Caveat Emptor

Posted in Uncategorized on 08/17/2010 12:33 pm by Buffy

It should be no surprise to anyone that there are unscrupulous people in the world. There are people who will, given a chance, sell you counterfeit, broken, or ineffective goods, and leave you high and dry when you realise that there is a problem. At best, you’re left with a defective piece of equipment and a lighter wallet. At worst, you’re left with something potentially dangerous and/or life threatening, and that is exactly what this post deals with.

MMS, or Miracle Mineral Solution, was “discovered” by Jim Humble, who allegedly exponentially improved the effectiveness of a South American health drink by adding a few drops of vinegar to it. With this miracle drink, he single-handedly treated over 2000 patients, and trained others to use the formula to treat a range of diseases – everything from malaria to HIV. Sounds pretty amazing, right? Here’s Humble himself, talking about his life and the creation of MMS as he’s interviewed by Project Camelot (a group who are deserving of a blog post all of their own):

Jim Humble interviewed by Project Camelot

In this interview, you’ll hear him state that “MMS will cure cancer”, that he cured malaria in 4 hours, and that the “American drug companies” called the government of the country he was in and stopped him curing malaria under threat of cessation of drug provision to local hospitals. He also states that he further developed the formula of “stabilised oxygen” so that its treatment success rate was 100%. He goes on to explain that he optimised the delivery mechanism, so that you can add lemon juice or vinegar to this MMS powder, and produce chlorine dioxide, which he maintains will cure cancer, malaria, AIDS, and more with a 100% success rate.

This, of course, is complete and utter rubbish of the highest order. MMS falls into the same category as many purported miracle cures, in that it doesn’t do what it is supposed to do. Where MMS differs from many of these other cures, however, is that, not only is it ineffective, but it is actually dangerous, and continued use can lead to life-threatening conditions such as vomiting, severe diarrhoea, and symptoms of dehydration. (FDA warning about MMS, stating the proven health risks associated with ingesting chlorine dioxide as prescribed by the MMS treatment)

Chlorine dioxide is typically used as an industrial bleach to bleach things such as wood pulp, and also in large scale water purification. When used for water purification, the final levels in drinking water may be no higher than 0.8mg/L (milligrams per litre),  in order to prevent any harmful affects associated with ingesting the chemical. It can cause skin irritation, lung irritation, digestive tract irritation, vomiting, nausea, diarrhoea, etc. The MSDS (material safety data sheet) for chlorine dioxide states that if it is ingested, medical attention should be sought immediately. This is in sharp contrast to the treatment plan prescribed by Humble, which states that you should increase the amount of MMS you take each day until you induce nausea, slightly reduce the intake until the nausea passes, and then continue to raise the dose again to try to “push past” the nausea. This is patently unsafe, and potentially very dangerous, and yet Humble continues to assert that his MMS will cure cancer, HIV, AIDS, hepatitis, etc.

Jim Humble is not a qualified physician. He is not a biologist, or a chemist. He has no understanding of the interaction of these chemicals within the human body, and no knowledge pertaining to curing any of these diseases. He is, quite simply, a quack. It is of the utmost importance that everyone knows this, so that he will not be able to continue to sell this dangerous chemical as a panacea.

In the above interview, he states that the MMS doesn’t have the power to damage healthy cells, and only attacks the pathogens which cause the problem. This is a statement that has no basis in fact.

He states that all pathogens which cause diseases, and which have a bad effect on the body, are anaerobic bacteria. In conjunction with this, he also states that aerobic bacteria are much stronger than these disease causing, weak anaerobic bacteria. This is another statement that has no basis in fact. While anaerobic bacteria cause disease, aerobic bacteria are just as effective at causing disease (as evidenced by Mycobacterium tuberculosis, a highly aerobic bacteria, which causes most cases of tuberculosis).

He states that the way MMS kills the anaerobic bacteria is by “blowing a hole in the skin” and that there is no possibility of any pathogen developing a resistance to MMS. He also tells us that the reason MMS is more effective than antibiotics because they must be developed specifically to enter the bacterium and cause the nucleus (the “heart” of the cell) to stop working. These statements are incorrect. While it is certainly true that some antibiotics may attack the nucleus of the cell to kill bacteria, there are many different kinds of antibiotics, including those which attack the cell wall or membrane, those which stop protein synthesis, etc. Bacteria are constantly changing to develop resistances to the various antibacterial chemicals that we use in daily life. To say that bacteria will never develop a resistance to the presence of MMS in the body, even if MMS did what it was supposed to do, it absolutely untrue, and simply serves to further prove that Humble has not got even a basic grasp of biology, biochemistry, chemistry, or any relevant scientific or medical information.

Later in the interview, he tells us that by mixing the MMS with DMSO (a compound which readily penetrates the skin), and rubbing it on the skin, it absorbs into the skin, and penetrates cancer cells (“soaks into the cancer cells themselves”), killing the “little bug” inside the cell which causes it to be cancerous, and leaving a healthy cell which doesn’t need to be killed after the removal of this “little bug”. This is, of course, patently false. There is no proof that cancer is caused by an anaerobic “little bug” which can be killed, leaving only healthy cells. This simply serves to demonstrate how limited his understanding of cancer truly is.

To round up the interview, he tells us that MMS cures malaria, AIDS, cancer, influenza, the common cold, “all types of diseases of the mouth”, abscessed teeth, etc. While it’s true that brushing or rinsing with a mild bleach (such as highly diluted hydrogen peroxide) will probably kill anything untoward in your mouth, brushing with the concentrations of bleach in MMS is more likely to cause blisters and mucous membrane irritation. As for the rest of that list, there is absolutely no proof that MMS is effective in curing any of them.

Essentially, Jim Humble sings the same familiar song as many alternative health practitioners – his miracle cure is being kept down by the government and the “big pharma” companies, it has 100% cure rates, and it is effective on virtually everything. And, just like those other health practitioners, what he is selling is little more than lies, made even worse by the fact that the chemical he is selling is also dangerous.

In short, MMS is not a miracle cure. Rather, it is a dangerous chemical that should not be ingested or used in the manner that Jim Humble is prescribing. It is a product that should not be purchased, and should not be used. If you have any, please dispose of it. If your friends or family have any, dispose of it for them, and tell them why.

MMS is dangerous, and I hereby publicly defame Jim Humble, and his criminally irresponsible promotion of MMS. I wholeheartedly encourage you to do the same.

 

Resignations rejected?

Posted in Uncategorized on 08/12/2010 12:21 pm by Buffy

Some time ago, shortly after the publication of Murphy report, I wrote a blog encouraging people to read both the Murphy and Ryan reports, which dealt with institutional child abuse in Ireland. I did so not because they were particularly easy to read (far from it, in fact, since both reports are long, and describe in detail some truly awful abuse of children), but because I thought it was important that the information held in the reports wasn’t ignored. The children who were abused were systematically failed by every person or group who should have been able to help them, from the teachers, to the Gardaí, and even the state – as such, now that the truth has finally been printed, it’s important that it not be swept under the rug, or ignored any more.

With all of the above in mind, I was more than a little surprised to hear the news that Pope Benedict XVI has refused the resignations of two bishops who were a part of the Dublin Archdiocese during the period investigated in the reports, namely Bishops Eamonn Walsh and Raymond Field. Both were undeniably involved in the activities discussed in the Murphy report (dealing with complaints, covering up abuses, etc.), as shown by the commission investigating the abuses. Both were fully aware of what they were doing, and the repercussions of it – indeed, Bishop Field was a qualified barrister, and therefore aware of both church and state law regarding abuse. They were subject to considerable public pressure, and eventually compelled to resign in December 2009, in the wake of the publication of the Murphy report, when the extent of the cover-up came to light.

As a result of the decision by Pope Benedict, both men will remain as auxiliary bishops with the Dublin Archdiocese, and will be assigned “revised responsibilities within the diocese”. The fact that they remain auxiliary bishops means that they will be available to administer confirmation in any part of the diocese in the coming year. The notion that men who were involved in the systematic cover up of abuses over a period of decades will be available to help children confirm their role as adults within the Catholic faith is more than a little disturbing – surely men such as these do not provide a good example of what is to be expected of an adult of great faith?

The message sent by this refusal of resignation, and confirmation of their continuing positions within the diocese, is a troubling one. It reaffirms the idea that they did nothing wrong in covering up the abuse, and that, because of an apology that was all but forced out of them, they are fit to continue in their roles. It demonstrates that the Holy See is largely unwilling to take any sort of definitive action against men who are proven to have acted wrongly, and it also begs the question of what exactly one must do to have a resignation accepted?

Now is a time for the members of the church in Ireland, and the Catholic church as a whole, to accept the wrongs that were done, and apologise unreservedly for them. Now is a time where the people who perpetrated the abuses should be removed from their positions, and called to answer for their actions. And now is a time for the Pope to genuinely acknowledge the horrible abuses that children were subjected to, and send a clear message that it will never be allowed to happen again.

Unfortunately, it seems that “now” is not considerably different from 30 years ago, where priests were virtually untouchable in the eyes of the public and the law, where children were branded liars for having the courage to speak out, and where abuse was swept under the carpet and never acknowledged or spoken of.

Caveat-filled apologies and promises of action that never come to bear seem to be all that the Pope and the Church have to offer, and sadly, that’s simply not enough.

 

Gillian McKeith Has no PhD

Posted in Uncategorized on 07/14/2010 03:16 pm by Buffy

Yup, there it is in black and white.

Over the last few days, Ms Gillian McKeith has been causing quite a storm on twitter by misusing the service, and then trying to back away and deny it. This would maybe have worked, if the service wasn’t also used by a number of very tech-savvy people, who know that the best policy is to save and screenshot everything, so that when the inevitable denials come, there is proof. It seems that Gillian would have been better off investing in a fake PhD in Social Media, and perhaps this all wouldn’t have happened.

So, where on earth did it all start? Well, It seems to have started with a woman called Rachel Moody, who noted on twitter that she was about to start reading a chapter in Bad Science (by Ben Goldacre) about Gillian McKeith. This prompted a series of pretty nasty replies from Gillian, claiming that the poster was anti-american, that Goldacre was a liar, and other such statements. Unfortunately for her, some clever sort decided to take a screenshot of the tweets, which meant that when Gillian decided to back pedal and delete the tweets, pretending they never happened, the screenshots remained. Image source: http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2010/07/gillian_mckeith_does_not_have.php

Clearly worried about her image, Gillian has been trying to distance herself from this twitter account, first by beginning to tweet in the third person, as if it were someone else behind the account, and then by posting explicit declarations that it wasn’t her – “Do you actually believe this is real twitter site for the GM?” For a moment, you might be tempted to believe that it was all an elaborate hoax. For just a moment though, until you begin some basic fact checking, and discover that it’s essentially just another lie to add to the pile.

You see, what Gillian forgot is that you can’t suddenly delete yourself from the internet, because there will always be a remainder somewhere – be it in a cache, in a screenshot, or in the lazy code where you don’t properly remove the twitter link from your official website, but instead merely comment out the code…

Unfortunately, many people know how to look at website source code, and so it was immediately obvious what had happened. If more proof were needed, well one would only have to look at a screenshot taken from her website earlier today, where the twitter link was in pride of place alongside her other social media badges. Luckily, I have just such a screenshot.

People have been finding other forgotten links all over her website too – links in email newsletters and on less prominent pages, all encouraging you to follow Gillian on twitter, at her official address, www.twitter.com/gillianmckeith – it seems that the lazy webmaster also forgot to remove links beyond the front page.

What has the response been? Well, aside from roundly ignoring any requests for clarification, Gillian has been blocking people who tweet that she doesn’t have a PhD or other similar statements.What could have been solved with an apology, and a clarification, has instead turned into a nasty little mess and a PR disaster. Still, there are lessons to be learned here for all parties involved; 1) The print screen button should be your best friend when dealing with people like Gillian McKeith, who is a quack of the highest order, 2) Having a fake PhD doesn’t make you smart, and 3) Clicking “Undo” on the internet is a good deal harder than you might think.

Collected Screenshots not shown above

Gillian points us to her official twitter – at www.twitter.com/gillianmckeith. Can’t figure out why that url seems so familiar…

 

Where have all the cowboys gone?

Posted in Uncategorized on 06/09/2010 09:02 pm by Buffy

A few nights ago, I arrived home after a wonderful weekend in London. It was dark, and rainy, and both myself and my brother rushed to get into my car and out of the miserable weather which had welcomed us home to Ireland. Unfortunately, in all the rush and excitement (and tiredness too), my brother put down his hand luggage bag in the car park, and forgot to pick it back up before we drove off. We discovered this later that night, and it put a bit of a damper on our otherwise brilliant weekend.

While I didn’t hold out much hope for a return, I filed a report with the airport lost and found, and kept checking their “Found Items” page on the website to see if it had been reported. Imagine my surprise when, 2-3 days later, I got a call to say that the bag had been found. I was pretty happy, and went out to the airport to pick it up. It was when we were confirming that the bag was really mine that I realised that I shouldn’t have been quite so happy – while the books and some other bits and pieces were still in the bag, my brother’s Nintendo DS and charger were gone. That’s right – whoever found the bag first didn’t turn it in. Instead, they went through its contents, and stole from it. How disappointing.

Over the years, I’ve come across many lost wallets, bags, money, etc. And with each lost thing that I’ve found, my first reaction is to wonder where I can turn it in. I’ve looked in wallets and bags to find some identification, I’ve called numbers in phones to try to find the owner, but I’ve never, ever, even considered rifling through the contents and taking what I liked from them. And who would? Who was brought up to believe that it’s acceptable to take someone else’s belongings, simply because they’ve had the bad luck to misplace them?

Once, I found €20 on the floor of my office lobby. I picked it up, and went straight to reception to hand it in. I remember the receptionist looking at me as if I was a bit mad, and saying that if no one claimed it, I could have it. That was the last thing on my mind. I was remembering my time as a college student, when €20 in your pocket made you feel pretty flush, and thinking that if I lost my €20, I’d want someone to return it.

I would always try to return something lost, because I know how frustrating it is to arrive home and discover that something is missing. The hassle of cancelling and replacing cards, the stress of trying to find the missing item, the sadness when you realise that it’s really gone. Apparently, this is not the way everyone thinks. Where have all the cowboys gone?

 

The highs and lows of seminar training

Posted in Martial Arts on 03/12/2010 12:53 pm by Buffy

Trust is important in so many aspects of life. Over the years, I have found that trust is especially important when training martial arts. There is an implicit trust with your partner – they won’t endanger you or hurt you, they will train safely, and they will look after your body while they are using it to practise. This trust is important – after all, why else would you allow someone to practise high impact, high velocity, or just downright dangerous techniques on you?

This agreement also extends to instructors. When I am called up to be a demonstration partner (an uke) by an instructor, I will do my absolute best to do as I am told insofar as I will attack as I am asked, and I will take the breakfall or technique as required. Once again, there is a trust issue. I trust that my instructor will be careful with me, and will not damage me while demonstrating the technique. Thankfully, none of my instructors have ever been anything but careful in this respect, and the same can be said for my partners.

As someone who travels to quite a few seminars during the year, I see an awful lot of instructors of many different levels (mostly high dan grades). And unfortunately, what I also see a lot of is these high dan grade instructors injuring their ukes. And, frankly, it disgusts me.

As ukes, we are lending you our bodies to demonstrate your skill and prowess at the particular martial art that you practice. We are polite, we are compliant, and we do our best to make sure that you can demonstrate the technique effectively, so that everyone can learn. As a dan grade, you don’t automatically have the right to abuse us simply because of your higher rank. As a brown belt, I can perform techniques on our beginners, lowering them gently to the floor, and moving slowly, so that they are not hurt, even if they have not developed the breakfalling skill yet. I fail to understand why high dan grades do not also possess this skill.

When a senior instructor hurts someone on the mats, the whole teaching and training dynamic changes. No longer am I worrying about learning the technique or paying attention to the intricacies of the throw – instead I am worried about the person who has been hurt, and furious at the instructor who has hurt them. I instantly lose so much respect for the instructor that I am no longer interested in learning what they have to teach, because I don’t want to learn from someone who abuses students. For the duration of the set, I won’t be focussed on performing the technique well – I’ll simply be hoping that the set will soon be over, that the uke will be ok, and that the instructor won’t want to demonstrate on me. As soon as an instructor hurts a student, the trust between student and instructor is demolished, and if I don’t trust an instructor, I find it almost impossible to learn from them.

If your skill level matches the belt that you wear, you should have no trouble performing any of your techniques at a variety of speeds, and you should have no trouble choosing the appropriate speed for the students you are teaching. While accidents can happen when students are learning new techniques, if your skill level truly matches the belt you wear, then you shouldn’t be making these mistakes while demonstrating on students at a seminar.

In particular, when students have travelled to a seminar, there is a financial commitment made – travel costs, accommodations costs, seminar fees, etc. To take one of these students, and hurt them, you are robbing them of the chance to train properly during the seminar that they have paid to attend. The student may be impaired for the rest of the day, or may not even be able to train at all. I have seen students, more than once, travel across the country or from another country, only to be hurt in the first set of the day, and be unable to train for the rest of the seminar. As students, we deserve better than that.

Many times, instructors will make a big show of thanking the attendees. They will say that the students are the life blood of the federation, and that the federation couldn’t continue without students. And this is true, although I don’t believe that the instructors really believe it when they say it. Put simply – if the students stop attending, the instructors will no longer be required.

In short – as a senior instructor, you have a captive audience in the students who have come to learn from you. We are eager for knowledge. We want to learn, to progress. We don’t want to be damaged or hurt. Please remember to respect the bodies of those who you demonstrate on, or you may find that your audience dwindles with each passing seminar.

 

Why I will continue to stand

Posted in Uncategorized on 02/19/2010 01:06 pm by Buffy

Even though it is difficult to do so, it is important to stand your ground. It is even more so when people try to pull that ground from underneath you by discrediting you with facts that really have nothing to do with the ground upon which you stand.

My day job is as a web developer. I work for a company which distributes pharmaceutical and other products (such as cosmetics). Until today, my company did not know about my protest, and are most certainly not in support of it or behind organising it. They know now, as I have had to avoid their good name being drawn into disrepute when it is really me that the homoeopaths seek to target.

Today, in an effort to make me look bad and to heap discredit on my protest, people began to throw the name of this company around like mud. This displeases me greatly, as they don’t deserve it.

I will say it, and I will continue to say it. Homoeopathy doesn’t work. I have always believed that it didn’t work. Bogus science is what drove me to get my degree and do my own investigations.

If homoeopathy worked, you wouldn’t have to personally discredit me to prove it, you would just be able to prove it. The fact that you have attacked my credibility, rather than providing evidence, simply shows that the only response you have is to attack me personally. And that puts you firmly on the lower moral ground.

For shame, homoeopaths. Today, you have sunk to a new low.

 

From one form letter to another

Posted in Uncategorized on 02/15/2010 03:29 pm by Buffy

So, this week my 1023 campaign has seen a fair bit of media interest, and has had at least one article published so far, in the Sunday Times. The Times, being very fair, opted to let the Irish Society of Homoeopaths and a practising homoeopath, have their say. Both responded with what are fairly typical comments, which I will now attempt to redress.

The Irish Society of Homoeopaths is reported as saying that I, and other campaigners, have no idea how it works:

The Irish Society of Homeopaths has criticised the planned mass overdose, claiming campaigners have “no understanding of how homeopathy works”.

Having done a large amount of research, I would rather argue that I do have an understanding of how homoeopathy works, and it’s probably a better understanding than many practising homoeopaths. I understand that there is no mystical or spiritual properties to the medicine. I understand that the medicine cannot contain any active ingredients as a result of its factor of dilution. I understand that there is no way water can have a “memory”. And, finally, I understand that the comment above is a standard comment, rattled off in response to anyone criticising homoeopathy.

As I’ve said, time and time again, there is nothing in these homoeopathic remedies. There can’t physically be anything in these remedies unless the process of succussion allows homoeopaths to break the laws of physics and chemistry. I also know that water can do many things, and exist in several interesting and unique forms, but it doesn’t have a memory. The water cycle tells us that water exists in a continuum, moving between states, but never being created or destroyed. With that in mind, would you want water that had, for example, travelled through a sewage processing plant, to have a memory of where it had been? There is nothing about homoeopathy that would make water selectively “remember” the minuscule amounts of anything put in it. In short, water does not have a memory, and to suggest that it does, and indeed base a treatment plan on it, is nothing short of ridiculous.

The second quote, from a practising homoeopath (Sheelagh Behan), states:

A highly diluted homeopathic remedy will never act unless the symptoms of the patient fit the specific symptoms that the remedy will treat.

To my mind, this seems to go against certain principles of homoeopathic treatment. For a start, if we are to believe the original “like treats like” principles of homoeopathy, then the medicines should not have no effect. In fact, they should induce the very conditions that they claim to treat. Sleeping tablets should induce insomnia, malaria treatments should induce malarial symptoms, etc. To say that they will have no effect or that they will not act is to ignore one of the founding principles of homoeopathy.

Another principle of homoeopathy is to treat the patient, not the symptoms. Consultations with homoeopaths are frequently long and involve many questions to establish a patient history, so that their symptoms and feelings can be looked up in the big book of homoeopathy to discern a treatment program. This often results in custom remedies being made for the person. With this in mind, and their heavy “patient-first” emphasis, one has to wonder if they support generic over the counter homoeopathic “medicines” being sold in places like boots, where a practising homoeopath isn’t on hand to question. What if the consumer gets their symptoms wrong, and purchases the wrong remedy? Will there be no effect, or will they be stricken with another illness that they are, inadvertently, taking the homoeopathic cure for?

If homoeopathy is truly the highly personal and efficient replacement for modern medicine, then how do mass produced, over the counter sugar pills fit into it?

I call on any homoeopath who is offended by my demonstration to answer the questions above without resorting to bashing conventional medicine.

 

And it continues with a campaign

Posted in Pop Science on 02/10/2010 03:18 pm by Buffy

As a result of my dealings with Boots, and my general attitude toward homoeopathic products, I’ve decided to take a leaf out of the book of the 1023 campaigners in England, and launch a similar campaign here in Ireland. The website for the campaign is now live, and I’d love it if you would all take a look, pass the link on, and consider supporting the campaign.

The reason I’m posting this is twofold – firstly, to let everyone know that the campaign is now starting, and that I need your support, and secondly, to talk a little bit more about why I’m doing it.

I think that everyone should have freedom of choice when it comes to their health. The decisions you make can affect the rest of your life dramatically, so it’s important to make the right ones. With so much advertising, it can be a bit tough to siphon out the useful information from all of the advertisement chaff when it comes to healthcare, so many people turn to their pharmacist for advice. And this is really where the problem starts. You could argue that it is someone’s choice to use homoeopathic remedies, and indeed, it is a choice that we should be free to make. But when that choice is made with incomplete or inaccurate information, then it’s not really a choice at all. Unless your pharmacist is specifically telling you that there is nothing in these remedies at all, then you are not making an informed decision.

Another oft-heard argument is that it’s not doing any harm to anyone to have them on sale, or for people to take them. After all, the placebo effect is a demonstrable phenomenon, and surely if that’s enough, we should leave them be? While I would typically refer these people to a number of cases where people have died unnecessarily due to carers withholding conventional medicine in favour of homoeopathic medicine, in this case, I’m going to look a little deeper.

The relationship between patient and pharmacist or doctor is a delicate thing. The doctor/pharmacist relies on the complete honesty of the patient in order to diagnose or treat correctly, and the patient has to trust the doctor/pharmacist enough in order to be completely honest. When this relationship fails, people are wrongly diagnosed and don’t get better. In order for a placebo drug, such as a homoeopathic medicine to work, the doctor/pharmacist has to lie to the patient. They have to say that it is a real medicine, that will cure what ails the patient. Every doctor and pharmacist would have to agree to treat homoeopathic medicine like a giant “emperor’s new clothes” conspiracy, and simply not mention the fact that there’s nothing in it, and lie to the patient if they ask directly. And when the doctor/pharmacist lies to the patient, that delicate bond of honesty and trust is broken.

In addition, it is often forgotten that the placebo effect is not limited to placebo medicines. For example, when you go to a doctor, and they prescribe you with a conventional medicine, the expectation is that you will get better, so you will experience the same placebo effect, along with the conventional treatment. Again, this relies partly on that bond between doctor/pharmacist and patient – the patient has to believe that the doctor/pharmacist is not lying to them and that the medicine will do them good. To return to a world where doctors and pharmacists lie to patients is to take a massive step backwards in the way we look after ourselves, and it shouldn’t be encouraged. In order for doctors and pharmacists to be honest, they need to let people know that there are no active ingredients whatsoever in the homoeopathic remedies that people are purchasing. Currently, this isn’t happening, and people are spending money on useless remedies.

I hope that, by organising this protest, I’ll be able to show some people that there really is nothing in homoeopathy, and that they shouldn’t waste their money on it. And I hope that I can show Boots that we would rather know the truth about our medicines than be lied to. If you agree, I hope that you’ll join me in the demonstration.

 

It started with an email…

Posted in Pop Science on 02/09/2010 11:25 am by Buffy

Yesterday, I emailed the Boots customer care address, about homoeopathic products. I did this because I discovered that Boots was selling homoeopathic remedies in their stores in Dublin. The store that I visited was in the Jervis Street shopping centre, and it had prominent displays outside promoting the pharmaceutical advice and products available. I was pretty shocked, then, to find that they were selling useless sugar pills alongside actual effective medication. I was shocked enough that I was prompted to write a quick note, as follows:

To whom it may concern:

On visiting a local Boots store over the weekend, I was shocked and horrified to discover homoeopathic remedies for sale in the store (Jervis Shopping Centre branch). This particular store had a heavy emphasis on the pharmacy side of the business in its advertising, so I would not have expected it to also be selling unproven and essentially fake medicine to people, alongside useful drugs.

Homoeopathic remedies contain no actual substance other than sugar pills and/or water. They are diluted beyond the point where one molecule of the original substance can be in the final product, and that is scientifically proven. I cannot understand, therefore, why you would choose to sell such products alongside legitimate medicines.

On a personal note, I’m extremely disappointed to find that a store which I used to enjoy shopping in is continuing to sell these products.

Today, I received a reply from Boots:

Thank you for taking the time to contact us regarding your concerns over the retail of Homeopathic and Alternative remedies.

At Boots we take our responsibilities as the leading Pharmacy-led Health & Beauty retailer in the UK very seriously and as part of this we?re [sic] committed to providing our customers with a wide range of healthcare products to suit their individual needs.  We know that many people believe in the benefits of complementary medicines and we aim to offer the products we know our customers want.

Our Pharmacists are trained healthcare professionals and are on hand to offer advice on the safe use of complementary medicines. The Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain issues guidance to pharmacists on the correct selling of homoeopathy, which our pharmacists adhere to. We would support the call for scientific research and evidence gathering on the efficacy of homoeopathic medicines as this would help our patients and customers make informed choices about using homoeopathic medicines

We take the concerns of all of our customers very seriously and we thank you for the time you have taken to give us this feedback.  Please be assured that I have shared your comments with our Healthcare and Pharmacy teams.

Yours sincerely

Boots Customer Care

I would hope that, in the light of the recent 10.23 demonstrations, Boots would be receiving many emails complaining about their sale of homoeopathic products, so I expect that the reply is a standardised form letter by now. What their letter says is that, even if they are aware that the products are useless and pointless, they believe people want to buy them, and so they have no problem selling them. I do have a problem with a brand that is so associated with healthcare selling products which are not only ineffective, but which could well damage people if taken instead of conventional medicine when sick.

It is my opinion that it’s not enough to merely support the call for research while also profiting from the sale of useless pills and tinctures. Hundreds of studies have already been done on a wide range of homoeopathic remedies, and the results are almost unilaterally negative. Why ignore those studies in favour of future research, when the evidence is already there? The answer: profit.

I think it’s dangerous and misleading for a healthcare professional to recommend or advise on the use of homoeopathic remedies, as it lends credibility to a completely incredulous field. The only advice that “trained healthcare professionals” should give about homoeopathic remedies is “don’t take them”.

So, with the above in mind, I replied to Boots:

Hi,

Thank you for your prompt reply.

My concern is precisely that Boots is considered a leading pharmacy, and that many people would turn to staff in store for health advice. If the advice given to them includes advice about homoeopathic remedies, then it undermines the advice that is being given.

Homoeopathic remedies contain no active ingredients whatsoever. Most remedies are sold at 30C dilution, which equates to 10 to the power of 60 dilution, or 1 part of the molecule in 1000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 parts of water. This means, essentially, that it is physically impossible for even a single molecule of the original substance to be present in the final product. What you are selling, as medicine, is essentially sugar pills with drops of water added. When people eschew conventional medicine in favour of homoeopathic remedies, there can be disastrous consequences. I refer you, for example, to the recent case of Thomas, Manju, and Gloria Sam.Gloria Sam was an infant who suffered from severe eczema. Rather than use the conventional medicine and creams which were recommended by their healthcare professional, her parents, Thomas and Manju Sam, chose to turn to a homoeopathic healthcare professional. As a result, Gloria’s condition continued to deteriorate rapidly. By the time the child was seen by a conventional medical professional, a doctor she was so ill that they had to immediately put her on morphine simply to manage the pain. Due to systemic infections, and a total lack of legitimate care, she died after 3 days in the hospital. This is a death that could have easily been prevented had the parents followed the advice of their healthcare professional. This case is just an example of the kind of thing that will continue to happen for as long as large institutions, such as Boots, are seen to support homoeopathy as a legitimate and effective choice when it comes to dealing with health problems.

Unless your healthcare professionals are informing people that no active ingredients are present in the homoeopathic remedies, and that they will have no effect on their health, then you are not helping them to make informed choices. Making an informed choice can only happen when all of the information laid out is correct.

I implore you to reconsider your support of homoeopathic medicine, to examine the evidence which has already shown that these medicines are ineffective, and to help your customers make a truly informed choice.

With all of the above in mind, I have decided to organise a ten23 event (mass homoeopathy overdose) in Ireland. I will set a date, and I would ask that any people who wish to join in get in touch with me at jkeane [at] zenbuffy [dot] com.
Watch this space for further updates on the correspondence with Boots, and on the upcoming ten23 event in Ireland.
 

Love the skin you’re in

Posted in Uncategorized on 02/01/2010 03:20 pm by Buffy

Unless the skin you’re in is skinny, of course…

As I was reading the various news sites that I frequent (some for news, some for laughs), I came across another “big is beautiful” type article, and remembered that I had been meaning to post about the subject for a long time. Now seems as good a time as any.

This article in, yes that’s right, the Daily Mail, is what reminded me that I wanted to blog. The article is a self serving puff piece, even more so than usual, since the author is writing about herself.

The title sets the stage for an all to familiar argument – “Alice is beautiful, confident, and the average size of a woman in Britain today…so why does she still feel fat?” I could dash off a quick comment that said she still feels fat because she actually is fat, but that wouldn’t do the article justice when there’s really so much more to it.

The article is a glowing review of life as a “bigger” person, complete will all the usual adverbs – curvy, big and beautiful, etc. However, while most articles merely imply that skinny girls must be starving or dysfunctional, this one comes right out and says it, with choice phrases such as “I look at skinny women and wonder how they can live in such denial. It is not possible to be thin and enjoy food.”

I despise articles like this because of exactly that kind of rhetoric. I suppose that I would be considered one of those skinny girls living in denial. After all, I do slip into size 6-8 clothes with little trouble. I also train hard every day to make sure that I still can. I watch what I eat, but I never starve (as anyone who knows me can attest to, I don’t do well when hungry!). I love to cook, to bake, and I experiment in the kitchen quite often – whipping up some sort of dessert or some new dinner based on what’s in the fridge, and I manage to do so without putting on so much weight (unlike the author).

The “average” woman may be getting bigger, but being a “wobbly size 18″ isn’t a step forward in women’s liberation, it’s a health risk. The simple fact of the matter is that it’s not healthy to be overweight. It places increased strain on all of your organs. It puts you at risk for a number of conditions, such as diabetes, heart attack, high cholesterol, etc.

If you really want to be a role model, if you really want to make a difference to women, then why not try doing something that includes all women, not just those that have to shop at plus-size shops. How about campaigning for a consistent size scale across all clothes shops, so that I can go and shop for jeans that are W 28″ L 28″, instead of picking up a 4, 6, and 8 because there’s no telling what any size will be in most shops? Or how about campaigning for some consistency in the existing size numbers, so that a size 6 would be a 6, no matter what shop you’re in?

I understand that you want to be proud of your body, but if you respect yourself and your body, you should look after it. It’s like any other piece of equipment you own – it needs maintenance, and the right fuel to get along. If you don’t fill it with the right stuff, and don’t keep it in tip-top condition, it will break down. And, unfortunately, it’s not as easy to find a new heart as it is to find a new wing mirror.

It seems to me that this average woman is as elusive a beast as the mythical unicorn. I have heard women of all shapes and sizes complain that they can’t find clothes to fit. There may be shops that cater exclusively to plus size women, but I find that I’m often reduced to shopping in the children’s department of big clothing stores such as M&S simply to find clothes that will fit without alteration. The “average woman” must truly have the pick of the litter when it comes to clothes shopping though, since apparently all shops cater to her. I can only hope that, in time, someone with enough influence will manage to change the way clothes are sized so that I can find clothes that look mature and fit well.

The point is this – it’s great that you feel happy about your body, but why does feeling good about being big and curvy have to be inextricably linked with being better than someone who is skinny? It doesn’t have to be this way.

If you want to be a role model, then show people how to be healthy and curvy – it’s possible to be both. Show people that skinny girls can be curvy too. And for goodness sake, lay off of the skinny-bashing!

 
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