"Mr Stuart [a homeopath] supplied the Press Council with a letter from Dr David St George, Chief Advisor on Integrative Care for the Ministry of Health, who advises the ministry on the development of complementary medicine in New Zealand and its potential integration into the public health system. He was not speaking for the ministry in this case but offering a personal view.

Dr St George believed the statement in North & South's article arose from a misunderstanding of the Lancet study, which had compared 110 published placebo-controlled trials of homeopathy with the same number of published placebo-controlled trials of conventional medical drug treatments. He said most of the 110 homeopathy trials in that study were "randomised, evidence-based scientific studies" which demonstrated an effect beyond a placebo effect. "

Dr St George said there was no debate about whether there were scientific studies demonstrating homeopathy's therapeutic benefit but rather, whether those studies were of an acceptable methodological quality.

Case Number: 2320 CLIVE STUART AGAINST NORTH & SOUTH (Thanks, Juha) ]]> http://boingboing.net/2013/04/26/nz-press-council-finds-against.html/feed 96 http://boingboing.net/2013/01/03/worst-product-of-the-week-hom.html http://boingboing.net/2013/01/03/worst-product-of-the-week-hom.html#comments Thu, 03 Jan 2013 20:22:20 +0000 Drew Fairweather • The Worst Things For Sale http://boingboing.net/?p=202793

Homeopathy is based on the principle of diluting an herb with water until none of the substance remains, then selling the water for $10—or $100. Inert powders are also used as the dilutant, with the same results.

Take, for example, the "HomeoFamily Kit", which is a big drawer full of tubes. Most of the ingredients listed are "30C", which, in homeopathy jargon, means that an extract of that ingredient was diluted 100 times, thirty times in succession. This means that it's so dilute there would be perhaps one molecule of the active ingredient remaining in a sphere of "medicine" 131 light years in diameter.

The manufacturer helpfully notes that it has "no side effects." Since these are literally sugar pills, a mix of sucrose and lactose, this is what you'd expect.

"Wait! HomeoFAMILY? Are they suggesting you give placebos to children instead of medicine?" That's exactly what they're marketing. Check out "Homeopathic Medicine for Children and Infants" for another example. This book recommends you give your kids homeopathic medicine as an alternative to real medicine for Rubella, bone fractures, asthma, head injuries, and Measles.

Would it blow your mind if I told you that the author of this book developed her own line of homeopathic medicine? The price of bottled water has not been diluted to the thirtieth power; annual sales of homeopathic remedies in the US alone are nearly a billion dollars ($870 million in 2009, according to the Chicago Tribune).

You can also buy "Cats: Homeopathic Remedies", which is a book, or Newton Homeopathic Eye Care For Dogs and Cats, or "Storm Stress" tablets to make your dog calm down during thunderstorms.

As the quote goes: if alternative medicine worked, they'd call it medicine, and it would be practiced by doctors.

Boots's answer to a concerned customer? "Don't worry, the broken glass isn't in the stuff they sell to us."

How could Boots know that the lax production standards applied only to shipments to the US? The products are made in Wimbledon. Do Nelsons have ‘lax Fridays’ where they all bunk off to the pub while the US export runs are made?

This response lacks any credibility.

I wrote to Boots when I received this to ask how they can be confident that these problems do not affect the UK. I have received no response.

Of course, we know Boots have a rather cynical attitude to the homeopathic products they sell. When giving evidence to parliament, Paul Bennett, professional standards director and superintendent pharmacist at Boots, admitted they have no evidence these products work, but sold them because they could.

One then might understand they were unconcerned about the homeopathic pills not being manufactured correctly – it does not matter one jot if the sugar pill receives a drop of magic ju-ju juice – it’s just water. But why would Boots be unconcerned that their products lack the quality control procedures to prevent glass entering products? To remind you, Boots sell homeopathic babies teething powders – a completely useless product, but may make the baby forget its teething pain if it crunches down on shards of glass.

Boots Unconcerned About Nelsons Production Problems. ]]> http://boingboing.net/2012/08/19/boots-keeps-selling-quack-reme.html/feed 41 http://boingboing.net/2012/04/18/elderly-perv-gave-women-bogus.html http://boingboing.net/2012/04/18/elderly-perv-gave-women-bogus.html#comments Thu, 19 Apr 2012 03:24:10 +0000 Xeni Jardin http://boingboing.net/?p=155441

In Wales, 77 year old Reginald Gill has been sent to prison for 8 years after falsely "diagnosing" cancer for women who sought health aid.

Gill, who is not a doctor, gave the women phony homeopathic treatment for their phonily-diagnosed cancer, including the use of these bogus healing machines and a form of electroshock therapy.

He told one woman she could be cured of cancer if a man sucked her breasts for half an hour each day.

He sexually assaulted victims in a variety of ways, including sticking gadgets up orifices:

[One] victim, who had experience of and was interested in alternative therapies, told the court that Mr Gill had examined her internally before telling her she had cancer and that he could "get rid of most of it today".

He then inserted an instrument inside her which gave her electric shocks. The court was told that after 20 minutes Mr Gill removed the machine and he and Mrs Gill rubbed oil on her chest before using another machine on the same area.

Initially the victim had told police that she didn't think Mr Gill was getting any sexual gratification but she later said his heavy breathing suggested he was.

Some of his victims were men; some did, in fact, have cancer. The Gill case was first exposed on a BBC television program.

All of this is yet another reason to run screaming when offered "alternative" treatment for cancer. But it's not just the woo-peddlers, homeopaths, and quacks: when I was trying to find a place to go get my first mammogram, I remember reading online reviews of one local women's breast cancer screening clinic. Reviews written by women who'd gone there. Those reviews detailed first-hand accounts of sexually inappropriate touching and skeevy come-on vibes, from the male medical practitioner who ran the clinic. Cancer patients, and women in particular, beware.

I hope Boiron does draw a line in the sand over their oscillococcinum product, and that it becomes the center piece of a broader public discussion about homeopathy. Most of the public does not understand what homeopathy actually is. They think it means “natural” or “herbal” medicine. They have no idea that homeopathy is about taking fanciful ingredients with a dubious connection to the symptoms in the first place, and then diluting them into oblivion, then placing a drop of the pure water that remains and placing it on a sugar pill. The resultant pill is then supposed to contain the magic vibrations of the original substance.

This rank pseudoscience, which has no place in 21st century medicine, is the business of Boiron. Let’s see them try to defend themselves and their products. Let’s see them harass bloggers and those who are just trying to expose the public to the truth. Let’s see them argue in public how air bubbles in duck liver fantastically diluted can treat the flu.

Homeopathic Thuggery (Science Based Medicine)

(Thanks, Russell!) ]]> http://boingboing.net/2011/08/17/homeopathy-multinational-sues-blogger-over-statements-that-its-mythological-curative-had-no-active-ingredient.html/feed 207