The UK medical doctor, Sarah Myhill, has a website where she tells us:
Everyone should follow the general approach to maintaining and restoring good health, which involves eating a paleo ketogenic diet, taking a basic package of nutritional supplements, ensuring a good night’s sleep on a regular basis and getting the right balance between work, exercise and rest. Because we live in an increasingly polluted world, we should probably all be doing some sort of detox regime.
She also happens to sell dietary supplements of all kinds which must surely be handy for all who want to follow her advice. Dr. Myhill boosted her income even further by putting false claims about Covid-19 treatments online. And that got her banned from practicing for nine months after a medical tribunal.
She posted videos and articles advocating taking vitamins and other substances in high doses, without evidence they worked. The General Medical Council (GMC) found her recommendations “undermined public health” and found some of her recommendations had the potential to cause “serious harm” and “potentially fatal toxicity”. The tribunal was told she uploaded a series of videos and articles between March and May 2020, describing substances as “safe nutritional interventions” which she said meant vaccinations were “rendered irrelevant”. But the substances she promoted were not universally safe and have potentially serious health risks associated with them, the panel was told. The tribunal found Dr. Myhill “does not practice evidence-based medicine and may encourage false reassurance in her patients who may believe that they will not catch Covid-19 or other infections if they follow her advice”.
Dr. Myhill previously had a year-long ban lifted after a General Medical Council investigation into her claims of being a “pioneer” in the treatment of chronic fatigue syndrome. In fact, the hearing was told there had been 30 previous GMC investigations into Dr. Myhill, but none had resulted in findings of misconduct.
Dr. Myhill is also a vocal critic of the PACE trial and biopsychosocial model of ME/CFS. Dr. Myhill’s GMC complaint regarding a number of PACE trial authors was first rejected without investigation by the GMC, after Dr. Myhill appealed the GMC stated they would reconsider. Dr. Myhill’s action against the GMC for failing to provide reasoning for not investigating the PACE trial authors is still continuing and began a number of months before the most recent GMC instigation of her practice started.
The recent tribunal concluded: “Given the circumstances of this case, it is necessary to protect members of the public and in the public interest to make an order suspending Dr. Myhill’s registration with immediate effect, to uphold and maintain professional standards and maintain public confidence in the profession.”
36 Responses to UK doctor has been punished for advocating dietary supplements as alternatives for vaccinations
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“The hearing was told there had been 30 previous GMC investigations into Dr Myhill, but none had resulted in findings of misconduct…”
When the State is determined to get you it will: by pernicious persecution.
OB, have you forgotten to take your little red pills again?
That particular claim comes from Myhill: it is not clear that it is actually true.
A representative of the GMC – https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/dr_sarah_myhill_2734668_previous – could only confirm that Myhill had made the claim, not that it was in any way true. I will not comment on the truth of anything else Myhill says…
And the GMC isn’t the “State”, but a professional regulatory body.
OB is too ignorant to merit bothering.
Murmur on Tuesday 31 January 2023 at 15:19 said:
“…And the GMC isn’t the “State”, but a professional regulatory body.”
From here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Medical_Council
quote:
“The General Medical Council (GMC) is a public body…”
next you will claim that a public house is a government building;
please carry on!
you are most entertaining.
OB is an exemplar of someone who’s become so bored with displaying plain old wilful ignorance that solace can be found only by flaunting belligerent stupidity.
It is, indeed, most entertaining.
I know exactly what the GMC is and it still isn’t the state.
Thank you.
Next you’ll be trying to tell me, a retired nurse, what the NMC is…
And I note that you avoid the main point about the claim of the number of “investigations” of Myhill coming from her and not being recognised by the GMC…Odd, that.
Paleo diet? The average life expectancy for Stone Age people was about 25…..
So all the current research attempting to establish the most suitable range of diets for optimum human health and well being, and increasingly pointing to evolutionary basis solutions, is all a waste of time because of that nasty, brutish and shorter lives of our ancestors ?
Try again
but next time please make some sense.
Sorry I wasn’t clearer in making my point. Davidb questioned the paleo diet because of the shorter life expectancy of our ancestors, who of course subsisted on these range of diets. Much serious research is being conducted along the lines of the paleo diets as being most suitable for human development regardless of the shorter life expectancy of our ancestors which was most likely due to many other factors other than an adequate range of ‘natural’ foodstuffs. I hope this helps.
@Leonard Sugarman
Research into paleo diets is interesting but does not tell us much about what’s healthy or not. Not only did ‘paleo diets’ cover the full range from almost completely vegetarian (like our modern-day great apes) to almost fully carnivorous (like the traditional Inuit diet) – there were also certain revolutionary developments along the way, such as cooking, agriculture and keeping livestock that profoundly changed both the choice and the nutritional value of our food.
The only thing that we know for certain is that we absolutely need both vitamin C (which suggests a major vegetarian diet component) and vitamin B12 (which is exclusively sourced from animals). So we’re omnivores, duh.
I think you’re right in that their diet wasn’t the main reason for our forebears’ significantly lower life expectancy – although regular scarcity of food (and starvation) no doubt played a significant role, as also evidenced by our almost irresistible urge to eat as much as we can in times of abundance.
Richard Rasker- I think it well established that it is healthier to consume mostly food that has not been processed by the many different technological processes possible and that in fact a more unprocessed ( apart from basic cooking) diet as is considered better for human health and longevity. I believe we know a lot more for certain than you suggest ( vitamins C and B12). We absolutely need a whole range of nutrients for our healthy physiological functioning. Regardless, i think we would agree on most aspects of our dietary dialogue.
The state of the evidence regarding the Paleo Diet is summarised on page 128 & 129 of “Alternative Medicine A Critical Assessment of 150 Modalities” (Springer 2019, now available in a 2nd Edition with 202 modalities!)
… and it’s not very convincing.
@Leonard Sugarman
Of course there are far more essential nutrients than just vitamin C and B12. But these two are proof positive that we have evolved to subside on a large variety of foods, just as long as our diet contains both plant-based as well as animal-based foods. The point here is that there is not one ‘paleo diet’ – there are lots of completely different paleo diets, each optimized for keeping our ancestors alive in a particular environment. Which means that health claims about paleo diets are pretty useless, because those diets were appropriate for people who lived completely different lives than we do.
The problem with our modern-day processed foods is not so much the processing per se, but the fact that these foods contain way too much carbohydrates, salt and (unhealthy) fat, and way too little fibres, vitamins and other healthy ingredients. This situation has also ‘evolved’, simply because those carbs and fats are what we humans find irresistible – exactly because they were so scarce in our history. So these very tasty but relatively unhealthy foods are selling much better than much healthier foods with a more bland taste.
Then there’s also the problem that many completely unprocessed foods have become unhealthier through the exact same mechanism: our modern fruit for instance has been selectively bred for bigger size and better taste – so our apples and oranges now contain huge amounts of sugar compared to their ancestors from even 500 years ago (in medieval times, apples were mostly hard and sour little jobs, and had to be cooked to be palatable). And an example of the opposite is honey: a 100% natural and a very sought-after treat in all of history – but just as unhealthy as our modern-day refined sugar. And no, that ~1% of extra minerals and antibacterial ingredients do not make it significantly more healthy.
So I’d say it is best to look at the great variety of modern diets, and see which ones appear to be healthy – also taking into account why this is the case. The Mediterranean diet seems like a good example, together with other diets that traditionally contain lots of seafood and not too much carbohydrates. But even this may not apply universally. Which is why we have science trying to figure these things out.
Richard Rasker- I thought I had made clear that paleo refers to a variety of diets-so we agree. The point about paleo diets and their relevance to modern living is where we disagree. Much of what could be considered paleo , like fruit, vegetable roots, nuts , seeds, fish and other seafood, fowl, meat, eggs is the type of food , in 2023, that if selected from judiciously will provide all the human nutritional requirements. Health claims on this basis are not ‘ pretty useless’. Although too much salt, fat and sugar are a major problem with the modern highly processed diets commonly consumed, there is still, perhaps a lesser problem of reduction in various nutrients due to the processing which can result in sub-clinical deficiencies and possibly worse. Since honey is consumed in a much lesser volume than refined sugar ( sucrose) it is not as unhealthy. If a person was very physically active ( as perhaps some of our ancestors, although perhaps in a different way) there is no scientific reason that I have read that says consumption of small amounts of honey would present any problem to that individual. I agree that there is no optimum universal diet for all humans. I also agree that your suggestion of observation of populations and their dietary practices is sensible. Proper human experimentation with diets is fraught with difficulty due to long term variables. Regardless of the changing quality of food, as you mention, by sensible dietary selection we may proximate our paleo ancestors without actually matching their food intakes.
Why? What does it say?
@ Old Bob “Why? What does it say?”
Buy the book and see.
DavidB on Thursday 02 February 2023 at 09:57
“Buy the book and see.”
I looked for it, here it is:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Alternative-Medicine-Critical-Assessment-Modalities/dp/3030126005/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2HIY57R9T4CS3&keywords=Alternative+Medicine+A+Critical+Assessment+of+150+Modalities&qid=1675340579&sprefix=alternative+medicine+a+critical+assessment+of+150+modalities%2Caps%2C538&sr=8-1
Yes, now buy and read it…..
DavidB on Thursday 02 February 2023 at 13:40 said:
“…Yes, now buy and read it…..”
Let’s read the reviews first…
Why?
You’re really just trolling, aren’t you.
This is the first review:
quote
“1.0 out of 5 stars Bad
Reviewed in Mexico 🇲🇽 on 4 July 2019
Verified Purchase
Pr. Ernst, the “highly respected debunker of SCAM” in mainstream media, have published different books in recently years. My surprise coming from this book that is absent of any value. In fact, he repeats the same content from Homeopathy the undiluted facts. The worst part is when he touchs agrohomeopathy, literally Ernst disccards all positive evidence based on his personal opinion. Another section that deserves mention is the field of homotoxicology, again Ernst rejects all recently evidence quoting their own paper published in 2004, although the majority of RCT trials were positive. Ernst continues applying selective bias -cherry picking data- and ad hominem attacks when review homeopathy. It is not a surprise that he ejects all experimental evidence when these contradicts their beliefs. In short, the book is a short phamplet summarizing the fears and dogmas from the pseudoskepticism.”
end-of-quote
Yes, I have seen this review of an evidently fanatic water shaker.
It is hilarious, and I’m so glad you like it too.
Well clearly that review proves everything, Old Bob, and you are very wise to rely on it comprehensively.
Nonsense.
More nonsense.
Correct.
Correct.
Utter nonsense.
Two commonplace advices and three pieces of pseudoscientific or rather dangerous nonsense.
“The recent tribunal concluded: “Given the circumstances of this case, it is necessary to protect members of the public and in the public interest to make an order suspending Dr. Myhill’s registration with immediate effect, to uphold and maintain professional standards and maintain public confidence in the profession.””
That is what the GMC was created to do – to protect the public from quacks.
Dr Myyhill can still practice medicine and style herself ‘Doctor’ (and no doubt she will).
In the UK there is no protection of that title (but there is for ‘chiropractor’ and ‘osteopath’!) – but she cannot:
* Claim to be a Registered Medical Practitioner.
* Work in the NHS as a medical practitioner.
* Sign death certificates or other documents requiring a RMP.
* Prescribe drugs on certain schedules e.g. opiates (but she can of course prescribe drugs otherwise.)
– and that’s about all the restrictions there are.
Which is why we all need to heed the wise words so often expressed in this blog, in Edzard’s books and from the wider sceptic community.
Press on and Nil carborundum illegitimi .
Richard
Aka Professor Riccardo
Consultant Charlatan and Specialist in the Care of the Gullible.
Myhill’s status is registered without a license to practice. I do not know if Myhill gave up her license to practice voluntarily. Being registered without a license to practice still exposes “former” doctors to GMC discipline if they do anything that looks like doctor function. Myhill in various places describes herself as a “naturopathic physician”.
Physician is a protected title. GMC tend not to act though.
Myhill isn’t alone in stretching “registered without a license” status. Jayne Donegan who got caught advising parents to fake vaccination cards as per various media stories.
In UK we have a ‘licence to practise’. (‘Ice’ is a solid thing – a noun,.‘S’ applies to verbs as in ‘to. practise.’)
This doctor has had her GMC registration suspended. She is not registered and can practise as she wishes, with the afore mentioned contingencies.
Breach of those is a crime.
If she places the public at risk she’ll not get registration back. Her call.
A month ago, she was given a slot on Bunny Guinness’s YouTube channel, ostensibly to discuss the value of saunas, but also talked about doing fat biopsies on her clients to determine nutritional deficits and strongly advocating dietary supplements for all. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3B6A9j_RDIg
No nuance in her comments or reference to the evidence base. https://www.bmj.com/content/369/bmj.m2511
She sounds like she might be a risk.
More on this story: https://www.bmj.com/content/380/bmj.p278?utm_source=etoc&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=tbmj&utm_content=weekly&utm_term=20230210
quote
“…On the other hand, the tribunal considered as a mitigating factor that she had been subjected to more than 30 GMC investigations in the past, affecting her attitude towards the regulator, without any previous findings of misconduct made against her, and that there were no specific patient complaints in this case.”
“…Oakford said the tribunal took the view that Myhill’s individual breaches were not serious enough to constitute fundamental incompatibility with continued registration as a doctor. Erasure would “deprive the public of an otherwise good doctor with over 30 years’ experience.”
End-of-quote
As I said, it’s malicious prosecution, at His Majesty’s pleasure.
Do you think that the GMC is a body acting at His Majesty’s pleasure?
Edzard on Friday 10 February 2023 at 15:12 said:
“Do you think that the GMC is a body acting at His Majesty’s pleasure?”
If not, then my name’s Stanislaw Burzinsky (or Andrew Wakefield).