate enough to catch 30 seconds of You Are What You Eat: Gillian Moves In tonight; during that time the mad old witch* told some poor man that she had seen his test results, cells in his liver were breaking down and leaking into his bloodstream and basically he was going to get liver disease which could be fatal.

My question is, can someone with no recognised medical qualifications go on TV in the UK and give medical diagnoses?





*just my personal opinion
It depends on the disclaimers, but I think a complaint to OfCom (http://www.ofcom.org.uk/complain/) is in order.

[andyandy]

It depends on the disclaimers, but I think a complaint to OfCom (http://www.ofcom.org.uk/complain/) is in order.

how about an internet campaign to whip up a Big brother like frenzy of 40,000complaints, tabloid headlines and media moralising culminating in a career ending disgrace....? :)

i'm in....now, just 39,999 to go.....:D

[Brian the Snail]

My question is, can someone with no recognised medical qualifications go on TV in the UK and give medical diagnoses?

Obviously so.

[tkingdoll]

Not legally, but unless you complain, nothing will be done.
Can you give us the time and date and channel of the show? Will add a general call for Ofcom complaints to the Uk Skeptics website.

[Paul]

The show was You Are What You Eat: Gillian Moves In, it was on Channel 4 at 20:00 tonight (6 Feb).

Can anyone recommend what form the complaint should take? I'm looking now but there doesn't appear to be anything specific in the Broadcasting Code to cover this.

I'm also wondering if what she says makes medical sense.

[John Jackson]

My question is, can someone with no recognised medical qualifications go on TV in the UK and give medical diagnoses?

Yes. And her diagnoses seem to be 100% accurate.

Why it's almost as if the programme's participants have been checked over by real doctors before filming and Gillian McKeith PhoneyD is presenting their findings as if they were her own.

It's down to editing.

[FarSideOfTheMoon]

Yes. And her diagnoses seem to be 100% accurate.

Why it's almost as if the programme's participants have been checked over by real doctors before filming and Gillian McKeith PhoneyD is presenting their findings as if they were her own.

It's down to editing.

Surely not? I thought she could tell from their tongues and their crap what was wrong with them....

I 'accidentially' caught a couple of minutes of the programme last night near the start. Words cannot express the rage that built up within me, before I thanksfully switched channels.

[NeilC]

Well she sure isn't qualified to give fashion or beauty advice so I say let her have something.

[Rrose Selavy]

Don't get me started on this woman! Here's badscience who have an article on her latest exploits.

http://www.badscience.net/?p=359#more-359

[andyandy]

journalistic gold from mr goldacre :D

As the awful poo lady goes into her fourth series on Channel 4, I can’t stop thinking about that PhD. I’m talking about Dr Gillian McKeith PhD, of course. It’s from a non-accredited correspondence college in the US, so no trustworthy government body attests to their standards. But I’m open minded, and it was always perfectly possible that she’d done a meaningful piece of work, on top of paying those correspondence course fees.

For many years now I have wanted to read her thesis for myself, just to satisfy my curiosity. This should have been a pretty straightforward affair: PhDs are, by convention, always lodged in a library, in an archive, where they can be seen. Sadly, Clayton College of Natural Health - who also sell their own range of vitamin supplements - refused to show me McKeith’s thesis. Or anybody’s. I drew a blank.

But then came a breakthrough:

I say book. It’s more like a stapled pamphlet, available at only £1.99, because it’s only 48 pages. Which is quite short for a PhD. And that’s including recipes, title plates, and contents pages.
Maybe this pamphlet is just a shortened and simplified version of the PhD text, but if it is at all based on her thesis it is not a good advert for that as a scholarly work. Inside is what I could only describe as Cargo Cult science: she’s going through the motions, but the content, only closer inspection, is like an eerie parody of an academic text.

There are lots of grand statements about research, with nice superscript numbers relating to references in the back. But when you chase to the back of the book to see what these academic documents are, they include such august periodicals as Delicious, Creative Living, Healthy Eating, and my favourite: Spiritual Nutrition and the Rainbow Diet.

[wahrheit]

Interesting thread. Mojo posted a link recently to a book she is selling in Germany, along with her, err, funny Dr. before her name. Since this might be a felony in Germany, I'm researching this these days.

[Rrose Selavy]

They're selling her crap at my local Sainsburys ( a big UK supermarket chain) - eg a "detox" concoction in a small packet for £20 (approx $40 at current rates)

[andyandy]

They're selling her crap at my local Sainsburys ( a big UK supermarket chain) - eg a "detox" concoction in a small packet for £20 (approx $40 at current rates)

they're selling her crap? urgh :D

[Rrose Selavy]

Great article here in todays's online Guardian:


A menace to science



For years, 'Dr' Gillian McKeith has used her title to sell TV shows, diet books and herbal sex pills. Now the Advertising Standards Authority has stepped in. Yet the real problem is not what she calls herself, but the mumbo-jumbo she dresses up as scientific fact, says Ben Goldacre



http://image.guardian.co.uk/sp.gif
Gillian McKeith has agreed to stop using the title Dr in adverts. Photograph: Yui Mok/PA
Call her the Awful Poo Lady, call her Dr Gillian McKeith PhD: she is an empire, a multi-millionaire, a phenomenon, a prime-time TV celebrity, a bestselling author. She has her own range of foods and mysterious powders, she has pills to give you an erection, and her face is in every health food store in the country. Scottish Conservative politicians want her to advise the government. The Soil Association gave her a prize for educating the public. And yet, to anyone who knows the slightest bit about science, this woman is a bad joke.



One of those angry nerds took her down this week. A regular from my website badscience.net (http://www.badscience.net/) - I can barely contain my pride - took McKeith to the Advertising Standards Authority, complaining about her using the title "doctor" on the basis of a qualification gained by correspondence course from a non-accredited American college. He won.


Long article continues here;
http://www.guardian.co.uk/food/Story/0,,2011095,00.html

[andyandy]

there's a gillian mckeith frenzy on JREF!

it's a great article :)

[fuelair]

i prefer rat-faced bint.....:)

Or, the all time popularity winner, anal orifice!:)