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News & Views
Act now: Homeopathy under threat...
Date: 19/03/10
If it’s not the back-handed tactics of Codex Alimentarius attempting to take away our right to chose, then it is the new European Union (EU) regulations threatening to eliminate and drastically reduce the nutritional dosage amounts of many essential herbs and supplements commonly used today...
Then there’s the new licensing system for practitioners of herbal medicine, acupuncture and Traditional Chinese Medicine. Meaning that they will only be allowed to work with simple tinctures, extracts and dried herbs and not regulated herbal medicines. In addition GPs won’t be allowed to refer patients to them.
A step to far
If that wasn’t enough, now it’s homeopathy standing in the line of fire...
A report recently published by the UK government’s Science and Technology Committee concludes that the NHS should cease funding homeopathy.
Following a review of the “existing scientific and medical evidence” currently available, the Committee concluded that homeopathy is not effective and that explanations for how homeopathy works are “scientifically implausible”. The Committee also believes that homeopathy is a placebo treatment and the UK government should not entertain a policy on “prescribing placebos”, which it calls ‘bad medicine’.
Homeopathy treats patients with highly-diluted substances, either through ‘like-cures-like’ treatment, when the substance causing the illness is diluted then administered, or through ‘ultra-dilution’, when the more diluted a substance is, the more effective it becomes. It is based on the principle that giving highly diluted medicines to patients will trigger the body’s own healing processes, and supporters argue that this has the same effect – if not a greater one – than if the active ingredient were given in higher, ‘approved’ doses.
The Committee concludes that the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) – the equivalent of the US Food and Drug Administration - should not allow homeopathic product labels to make medical claims without evidence of efficacy and that, as they cannot be classed as medicines, the Agency should no longer dish out licences for homeopathic products.
The Royal Pharmaceutical Society has welcomed the report’s findings (I bet it has!) and its Chief Scientific Advisor Jayne Lawrence said: “We are delighted that the Committee has agreed with our recommendation that the MHRA should not allow homeopathic product labels to make claims without evidence of efficacy.”
The British Homeopathic Association hits back...
The British Homeopathic Association (BHA) said the report is “narrow and cursory” and that homeopathy has helped hundreds of thousands of patients.
Cristal Sumner, BHA Chief Executive, said: “It does seem an irresponsible way of decision-making for a Committee of four voting members to draw conclusions that impact the health and welfare of thousands of patients from just four and half hours of verbal testimony on three distinct topics and from a number of written submissions that were each limited to just 3000 words.”
Dr Michael Dixon, of the Prince’s Foundation for Integrated Health, said: “We should not abandon patients we cannot help with conventional scientific medicine. If homeopathy is getting results for those patients, then of course we should continue to use it.”
The BHA believes that the recommendations of the Science and Technology report “fail to acknowledge the fact that research evidence for homeopathy does exist, and dismisses patient outcomes as placebo effect”.
Time to act
This whole vendetta seems like a misplaced ‘witches hunt’ to remove homeopathy’s funding. The review has been conducted by four ministers who clearly have very little interest in giving homeopathy a fair trial. If this report’s findings are approved it will not only damage homeopathy but will have a great impact on the lives of many practitioners and patients who have benefited from this form of treatment.
Currently the Science and Technology Committee’s report is under review in parliament, but it’s not to late to act. You can sign a petition on the Downing Street website, urging the government to keep the NHS funding for homeopathy.
To view and sign the petition, follow the link below:
Retain NHS funding for Homeopathy
Related Reading:
Herbal Medicine, Acupuncture and Traditional Chinese Medicine Under Threat in the UK
Sources:
‘Regulation of Medical Herbalists, Acupuncturists and Traditional Chinese Medicine Practitioners’ by Health Professions Council, published 11 September 2008, hpc-uk.org
‘Herbal Medicine and acupuncture under threat in the UK’ published online 14.10.09, wdtty.co.uk
‘NHS should stop funding homeopathy, Committee finds’ published online 23.02.10, pharmatimes.com
‘No NHS-funding for homeopathy, says report’ published online 23.02.10, news.icm.ac.uk
Back to topThen there’s the new licensing system for practitioners of herbal medicine, acupuncture and Traditional Chinese Medicine. Meaning that they will only be allowed to work with simple tinctures, extracts and dried herbs and not regulated herbal medicines. In addition GPs won’t be allowed to refer patients to them.
A step to far
If that wasn’t enough, now it’s homeopathy standing in the line of fire...
A report recently published by the UK government’s Science and Technology Committee concludes that the NHS should cease funding homeopathy.
Following a review of the “existing scientific and medical evidence” currently available, the Committee concluded that homeopathy is not effective and that explanations for how homeopathy works are “scientifically implausible”. The Committee also believes that homeopathy is a placebo treatment and the UK government should not entertain a policy on “prescribing placebos”, which it calls ‘bad medicine’.
Homeopathy treats patients with highly-diluted substances, either through ‘like-cures-like’ treatment, when the substance causing the illness is diluted then administered, or through ‘ultra-dilution’, when the more diluted a substance is, the more effective it becomes. It is based on the principle that giving highly diluted medicines to patients will trigger the body’s own healing processes, and supporters argue that this has the same effect – if not a greater one – than if the active ingredient were given in higher, ‘approved’ doses.
The Committee concludes that the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) – the equivalent of the US Food and Drug Administration - should not allow homeopathic product labels to make medical claims without evidence of efficacy and that, as they cannot be classed as medicines, the Agency should no longer dish out licences for homeopathic products.
The Royal Pharmaceutical Society has welcomed the report’s findings (I bet it has!) and its Chief Scientific Advisor Jayne Lawrence said: “We are delighted that the Committee has agreed with our recommendation that the MHRA should not allow homeopathic product labels to make claims without evidence of efficacy.”
The British Homeopathic Association hits back...
The British Homeopathic Association (BHA) said the report is “narrow and cursory” and that homeopathy has helped hundreds of thousands of patients.
Cristal Sumner, BHA Chief Executive, said: “It does seem an irresponsible way of decision-making for a Committee of four voting members to draw conclusions that impact the health and welfare of thousands of patients from just four and half hours of verbal testimony on three distinct topics and from a number of written submissions that were each limited to just 3000 words.”
Dr Michael Dixon, of the Prince’s Foundation for Integrated Health, said: “We should not abandon patients we cannot help with conventional scientific medicine. If homeopathy is getting results for those patients, then of course we should continue to use it.”
The BHA believes that the recommendations of the Science and Technology report “fail to acknowledge the fact that research evidence for homeopathy does exist, and dismisses patient outcomes as placebo effect”.
Time to act
This whole vendetta seems like a misplaced ‘witches hunt’ to remove homeopathy’s funding. The review has been conducted by four ministers who clearly have very little interest in giving homeopathy a fair trial. If this report’s findings are approved it will not only damage homeopathy but will have a great impact on the lives of many practitioners and patients who have benefited from this form of treatment.
Currently the Science and Technology Committee’s report is under review in parliament, but it’s not to late to act. You can sign a petition on the Downing Street website, urging the government to keep the NHS funding for homeopathy.
To view and sign the petition, follow the link below:
Retain NHS funding for Homeopathy
Related Reading:
Herbal Medicine, Acupuncture and Traditional Chinese Medicine Under Threat in the UK
Sources:
‘Regulation of Medical Herbalists, Acupuncturists and Traditional Chinese Medicine Practitioners’ by Health Professions Council, published 11 September 2008, hpc-uk.org
‘Herbal Medicine and acupuncture under threat in the UK’ published online 14.10.09, wdtty.co.uk
‘NHS should stop funding homeopathy, Committee finds’ published online 23.02.10, pharmatimes.com
‘No NHS-funding for homeopathy, says report’ published online 23.02.10, news.icm.ac.uk
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