Sun supports Pseudoscience

In today's Sun there's a puff-piece which verges on advertising.

As bad as that is, what makes worse is that it covers a "magic bullet" treatment for addictions and is known as the "Emotional Freedom Technique".

Allegedly any addiction can be cured simply by tapping someone one the side of the head (thankfully not in a manner like this), neck and arms in a manner akin to acupuncture.

A quick search of Google Scholar shows that there is no scientific evidence whatsoever in support of this "treatment". The only positive articles are those from the practitioners.

The article also has a handy Q&A section which includes the following:

HOW DOES IT WORK? - Known as "emotional acupuncture", it involves tapping on key parts of the body while focusing on a problem.

As you tap and the energy "settles", it is claimed the level of emotion reduces.

So, in order words, it releases your Qi?

WHAT IS IT USED FOR? - Practitioners claim EFT can help with addictions, cravings, allergies, stress, phobias, eating disorders and grief.

A cure for any and everything should raise suspicions straight-away because they are generally false.

HOW MANY PRACTISE IT? - Hundreds of thousands worldwide, but anyone can learn it and you can even do it on yourself.

As a rule, if you don't need any special qualifications it's clearly a load of rubbish.

The Sun also provides a link to the woman's website, which has a section that covers her qualifications, or more correctly, her lack of: she states that she is qualified in neuro-linguistic programming and something called Psych-K. Needless to say, both are practised by quacks.

In any event, claiming that it is similar to acupuncture is not a claim that you want to make, seeing that it has been shown that acupuncture is no better than a placebo.

Hmm.. fake treatments in a paper known for its fake news. I guess they belong together!