Homeopathy under fire - again!

[Tauseef Khan]

Homeopathy again under fire. Read below

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jh ... harles.xml
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/5007926.stm
http://society.guardian.co.uk/health/st ... 12,00.html

Regards,
Tauseef

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*Search Society*
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12.45pm
------------------------------
*Top doctors accused of 'medical apartheid'*

*Staff and agencies
Tuesday May 23, 2006*

A group of leading British doctors called today for the NHS to stop using
"unproven" complementary treatments such as homeopathy, sparking complaints
of "medical apartheid" by proponents of the therapies.

Groups representing complementary practitioners reacted angrily to the
letter from 13 of the country's most eminent doctors, sent to every hospital
and primary care trust in the UK and urging them to reject such treatments
in favour of those "based on solid evidence".

The letter sets the doctors squarely against the views of Prince Charles,
who is to call on the World Health Organisation later today to back a more
holistic approach to treatment alongside conventional medicines.

The doctors' letters singled out homeopathy, in which a hugely diluted form
of a remedy is used to treat patients, among the "unproven or disproved
treatments" currently being funded by the NHS.

"It is an implausible treatment for which over a dozen systematic reviews
have failed to produce convincing evidence of effectiveness," said the
letter,

"Despite this, a recently-published patient guide, promoting use of
homeopathy without making the lack of proven efficacy clear to patients, is
being made available through government funding."

The letter, organised by Michael Baum, emeritus professor of surgery at
University College London and signed by Nobel prize-winner Sir James Black
and Sir Keith Peters, president of the Academy of Medical Science, among
others, complained that the use of such therapies drained resources from
other areas.

"I'm all in favour of treatments that make people better but there is the
issue of evidence," Professor Baum told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

"How do we know that what we are witnessing is a real effect or a placebo?
If the placebo is non-toxic and cheap, it doesn't matter.

"My concern is the issue of opportunity cost. If the NHS is spending good
money on placebos at the cost of not providing effective medicines, then it
does matter. "

The UCL hospital trust had spent £20m on refurbishing the Royal Homeopathic
hospital, Professor Baum said, cash he claimed could save 600 lives a year
if spent on the anti-cancer drug Herceptin and other conventional drugs.

Dr Peter Fisher, clinical director of the Royal Homeopathic hospital,
conceded that the way homeopathy worked was not fully understood, but argued
this did not mean it should be abandoned.

"I think what this suggestion amounts to is a form of medical apartheid: any
therapy which can't trace its origins to what is called the biochemical
model should be excluded from the NHS," he told Today.

"The weight of the evidence does suggest that homeopathy is effective."

Prince Charles, a passionate advocate of complementary therapies, will make
his feelings on the matter plain later today in a speech to the World Health
Assembly in Geneva advocating a more holistic approach to healthcare.

"I do believe most strongly that we should not view health as something that
exists in isolation, but forms as a direct consequence of our communities,
our cultures, our lifestyle and the way we interact with our environment,"
Charles will say.

Charles first advocated the use of alternative medicines alongside orthodox
treatments more than 20 years ago. He later established the Prince's
Foundation for Integrated Health, which encourages the development of
complementary medicines and integrated healthcare.
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

[Tanya Marquette]

yes, there was a bbc broadcast that i just listened to in the usa.
i missed the very end of it so dont know whether they ended it
on a positive or negative note. the last piece of heard was from
someone attached to a british homeopathic hospital countering
the allopaths accusation of no studies that showed any positive
impact of homeopathy. they were citing a continuous study
that included 6000 pts with positive results.

did anyone else hear that broadcast today? what was the punch
line of this broadcast?

tanya
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[muthu kumar]

Hi
I listened to the full interview in National public radio. They did
not arrive at any conclusion. The interview presented views from
both sides. There was this (idiot) guy , who went on about how
because of the modern emphasis on evidence based medicine the funds
for unproven practices like homoepathy should be stopped since
there is a fund-crunch in NHS etc. He was equating homeopathic
cures to placebo effect.

I think the interviewer was more sympathetic to homeopathy and her
questions were to find out why patients feedback about the relief
they obtained should not be considered proof.

Then this family medicine specialist - Sarah? - working at British
Hom. hospital defended Homeopathy. She cited numerous cures that the
system has made esp. in Gyne cases in her practice and also the 6000
outcome study cases (in Bristol?)She also said that all cases that
come to her are referred from conventional medicine practitioners
and ONLY with their reference.

I just wished that this doctor had asked that guy if homeopathy is
just placebo effect and cures are only because of the physician
effect, people with chronic complaints who are referred did not get
the same placebo effect from whoever is referring them? If
homeopathy practitioners are capable of giving the placebo effect
and not conventional medicine then is it time for rethinking the
training given to conventional medical doctors since they seem to
have such hard time establishing rapport with patients.
--- In minutus@yahoogroups.com, "Tanya Marquette"
wrote:
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[Tanya Marquette]

thanks for the summary--good job

tanya
and educational benefit of its members. It makes no representations
regarding the individual suitability of the information contained in any
document read or advice or recommendation offered which appears on this
website and/or email postings for any purpose. The entire risk arising out
of their use remains with the recipient. In no event shall the minutus site
or its individual members be liable for any direct, consequential,
incidental, special, punitive or other damages whatsoever and howsoever
caused.
your setting at http://www.yahoogroups.com/group/minutus to receive a
single daily digest.