Run for You Life: the Homeopathic Rampage

[Guest guest]

Alarm as homeopathic treatments

are free to make health claims without trials

26.10.06

 

What's up doc? Doctors are alarmed homeopathic

treatments are claiming to do more than they can

deliver

 

Lives will be put at risk by a controversial law which

allows homeopathic medicines to make unproven

scientific claims, leading doctors have warned.

 

More than 700 medics, scientists and members of the

public have signed a statement criticising a new law

which they say makes a mockery out of conventional

medicine.

 

The Government's medicines safety watchdog says the

change gives patients clearer information. But critics

fear that giving legitimacy to pills and potions that

are based on 'magic' rather than science will cost

lives.

 

One expert likened the change to categorising Smarties

as a medicine, on the basis that chocolate makes you

feel better.

 

Homeopathy, which has won the backing of Prince

Charles, claims to prevent diseases such as malaria by

using dilute forms of herbs, minerals and other

materials that in higher concentrations could produce

the symptoms of the condition.

 

Popular treatments include arnica, a plant-based

remedy used to treat cuts and bruises, and malaria

nosode, anti-malaria tablets made from African swamp

water, rotting plants and mosquito eggs and larvae.

 

However, a recent study published in the Lancet

suggested that the benefits of homeopathy are all in

the imagination, with alternative remedies performing

no better than dummy pills in clinical trials.

 

Until recently, homeopathic medicine manufacturers

were banned from claiming new products could treat

specific ailments.

 

But regulations introduced last month by the Medicines

and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency allow the

manufacturers to make such claims, as long as they can

prove the remedy is safe.

 

Unlike conventional medicines, they do not have to

show that the remedies actually work. Instead, they

only have to show that the remedy has a history of

being used to treat an illness.

 

The change has so angered the medical establishment

that hundreds of doctors and scientists have signed a

statement drafted by the charity Sense About Science

to oppose the new labelling system. Yesterday

afternoon, the House of Lords debated the issue.

 

The critics fear that the new system could lead to

life-threatening illnesses going undiagnosed, or to

people binning the tablets prescribed by their GP in

favour of an unproven alternative.

 

Edzard Ernst, professor of complimentary medicine at

Exeter University, said it could cost lives.

 

" makes a mockery out of evidence- based medicine, " he

said. " I feel very strongly that this is a very

serious mistake. If there are claims being made, there

has to be evidence for them.

 

" Constipation could be a sign of bowel cancer and if

somebody that has a treatable bowel cancer goes out

and buys a homeopathic medicine, they might be

untreatable tomorrow. Taken to the extreme, this

regulation could cost lives. "

 

Michael Baum, professor of surgery at University

College London, accused the homoepathy industry of

playing on people's beliefs in magic and superstition.

 

He said: " Homeopathy websites advocate using mistletoe

to treat breast cancer. The proving for mistletoe is

that it grows on the bush in a way like cancer grows

in a person. It is utterly barmy. "

 

Liberal Democrat MP Evan Harris, a former hospital

doctor, said: " It is an extremely retrograde step for

our medical regulator to decide a medicine can be

licensed without proper evidence. "

 

Professor Adrian Newland, president of the Royal

College of Pathologists, said he was " deeply alarmed "

by the change, which could " encourage patients to use

them as an alternative to conventional treatments " .

 

Catherine Collins, chief dietician at St George's

Hospital in London, said those who believe homeopathic

medicine work are being misled by the " placebo

effect " , in which any benefit comes for the patient's

expectations, rather than from the treatment itself.

 

She said: " The only plausible explanation for any

objectively determined benefit of homeopathy is the

placebo effect.

 

" I assume that the regulations would therefore

legitimately be extended to cover Smarties used for

similar 'treatment' purposes? "

 

The MHRA said the new regulations, which only apply to

remedies aimed at minor ailments such as headaches,

stomach pains and insomnia, provide customers with

more information about the range of products

available.

 

A spokesman said quality and safety were tightly

controlled, adding: " The label and/or packaging must

have a clear statement of the homeopathic nature of

the product, with a statement instructing the patient

to consult their doctor if symptoms persist. "

 

The Society of Homeopaths said its members are bound

by a code of ethics designed to protect patients.

 

Spokesman Melanie Oxley stressed that the new rules

only apply to remedies bought in chemist and health

food shops and used to treat minor conditions.

 

She added: " For treatment of a serious illness, we

would hope a patient would approach a registered

homeopath or their doctor. "

 

© 2006 Associated Newspapers Ltd

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