Exaggerations and untruths in the promotion of homeopathy

There seem to be plenty of myths and misunderstandings about homeopathy in India.

Homeopathy was first introduced to India by a German doctor from Siebenbuergen, Martin Honigberger (1795 – 1869). He first came to India in 1829 as a conventionally trained physician and treated amongst other personalities the Maharaja Ranjit Singh of Punjab. In 1834, he returned to Europe, met Hahnemann, and became a convert of homeopathy. Subsequently he returned to India, in 1839, and brought homeopathy to this country. Initially, homeopathy was practised mainly by lay practitioners. Mahendra Lal Sircar is said to have been the first Indian who became a homeopathic physician, and he is often called the ‘Hering of India’... Exaggerations and untruths in the promotion of homeopathy

Homeopathy: who needs science when we have the wisdom of politicians?

Politics, politicians and medicine has always been an intriguing mix, particularly when it comes to homeopathy (see for instance here and here).

A recent article in the ‘Navhind Times’ is an excellent reminder of this fact.

Here are a few excerpts:
… Town and Country Planning Minister Vijai Sardesai, on Saturday, appealed to the homeopaths  […]

Read the rest here: Homeopathy: who needs science when we have the wisdom of politicians?

I watched Alex Jones give his viewers health advice. Here’s what I learned. - Vox

There's a "fungus epidemic." And Infowars’ Jones has just the supplements to stop it.

... If you know anything about the HPV vaccine or vaccine safety, it’s easy to dismiss this video as fringe lunacy. But Infowars is no longer a peripheral media player. The website now reaches more than 6 million unique US users each month. The YouTube channel has more than 2 million followers — about as many as Vox ... Read full article here: I watched Alex Jones give his viewers health advice. Here’s what I learned. - Vox

Shamefully misleading drivel about homeopathy by the German BPI

According to Wikipedia, “the Bundesverband der Pharmazeutischen Industrie (BPI) with headquarters in Berlin is an Eingetragener Verein and the German industry association/trade group for the pharmaceutical industry. It represents 240 German pharmaceutical and Biotech companies in with altogether approximately 70,000 employees. BPI has an office in Brussels. The focus of the BPI is on political […]

Read the rest here: Shamefully misleading drivel about homeopathy by the German BPI

Call for MP David Tredinnick to step down over latest homeopathy comments

THE HINKLEY TIMES is quickly becoming my favourite newspaper. Yesterday they published an article about my old friend Tredinnick. I cannot resist showing you a few excerpts from it:

START OF EXCERPTS

Alternative therapy advocate, David Tredinnick has called for greater self reliance as a way of reducing pressures on the NHS. Speaking on the BBC’s regional Sunday Politics Show he suggested people should take more responsibility for their own health, rather than relying on struggling services. He highlighted homeopathy as a way of treating ailments at home and said self-help could cut unnecessary trips to the GP. He also said people could avoid illness by not being overweight and taking exercise…During debate on the show about the current ‘crisis’ in health and social care he said: “There are systems such as homeopathic remedies. Try it yourself before going to the doctor.” […]

Read all about it here!

The ‘pernicious practice of homeopathy in Australia’: ‘tolerated by authorities to avoid an inconvenient confrontation’

Homeopathy is never far from my mind, it seems. and this is reflected by the many posts on the subject that I continue to publish. Homeopaths get more than a little irritated by what they see as my ‘obsession’ with their beloved therapy. They thus try anything – yes, I mean anything – to undermine my credibility. One very popular way of doing this is to claim that I am sitting in the ‘ivory tower’ of academia and have no real inkling of the life on the ‘coal face’ of healthcare.

Because this is an argument that I find difficult to counter – I have indeed not routinely seen patients for over 20 years! – I was immensely pleased to read this article by an Australian GP. I take the liberty of quoting a section from it below...

Read more here: The ‘pernicious practice of homeopathy in Australia’: ‘tolerated by authorities to avoid an inconvenient confrontation’

David Tredinnick: not again! Alternative medicine saves lives?!?

The Scotsman reported that David Tredinnick, the somewhat feeble-minded Tory MP for Bosworth, has been at it again. Apparently he said that many of his constituents are only alive today because they have been treated with alternative medicine.

Tredennick recently urged ministers to spend more NHS money on alternative therapies such as homeopathy and acupuncture to treat patients. It seems to me that, for him and other quackery promoters, evidence and science are issues beyond comprehension.

Read on: David Tredinnick: not again! Alternative medicine saves lives?!?

On the continuation of David Tredinnick’s ministering for quackery

Though of a reasonable, easy-going disposition, I do, like most, have my bugbears. Chief among which is people who lie for a living. Chief among whom are quacks. And those in public positions of influence who promote them and their snake-oil wares.

Re-enter David Tredinnick, Conservative MP for Bosworth in Leicestershire, whose continued dim-witted advocation of the expending of public money on disproven and unproven treatments has led me to label him the ‘Minister for Quackery’. (It is, I think, the nearest he will ever get to being an actual Minister for anything.)

[Read more... ]

Charlatans rush to jump on Donald Trump’s band-waggon

We live in interesting, if they were not so frightening, one could almost say amusing times!

Politicians who previously have criticised Trump for his unacceptable deeds, behaviour and statements can now be seen to bend over backwards to join his band-waggon. They don’t know where the waggon is heading but they don’t want to be left behind. A prime example is UK’s Boris Johnson who now even criticises other politicians for having more back-bone than himself and therefore being less enthusiastic about America’s future leader.

But this is not a political blog, and I will therefore try to focus on matters related to alternative medicine...

Read on: Charlatans rush to jump on Donald Trump’s band-waggon

Pennsylvania legislates naturopaths – is this the approval of quackery? | Edzard Ernst

This press-release just came to my attention:

Today, with the stroke of his pen, Governor Tom Wolf adds Pennsylvania to the list of states that acknowledge the value of alternative healthcare from a qualified professional. Pennsylvania becomes the 21st U.S. jurisdiction to regulate naturopathic medicine. The new law HB516 regulates naturopathic doctors; ensuring patients can […]

Read on: Pennsylvania legislates naturopaths – is this the approval of quackery?

Green Parties aren’t so Green

By @TakeThatGMOs

In this publishing, I will focus on Green parties and environmentalism, and how green parties get environmental protection wrong. What are Green parties? Wikipedia defines Green parties as a”Formally organized political party based on the principles of green…

Read the full post at: Green Parties aren’t so Green

The "Take This" blog is written by a collective of skeptics hunting down misleading, uninformed and sometimes outright insane claims on social media.

Medically unfit Hillary Clinton – the doctor behind the myth

Since I am a political geek as much as a biomedical geek, I love it when the two occasionally intersect. If you haven’t kept up, some right wing websites, like Breitbart, are pushing a trope that claims that a medically unfit Hillary Clinton is incapable of becoming President of the US.

I couldn’t resist commenting on this, because there’s really so much to say. Let’s start with the basics – Breitbart is a right wing website that seems to use the Natural News method of facts. You know, invent facts out of thin air...

Read the full post: Medically unfit Hillary Clinton – the doctor behind the myth

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(from Raw Story)

Orient and the AAPS have also been exposed by:

• The Daily Mail (yes, really)
• The Daily Beast
• Raw Story
• Drudge Retort
• Breitbart Unmasked (ranting about Ebola In The USA)
• Right Wing Watch
• New York Times (anti-vaccine attitude)
• Respectful Insolence
• Encyclopedia of American Loons (of course)

... and many others

It’s official: Switzerland is going holistically round the bend | Edzard Ernst

The Swiss interior ministry has yesterday announced its intention to elevate quackery to the same level as conventional medicine. 

The 5 therapies were named as

• homeopathy, 
• holistic medicine, 
• herbal medicine, 
• acupuncture, 
• traditional Chinese medicine 

No, this is not an early April fools joke! It might merely a sign that this country is in dire need of some critical […]

Read on: It’s official: Switzerland is going holistically round the bend

Chris Heaton-Harris MP Resurrects Lord Saatchi’s Zombie Quacks’ Charter. | The Quackometer Blog

Lord Saatchi has been trying for a number of years now to introduce a law that would drive a coach and horses through well established medical negligence law. The effect of the law would be to seriously erode a patient’s right to sue a doctor if they were harmed through negligence. Under the Saatchi Law, a doctor who would currently be found acting without proper care would be free from fear of claims against them. Maverick doctors, quacks and profiteering doctors could recklessly practice without worry, treating their patients as guinea pigs, uncontrolled test subjects and sales opportunities for untested treatments. Drug companies could push unproven treatments to the dying without knowing about potential harmful effects. Quacks could exploit desperate patients with nonsense treatments...

Read the rest here: Chris Heaton-Harris MP Resurrects Lord Saatchi’s Zombie Quacks’ Charter. | The Quackometer Blog

Act to prevent Tredinnick becoming Chair of the House of Commons Select Committee for Health – again

The Select Committees are disbanded when Parliament is dissolved for the general election. Now, post-election, process is underway to establish the next incarnations of Committees, with voting on nominations for respective Chairs to take place on Wednesday 17th June.
Though not surprised that Tredinnick is making another bid to exert his perverse influence on government policy, I find alarming the list of his nominators...

[Read more... ]

The ‘spider memo’ which the press forgot | Edzard Ernst

Prince Charles’ meddling beyond his constitutional role is yet again in the press today. I was sent the 2nd batch of ‘spider memos’ yesterday, studied them and commented as follows:

The letters demonstrate yet again that Prince Charles relentlessly meddles in UK health politics and thus disrespects his constitutional role. His arguments in favour of CAM, and […]

Read on: The ‘spider memo’ which the press forgot

Legal Musings Blog: The Actual Truth about the Saatchi Bill

Well everyone, we should be happy shouldn’t we? The Saatchi Bill is dead according to the Telegraph because the Liberal Democrats ‘vetoed’ it. Well actually, it isn’t dead at all. Nowhere near dead in fact. All the Liberal Democrat ‘veto’ actually was just a refusal to debate the Bill in government time. The Bill will still be debated, just in the time set aside for Private Members’ Bills and not Government Bills.

Also, the Labour Party have now come out in support of the Saatchi Bill with Shadow Health Secretary Andy Burnham (see more on the Labour Party later) stating in The Telegraph, “I worry a little bit that those who are opposed to it don’t realise that it is actually quite a different Bill now.” Now, I’m sorry, that is just not true. There are many, many issues with the Saatchi Bill...

Read the full dissection here: Legal Musings Blog: The Actual Truth about the Saatchi Bill

Prince Charles’ letters confirm that he’s not fit to be king

Picture: Getty

This post was written for the Spectator Health section, at short notice after the release of the spider letters. The following version is almost the same as appeared there, with a few updates. Some of the later sections are self-plagiarised from earlier posts.

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The age of enlightenment was a beautiful thing. People cast aside dogma and authority. They started to think for themselves. Natural science flourished. Understanding of the natural world increased. The hegemony of religion slowly declined. Eventually real universities were created and real democracy developed. The modern world was born.

People like Francis Bacon, Voltaire and Isaac Newton changed the world for the better. Well, that’s what most people think. But not Charles, Prince of Wales and Duke of Cornwall.

In 2010 he said...

Read more at Prince Charles’ letters confirm that he’s not fit to be king by David Colquhoun

A medical visionary working tirelessly for the benefit of us all | Edzard Ernst

Yesterday, The Hinckley Times published a report on Parliament’s foremost medical expert which I take the liberty of reproducing below in a slightly shortened version.

Alternative therapy proponent David Tredinnick has pitched in with the possibility of complementary practitioners being the solution to the current A&E crisis. The Tory MP for Bosworth raised the issue with the Department of Health saying: “To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the potential contribution of regulated complementary and alternative medical practitioners to reducing demands on the NHS.” The question came against the backdrop of the nation’s casualty departments being swamped with new cases since Christmas...

Read on: A medical visionary working tirelessly for the benefit of us all

Learned Friend: The Saatchi Bill - True or False?

Here is the current version of the Medical Innovation Bill, following its Report Stage in the House of Lords in December 2014.

As the Bill approaches its Commons stages, the following statements about the Bill seem to me to be true. I don't flatter myself that Lord Saatchi, his professional support team or government ministers read this blog, so if you want to know whether they believe the following statements are true or false, you will have to ask them yourself...

Read the full dissection of the Saatchi Bill by an eminent QC here: Learned Friend: The Saatchi Bill - True or False?