Happy Halloween (Part Two)

I have to say that I see bums this big every day. Keep thin, avoid bacon and avoid Cancer.

Hat-tip

Happy Halloween

from here.

The Streisand Effect

Oh well, the Society of Homeopaths, probably wisely, decided not to sue, or engage in debate, over this post and the many other variations of that sprung up online. The "Streisand effect" is a wonderful thing! These posts resulted from la Canard Noir's post on Homeopathy.

The Society instructed lawyers to write to the Internet Service Provider of Dr. Lewis' website because the content of his site was not merely critical but defamatory of The Society, with the effect that its reputation could have been lowered. Dr Lewis, in his article, stated as fact highly offensive comments about The Society and it is for that reason that The Society decided it had no option but to take action. The very crude abuse posted on various websites and e-mailed to The Society since our action suggests that these bloggers/authors are not people who are interested in a real debate on the basis of either science or the public good but who simply want to attack homeopathy, for the very sake of it.

Its reputation? One has to laugh. This organisation has failed to take action over homeopaths proven willingness to recommend ineffective homeopathic antimalarials. I'm not sure that would be a reputation worth protecting. I think I will stick with Malarone, though admittedly the homoeopathic remedy will have fewer side effects. Well, how can something with not one molecule of active ingredient cause an adverse effect?

Antibiotics

I wish some of our doctors would read this, and possibly not give every child they see with a cough/cold/sniffle Amoxicillin 125mg/5ml. Ten bottles used in a morning is not unusual. Then they could possibly work out the dosage properly, rather than taking a random guess at 31.25, 62.5, 125 or 250mg. "Is it three times a day or four? I think I'll give 140ml."

"Obesity not individuals' fault"

I'm still downloading the full report from Foresight at an astonishing (1Kb/s) Should just about be finished by tonight. Who would have thought that the NHS had a crap network? Maybe anyone who has waited sixty seconds for an ETP prescription to start downloading. In that length of time I could have labelled and dispensed it the old-fashioned way! Anyway, this has been reported at the BBC website here.

Okay, so we may live in an obesogenic society, but that does not mean we can abrogate all responsibility. If you sit on your arse all day, watching Jeremy Kyle and eating sausage rolls from Greggs, then you will be fat. That's just a basic thermodynamic law. How can that be the fault of anyone but you? Do imaginary friends drag you into bakers, or is that just me?

It seems again that everything is the fault of someone else. All of us who work in a pharmacy must have seen this. Smokers who blame their inability to give up smoking on "the Zyban did not work." Instead of taking responsibility for their having the will power of a piece of toast it is somehow my fault for this failure. Last week I had a patient who collected a prescription for Xenical, and then said "Come on kid's, let's go to McDonalds." Hmm, just think of that anal leakage, nice!

So, all you 30+ BMI people, think yourself lucky. It isn't down to you to live your life sensibly, eat a sensible diet and maybe move your legs every now and again to burn off some Calories. It's everybody else's fault. You can probably sue somebody for being as fat as you are. You are an alcoholic because "it's a disease", ditto with your drug misuse. Never take responsibility, and say goodbye to your willpower that you have not really used since you were fifteen.

Then again, Obese, Type II diabetics generate a huge amount of my monthly business. Aspirin, a statin, some Metformin, a Glitazone, an ACE-I, an A-II antagonist. All for free courtesy of our wonderful NHS. Do you think more sports injuries, from excessive exercise, woud generate more business than that we would lose from having fewer diabetic patients? Er, no!

Many thanks to my assistant for posing for the above photograph, especially for Pharmacy God.

Society of Homeopaths

from Gimpy.

In August Le Canard Noir of the Quackometer posted a blog entry accusing the Society of Homeopaths (SoH) of having little interest in enforcing their code of practice. After randomly picking a SoH registered homeopath Le Canard Noir was shocked to find that the homeopath was in clear breach of SoH code of practice. Recently the SoH have attempted to silence Le Canard Noir’s criticisms by targeting, not the Duck, but his web hosting company. The implications of this action are described here, Le Canard Noir’s explanation here, and here is the cached version of the offending entry. Considering my earlier post on a homeopath undertaking gynaecological examinations and not taking an apparent tumour seriously it is deeply worrying that the SoH would rather suppress criticism through legal means than examine the conduct of their members.

In case the cached version of the article disappears I have reproduced it below:


The Society of Homeopaths (SoH) are a shambles and a bad joke. It is now over a year since Sense about Science, Simon Singh and the BBC Newsnight programme exposed how it is common practice for high street homeopaths to tell customers that their magic pills can prevent malaria. The Society of Homeopaths have done diddly-squat to stamp out this dangerous practice apart from issue a few ambiguously weasel-worded press statements.

The SoH has a code of practice, but my feeling is that this is just a smokescreen and is widely flouted and that the Society do not care about this. If this is true, then the code of practice is nothing more than a thin veneer used to give authority and credibility to its deluded members. It does nothing more than fool the public into thinking they are dealing with a regulated professional.

As a quick test, I picked a random homeopath with a web site from the SoH register to see if they flouted a couple of important rules:

48 • Advertising shall not contain claims of superiority.
• No advertising
may be used which expressly or implicitly claims to cure named diseases.

72 To avoid making claims (whether explicit or implied; orally or in
writing) implying cure of any named disease.

The homeopath I picked on is called Julia Wilson and runs a practice from the Leicestershire town of Market Harborough. What I found rather shocked and angered me.

Straight away, we find that Julia M Wilson LCHE, RSHom specialises in asthma and works at a clinic that says,

Many illnesses and disease can be successfully treated using homeopathy,
including arthritis, asthma, digestive disorders, emotional and behavioural
difficulties, headaches, infertility, skin and sleep problems.

Well, there are a number of named diseases there to start off. She also gives a leaflet that advertises her asthma clinic. The advertising leaflet says,

Conventional medicine is at a loss when it comes to understanding the origin of
allergies. … The best that medical research can do is try to keep the symptoms
under control. Homeopathy is different, it seeks to address the triggers for
asthma and eczema. It is a safe, drug free approach that helps alleviate the
flaring of skin and tightening of lungs…

Now, despite the usual homeopathic contradiction of claiming to treat causes not symptoms and then in the next breath saying it can alleviate symptoms, the advert is clearly in breach of the above rule 47 on advertising as it implicitly claims superiority over real medicine and names a disease.

Asthma is estimated to be responsible for 1,500 deaths and 74,000 emergency hospital admissions in the UK each year. It is not a trivial illness that sugar pills ought to be anywhere near. The Cochrane Review says the following about the evidence for asthma and homeopathy,

The review of trials found that the type of homeopathy varied between the
studies, that the study designs used in the trials were varied and that no
strong evidence existed that usual forms of homeopathy for asthma are effective.

This is not a surprise given that homeopathy is just a ritualised placebo. Hopefully, most parents attending this clinic will have the good sense to go to a real accident and emergency unit in the event of a severe attack and consult their GP about real management of the illness. I would hope that Julia does little harm here.

However, a little more research on her site reveals much more serious concerns. She says on her site that ’she worked in Kenya teaching homeopathy at a college in Nairobi and supporting graduates to set up their own clinics’. Now, we have seen what homeopaths do in Kenya before. It is not treating a little stress and the odd headache. Free from strong UK legislation, these missionary homeopaths make the boldest claims about the deadliest diseases.

A bit of web research shows where Julia was working (picture above). The Abha Light Foundation is a registered NGO in Kenya. It takes mobile homeopathy clinics through the slums of Nairobi and surrounding villages. Its stated aim is to,

introduce Homeopathy and natural medicines as a method of managing HIV/AIDS, TB
and malaria in Kenya.

I must admit, I had to pause for breath after reading that. The clinic sells its own homeopathic remedies for ‘treating’ various lethal diseases. Its MalariaX potion,

is a homeopathic preparation for prevention of malaria and treatment of malaria.
Suitable for children. For prevention. Only 1 pill each week before entering,
during and after leaving malaria risk areas. For treatment. Take 1 pill every
1-3 hours during a malaria attack.

This is nothing short of being totally outrageous. It is a murderous delusion. David Colquhoun has been writing about this wicked scam recently and it is well worth following his blog on the issue.

Let’s remind ourselves what one of the most senior and respected homeopaths in the UK, Dr Peter Fisher of the London Homeopathic Hospital, has to say on this matter.

there is absolutely no reason to think that homeopathy works to prevent malaria
and you won’t find that in any textbook or journal of homeopathy so people will
get malaria, people may even die of malaria if they follow this advice.

Malaria is a huge killer in Kenya. It is the biggest killer of children under five. The problem is so huge that the reintroduction of DDT is considered as a proven way of reducing deaths. Magic sugar pills and water drops will do nothing. Many of the poorest in Kenya cannot afford real anti-malaria medicine, but offering them insane nonsense as a substitute will not help anyone.

Ironically, the WHO has issued a press release today on cheap ways of reducing child and adult mortality due to malaria. Their trials, conducted in Kenya, of using cheap mosquito nets soaked in insecticide have reduced child deaths by 44% over two years. It says that issuing these nets be the ‘immediate priority’ to governments with a malaria problem. No mention of homeopathy. These results were arrived at by careful trials and observation. Science. We now know that nets work. A lifesaving net costs $5. A bottle of useless homeopathic crap costs $4.50. Both are large amounts for a poor Kenyan, but is their life really worth the 50c saving?

I am sure we are going to hear the usual homeopath bleat that this is just a campaign by Big Pharma to discredit unpatentable homeopathic remedies. Are we to add to the conspiracy Big Net manufacturers too?

It amazes me that to add to all the list of ills and injustices that our rich nations impose on the poor of the world, we have to add the widespread export of our bourgeois and lethal healing fantasies. To make a strong point: if we can introduce laws that allow the arrest of sex tourists on their return to the UK, can we not charge people who travel to Africa to indulge their dangerous healing delusions?

At the very least, we could expect the Society of Homeopaths to try to stamp out this wicked practice? Could we?

Pharmacy God Appreciation Week.

Pharmacy God has a busy week. He is feeling neglected and overworked. October 14th to 20th is Pharmacy God Appreciation Week. Let him feel the love. I think all gifts would be received with thanks!

"Life's going to suck when you grow up"

I think I should play this to all of my patients who present with prescriptions for Citalopram, Fluoxetine, Dosulepin, etc. It has very interesting lyrics.

Drumming gorilla!

There is something intrinsically amusing about a gorilla playing the drums I wonder how long it took them to train it to do that. (Yes, I am aware it's probably a man in a gorilla suit!)I am not too sure of the obvious chocolate link. Then again did the Flake adverts ever have anything to do with chocolate? Maybe the advert will help take Cadburys mind off their other problems. That gorilla had better have washed its hands with something antibacterial.