satire
Dr Jennifer Jacobs is a homeopaths from the US. She is a family physician and a clinical assistant professor in epidemiology at the University of Washington School of Public Health and Community Medicine. She received her MD degree from Wayne State University and a Masters in Public Health from the University of Washington.
Jennifer is foremost famous for the homeopathic childhood diarhoea studies, but does that justify her joining THE ALTERNATIVE MEDICINE HALL OF FAME with its 15 current members who managed the impossible feast of never publishing a negative conclusion about their pet SCAM:
- Jenise Pellow (homeopath, South Africa)
- Adrian White (acupuncturist, UK)
- Michael Frass (homeopath, Austria)
- Jens Behnke (research officer, Germany)
- John Weeks (editor of JCAM, US)
- Deepak Chopra (entrepreneur, Us)
- Cheryl Hawk (US chiropractor)
- David Peters (osteopathy, homeopathy, UK)
- Nicola Robinson (TCM, UK)
- Peter Fisher (homeopathy, UK)
- Simon Mills (herbal medicine, UK)
- Gustav Dobos (various, Germany)
- Claudia Witt (homeopathy, Germany and Switzerland)
- George Lewith (acupuncture, UK)
- John Licciardone (osteopathy, US)
A Medline search generated 25 papers of hers on homeopathy. Here are the key findings of the … that report original data on the effectiveness of homeopathy (clinical trials or reviews):
- If and when conventional medicine runs out of options for treating epidemic diseases, homeopathy could be seen as an attractive alternative, but only if there is viable experimental evidence of its success.
- The homeopathic syrup appeared to be effective in reducing the severity of cold symptoms in the first day after beginning treatment.
- …the medicines prescribed in individualised homeopathy may have small, specific, treatment effects.
- Homeopathic ear drops may be effective in reducing the use of antibiotics in children with AOM managed with a delayed antibiotic approach.
- This study suggests that homeopathic ear drops were moderately effective in treating otalgia in children with AOM and may be most effective in the early period after a diagnosis of AOM. Pediatricians and other primary health care providers should consider homeopathic ear drops a useful adjunct to standard therapy.
- The homeopathic combination therapy tested in this study did not significantly reduce the duration or severity of acute diarrhea in Honduran children. Further study is needed to develop affordable and effective methods of using homeopathy to reduce the global burden of childhood diarrhea.
- This pilot study provides no evidence to support a therapeutic effect of individually selected homeopathic remedies in children with ADHD. A therapeutic effect of the homeopathic encounter is suggested and warrants further evaluation.
- Small sample size precludes definitive answers, but results from this preliminary trial suggest that homeopathy may be of value in the treatment of menopausal symptoms and improving quality of life, especially in those women not on tamoxifen.
- The results from these studies confirm that individualized homeopathic treatment decreases the duration of acute childhood diarrhea and suggest that larger sample sizes be used in future homeopathic research to ensure adequate statistical power. Homeopathy should be considered for use as an adjunct to oral rehydration for this illness.
- These results suggest that a positive treatment effect of homeopathy when compared with placebo in acute otitis media cannot be excluded and that a larger study is justified.
- These results are consistent with the finding from the previous study that individualized homeopathic treatment decreases the duration of diarrhea and number of stools in children with acute childhood diarrhea.
- The statistically significant decrease in the duration of diarrhea in the treatment group suggests that homeopathic treatment might be useful in acute childhood diarrhea. Further study of this treatment deserves consideration.
Next to Claudia Witt, Jennifer might be the researcher who has published the most clinical trials of homeopathy with positive conclusions (don’t be jealous Michael Frass, you might be in third place!). Attentive readers have probably noticed, she also published a negative trial with a negative conclusion (No 6) and a negative trial with a not so negative conclusion (No 7). The negative study almost cost her the place in the HALL OF FAME. But let’s be generous, and let’s consider the TRUSTWORTHINESS INDEX which, in her case, is still well and safely in the untrustworthy region. Therefore, I hope we all agree: Jenifer does deserve a place in THE ALTERNATIVE MEDICINE HALL OF FAME.
WELCOME JENNIFER!
So sorry, I have been neglecting THE ALTERNATIVE MEDICINE HALL OF FAME of late. I was reminded of its existence when writing my post about Adrian White the other day. Reading the kind comments I received on it, I not only decided to make Adrian an honorary member (for his latter part of his career as an acupuncture researcher, but also to reactivate the idea of the HALL OF FAME in more general terms. And in the course of doing just this, I noticed that I somehow forgot to admit Prof Michael Frass, an omission which I regret and herewith rectify. A warm welcome to both!
In case you are unaware what THE ALTERNATIVE MEDICINE HALL OF FAME is, let me explain: it is a group of researchers who manage to go through (part of) their professional life researching their particular SCAM without ever publishing a negative conclusion about it, or who have other outstanding merits in misleading the public about so-called alternative medicine (SCAM). As of today, we thus have the following experts in the HALL:
Adrian White (acupuncturist, UK)
Michael Frass (homeopath, Austria)
Jens Behnke (research officer, Germany)
John Weeks (editor of JCAM, US)
Deepak Chopra (entrepreneur, Us)
Cheryl Hawk (US chiropractor)
David Peters (osteopathy, homeopathy, UK)
Nicola Robinson (TCM, UK)
Peter Fisher (homeopathy, UK)
Simon Mills (herbal medicine, UK)
Gustav Dobos (various, Germany)
Claudia Witt (homeopathy, Germany and Switzerland)
George Lewith (acupuncture, UK)
John Licciardone (osteopathy, US)
I must say, this is an assembly of international SCAM experts to be proud of – even if I say so myself!
The new member I am proposing to admit today is Dr Jenice Pellow. She is a lecturer in the Department of Complementary Medicine at the University of Johannisburg and already once featured on this blog. But now it seems time to admit this relatively little-known researcher into my HALL OF FAME. Dr Pellow has 11 Medline-listed papers on so-called alternative medicine (SCAM). Allow me to show you some key findings from their abstracts:
- Complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) offers parents various treatment options for this condition [ADHD], including dietary modifications, nutritional supplementation, herbal medicine, and homeopathy. CAM appears to be most effective when prescribed holistically and according to each individual’s characteristic symptoms.
- The homeopathic medicine reduced the sensitivity reaction of cat allergic adults to cat allergen, according to the SPT. Future studies are warranted to further investigate the effect of Cat saliva and Histaminum and their role as a potential therapeutic option for this condition.
- Findings suggest that daily use of the homeopathic complex does have an effect over a 4-wk period on physiological and cognitive arousal at bedtime as well as on sleep onset latency in PI sufferers. Further research on the use of this complex for PI is warranted before any definitive conclusions can be drawn.
- The homeopathic complex used in this study exhibited significant anti-inflammatory and pain-relieving qualities in children with acute viral tonsillitis. No patients reported any adverse effects. These preliminary findings are promising; however, the sample size was small and therefore a definitive conclusion cannot be reached. A larger, more inclusive research study should be undertaken to verify the findings of this study.
- …results suggest the homeopathic complex, together with physiotherapy, can significantly improve symptoms associated with CLBP due to OA.
- This small study showed the potential benefits of individualized homeopathic treatment of binge eating in males, decreasing both the frequency and severity of binging episodes.
- There have been numerous trials and pharmacological studies of specific herbal preparations related to the treatment of low sexual desire.
- Most of the evaluated medicinal plants showed evidence of efficacy in relieving menstrual pain in at least one RCT.
- Results indicated that most participants made use of both complementary and conventional medicines for their infant’s colic; the most commonly used complementary medicine products were homeopathic remedies, probiotics and herbal medicines.
- Promising evidence for the following single supplements were found [for allergic rhinitis]: apple polyphenols, tomato extract, spirulina, chlorophyll c2, honey, conjugated linoleic acid, MSM, isoquercitrin, vitamins C, D and E, as well as probiotics. Combination formulas may also be beneficial, particularly specific probiotic complexes, a mixture of vitamin D3, quercetin and Perilla frutescens, as well as the combination of vitamin D3 and L. reuteri.
- Despite a reported lack of knowledge regarding complementary medicine and limited personal use, participants had an overall positive attitude towards complementary medicine.
I admit that 11 papers in 7 years is not an overwhelming output for a University lecturer. However, please do consider the fact that all of them – particularly the ones on homeopathy which is be the particular focus of Jenice (after all, she is a homeopath) – chime a happy tune for SCAM. I therefore think that Jenice should be admitted to THE ALTERNATIVE MEDICINE HALL OF FAME and hope you agree.
Welcome to ALTERNATIVE MEDICINE HALL OF FAME, Jenice!
As though the UK does not have plenty of organisations promoting so-called alternative medicine (SCAM)! Obviously not – because a new one is about to emerge.
In mid-January, THE COLLEGE OF MEDICINE AND INTEGRATED HEALTH (COMIH) will launch the Integrated Medicine Alliance bringing together the leaders of many complementary health organisations to provide patients, clinicians and policy makers with information on the various complementary modalities, which will be needed in a post COVID-19 world, where:
- patient choice is better respected,
- requirements for evidence of efficacy are more proportionate to the seriousness of the disease and the safety of the intervention,
- and where benefit versus risk are better balanced.
We already saw this in 2020 with the College advocating from the very beginning of the year that people should think about taking Vitamin D, while the National Institute for Clinical Excellence continued to say the evidence was insufficient, but the Secretary of State has now supported it being given to the vulnerable on the basis of the balance between cost, benefit and safety.
Elsewhere we learn more about the Integrated Medicine Alliance (IMA):
The IMA is a group of organisations and individuals that have been brought together for the purpose of encouraging and optimising the best use of complementary therapies alongside conventional healthcare for the benefit of all.
The idea for this group was conceived by Dr Michael Dixon in discussion with colleagues associated with the College of Medicine, and the initial meeting to convene the group was held in February 2019.
The group transitioned through a number of titles before settling on the ‘Integrated Medicine Alliance’ and began work on developing a patient leaflet and a series of information sheets on the key complementary therapies.
It was agreed that in the first instance the IMA should exist under the wing of the College of Medicine, but that in the future it may develop into a formal organisation in its own right, but inevitably maintaining a close relationship with the College of Medicine.
The IMA also offers ‘INFORMATION SHEETS’ on the following modalities:
- Acupuncture
- Alexander Technique
- Aromatherapy
- Herbal Medicine
- Homeopathy
- Hypnotherapy
- Massage
- Naturopathy
- Reflexology
- Reiki
- Tai Chi
- Yoga Therapy
I find those leaflets revealing. They tell us, for example that the Reiki practitioner channels universal energy through their hands to help rebalance each of the body’s energy centres, known as chakras. About homeopathy, we learn that a large corpus of evidence has accumulated which stands the most robust tests of modern science. And about naturopathy, we learn that it includes ozone therapy but is perfectly safe.
Just for the fun of it – and free of charge – let me try to place a few corrections here:
- Reiki healers use their hands to perform what is little more than a party trick.
- The universal energy they claim to direct does not exist.
- The body does not have energy centres.
- Chakras are a figment of imagination.
- The corpus of evidence on homeopathy is by no means large.
- The evidence is flimsy.
- The most robust tests of modern science fail to show that homeopathy is effective beyond placebo.
- Naturopathy is a hotchpotch of treatments most of which are neither natural nor perfectly safe.
One does wonder who writes such drivel for the COMIH, and one shudders to think what else the IMA might be up to.
Today is the day to admit it: we all owe a big THANKS to the worldwide homeopathy community. We should be most grateful to them all for selflessly demonstrating so indisputably something of fundamental importance:
homeopaths do not believe in their own outlandish, science-defying assumptions.
Yes, I really do appreciate the courage and altruism that was required for this epoch-making step!
Perhaps I better explain.
On 10 November, I issued ‘a challenge for all homeopaths of the world‘.
The deal was structured around a homeopathic proving (or, if you wish, around the assumption that highly diluted homeopathic remedies can have any noticable effects) and went as follows:
- you, the convinced homeopath, name the 6 homeopathic remedies that you cannot possibly miss when doing a proving on yourself;
- I order them in the potency you wish (only condition: it must be higher than C12) from a reputable source;
- I have the bottles delivered unopened to a notary where I live;
- the notary fills them into containers marked 1-6 (if you wish, you can send the notary empty containers for that ppurpose);
- the notary keeps the code under lock and key that links the name of the remedies to the numbers 1-6;
- he then mails the coded 6 remedies to you;
- you can use the proving method which you consider best and do as many provings as you like (the only limiting factors are the number of globuli in the containers and the time you have to crack the code);
- I give you 100 days for conducting the provings;
- once you are ready, you send your verdicts to the notary (e.g. 1 = rhus, tox, 2 = sulfur, 3 = arsenic, etc., etc.);
- the notary looks up the code and lets us both know the result.
I am happy to pay all the costs involved in the experiment (notary, remedies, postage, etc.). We can also discuss some of the details of this challenge, in case they run counter to your views on provings, rigorous science, etc.
To make sure we both ‘mean business’, once we both accept these conditions (you can flesh out the missing details as you wish), we both transfer a sum Euro 2 000 to an account with the notary. If you want to increase the sum, please let me know; as I said, we can discuss most of the details of my challenge to suit your needs. If you manage to ‘crack the code’ 1-6, the notary will transfer the sum of Euro 4 000 (your deposit and mine) to your account. If you fail, he will transfer the same amount to my account.
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In my original post, I made it abundantly clear that the entry to the challenge would close at the end of 2020. While it was still open, I did everything I could to let homeopaths know about the challenge. Because homeopathy originated in Germany and is still fairly popular there, I even re-published my challenge in German. In addition, I and others tweeted many times about it (in English, German, French, Spanish and possibly other languages as well), even directly to homeopaths across the globe.
As no homeopath has come forward to take up the challenge in time, and as no sound argument has emerged to convince me that my challenge was unreasonable, unscientific or unfair, it now is an indisputable fact that:
homeopaths do not believe in their own outlandish, science-defying assumptions.
I am most grateful to the worldwide community of homeopaths for heroically documenting the truth so clearly. It can’t have been easy to be so honest at the cost of homeopathy’s reputation. But I believe that this is an important and honourable step into the right direction. It provides essential information for non-homeopaths who want to understand the practice and profession of homeopathy.
MANY THANKS AGAIN
PS
In the interest of progress, please publicise the news as widely as you can.
We are living in difficult times, and few things are more difficult than spending the holidays in confinement alone or (possibly worse) with close family. If you do, you need all the help you can get. Here are a few homeopathic remedies (all available from Her Majesty’s homeopathic pharmacy) which, according to the ‘like cures like’ (LCL) axiom of homeopathy, might come in handy:
- Aspirin (Acetylsalicylic Acid) Aspirin is effective for many conditions, for instance, headache. So, taking a high potency homeopathic Aspirin should, according to LCL, give you a headache. It might therefore be helpful for being excused from spending yet another afternoon watching TV with your mother in law. Alternatively, you could, of course, smuggle some drops in her food and solve your problem in this somewhat unethical way.
- Latex vulcani (Latex (condom) In case you want to use the confinement to start a family, this remedy should make it easier to conceive.
- Penicillinum Penicillin kills bacteria, as we all know. Taking homeopathic Penicillium would therefore make you catch a bacterial infection. This could be a welcome change from all this endless talk about viral disease, I am sure.
- Semen humanum In case you do not want to get pregnant, this seems to be the remedy of choice for you.
- Sunlight Blue (Prismatic blue from sunlight) Sunlight Green (Prismatic green from sunlight) Sunlight Orange (Prismatic orange from sunlight) Sunlight Purple (Prismatic purple from sunlight) Sunlight Red (Prismatic Red from Sunlight) Sunlight Yellow (Prismatic yellow from sunlight) Lots of people swear by vitamin D to protect themselves against COVID-19. It is easy to over-dose on this vitamin, and many people will therefore be now suffering from a vitamin D hypervitaminosis with potentially dangerous consequences. If you are worried, I recommend you take all the above remedies. As sunlight normally generates vitamin D in your body, these homeopathics should stop any hypervitaminosis D in its tracks.
- Umbilicus humanus (Umbilical Cord Humanus) Many people have to spend this holiday without their mother. If that affects you deeply, try this remedy.
- Vitamin D (Vitamin D2 + Vitamin D3) Vitamin D2 (Ergocalciferol) Vitamin D3 (Cholecalciferol) If you don’t want to take the sunlight remedies mentioned above for your vitamin D hypervitaminosis (remember: too strong sunlight can cause skin cancer!), try the more direct method of administering homeopathic vitamin D.
So, do take good care of yourselves, stay healthy, don’t over-dose the brandy butter, port, or anything else, and
MERRY CHRISTMAS!
Recent comments on this blog prompted me to look into a very strange therapeutic and diagnostic device used by some practitioners of so-called alternative medicine (SCAM):
The OBERON provides the most unique tool for scanning the various organs and systems of the physical body without having to make a medical or surgical intrusion. Developed by Russian scientists since the early 1990’s, the OBERON is the most revolutionary computer programmed invention available in the world today for analyzing and treating all the body’s organs and functions.
This device scans each organ or tissue on a cellular level. It compares the measurements to a database of thousands of referenced conditions and their diagnosis. OBERON uses a special emitter to modulate the carrier frequency for the cell communication and it uses special sensor trigger readers built into headphones to read the cells own signals.
OBERON finds out how stressed an organ is, and if there are any diseases developing, how much the cells are influenced by a specific disease, and which micro organisms and bacteria are in the area at the time of the scan.
BENEFITS OF THE OBERON:
Rebalances the body so that it can start to heal itself!
Makes intrusive and embarrassing examinations a THING OF THE PAST!!!!
Quick examination (in seconds) with immediate results
Replaces dozens of traditional diagnostic methods.
Finds weaknesses in the skeleton, organs, blood, tissue, etc.
There are no side effects, unpleasantness or injury after treatment
Bio-resonance META-therapy
A print out of the report on findings can be taken at the end of the session…
The method is based on an analysis of the brain stems electromagnetic waves which contain the complete information of the entire organism. This information is read by a sensor. A frequency transmitter aimed at the projection area of the brain stem stimulates this electromagnetic radiation.
Meta- Therapy repairs the organism using a diversity of modulated electromagnetic waves. This treatment stimulates the body’s own functions so that they solve the problem and it stimulates the immune defense and is a very good supplement or alternative to traditional treatment. The patient can follow on the screen how the organ progressively gets better, and afterwards one can take a new measurement showing the improvement…
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Sounds fantastic?
Yes, indeed – fantastic as in fantasy!
Almost as much relation to reality as OBERON, king of the fairies in medieval literature.
The modern OBERON device is being used by infamous proponents of integrated medicine like Dr Julian Kenyon who already made an appearance on this blog. On his website, Kenyon published a paper in which he provides details about the OBERON. To a lay person, the sciency text might look like science; however, this impression would be false. The ‘study’ Kenyon mentioned is not on Medline. In fact, Dr Kenyon (former associate of the late George Lewith) has merely 4 Medline-listed papers:
- Physiological and psychological explanations for the mechanism of acupuncture as a treatment for chronic pain. Soc Sci Med. 1984;19(12):1367-78. doi: 10.1016/0277-9536(84)90026-1.PMID: 6085191 Review.
- Is electrodermal testing as effective as skin prick tests for diagnosing allergies? A double blind, randomised block design study. BMJ. 2001 Jan 20;322(7279):131-4. doi: 10.1136/bmj.322.7279.131.PMID: 11159567 Free PMC article. Clinical Trial.
- Randomised double-blind trial on the immediate effects of naloxone on classical Chinese acupuncture therapy for chronic pain. Acupunct Electrother Res. 1983;8(1):17-24. doi: 10.3727/036012983816715064.PMID: 6135300 Clinical Trial.
- Food sensitivity, a search for underlying causes. Case study of 12 patients. Kenyon JN.Acupunct Electrother Res. 1986;11(1):1-13. doi: 10.3727/036012986816359238.PMID: 2872775
And what about other researchers? Aren’t there ANY decent studies of the OBERON?
Not as far as I can see (if anyone does know of peer-reviewed research, please let me know).
So, what is the conclusion?
My conclusion is this:
There is no evidence that the OBERON does anything useful other than putting money in the bank accounts of those charlatans who use or manufacture it.
And what does that make Kenyon and all the other SCAM practitioners using the OBERON or similar devices?
I leave it to you to decide.
Out of the blue I received an email infroming me that Wellness consultancy and online health boutique Conscious Spaces is marking the Black Friday sale season with 12% off its hugely popular Qi tech EMF protection devices. Shop Black EMFriday at consciousspaces.com/collections/black-emfriday…
I must be a sucker for such stuff, so I had to have a look.
Most impressive!
The ‘Qi-Max Cell™ 5G / WIFI / EMF Protection For Home & Business’ for instance is for sale at £4,399.00 Sale Price (normally it costs £600 more!!!).
Naturally, I was fascinated and had to know more. Luckily, the email told me all I needed to know:
What are EMFs?
EMFs, or electromagnetic fields, are invisible fields of energy, or radiation waves. There are many different types of electromagnetic fields in the world around us. They come from both natural sources (like sunlight) and man-made sources (like mobile phones). Over the last century, exposure to man-made EMFs has been steadily increasing in line with the growing demand for electricity and the more recent explosion of wireless technology, including smart phones, laptops and tablets.
Where’s the harm?
Exposure to EMFs of the kind emitted by mobile technologies has been found to be harmful to health by a growing number independent, non-industry funded scientists and doctors. With thousands of papers, the extent of scientific research into the health impacts of EMF radiation exposure is too vast to list, but a cohesive body of evidence exists surrounding the damage caused to DNA, cells, organ systems, fertility, brain function, liver and memory.
How do Qi tech devices work?
WaveGuard’s Qi technology provides a sanctuary from EMFs by creating a protective shield of negatively charged electrons. These devices come in a variety of sizes to provide different size torus fields of protection, from the Qi-Me, for personal protection on the go, through to the Qi-Max, providing a protective field with a 50m radius.
The Qi-Me device uses the same technology as the larger Qi-Shield device which has been scientifically proven to provide EMF Protection tested using a double-blind study at the BION Institute. Priced at £399 (£350 during Black Friday), it provides a 1m radius (2m diameter) of EMF protection and is available in Walnut, Maple, Olive and Yew.
The Qi-Shield provides an EMF protection field of 2.5m radius (5m diameter). Perfect for your office, bedroom, vehicle or air travel, it is priced at £899 (£790 during Black Friday) and is available in walnut.
The Qi-Home provides the relief of being protected from harmful and damaging EMFs while at home, with an EMF protection field of 7.5m radius (15m diameter). It is priced at £2750 (£2,420 during Black Friday) it is available in Swiss pine, oak and beech.
The Qi-Max Cell is the largest and most powerful EMF protection device, creating an EMF protection field of 50m radius (100m diameter). Available in Swiss pine, it is priced at £4999 (£4,399 during Black Friday).
Tara Williams, founder of Conscious Spaces, says: ‘The calming effect I felt when I first held a Qi-Shield in a high EMF environment was a revelation. My heart rate is usually up in those sorts of settings, but this had an immediate positive effect. I now carry this or the Qi-Me with me wherever I go and have noticed a real improvement in my EHS (electromagnetic hypersensitivity) symptoms.’
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As I said, I am most impressed by the ‘Qi-Max Cell’ (it creates an EMF protection field of 50m radius (100m diameter) in width and 35m radius (70m diameter) in height, protecting your family, workplace and business against mobile phone radiation, WiFi, electrical frequencies, electro-magnetic frequencies) and, of course by the prospect of saving £600!
But seriously! Would it not be illuminating to get such a device and take it apart to see what technology it actually contains? Or does one of my readers already know?
Today, HRH the Prince of Wales has his 72th birthday. As every year, I send him my best wishes by dedicating an entire post to a brief, updated summary of his achievements in the area of so-called alternative medicine (SCAM).
EARLY INFLUENCE OF LAURENCE VAN DER POST
Aged 18, Charles went on a journey of ‘spiritual discovery’ into the Kalahari desert. His guide was Laurens van der Post (later discovered to be a fraud and compulsive fantasist and to have fathered a child with a 14-year old girl entrusted to him during a sea voyage). Van der Post wanted to awake Charles’ mind and attune it to the ideas of Carl Jung’s ‘collective unconscious’, and it is this belief in vitalism that provides the crucial link to SCAM: virtually every form of SCAM is based on the assumption that some sort of vital force exists. Charles was impressed with van der Post that he made him the godfather of Prince William. After Post’s death, he established an annual lecture in his honour (the lecture series was quickly discontinued after van der Post was discovered to be a fraud).
CHIROPRACTIC and OSTEOPATHY
Throughout the 1980s, Charles lobbied for the statutory regulation of chiropractors and osteopaths in the UK. In 1993, this finally became reality. To this day, these two SCAM professions are the only ones regulated by statute in the UK.
THE BRITISH MEDICAL ASSOCIATION
In 1982, Prince Charles was elected as President of the British Medical Association (BMA) and promptly challenged the medical orthodoxy by advocating SCAM. In a speech at his inaugural dinner as President, the Prince lectured the medics: ‘Through the centuries healing has been practised by folk healers who are guided by traditional wisdom which sees illness as a disorder of the whole person, involving not only the patient’s body, but his mind, his self-image, his dependence on the physical and social environment, as well as his relation to the cosmos.’ The BMA-officials ordered a full report on alternative medicine which promptly condemned this area as implausible nonsense.
Six years later, a second report, entitled ‘Complementary Medicine – New Approaches to Good Practice’, heralded U-turn stating that: “the demand for non-conventional therapies had become so pressing that organised medicine in Britain could no longer ignore its contribution“. At the same time, however, the BMA set in motion a further chapter in the history of SCAM by insisting that it was “unacceptable” to allow the unrestricted practice of non-conventional therapies, irrespective of training or experience.
THE FOUNDATION OF INTEGRATED HEALTH
In 1993, Charles founded his lobby group which, after being re-named several times, ended up being called the ‘Foundation for Integrated Health’ (FIH). It was closed down in 2010 amidst allegations of money laundering and fraud. Its chief executive, George Gray, was later convicted and went to jail.
MOSARAF ALI
In 2001, Charles worked on plans to help build a model hospital of integrated medicine. It was to train doctors to combine conventional medicine and SCAMs, such as homeopathy, Ayurvedic medicine and acupuncture, and was to have around 100 beds. The prince’s intervention marked the culmination of years of campaigning by him for the NHS to assign a greater role to SCAM.
INTEGRATIVE MEDICINE
In 2001, Charles published an editorial in the BMJ promoting his ideas around integrative medicine. Its title: THE BEST OF BOTH WORLDS. Ever since, Charles has been internationally recognised as one of the world’s most vociferous champions of integrated medicine.
GERSON DIET
In 2004, Charles publicly supported the Gerson diet as a treatment for cancer. Prof Baum, an eminent oncologists, was invited to respond in an open letter to the British Medical Journal: ” …Over the past 20 years I have treated thousands of patients with cancer and lost some dear friends and relatives to this dreaded disease…The power of my authority comes with knowledge built on 40 years of study and 25 years of active involvement in cancer research. Your power and authority rest on an accident of birth. I don’t begrudge you that authority but I do beg you to exercise your power with extreme caution when advising patients with life-threatening diseases to embrace unproven therapies.”
THE SMALLWOOD REPORT
In 2005, the ‘Smallwood-Report’ was published; it had been commissioned by Charles and paid for by Dame Shirley Porter to inform health ministers. It stated that up to 480 million pounds could be saved, if one in 10 family doctors offered homeopathy as an “alternative” to standard drugs for asthma. Savings of up to 3.5 billion pounds could be achieved by offering spinal manipulation rather than drugs to people with back pain. Because I had commented on this report, Prince Charles’ first private secretary asked my vice chancellor to investigate the alleged indiscretion; even though I was found to be not guilty of any wrong-doing, all local support at Exeter stopped which eventually led to my early retirement.
WORLD HEALTH ORGANISATION
In a 2006 speech, Prince Charles told the World Health Organisation in Geneva that SCAM should have a more prominent place in health care and urged every country to come up with a plan to integrate conventional and alternative medicine into the mainstream. Anticipating Prince Charles’s sermon in Geneva, 13 of Britain’s most eminent physicians and scientists wrote an “Open Letter” which expressed concern over “ways in which unproven or disproved treatments are being encouraged for general use in Britain’s National Health Service.” The signatories argued that “it would be highly irresponsible to embrace any medicine as though it were a matter of principle.”
TRADITIONAL CHINESE MEDICINE (TCM)
In 2007, the People’s Republic of China recorded the visit of Fu Ying, its ambassador in London at the time, to Clarence House, and announced that the Charles had praised TCM. “He hoped that it could be included in the modern medical system . . . and was willing to make a contribution to it.”
HERBAL MEDICINE
In 2009, the Prince held talks with the health Secretary to persuade him to introduce safeguards amid a crackdown by the EU that could prevent anyone who is not a registered health practitioner from selling remedies.
In the same year, Charles urged the government to protect SCAM because “we fear that we will see a black market in herbal products”, as Dr Michael Dixon, medical director of the FIH and Charles’ advisor in SCAM, put it.
UK HEALTH POLITICS
In 2009, the health secretary wrote to the Prince suggesting a meeting on the possibility of a study on integrating SCAM in England’s NHS. The Prince had written to Burnham’s predecessor, Alan Johnson, demanding greater access to SCAM in the NHS alongside conventional medicine. Charles stated that “despite waves of invective over the years from parts of the medical and scientific establishment” he continued to lobby “because I cannot bear people suffering unnecessarily when a complementary approach could make a real difference”.
In June 2014, BBC NEWS published the following text about a BBC4 broadcast entitled ‘THE ROYAL ACTIVIST’ aired on the same day: Prince Charles has been a well-known supporter of complementary medicine. According to a… former Labour cabinet minister, Peter Hain, it was a topic they shared an interest in. He had been constantly frustrated at his inability to persuade any health ministers anywhere that that was a good idea, and so he, as he once described it to me, found me unique from this point of view, in being somebody that actually agreed with him on this, and might want to deliver it. Mr Hain added: “When I was Secretary of State for Northern Ireland in 2005-7, he was delighted when I told him that since I was running the place I could more or less do what I wanted to do. I was able to introduce a trial for complementary medicine on the NHS, and it had spectacularly good results, that people’s well-being and health was vastly improved. And when he learnt about this he was really enthusiastic and tried to persuade the Welsh government to do the same thing and the government in Whitehall to do the same thing for England, but not successfully,” added Mr Hain.
In October 2015, the Guardian obtained the infamous “black spider memos” which revealed that Charles had repeatedly lobbied politicians in favour of SCAM.
THE COLLEGE OF MEDICINE
In 2009, it was announced that the ‘College of Integrated Medicine’ (the successor of the FIH) was to have a second base in India. In 2011, Charles forged a link between ‘The College of Medicine’ and an Indian holistic health centre. The collaboration was reported to include clinical training to European and Western doctors in Ayurveda and homoeopathy and traditional forms of medicine to integrate them in their practice. The foundation stone for the extended campus of the Royal College known as the International Institution for Holistic and Integrated Medicine was laid by Dr Michael Dixon in collaboration with the Royal College of Medicine.
In 2020, Charles became the patron of the College of Medicine which, by then, had re-christened itself ‘College of Medicine and Integrated Health’. The College chair, Michael Dixon, was quoted stating: ‘This is a great honour and will support us as an organisation committed to taking medicine beyond drugs and procedures. This generous royal endorsement will enable us to be ever more ambitious in our mission to achieve a more compassionate and sustainable health service.”
DUTCHY ORIGINALS DETOX TINCTURE
In 2011, after the launch of Charles’ range of herbal tinctures, I had the audacity to publicly criticise Charles for selling the Duchy Herbals detox tincture which I named ‘Dodgy Originals Detox Tincture’.
ANTIBIOTIC OVERUSE
In 2016, speaking at a global leaders summit on antimicrobial resistance, Prince Charles warned that Britain faced a “potentially disastrous scenario” because of the “overuse and abuse” of antibiotics. The Prince explained that he had switched to organic farming on his estates because of the growing threat from antibiotic resistance and now treats his cattle with homeopathic remedies rather than conventional medication. As some of you may be aware, this issue has been a long-standing and acute concern to me,” he told delegates from 20 countries “I have enormous sympathy for those engaged in the vital task of ensuring that, as the world population continues to increase unsustainably and travel becomes easier, antibiotics retain their availability to overcome disease… It must be incredibly frustrating to witness the fact that antibiotics have too often simply acted as a substitute for basic hygiene, or as it would seem, a way of placating a patient who has a viral infection or who actually needs little more than patience to allow a minor bacterial infection to resolve itself.”
DUMFRIES HOUSE
In 2017, Charles declared that he will open a centre for SCAM in the recently purchased Dumfries House in Scotland. Currently, the College of Medicine and Integrated Health is offering two-day Foundation Courses at this iconic location. Gabriel Chiu, a US celebrity cosmetic and reconstructive surgeon, and his wife Christine, joined the Prince of Wales as he opened the integrated health and wellbeing centre on the Dumfries House Estate in East Ayrshire in 2019. As he unveiled a plaque, Prince Charles said: “I’m so glad that all of you have been able to get here today, particularly because I could not be more proud to see the opening of this new integrated health centre at Dumfries House. It’s something I’ve been wanting to do for the last 35 years. I’m also so proud of all the team at Dumfries House who built it, an all in-house team.”
HOMEOPATHY
Generations of royals have favoured homeopathy, and allegedly it is because of this influence that homeopathy became part of the NHS in 1948. Homeopathy has also been at the core of Charles’ obsession with SCAM from its beginning. In 2017, ‘Country News’ published an article about our heir to the throne stating that Prince of Wales has revealed he uses homeopathic treatments for animals on his organic farm at Highgrove to help reduce reliance on antibiotics, the article stated. He said his methods of farming tried wherever possible to ‘‘go with the grain of nature’’ to avoid dependency on antibiotics, pesticides and other forms of chemical intervention.
In the same year, it was revealed that UK farmers were being taught how to treat their livestock with homeopathy “by kind permission of His Royal Highness, The Prince Of Wales”
In 2019, the Faculty of Homeopathy announced that His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales had accepted to become Patron of the Faculty of Homeopathy. Dr Gary Smyth, President of the Faculty of Homeopathy commented, “As the Faculty celebrates its 175th anniversary this year, it is an enormous honour for us to receive the Patronage of His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales and I am delighted to announce this news today.” Charles’ move amazed observers who saw it as a deliberate protest against the discontinuation of reimbursement of homeopathy by the NHS.
In 2020, Charles fell ill with the corona-virus and happily made a swift recovery. It was widely reported that his recovery was due to homeopathy, a notion denied by Clarence House.
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Happy Birthday Charles
If you thought that lousy research in so-called alternative medicine (SCAM) is confined to human medicine, you were wrong. The papers published in veterinary medicine is just one of many examples to suggest that it is, in fact, even worse. Take, for instance, this study of homeopathy.
This Indian study was conducted to evaluate the ameliorative potential of homeopathic drugs in combination (Sulfur 30C, Thuja 30C, Graphites 30C, and Psorinum 30C) in 16 dogs affected with oral papillomatosis which had not undergone any previous treatment. Papillomas are benign epithelial tumours caused by infection with species-specific DNA papilloma-viruses. They tend to disappear within 6-12 months.
Dogs affected with oral papillomatosiswere randomly divided into two groups, namely, homeopathic treatment group (n=8) and placebo control group (n=8). The homeopathic combination of drugs and placebo drug (distilled water) was administered orally twice daily for 15 days. The 4 homeopathy drugs were used in the 30C potency and given orally at 2 drops per 5 kg body weight. The clinical evaluation in both groups of dogs was performed by the same investigator throughout the period of study (12 months). All dogs were clinically scored for oral lesions on days 0, 5, 7, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 45, 60, 90, 120, and 150 after initiation of treatment.
The homeopathic treatment group showed early recovery with a significant reduction in oral lesions reflected by a clinical score in comparison to placebo-treated group. Oral papillomatous lesions regressed in the homeopathic group between 7 and 15 days, whereas regression of papilloma in the placebo group occurred between 90 and 150 days. The homeopathic treated group was observed for 12 months post-treatment period and no recurrence of oral papilloma was observed.
The authors concluded that the result of this investigation proves that the combination of homeopathic drugs (Sulfur 30+Thuja 30+Graphites 30+Psorinum 30) offers an attractive, non-invasive and most economical way of treating COP. A combination of homeopathic drugs is a novel approach for treating canine oral papilloma and further studies are needed to elucidate the use of homeopathic combination as a veterinary oncological therapeutics and to explore the mechanism of action of these homeopathic drugs in ameliorating oral papilloma.
The graph says it all. Very rarely is any medical treatment as effective as to produce such impressive results.
So, are we witnessing a scientific sensation?
Is this the breakthrough homeopaths have been waiting for?
Should the Nobel committee be informed?
Perhaps not!
A group size of 8 is underwhelming, to say the least. It is not sufficient to generate a reliable result. The results, even if true, ‘prove‘ nothing other than the authors’ ignorance of research methodology.
The objective of this study was to carry out a patent survey of homeopathic products and processes. A free and international patent database, Espacenet, was used. The search was carried out using the keyword homeop*, with two approaches:
- no date restrictions for the search,
- a date limit for the publication years 2008 to 2018.
The patents from the limited period were organized as depositor countries, ownerships and groups, including homeopathic formulations, equipment, packaging, production procedures, and analytical methods.
Without date restriction, 601 patents were identified in the survey. Of these, 174 were related to homeopathy and published in the period 2008 to 2018. Technologies come mainly from the following countries:
- United States (55 patents),
- Russia (24),
- Germany (15),
- France (13),
- India (12),
- Ukraine (11),
- Brazil (6),
- China (6).
Among the ownerships,
- 69% of patent applications were by independent depositors,
- 23% by companies,
- 7.5% by universities,
- 0.5% by company/university partnerships.
New formulations represented 75.9% of technologies, whilst the others comprised 14.3% for equipment, 3.8% for drugs packaging, 3.8% for production procedures, and 2.2% for analytical methods.
The authors concluded that the present review helps visualize the homeopathy-related patents published in recent years, as well as the main countries and researchers investing in the field of homeopathy.
It is not often that I find anything interesting published in the journal HOMEOPATHY these days. But this paper is fascinating, I thought. The main reason for this is the fact that we hear so often arguments which go something like this:
HOMEOPATHY CANNOT BE PATENTED —> NO COMMERCIAL INTEREST —> NO MONEY TO BE MADE —> NO FUNDS FOR RESEARCH —> NO LARGE AND RIGOROUS CLINICAL TRIALS.
And here we learn that there are about 17 patents per year. Sure this is not a lot but it squarely defeats the argument that homeopathic formulations cannot be patented.
Even more fascinating is the question which homeopathic formulation one might want to get patented. I have recently alluded to the weird and wonderful stuff that is already on offer (see here, here, here and here). Here I persent to you a few more:
- Alligator Miss. (Alligator Mississippiensis)
- Boa Constrictor
- Boa Constrictor (Skin)
- Car Exhaust
- Eclipse Totality
- Exhaust fumes (Car petrol exhaust fumes)
- Frog (Chytrid Fungus)
- Frog spawn (Common frog, Rana temporaria)
- Great Wall of China
- Guinness
- Gunpowder
- Hadrian’s Wall
- Ibuprofen
- Indigo (colour)
- Irish Wet Turf
- Oxygenium (Oxygen)
- Ozone (O3)
- Paracetamol
- Penicillinum
- Prednisolone
- Progesterone
- Rubber (Synthetic)
- Salicylic Acid
- Sol Africana
- Sol Australis (Sunlight – Australia)
- Sol Britannic (Sunlight British)
- Stonehenge (Emanation)
- Tamoxifen
- Vitamin A (Retinol)
- Vitamin B Complex
- Vitamin B12 (Cyanocobalamin)
- Vitamin B2 (Riboflavin, Vitamin G)
- Vitamin B3 (Nicotinic Acid, Niacin)
- Vitamin B5 (D-Pantothenic acid hemicalcium salt)
- Vitamin B6 (Pyridoxine Hydrochloride)
- Vitamin C (L-Ascorbic Acid)
- Vitamin D (Vitamin D2 + Vitamin D3)
- Vitamin D2 (Ergocalciferol)
- Vitamin D3 (Cholecalciferol)
- Vitamin E ((±)-α-Tocopherol)
- Vitamin H (Biotin) (Biotin)
- Vitamin K (Vitamin K1)
- Vitamin K Injection (Phylloquinone, Vitamine K1)
- Wind (South-West)
We see very clearly that, in homeopathy, imagination knows no bounds. So, let me ask you, my readers and avid fans of homeopathy
WHICH FORMULATION WOULD YOU WANT TO PATENT?
(only serious answers, of course)
