Why hounding homeopaths is both batty and arrogant.

“Ultimately what Nightingale is attacking is the intelligence and judgement of people who are trying to find an effective way to heal themselves. If homeopathy, which even its most virulent critics cannot claim is remotely likely to be harmful, works for you, then someone needs to combine serious arrogance with real battiness to believe they have the right to stand in the way.”

 Body of Evidence

There is no shortage of villains in the world. Psychopaths – domestic and national – whalers, toxic waste dumpers, global eavesdroppers, billionaire tax avoiders and their army of accountants –  all well worth campaigning against with the aim of getting them banged up or forced to cough up.

There is also an infinite supply of people who are mildly irritating who misplace apostrophes, wear Croc shoes, do crochet, litter their sentences with “you know” and text using their middle finger.

However most of us can tell the difference. In fact mixing the two categories up is a pretty reliable indicator of a serious level of battiness . Picketing shops that sell Crocs or campaigning to forbid the sale of mobiles to clumsy texters puts you firmly in the mild-to-fairly-irritating and definitely-a-bit -potty class.

Step forward the Nightingale Collaboration, earnest and self-styled defender of rationalism, whose seriously potty members have got…

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Dr Evan Harris bias and behaviour may lose Liberal Democrat votes

Liberal Democrat spokesperson for science Dr Evan Harris’s bias at the UK Government’s Science and Technology Committee Evidence Check on Homeopathy was further confirmed by his unethical behaviour towards Dr Peter Fisher of the Royal London Homeopathic Hospital at the Merseyside Skeptics Society ‘1023’ ‘homeopathy overdose’ stunt recently.  He may cause the Liberal Democrat party to lose votes from homeopaths, homeopathy users (about 10% of the population have taken homeopathic remedies in the last year) and other practitioners of CAM and their supporters. I have consistently voted Lib Dem until now but am reviewing this policy as a direct result and I am not alone.

Here is a video of Evan Harris’s appearance at the 1023 event: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xYuLjl9bgIw

And at the Science and Technology Committee Evidence Check for Homeopathy meetings:

Wednesday 25th November 2009

http://www.parliamentlive.tv/Main/Player.aspx?meetingId=5221

Monday 30th November 2009

http://www.parliamentlive.tv/Main/Player.aspx?meetingId=5257

Dr Harris may be in breach of Articles 46 and 47 of the GMC’s Guidelines for Good Medical Practice:

Article 46. You must treat your colleagues fairly and with respect. You must not bully or harass them, or unfairly discriminate against them by allowing your personal views to affect adversely your professional relationship with them. You should challenge colleagues if their behaviour does not comply with this guidance.

Article 47. You must not make malicious and unfounded criticisms of colleagues that may undermine patients’ trust in the care or treatment they receive, or in the judgement of those treating them.

More at: http://vonsyhomeopathy.wordpress.com/2010/02/10/1023-dr-evan-harris-and-the-evidence-check/

Boots continued support for homeopathic choice in health care options

Since the opening question of the recent UK Parliamentary Evidence Check for Homeopathy, Boots ‘Pharmacy-led Health and Beauty Retailer’ have come under pressure to justify the presence of homeopathic remedies on its shelves. This was quickly followed by an open letter organised by the Merseyside Skeptics Society asking them to remove them.

A letter to Boots in support of its continued supply of homeopathic treatments today received this response:

“Thank you for taking the time to contact us about the sale of Homeopathic products in our stores.

At Boots we take our responsibilities as the leading Pharmacy-led Health & Beauty retailer in the UK very seriously and as part of this we pride ourselves on being able to offer all of our customers a choice of products that support them in their day-to-day lives. We know that many people believe in the benefits of complementary medicines and we aim to offer the products we know our customers want.

I’m delighted to hear that you want us to continue to sell these items and you’ll be pleased to know that you can still find these in our stores. Additionally, our Pharmacists are trained healthcare professionals and they’re on hand to offer advice on the safe use of complementary medicines in line with guidance offered by the Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain.

Thank you once again for your positive feedback and, of course, for your valued custom.

Yours sincerely

Boots Customer Care”

Contribution of homeopathy to the control of an outbreak of dengue in Macaé, Rio de Janeiro

From the International Journal of High Dilution of Research 

“Homeopathy has contributed throughout history [see here,  here and here ] to the control and eradication of epidemic diseases. Facing the challenge of controlling an outbreak of dengue, the Secretary of Health of the county of Macaé, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in early 2007 carried out a “Homeopathy Campaign against Dengue”. 156,000 doses of homeopathic remedy were freely distributed in April and May 2007 to asymptomatic patients and 129 doses to symptomatic patients treated in outpatient clinics, according to the notion of “epidemic genus”. The remedy used was a homeopathic complex against dengue containing Phosphorus 30cH, Crotalus horridus 30cH and Eupatorium perfoliatum 30cH. The incidence of the disease in the first three months of 2008 fell 93% by comparison to the corresponding period in 2007, whereas in the rest of the State of Rio de Janeiro there was an increase of 128%. While confounding factors were not controlled for, these results suggest that homeopathy may be an effective adjunct in Dengue outbreak prevention.”

CAM can provide significant health improvements to NHS patients

Hospital Healthcare Europe reports:

A year-long pilot scheme in Northern Ireland has found that complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) can offer significant health improvements to NHS patients.

Independent analysis of the findings showed:

• Patients receiving acupuncture treatment reported an average 33% improvement in their health and wellbeing
• Patients receiving chiropractic and osteopathy treatment reported an average 38% improvement in their health and wellbeing
• Patients receiving homeopathic treatment reported an average 54% improvement in their health and wellbeing

Founder of Get Well UK, Boo Armstrong, says of the results: “The results from this project speak for themselves – complementary therapies improve health and save money. These findings are consistent with other service evaluation from across the UK. A personalised health service will need protocols to include complementary therapies.”  Full report

Homeopathic Arnica as effective as the usual post-operative painkiller

Visit Dr Briffa’s blog for a report on recent research on the comparable effectiveness of homeopathic Arnica D4 (4X) post-operatively after bunion removal compared to the usual painkiller (diclofenac). It was decided that giving placebo would not be ethical.  Treatment with Arnica also gave fewer side-effects, greater mobility and was less costly.

References:

Karow J-H, et al. Efficacy of Arnica Montana D4 for healing of wounds after hallux valgus surgery compared to diclofenac. J Altern Comp Med 2008;14(1):17-25

Dr Briffa: ‘Homeopathic arnica found to be an effective post-operative aid’

Homeopathy, Medicine, Science and Cognitive Dissonance

Given that more and more people globally are using homeopathy with benefit for all kinds of ill-health; its effectiveness in treating epidemics: cholera, influenza (here and here); its integration into the Indian medical system; and the World Health Organisation reporting that it is the number 2 medical system in the world (but you won’t find that report anywhere, it’s been buried), I can only conclude that the reason why conventional medics and scientists might genuinely (rather than wilfully because of love of science itself, self-interest or pharmaceutical allegiances taking priority over the health of patients) refuse to use and investigate homeopathy is because they are suffering from what is termed ‘cognitive dissonance’. www.learningandteaching.info describes it well:

“Cognitive dissonance is a psychological phenomenon which refers to the discomfort felt at a discrepancy between what you already know or believe, and new information or interpretation. It therefore occurs when there is a need to accommodate new ideas, and it may be necessary for it to develop so that we become “open” to them. Neighbour (1992) makes the generation of appropriate dissonance into a major feature of tutorial (and other) teaching: he shows how to drive this kind of intellectual wedge between learners’ current beliefs and “reality”.

Beyond this benign if uncomfortable aspect, however, dissonance can go “over the top”, leading to two interesting side-effects for learning: if someone is called upon to learn something which contradicts what they already think they know — particularly if they are committed to that prior knowledge — they are likely to resist the new learning. Even Carl Rogers recognised this. Accommodation is more difficult than Assimilation, in Piaget’s terms.              and—counter-intuitively, perhaps—if learning something has been difficult, uncomfortable, or even humiliating enough, people are less likely to concede that the content of what has been learned is useless, pointless or valueless. To do so would be to admit that one has been “had”, or “conned”. Ordeal is therefore an effective — if spurious — way of conferring value on an educational (or any other) experience. “No pain, no gain”, as they say. the more difficult it is to get on a course, the more participants are likely to value it and view it favourably regardless of its real quality. ditto, the more expensive it is. the more obscure and convoluted the subject, the more profound it must be. This has of course been exploited for years to persuade us of the existence of the emperor’s clothes, particularly by French “intellectuals” and “post-structuralists”. (I recently came across the wonderful phrase “intellectual flatulence” which perfectly describes such rubbish.) It is not, however, so much the qualities of the course which are significant, as the amount of effort which participants have to put in: so the same qualification may well be valued more by the student who had to struggle for it than the student who sailed through.”

As medicine and science is very hard to get into and arduous to study, it seems to fulfill several of the above criteria.

Homeopathy works – more scientific investigation merited

The Daily Mail reports:

“Homeopathy really does work and doctors should recognise its healing effects, say researchers.

A study found that allergy sufferers who were given homeopathic treatment were ten times more likely to be cured than those given a dummy pill instead.

Doctors should be more positive about the alternative medicine, which is the only complementary therapy available on the NHS, the researchers said.

Their study attempts to settle the controversy over homeopathic treatment, which critics say is not effective because of the tiny level of active substance used in most remedies.

It works on the principle that a substance which in large doses will cause the symptoms of an illness can be used in minute doses to relieve the same symptoms.

Critics argue that the active substance is so diluted that homeopathic remedies have no more effect than placebo or dummy treatment.

The study put homeopathy to the test in 50 patients suffering from nasal allergies. They were given either a homeopathic preparation or a placebo.

Each day for four weeks patients recruited from general practices and a hospital in London measured their nasal air flow and recorded symptoms such as blocked, runny or itchy nose, sneezing or eye irritation.

Both groups reported that they got better – but on average patients who received homeopathy had a 28 per cent improvement in nasal air flow compared with 3 per cent among those in the placebo group.

The study was carried out by doctors in Glasgow, led by Dr David Reilly of the Glasgow Homeopathic Hospital, one of five specialist hospitals in Britain. He said the difference in results from the two treatments was statistically significant.

Dr Reilly said this was the fourth trial carried out by his hospital, all with similar results. In addition, there were positive findings in 70 per cent of a further 180 clinical trials.

‘I hope this will encourage doctors to examine the volume of evidence supporting homeopathy – they might be quite surprised at the positive outcome in many trials,’ he said.

He added that it would take consistent scientific investigation to persuade some doctors, but attitudes were changing.

About 20 per cent of doctors in Scotland have basic homeopathic training compared with one per cent 15 years ago.

‘It isn’t just about the remedies, which can be put to the test in trials, but about a greater holistic approach in encouraging self-healing and self-recovery.'”

Dr Bob Leckridge, president of the Faculty of Homeopathy – the body for doctors, vets, nurses and other health professionals – said: ‘This latest research builds on existing evidence that homeopathy works, something that hundreds of doctors and their patients have known for 200 years.’

Homeopathy awareness week – Nelson’s Pharmacy open day

From www.londonisfree.com:

Nelson’s Pharmacy in Mayfair will be offering free mini homeopathic consultations as part of National Homeopathy Awareness Week 2008.

You can benefit from one-to-one drop-in consultations on Saturday 14 June from 10am to 5pm as part of a Homeopathy and Natural Health Open Day when homeopaths will be on hand to provide expert advice on a range of ailments.

Taster sessions of other holistic therapies including massage, health testing and reflexology will also be available at Nelson Homeopathic Pharmacy, along with light refreshments and a free goodie bag.

Find out more about National Homeopathy Awareness Week 2008.

To find out more and book an appointment call 020 7079 1282 or email HAW@nelsons.net.

Vomiting bug, homeopathic remedies can help

My family have come down with a vomiting bug in the last week.  We haven’t been very indisposed but have felt under the weather before the nausea and vomiting came on.

The chills and aches responded well to Gelsemium.  My husband retired to bed for a while after taking this and was up and about a couple of hours later.  Sleeping after taking a homeopathic remedy is a good sign of recovery to come.

My daughter’s vomiting even after the smallest sips of water led me to prescribe Phosphorous and within hours she was eating and playing again.

I felt nauseous around midnight last night so I took Arsenicum.  I had felt achy and fluey a few days ago and took Gelsemium.  My energy was low yesterday and I have felt much better today.

So far my son is unaffected but I have the remedies to hand if he needs them.  Or I could try out the homeoprophylaxis method and give him Gelsemium to try and ward off the first stages, but it’s not a severe illness so there’s less need to do so. 

We have benefitted from over 10 years of constitutional prescribing which is why we have bounced back relatively easily compared to my memory of suffering similar illnesses in the past which lasted for several days.

P.S. I forgot to mention that I also tried Arsenicum  and Lycopodium (I don’t know why now, it was the middle of the night and it seemed like a good idea at the time!) with my daughter and they didn’t help.  She has however often responded to Phosphorous in an acute illness.

5th October 2008:

There is another vomiting bug doing the rounds.  Why do I say ‘another’ ? It’s because the symptoms are different.  Several people I know have woken with cramping pains in the morning and then have found it difficult to vomit and get relief.  Nausea has continued for several days.  Nux Vomica has helped for these symptoms.  H4H

More information here: http://www.hpathy.com/diseases/vomiting-symptoms-treatment-cure.asp