Homeopathy: someone should tell the government that there's nothing in it

January 1, 2006

Sigh....this man is sad.

-------------------------------------------------------------

http://www.guardian.co.uk/life/badscience/story/0,12980,1675784,00.html

Homeopathy: someone should tell the government that there's nothing in it

Ben Goldacre

Saturday December 31, 2005

The Guardian

My first new year's resolution is to write less about homeopaths, partly

because teasing them is starting to bore me, and partly because we've won.

Yes. Won. I'm talking about huge meta-analyses, summing together vast

numbers of little trials, adding all the numbers up, and finding that

overall, homeopathy is no better than placebo. That's not absence of

evidence that it works. That's positive evidence that homeopathy does not

work better than placebo.

Before we go any further, I have two special messages for the alternative

therapists reading this: firstly, please, if you're going to write in to the

letters page, alluding triumphantly to some single obscure positive

homeopathy study, can you at least explain why this string of huge

meta-analyses are not valid? It's getting a bit embarrassing the way you all

just pretend they don't exist. The British Homeopathic Association doesn't

even list them - the biggest, most definitive studies on homeopathy - in its

list of research on homeopathy at Trusthomeopathy.org .

And secondly, please, a plea on behalf of the state: it was very expensive

to do all these trials, and if you make us do that for every little notion

you concoct from your imagination, you will bring the country to its knees.

If that was the plan all along then I salute you.

Anyway, as I said, I was going to shut up and leave them alone, but they're

not making it easy. Because, quietly, the government, headed by our first

new-age premier, is sneaking through an amendment to the regulation on

labelling homeopathic tablets in shops, due to come into force tomorrow.

Now, homeopathic tablets in shops are a bit of a weird one for the

homeopaths because most of the clever ones have retreated from all the

placebo controlled literature - showing homeopathy is rubbish - by saying

that homeopathy is all about the ritual of the consultation, not about the

pills, and that makes buying them over the counter in shops pretty useless,

even by the homeopaths' own espoused belief system.

But no matter: at the moment, the law forces all homeopathic tablet peddlers

to admit that their products are without an evidence base and prominently

display the following text on the label: " Homeopathic medicinal product

without approved therapeutic indications. " This goes for all homeopathic

tablets, unless they're very old, and happen to have a licence to claim

efficacy in a particular condition left over from before the current laws

came in, in 1968. " No deviation from this wording is permissible " says the

Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency, the people who run

medicines regulation.

But under regulations due to come in on January 1 these homeopathic remedy

peddlers, sorry salespeople, sorry, selfless public servants, are able to

apply for a licence for their homeopathy tablets, where they are allowed to

print what their sugar pill " treats " on the label. All you need is evidence

of manufacturing quality and safety, and " bibliographic evidence that the

product has been used in the indications sought " .

What you don't need, of course, is any evidence that your tablets treat the

thing you're selling them as treating. Which is lucky since there is

evidence, and it says, collectively, that homeopathic remedies don't work.

By now the pound signs are bouncing about all over the place in the

magically gleaming eyes of the industry barons. Over to ,

chairman of leading homeopathic medicines manufacturer bach, who said,

in Natural Products magazine (a publication to which I am naturally a

subscriber): " This is a breakthrough for the industry as a whole. The fact

that therapeutic indications may now be included on the packaging of

licensed homeopathic medicines not only opens up the practice of homeopathy

to new users but also gives it added credibility as a safe and natural

complement to orthodox medicine. "

We are changing the regulations, a year after the axe finally fell on

homeopathy. Bravo and ker-ching.

· What did you think of this article? Mail your responses to

life@... and include your name and address.

January 1, 2006

Yes he is

Exactly like those that are so adamant about vaccines not contributing to

autism.

Those of us who know homeopathy KNOW that it works, and don't need his

approvaly.

Sheri

>Sigh....this man is sad.

>

>-------------------------------------------------------------

>

>http://www.guardian.co.uk/life/badscience/story/0,12980,1675784,00.html

>

>Homeopathy: someone should tell the government that there's nothing in it

>

>Ben Goldacre

>Saturday December 31, 2005

>The Guardian

>

>My first new year's resolution is to write less about homeopaths, partly

>because teasing them is starting to bore me, and partly because we've won.

>Yes. Won. I'm talking about huge meta-analyses, summing together vast

>numbers of little trials, adding all the numbers up, and finding that

>overall, homeopathy is no better than placebo. That's not absence of

>evidence that it works. That's positive evidence that homeopathy does not

>work better than placebo.

>

>Before we go any further, I have two special messages for the alternative

>therapists reading this: firstly, please, if you're going to write in to the

>letters page, alluding triumphantly to some single obscure positive

>homeopathy study, can you at least explain why this string of huge

>meta-analyses are not valid? It's getting a bit embarrassing the way you all

>just pretend they don't exist. The British Homeopathic Association doesn't

>even list them - the biggest, most definitive studies on homeopathy - in its

>list of research on homeopathy at Trusthomeopathy.org .

>

>And secondly, please, a plea on behalf of the state: it was very expensive

>to do all these trials, and if you make us do that for every little notion

>you concoct from your imagination, you will bring the country to its knees.

>If that was the plan all along then I salute you.

>

>Anyway, as I said, I was going to shut up and leave them alone, but they're

>not making it easy. Because, quietly, the government, headed by our first

>new-age premier, is sneaking through an amendment to the regulation on

>labelling homeopathic tablets in shops, due to come into force tomorrow.

>

>Now, homeopathic tablets in shops are a bit of a weird one for the

>homeopaths because most of the clever ones have retreated from all the

>placebo controlled literature - showing homeopathy is rubbish - by saying

>that homeopathy is all about the ritual of the consultation, not about the

>pills, and that makes buying them over the counter in shops pretty useless,

>even by the homeopaths' own espoused belief system.

>

>But no matter: at the moment, the law forces all homeopathic tablet peddlers

>to admit that their products are without an evidence base and prominently

>display the following text on the label: " Homeopathic medicinal product

>without approved therapeutic indications. " This goes for all homeopathic

>tablets, unless they're very old, and happen to have a licence to claim

>efficacy in a particular condition left over from before the current laws

>came in, in 1968. " No deviation from this wording is permissible " says the

>Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency, the people who run

>medicines regulation.

>

>But under regulations due to come in on January 1 these homeopathic remedy

>peddlers, sorry salespeople, sorry, selfless public servants, are able to

>apply for a licence for their homeopathy tablets, where they are allowed to

>print what their sugar pill " treats " on the label. All you need is evidence

>of manufacturing quality and safety, and " bibliographic evidence that the

>product has been used in the indications sought " .

>

>What you don't need, of course, is any evidence that your tablets treat the

>thing you're selling them as treating. Which is lucky since there is

>evidence, and it says, collectively, that homeopathic remedies don't work.

>

>By now the pound signs are bouncing about all over the place in the

>magically gleaming eyes of the industry barons. Over to ,

>chairman of leading homeopathic medicines manufacturer bach, who said,

>in Natural Products magazine (a publication to which I am naturally a

>subscriber): " This is a breakthrough for the industry as a whole. The fact

>that therapeutic indications may now be included on the packaging of

>licensed homeopathic medicines not only opens up the practice of homeopathy

>to new users but also gives it added credibility as a safe and natural

>complement to orthodox medicine. "

>

>We are changing the regulations, a year after the axe finally fell on

>homeopathy. Bravo and ker-ching.

>

>· What did you think of this article? Mail your responses to

>life@... and include your name and address.

>

January 1, 2006

Yea Sara!

Sheri

At 05:07 PM 1/1/2006 +0000, you wrote:

>No kidding! Sounds like he needs to try homeopathy for his anger

issues.........

>

>If homeopathy has " nothing " in it, then how has my son gone from having

about four asthma attacks a year to zero, yep, that's right, zero, in the

last year?

>

>What a putz!

>

>--

>Sara

>Proud Mama to

>Colin 12/07/99

>Jack 8/07/02

--------------------------------------------------------

Sheri Nakken, R.N., MA, Hahnemannian Homeopath

Vaccination Information & Choice Network, Nevada City CA & Wales UK

$$ Donations to help in the work - accepted by Paypal account

vaccineinfo@... voicemail US 530-740-0561

(go to http://www.paypal.com) or by mail

Vaccines - http://www.nccn.net/~wwithin/vaccine.htm

Vaccine Dangers On-Line course - http://www.nccn.net/~wwithin/vaccineclass.htm

Homeopathy On-Line course - http://www.nccn.net/~wwithin/homeo.htm

ANY INFO OBTAINED HERE NOT TO BE CONSTRUED AS MEDICAL

OR LEGAL ADVICE. THE DECISION TO VACCINATE IS YOURS AND YOURS ALONE.

******

" Just look at us. Everything is backwards; everything is upside down.

Doctors destroy health, lawyers destroy justice, universities destroy

knowledge, governments destroy freedom, the major media destroy information

and religions destroy spirituality " .... Ellner

January 1, 2006

Sec. 400.400 Conditions Under Which Homeopathic Drugs May be Marketed (CPG

7132.15)

We don't see the US FDA regulating placebo's do we? How ridiculous to suggest

that homeopathy is nothing more than.

Anita

Sheri Nakken <snakken@...> wrote: