So what can we say about the year that was? There is a curse that says: ‘May you live in interesting times!’ and for those of us who support whole-person medicine, 2009 was an interesting year indeed.
For the loud and aggressive espousers of the school of fundamentalist naïve realism in medicine, 2009 started well but ended horribly. They got as far as a two day hearing (on NHS Homeopathy) of the Science and Technology Committee in the House of Commons but things didn’t end that happily for them. While some members of the committee (in particular Evan Harris, a Liberal Democrat, MP) gave the reasonable and articulate advocates of NHS homeopathy a hard time, the all important remarks were made in summation by Health Minister Mike O’Brien who said it would be illiberal (sic) and a ‘denial of personal choice’ to deny the British public homeopathic remedies prescribed by NHS homeopathic doctors.
That word, ‘illiberal’ was music to my ears as readers of this blog know I’m a strong supporter of liberal democracy in medicine, where the state should generally trust patients to choose the sort of medically-trained doctors they want to be treated by.
In 2010 my colleague, the Pie Man will remain on red alert to confuse with facts those writers who deliberately allow their readers to assume completely falsely that conventional medicine (unlike homeopathy and CAM) is fully evidence based.
And how about some ‘evidence’ for the use of Tamiflu for swine flu on the NHS? Just look at all the ‘proof’ of it’s effectiveness in swine flu here. Hey Evan Harris, Tracey Brown, Edzard Ernst, Ben Goldacre, Simon Singh, Michael Baum, pharmacologist David Colqhoun and the rest of the gang that says that homeopathy is a waste of NHS funds: How about commenting on the evidence base for Tamiflu (esp wrt Swine flu on which a lot of it was allegedly wasted)? Or is evidence based medicine only a club that you use to bash homeopathy and CAM exclusively? Just compare the £500 spent by the NHS on Tamiflu to the £10 million cost of homeopathic prescriptions to the NHS! Read here about value for money for homeopathy for the British public and compare it to the money spent on Tamiflu alone. If £500 million spent on Tamiflu has really been wasted, it would be yet another sucker punch for the taxpayer, sad for the government and almost disappointing for the makers of Tamiflu. No comment my colleauges? Thought so.
Warm wishes and festive greetings to you all.
Posted: 21.12.2009
Current Affairs Homeopathy
• 4 Comments »
Dec 1, 2009: A wonderful day for British Homeopathy
Here follow the immortal words of Health Minister, Mike O’Brien: ‘We take the view that it is not our job to stop clinicians prescribing these medications if they feel they are appropriate.’ See more here. Striking a blow for liberty worthy of John Stuart Mill, [...]
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Posted: 01.12.09
Current Affairs Homeopathy
This week the ‘homeopathic question’ was asked by a House of Commons Science & Technology Committee. A mixture of experts and alleged ‘experts’ were apparently ‘grilled’ in order to ascertain whether there is any evidence that homeopathy works. You can see a transcript of the proceedings here:
Dr Peter Fisher, chief physician at the Royal London [...]
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Posted: 27.11.09
Current Affairs Homeopathy
The Pie Man has the noble duty of delivering this pie chart to those who jeer at homeopathy and CAM because they consider them to be less than evidence-based. In the name of truth and beauty*, the Pie Man attempts to make it clear that most of common conventional medical interventions are far from evidence-based [...]
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Posted: 19.11.09
Homeopathy Provocative Therapy The Pie Man Strikes!
The Pie Man has been alerted to an article in the American Journal of Medicine by the erstwhile Edzard Ernst and Michael Baum, his co-signee of the notorious letter (inappropriately written on NHS note paper) to Patient Care Trusts (PCTs) all over the UK. In the letter – as you can see – they attempt [...]
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Posted: 10.11.09
The Pie Man Strikes!
It’s official. Junk food is almost as addictive as heroin! And no I’m not being provocative just for the hell of it. (Provocative therapists should never be gratuitously provocative.) No, the men in the white coats with bad news this time are neurobiologists, Dr Paul Johnson and Dr Paul Kenny. The Daily Telegraph reports today [...]
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Posted: 28.10.09
Current Affairs Life! Provocative Therapy
For many years husbands or partners of women giving birth have been commended for and even expected to be present during the process of labour. It was considered the modern norm even though holistic obstetricians such as Michel Odent warned against this. The results of multiple recent studies in different countries seriously questions the wisdom [...]
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Posted: 20.10.09
Current Affairs
People love to mock men who buy Porches when they enter middle age. Common ways of belittling these guys is to mutter things like ‘mid-life crisis’ or ‘male menopause’. Well it turns out that fast cars, especially fast red cars really are good for the health of middle-aged men!
There is now evidence for this and [...]
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Posted: 14.10.09
Current Affairs Life! Provocative Therapy
Could sperm be the secret elixir of eternal youth?
With more and more talk of prolonging life to 100 and beyond, doctors may feel under increasing pressure to be able to deliver what the media promise. Clerics are in trouble too: Why talk eschatologically about life after death when it might be possible to live forever [...]
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Posted: 07.10.09
Current Affairs Life! Provocative Therapy
On the website of Frank Farrelly, the founder of Provocative Therapy, is a quotation by a homeopathic doctor attending one of Frank’s courses in Germany. The doctor (unnamed) sees similarity between the processes of Provocative Therapy and Homeopathy in that they are both contrarian in methodology, paradoxical in effect and stimulate a natural healing response [...]
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Posted: 05.10.09
Homeopathy Provocative Therapy
NHS Medicine, Liberty, Money and 2009
