Smile of the decade blog

Today we see yet another article in which (Professor) Edzard Ernst, one of the junior staff within the smaller branch (of complementary medicine) within the world renowned (cough splutter) Peninsular medical and dentistry school near Exeter, continues his long
running campaign against Homeopathy, there is a give away to which readers who saw the headline and skimmed the article need to pay particular attention.

This line in the penultimate paragraph of the Guardian article (title linked) reveals that the reason the lobbyists want to have this cost effective form of treatment removed from any NHS connections is because it, "undermines the credibility of pharmacists and the government's regulatory body".

Whilst homeopaths have to spend much of their time defending a practice that research continually proves safe, efficacious and value for money, very little critical study is centred on the oft-revealed as biased drug company research,
and these same critics' glib assumptions of "safe" and "scientifically proven" pharmaceutical products.
It is a given that medical research in this country is expensive - and this money by and large comes from Pharmaceutical company profits. These funds support many schools and colleges, the industry has a turn over larger than several small countries - and a few large ones too. It does not fund anything that might undermine its grasp of the NHS market share. It does fund those who support its position...

and yet...
The evidence of efficacy of many drugs is constantly being undermined by the harsh facts of death and iatrogenic illness - the very things that originally prompted pioneering doctors to become homeopaths to search for treatments that didn't kill or make their patients suffer worse health.

Mr Ernst complains that £12 million was spent on homeopathic remedies in 3 years - and doesn't mention that The NHS is spending nearly £2BILLION a year treating patients who have had an adverse reaction to drugs prescribed for them by doctors...

The credibility of pharmaceutical products is already undermined by the ever growing lists of many "side effects" for virtually every one of their products. I have one that has a list of thirty potential effects that, presumably, different patients have suffered because not all people react to the one drug in the same way.

Homeopathy treats different people differently, becasue hey - guess what.. we are different in these crucial ways - otherwise we would all get the same side effects wouldn't we? Pharmaceutical champions demand that we are, and we treat everyone, all the same... even when their own evidence proves that this is a nonsense.

Accepting homeopathy on the NHS is common sense - the credibility of the pharmaceutical companies is already undermined enough, by their own evidence.