I'm convert to homeopathy says minister/Lancet Editor re. Prince Charles

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I'm convert to homeopathy says minister/Lancet Editor re.

Prince Charles

Sat, 15 Oct 2005 13:14:51 +0100

 

 

 

 

http://politics.guardian.co.uk/publicservices/story/0,11032,1590889,00.html

 

I'm convert to homeopathy, says minister

 

Sarah Boseley, health editor

Thursday October 13, 2005

The Guardian

 

The Welsh secretary, Peter Hain, yesterday became the first cabinet

minister to advocate openly for more complementary therapy within the NHS.

 

Mr Hain revealed to a gathering of GPs who integrate complementary and

conventional medicine in their practice that he had become a " true

convert " after using homeopathy on his first baby, Sam, who suffered

from eczema and asthma.

 

" Various creams were prescribed and a steroidal spray. But they didn't

work, " he said at the meeting, organised by the Prince of Wales

Foundation for Integrated Health. " So instead we turned to the

complementary medicine. And with the help of homeopathy and tight

restrictions on the sort of food that our son could eat, both ailments

went away. "

 

Mr Hain's backing for homeopathy comes just weeks after the Lancet

medical journal said it was no better than a placebo and its editor

called for guidelines to stop " inappropriate practice " among NHS

doctors who use it. The Lancet said homeopathic solutions were so

dilute that sometimes not a single molecule of the active ingredient

remains.

 

The Prince of Wales, who spoke later to the gathering of around 120

GPs who have agreed to affiliate themselves to the foundation, said he

was delighted that more than half of all GPs are now offering some

sort of complementary therapy.

 

He added: " I can't tell you how pleased and proud I am that so many

eminent and sensible quacks are joining with my foundation and it is

my fervent belief that as more and more GPs spread the word of

integrated healthcare.

 

_____

 

Regarding the LANCET STUDIES discrediting homeopathy, the following

was sent to me by a leading homeopath in the US.

 

The Lancet's senior editor, Zoë Mullan, admitted to the pharmaceutical

press that there was an inherent conflict on the part of the authors,

" Prof Eggers stated at the outset that he expected to find that

homeopathy had no effect other than that of placebo. His " conflict "

was therefore transparent. We saw this as sufficient " .

 

What this suggests is that if authors admit they have a bias, they are

allowed to have it, show it, and flaunt it, while at the same time

saying that their study is " scientific " and without bias.

 

________

peter-morrell

Friday, October 14, 2005

Response by Peter Morrell to British Medical Journal letter

from Richard Horton (Lancet Editor) re. homeopathy:

[1] Richard Horton, Pandering to the Prince, BMJ e-letter, 7 October 2005

http://bmj.bmjjournals.com/cgi/eletters/331/7520/795-a#118608

 

It is somewhat amusing that the hapless Dr Horton [1] will not have

significantly improved his chances of getting a knighthood by

launching such an ill-tempered assault upon the future King and

long-time homeopathy supporter, Prince Charles, Charles Philip Arthur

George Mountbatten-Windsor, Duke of Cornwall, Duke of Rothesay, Earl

of Carrick, Lord of Renfrew, Lord of the Isles, Prince and Great

Steward of Scotland and Earl of Chester [2]. And this amusement is

greatly increased when one compares his now dire fortunes with the

homeopathic Physician Royal, Dr Peter Fisher, the Queen's private

physician and head of the Royal London Homeopathic Hospital, whose

prospects seem correspondingly much rosier when it comes to the

question of public honours. Several of his illustrious predecessors

were given knighthoods, such as Dr John Weir, who served, until his

death in 1970, as doctor to five monarchs in Britain and Scandinavia

in his capacity as Homeopathic Physician Royal.

 

Not only have the British royals been ardent supporters of homeopathy

for five generations [since the 1890s] but homeopathy has

traditionally enjoyed very widespread support with all Europe's royal

houses and with aristocrats of all types over the same period. Its

vociferous detractors ought to reflect a little more carefully on the

very slim likelihood that its therapeutic success and its burgeoning

public popularity are grounded solely in misplaced faith, belief or

medievalism. Regardless of whether or how the action of homeopathic

drugs might be explained by the so-called " laws of physics and

chemistry, " it is worth reminding them that such 'laws of nature' are

not cast in stone, but have been derived from observation of events in

the world. If homeopathy works then it is these laws that need

revision, to bring them closer into line with the way the world is,

and not by trying to bring the world into line with the cherished

theories of the science zealots who pretend the dogmatic absolutism of

such 'laws of nature.' How many allopathic 'cures' conform to known

mechanisms?

 

It is heartening to see that it is not only royals who publicly shoot

themselves in the foot, but also some prominent doctors, masquerading

as scientists.

 

Sources

 

[1] Richard Horton, Pandering to the Prince, BMJ e-letter, 7 October 2005

http://bmj.bmjjournals.com/cgi/eletters/331/7520/795-a#118608

 

[2] Profile of Prince Charles:

http://www.eonline.com/On/Royalty/Profiles/charles.html

 

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