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UK people, please consider

jace

Off the fence
Messages
856
Location
England
If you believe that our Government should use accurate and reliable research to inform legislation decisions ..

This early day motion, regarding the freedom of PCT's to use homeopathy, has echoes of the NICE's method of control over what is available to us, and I believe, deserves our attention and support

SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY COMMITTEE REPORT ON HOMEOPATHY
23.02.2010

Tredinnick, David


That this House expresses concern at the conclusions of the Science and Technology Committee's Report, Evidence Check on Homeopathy;

notes that the Committee took only oral evidence from a limited number of witnesses, including known critics of homeopathy Tracy Brown, the Managing Director of Sense About Science, and journalist Dr Ben Goldacre, who have no expertise in the subject;

believes that evidence should have been heard from primary care trusts that commission homeopathy, doctors who use it in a primary care setting, and other relevant organisations, such as the Society of Homeopaths, to provide balance;

observes that the Committee did not consider evidence from abroad from countries such as France and Germany, where provision of homeopathy is far more widespread than in the UK, or from India, where it is part of the health service;

regrets that the Committee ignored the 74 randomised controlled trials comparing homeopathy with placebo, of which 63 showed homeopathic treatments were effective, and that the Committee recommends no further research;

further notes that 206 hon. Members signed Early Day Motion No. 1240 in support of NHS homeopathic hospitals in Session 2006-07;

and calls on the Government to maintain its policy of allowing decision-making on individual clinical interventions, including homeopathy, to remain in the hands of local NHS service providers and practitioners who are best placed to know their community's needs.

http://edmi.parliament.uk/EDMi/EDMDe...px?EDMID=40517


May I suggest that if you agree with me, you email or write to your MP, somewhere along the lines of

Please investigate and support this Early Day Motion, which questions the unscientific, biased and inefficent Science and Technology Commission report on Homeopathy.

http://edmi.parliament.uk/EDMi/EDMDe...px?EDMID=40517

Whether or not you have personally experienced and/or witnessed the incisive and invaluable efficacy of Homeopathy, this is a vital question of accuracy in Government report-sourcing and of freedom of choice in medicine.

Thank you very much.

Yours sincerely,


http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Diol1/DoItOnline/DG_4018047 to find your MP's contact details

jace x
 

jace

Off the fence
Messages
856
Location
England
I have had success over many years, treating myself and others with Homeopathic remedies. I cured thrush in a five week old infant, in 24 hours, once. Urinary infection with retention, in a two year old.

I've lost my mojo, and can't get it to work for ME, boy how I tried, but there is a bigger issue at stake.

do we want medicine to be limited to just retaining the status of big pharma and the top brass?

should we insist on rigorous science to back up decisions, or allow decisions made on what is tantamount to hearsay?

The UK's NHS spends 4 million pa on homeopathy. This is out of 104 thousand million. 0.0026%
 
Messages
77
Location
Leicestershire, England.
Shame how there is not one piece of unbiased, peer reviewed piece of evidence to back up claims that homeopathy actually works.

"For the allegedly most effective dosages, the dilution is so extreme that, in order to have any appreciable likelihood of ingesting even one molecule of the original ‘active’ ingredient, you would need to drink a volume equal to all the matter in the solar system. There is the further point that in ordinary tap water there would in any case be more than homeopathic traces of any random ingredient you care to name."

Also I'd really like to see these randomised trials they have done. If homeopathy can be proven to work we might aswell just re-write the entire laws of physics and any concepts of ..anything really.
Water has memory! But it forgets all the poop and urine that's been through it.. If it works for you, then great. I just really don't think we should be paying four million a year on what amounts to a big fat placebo. Much cheaper ways for a placebo if that's what you're after.

This isn't a personal attack by the way ;) More of an attack on homeopathy itself.
 

jace

Off the fence
Messages
856
Location
England
Hi Elliot,
this phrase:

"regrets that the Committee ignored the 74 randomised controlled trials comparing homeopathy with placebo, of which 63 showed homeopathic treatments were effective, and that the Committee recommends no further research; "

Are not my words. I have no references, but they are from a tabled early day motion. I cannot believe that they were written lightly. They will, after all, be available for examination by the whole house of commons, as well as online. He'd look a proper charlie if he hadn't done his homework.

Perhaps the same sort of hatchet job has been done on homeopathy as we experience with ME/CFS/Lyme/POTS/Fibromyalgia?

This sounds familiar too:
"notes that the Committee took only oral evidence from a limited number of witnesses, including known critics of homeopathy Tracy Brown, the Managing Director of Sense About Science, and journalist Dr Ben Goldacre, who have no expertise in the subject;"

And perhaps if we ignore them when they came for the Jews, and ignore them when they come for the Gypsies, then who will stand against them when they come for us. Oh darn, they've been already.
Apologies for the poorly remembered WWII Nazi storm trouper reference
 
Messages
77
Location
Leicestershire, England.
Really do wish people wouldn't lump M.E/CFS et al and homeopathy together. Really doesn't help the cause. :/
And all the studies actually done on homeopathy have all been revealed to be incredibly biased or badly constructed. So unless this is a new study then..
The thing is, we don't even really need studies to know that homeopathy doesn't work. Hundreds of years of rigorous science completely spit in the face of homeopathy. For a start, for water to have memory, is absolutely ridiculous. There's the famous saying that in every glass of water, one of those H2O molecules has passed through the bladder of Oliver Cromwell.
 
Messages
13,774
I think homeopathy has its uses as a safety valve, for patients and doctors who are desperate to have a treatment, and willing to try anything. At least homeopathy won't do any harm in the way that other treatments could.

All the evidence seems to show that it's placebo though, and there's nothing to it as a genuinely effective drug. For some people though, I'd have thought that having something they could believe is a treatment is genuinely helpful.
 
K

Knackered

Guest
If you want to use homoeopathy you should pay for it out of your own pocket.

All the evidence seems to show that it's placebo though, and there's nothing to it as a genuinely effective drug. For some people though, I'd have thought that having something they could believe is a treatment is genuinely helpful.

I agree, sugar pills do the same job and they cost much less than 4m per year.
 

Dx Revision Watch

Suzy Chapman Owner of Dx Revision Watch
Messages
3,061
Location
UK
The ME Association are longstanding opponents of homeopathy. Ever since Charles Shepherd buddied up to Wessely in Healthwatch.

They have an online survey on homeopathy here.

Amazing scale of priorities when you think of the important things they could ask this month, such as "Do you think recruiting children to a randomised trial of the Lightning Process is ethical?"


I very much doubt that Charles will scramble down from his fence to comment. Whatever opinion the ME Association may have held in the past in relation to LP, this study is being led by Dr Esther Crawley, who was a member of the NICE Guideline Development Group and is now a member of the MRC's Holgate chaired "CFS/ME Expert" panel.

The ME Association is likely to remain silent on this news.

Perhaps a few of those who are not barred from membership of the MEA might approach the Board of Trustees for a position statement.


Research study to investigate a chronic childhood condition
Press release issued 3 March 2010

http://www.bris.ac.uk/news/2010/6866.html

A research study looking into interventions and treatment options for a
chronic childhood condition has been awarded funding of 164,000 by the
Linbury Trust and the Ashden Trust.

The funding has been awarded to a research team led by Dr Esther Crawley,
Consultant Senior Lecturer in the University's Centre for Child and
Adolescent Health and Consultant Paediatrician at the Royal National
Hospital for Rheumatic Diseases NHS Foundation Trust.


[...]

Dr Esther Crawley said: "We are delighted to have been awarded this research
grant. CFS/ME can have a profound impact on a child's life. We hope that our
research will enable us to understand more about this condition and how we
can help those children who suffer with it."

The team will carry out a pilot project to investigate how to recruit to a
randomised controlled trial looking at the Phil Parker Lightning Process
and specialist medical care. This will be the first study of its kind in
this area, and the team hopes to establish a basis for a larger scale
multicentre research project.

[...]

Phil Parker, designer of the Lightning Process said: "We are thrilled to
have the opportunity to collaborate on this exciting and groundbreaking
research with Dr Crawley and her team. It is vitally important that all
interventions that could assist children with CFS/ME to return to school and
improve their health are explored.

We hope that this study is successful and leads to further research
collaborations between the Lightning Process and specialist teams like
Esther's."

The study will involve in depth interviews with the patients and their
parents, and the primary outcome measure will be school attendance after
six-months. It is hoped that over 90 children aged between eight and 18 and
their families will be involved in the study. They will be recruited after
assessment by the specialist team at the Royal National Hospital for
Rheumatic Diseases.

The study will begin in September 2010.

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