Archive for 'Health'
Food and Health
Posted on June 29, 2008, by Conor O'Neill, under Bandon, Business, Food, Health.
I got an email during the week from Mary Wedel who runs the brilliant An Tobairín Health Food Shop in Bandon. We’ve watched Mary grow this business since we arrived here from a pokey place on North Main Street to the bigger one on Factory Lane to the current flagship on South Main Street. I see no reason why she won’t be as successful as Whole Foods Market in the US.
The range of products on sale there has always amazed me. From vitamins to organic food, chocolate, cosmetics and alt-med stuff, she has something for everyone. Now I’ll be totally open here, I’m not a fan of a large number of alt-med approaches despite having a friend who is a homeopath. However, having said that, there is a huge amount to be gained in the area of health by everyone thinking about the products they use on their bodies, and more importantly, the things they eat.
So her new project, the Fionnuisce Healing Centre (web-site not live yet) in Heron Court on Market Quay holds great interest for me. Apart from the alt-med side, there is a large meeting room with a demonstration kitchen area. So far this space has been used for yoga, dance and various workshops including cookery demonstrations in co-operation with Karen Austin of legendary Lettercollum Kitchen Project.
There are lots of interesting cookery events lined up for September that include a Sushi Saturday and Mediterranean Veg. In October Karen will offer Indian Vegetarian, November Thai and December Christmas Veg. There will be a wholefood cookery night class running Tuesdays from 1st week in October for 10 weeks with Dorothee Clarke.
She had me at sushi 
They are also running a cool 1-day drama workshop on Sunday 13th July by Belinda Wild who describes it as being for anyone with or without experience in Drama who is interested in exploring creative self-expression through the medium of theater - and she guarantees to make you laugh. I’d honestly be tempted, having played Sybil Walling in “Brush with a Body” in the Kieran’s College school play, aged 17.
If you are interested in any of the above, shoot Mary a TXT on 086-3882440. I’m trying to convince her to start a blog since I think any place that has regular events is ideally suited to one instead of a static brochure page. It might be worth her putting all the events up on Yahoo Upcoming too.
UPDATE: Some of the dates for the foodie events are as follows:
- Saturday 6th September, Succulent Sushi with Delwyn Klevenow
- Suturday 20th September, Mediterranean Vegetables from Karen Austin’s abundant garden
- Saturday 18th October, Indian Vegetarian with Lettercollum Karen
- Saturday 15th November, Thai Cookery with Lettercollum Karen
- Saturday 12th December, Vegetarian Christmas with Karen
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Two Tits and a Vote
Posted on January 23, 2008, by Conor O'Neill, under Family, Health.
Sabrina Dent, a wonderful web designer based here in Cork, has launched an important web-site and initiative called “Two Tits and a Vote“.
Women’s voices count in politics. Two Tits and a Vote is an online Irish Women’s Health Campaign empowering you to advocate for better women’s healthcare in Ireland. You can be part of improving Irish women’s health care from the comfort of your very own chair. Learn how to take part now!
I think the name is superb and cuts through all the bullshit to get right to the heart of the matter. The time for politician’s weasel words and acceptance of the criminal incompetence of the HSE and Dept of Health has to end. I hope this effort by Sabrina and others plays a big role in that. Please sign-up on the site and support them.
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Review of Hugh’s Chicken Run
Posted on January 13, 2008, by Conor O'Neill, under Food, Health, Reviews.
This is less of a review and more of a vote of support. Last week Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall kicked off a campaign to get people eating Free Range Chicken. He did this through a series of compelling programmes comparing intensively raised chicken production with Free Range.
Because no-one would let him film in a “normal” chicken production unit, he was forced to build his own. He split it down the middle with half as free range and half as intensive. Watching the differences become more and more apparent as the birds grew was a real eye-opener for me. Whilst we mainly buy free range, I had started to become dubious about the differences when I saw the same producer names on both types. But after watching this, I’m a total convert.
Quite simply, the methods used to intensively rear chicken are disgusting. If you want to eat meat that has been sitting in its own shit for its entire 39 day life, go right ahead but apart from any issues of animal welfare, if you want to see where Bird Flu will make the leap to humans in Europe, that’s where it’ll be.
Hugh’s campaign to get shops and restaurants in Axminster using free range were reasonably successful even in Tesco and the local kebab shop. His efforts with a local working-class community to rear their own birds, whilst laudable, teetered on the brink of condescending. However the emotional scenes during slaughter did drive home the reality of where your meat comes from.
I’d love to know how many people who eat frankenstein chicken also support a ban on fois gras. I know which one I have a much bigger problem with.
I did think the focus on whole birds was mis-directed. Most people only eat a full bird once a week. My feeling is that the bulk of chicken sold is skinless chicken breasts and ready-meals. This obsession with breast meat should be tackled too since it addresses the issue of cost head on. We have 1KG of free range drumsticks sitting in the fridge. They cost €4.99 and will give us a fabulous meal when we roast them up in the oven with some spicy coatings.
One thing that interests me hugely is the numbers angle for a company like Tesco. Looking at it as a simple punter, surely pushing higher margin products like free-range benefits the bottom line? Whilst in the 70’s and 80’s when everyone was broke, price wars on a loaf of bread could cause people to change supermarket, is that really the case nowadays? I find it bizarre that somewhere like Tesco Wilton will be jammed with “Value” chicken plus a few exorbitant organic ones whilst being out of stock of free range constantly. Increasing demand for free-range will increase supply and drive down cost and hopefully make the Frankenstein Chicken just a short term historical aberration.
I was a bit shocked to see the Tesco manger in Hugh’s programme using a green-screen VDU. I assumed all their real-time analytics would be in multiple large screen dashboards showing exactly what was happening where in the shop. Maybe that’s why Wilton rarely has free range?
There is surely a huge PR coup to be had by the first supermarket which goes 100% free range on chicken and eggs whilst using the “animal welfare and customer health” advertising angle?
If you can catch the repeats of this, please do. If not, at the very least sign up for the Chicken Out campaign and if you have a blog, add the badge to it like I have done.
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Final Science Week Post: Best Invention of 2007?
Posted on November 17, 2007, by Conor O'Neill, under Health, Technology.
How many people are going to plump for the jesusphone in their posts? If Steve Jobs is responsible,it must be magic. Except it’s not, it’s a very nice UI on a phone design that was out of date in 2006 in Europe. So if not a fashion accessory then what? I think the Science Week people really mean “new product” when they say “invention”, otherwise I’m going to have to go a read some science journals to find the latest cure for cancer.
2007 hasn’t been a great year for ground-breaking innovation since most things I’m familiar with have just really been refined. I haven’t heard about one thing that make me stop and go “wow that’s incredible”. I might do so when CUH stop sending out hand-written appointments and use a fancy thing called a computer and Microsoft Outlook to schedule x-rays.
I mentioned BiancaMed in a previous post and I’m going to nominate one of their developments as the Invention of 2007. In fact their whole product line should get the gong. I don’t just say this because I was in college with Conor Hanley and Conor Heneghan, their developments are the first step in an entirely new approach to medicine. Expect these guys to exit for a huge amount of money in the coming years (or buy GE Healthcare!).
The BiancaMed Overnight Sleep Monitor sits on your bed-side locker and measures your breathing patterns with no contact whatsoever. It can provide critical data to diagnose sleep apnea and other sleep disorders and medical conditions. It will be able to send that information via mobile phone to a back-end system that your medical practitioner can log on to and analyse. It is genuinely revolutionary and there will be a multitude of spin-off products from this including baby monitors and fitness equipment.
As someone who has slept badly since he was 6 years old I’d love to get access to this and maybe finally get to the bottom of it. As a parent, I know many people will pay a LOT of money for a baby monitor which may help avoid SIDS.
A bit more impressive than a poxy phone, isn’t it?
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Science Week: Invention of the future
Posted on November 14, 2007, by Conor O'Neill, under Health, Technology.
Today’s Science Week question is “What invention do you want to see most in the future“. This is an easy one to describe but it’ll be a long time coming. I want to see an inexpensive non-invasive home medical diagnostic machine that can detect and diagnose a wide range of problems on its own and via a data-feed to the relevant medical experts.
The benefits of such a machine could be enormous
- Massive reduction in GP queues
- Reduction in incorrect self-medication (e.g. anti-biotics for viral infections)
- Prompt addressing of potentially dangerous conditions
- Diagnosis by subject-area experts globally rather than by potentially incompetent local hospitals
- Blue Sky: Your own portable MRI with “lump” detection
We are starting to see this sort of thing appear here and there, from equipment for diabetics to portable defibrilators to the awesome sleep-apnea equipment by the BiancaMed guys. Some day we’ll get to the point where your health isn’t in the hands of a dysfunctional bureaucracy and you’ll control your own destiny.
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3G Doctor Signals the Return of House Visits
Posted on November 7, 2007, by Conor O'Neill, under Health, Technology.
I don’t normally mention posts that I write on blognation over here but I think this one is probably of great interest to many of my local readers and those in more rural locations in Ireland and the UK.
A company called 3G Doctor in Kerry provides a service whereby you can get a video consultantion with a qualified doctor using your 3G phone.
I’ve written all about it here. I’d be interested to hear what you think and whether the 3G coverage is good enough yet so that it is useful to the people who need it most.
For those who think 3G phones are outside their budget, the fabulous Sony Ericsson K800i is little more than €100 on pay monthly upgrade. That’s barely two visits to the doctor.
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My Proposed Questions to the HSE under Freedom of Information
Posted on April 30, 2007, by Conor O'Neill, under Cork, Health.
The scandal that is the non-vaccination using BCG of children in Cork could have far-reaching implications for the health of many people under the age of 30. Both employees of the then Southern Health Board and the political appointees to the board may have had a say in implementing this negligent policy and continuing to allow it to occur since the 1970’s. It is clear that the health of Cork children is considered less important than that of children from elsewhere in the country.
I’ve just been informed that budget was put aside to deal with this in 2004 and was then re-allocated. In the interests of accuracy I have decided to contact the HSE under the Freedom of information act to find out who, why and when decisions were made in this area since the 1970’s.
Below are my questions. Please add to them or improve on them in the comments section and I’ll put together a combined list and send it to the HSE. It’ll be interesting to see if there is any attempt made to delay the answers until after May 17th.
- On what dates was the decision made and then implemented to stop providing BCG routinely to newborn babies in the Cork region years ago?
- Provide the names of all the senior individuals (medical, administrative, consultant, board members) involved in the making of that decision
- Provide the names of all past or present TDs, Senators or Councillors who were on the Southern Health Board when that decision was made
- Did the board authorise that decision? If so, provide the names of all members of that board
- Provide the names of all past or present TDs, Senators or Councillors who were on the Southern Health Board since the decision
- Confirm whether the provision of BCG as a matter of routine was agreed to be re-introduced at any point since then, on what dates and by whom
- Confirm whether that NEW decision was overturned, for what reason, by whom and when
- Confirm that BCG shots are available in some locations nationally on demand and list the places where there is no waiting list
- Confirm that residents of Cork can avail of these BCG shots and provide contact information for arranging these shots
21 Comments
220 Children to get Chest X-Rays
Posted on April 20, 2007, by Conor O'Neill, under Cork, Health, Ireland.
due to the TB outbreak in Cork.
Tuberculosis (TB) is a disease caused by bacteria called Mycobacterium tuberculosis. The bacteria usually attack the lungs. But, TB bacteria can attack any part of the body such as the kidney, spine, and brain. If not treated properly, TB disease can be fatal. TB disease was once the leading cause of death in the United States.
TB is spread through the air from one person to another. The bacteria are put into the air when a person with active TB disease of the lungs or throat coughs or sneezes. People nearby may breathe in these bacteria and become infected.
Current waiting list for BCG in Cork - 5 to 6 months!
HSE, get up off your asses, get all the BCG shots in Ireland down here NOW, advertise it everywhere and get the children of every copped-on parent vaccinated asap!
Or do we have to wait until the first child dies from complications when they go from latent to active?
UPDATE 1; Good thread here on MagicMum. Like almost everyone else we didn’t get our youngest 3 done in Cork as it was not offered and we cluelessly did what we were told. Seriously regretting that now and signed up in a six month queue. Maybe a trip to Limerick is in order?
29 Comments
Try voting for informed people
Posted on April 10, 2007, by Conor O'Neill, under Family, Health, Kids.
Justin has done a great post on Patricia McKenna of the Green Party trying to justify non-vaccination of children on The Last Word radio show. The transcript shows what Cooper is capable of when he puts his mind to it. He slays the idiot and her nonsense.
If your child dies from the side-effects of measles, it’ll be due to you listening to uniformed clueless dimwits like her. Remember that when you are casting your vote. Oh and don’t drink the water, it’s CIA mind control.
UPDATE 1: On a related topic, the HSE have announced that all babies born in Cork from this October onwards will be routinely offered the BCG vaccine against TB. Welcome to the 20th century. Oh wait a sec, that’s over already. Wonder if there will be any civil suits taken against the individual bozos responsible for the current situation between now and then?
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Two children have TB in that creche
Posted on March 28, 2007, by Conor O'Neill, under Health, Ireland.
In a more litigious country, the HSE would now find itself on the end of a class action suit due to the non-administration of the BCG to children in the Cork region. The only region in the country that does not do it.
The HSE now have a moral duty to to provide the BCG to every single person born in this region who was never given it. Or maybe it would be cheaper to fill the Cappagh and Blanchardstown again. 1950’s here we come.
UPDATE 1; Just to clarify - 5 tested positive for the antibody and three of those were due to BCG.
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No excuses now - Make BCG mandatory in Cork
Posted on March 22, 2007, by Conor O'Neill, under Health, Kids.
For some completely bizarre reason, each regional health board can decide whether to give babies a BCG shot or not as standard. Cork (all of Munster?) is the only region not to.
Catherine has just pointed me to a story in The Irish Examiner about a woman with TB who worked in two creches in Cork. They are now going to have to test every child in both of those locations for infection.
Other than saving a few quid in the short term, is there any medical reason not to provide it? How would you feel if your kid got TB because some paper pusher in the health service decided Cork people don’t need protecting? Maybe they’d like us all to return to the days of Seán Ó Riordáin living in a shed in the garden writing poetry? “Mar is poll im cheann gach smaoineamh……and the TB ain’t so hot either mum”.
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Not the way to lose your baby teeth
Posted on February 16, 2007, by Conor O'Neill, under Family, Health, Kids.
Poor Oisín is terribly unlucky with his front teeth. When he was 2-ish he fell off a changing table and impacted one of his front teeth up into the bone and split the lip and gum. Nothing could be done except let it heal. That tooth was much shorter than the other one until yesterday. Then yesterday evening, he fell off a stool and did a repeat performance, this time knocking out his other tooth and making a mush of his upper lip again.
Once again, the advice from the doc was to do nothing and let it heal. He rang the dental hospital and they concurred particularly considering they are his baby teeth.
But we are worried about the full teeth and what the likelihood is that they’ll come down ok. Anyone else have kids where this happened? I’d hate for the poor mite to have to get implants at an early age. I know too many people with those already.
I hope he gets something nice in town with Catherine today. The tooth fairy gave him a tenner cos she felt so sorry for him.
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You may feel a small prick
Posted on January 5, 2007, by Conor O'Neill, under Babies, Family, Health.
I’ve recently been getting lots of contraceptive advice from men my age. It seems the only logical route is vasectomy. One of my best advisors had his done quite a while back with no adverse effects. There is only one guy in Cork who does it, Dr Pillay on Patrick St and he highly recommended him. He also (quietly) mentioned that performance would not be affected and I wouldn’t be shooting blanks for the first thirty. Important tip!
My old workmate C told me all about his on a trip to Dell in Limerick the day after it had been done and he seemed fine. Mr B in Paris last week concurred that it was not such a big deal. I also saw the documentary last year where that brave man from Galway bared his knackers for all to see as his tubes were cut. The valium made him collapse in fits of giggles and I wondered if this was standard practice.
Add to this the gentle encouragement of Catherine’s sister Claire “I’ll come after you with garden shears if you even think about another baby” and we decided that enough was enough. I visited Dr Pillay at the start of December to talk it through and once he heard the number “5″, he didn’t probe for motivation any further. It all sounded pretty straightforward: snip snap, bish bash bosh, few days of discomfort and off ye go and climb Everest.
Catherine checked multiple times that I was ok with the idea and that I wasn’t rushing in. I guess I must be deeply shallow because in my mind it was at the same level as a root canal or deviated septum op. No concerns about emasculation or man breasts (I have those already), no “what if my entire family is killed in a fire and I want to have more kids when I’m 70?” type questions. Just simple basic “my wife cannot take the pill until menopause” and “Five is enough. Enough. Seriously tho, enough.” Maybe I’ll wake up one day and scream “oh dear jesus my testicles are no longer connected to my vas deferns” but I doubt it.
The only prep that had to be done was hair and the major question to be answered - blade or cream? Blade - are you mental or something? Veet it was. Hmm, that’s an interesting look for me, sort of a comb-over effect. Why does no-one ever mention that Veet burns? Ahh, small print, avoid genital area. Ow ow ow.
I headed in on Friday 14th and unfortunately forgot about the goddammed Christmas shoppers and arrived 15 minutes late, totally stressed and sweatin. To quote my buddy Eoin, the following bits may be TMI for you. So stop reading now if you are of a delicate nature.
I’d had the heating on full blast all the way in to avoid the Atlantic Swim Effect but the stress of being late negated all of that. Dr Pillay was lovely and asked me if I wanted to relax for a few minutes. I didn’t. For some idiotic reason I thought I might be able to read during the op and brought “The Wisdom of Crowds” with me. He found this amusing.
So up onto the couch in the corner of his office, keks off, iodine on and we were in business. He warned the local would hurt but it was fine. The incision began and all was well. Throughout the entire thing he had Cork’s 96FM on with that horrendous gobshite who does the chat in the mornings. He had on some blokes who have been doing panto since the 50’s and it kept me nicely distracted the whole time as the only thought going through my head was “This is where Radio Jay on Gift Grub gets his material from”.
Some warnings of pressure from the doc, then, jesus fucking christ man are you trying to kill me, arggggh. “Oh did that hurt?”. Did it hurt? Did it hurt? Would you like me to stick a rusty nail in your nuts so you can get some sense of it? He added more local. Still no joy, so he added some more. At this point I was going to ask for an epidural but the last jab seemed to sort it out. I guess this is where the word numbnuts comes from.
Finally, the big stitches went in, I relaxed and he said “now we’ll do the right one”. Noooooooooooo, it can’t have taken that long to cut a tube and fold the two halves back. It turns out that “things kept tensing up” making his life very difficult. G’way, a man has his scrotum cut open and shockingly, it doesn’t relax into a giant fluffy balloon. Now I know why the guy on the tv was given the valium.
Liathróid a dó was complete, he sowed me up and I felt pretty ok. Lots of advice about not being too energetic. Like that’ll happen - I pulled a muscle putting a child to bed the other night. He gave me some Betadine ointment, put everything in a hammock and gave me an ice-pack for the journey home.
Drive home was ok but the ache started around Innishannon. Do you have to drive at 30mph today you stupid stupid person, movvvvvveee, I’ve just been operated on. Home. Frozen peas into ziplock and I relaxed on the couch. Pain got worse. Panadol my hole, I popped one of Catherine’s Ponstan Forte and soon the pain faded to a dull throb.
Over the next few days I was in a very bad state. As the Ponstan wore off each time, it started hurting like hell and the hammock seemed to add to it. I went hammock free for a day but it was far far worse and I put it back. Getting out of bed each morning was not fun. Wound seemed to take it’s time healing and in fact here we are three weeks later and there is still a scab. Finally one week after the op, the pain subsided and apart from the long journey over Christmas, there was no serious discomfort. I can confidently hold my own in a childbirth pain conversation now, he said, running for the door.
So now that I have put men off it for life, do I regret it? Not for a second. A week’s discomfort for a lifetime of one less major thing to worry about - I’d do it in a second again. And it looks like my best advisor was right 
Just make sure you can get your hands on Ponstan!
UPDATE 1: 1st May 2007 - Just got the all-clear. Woo hoo! This is probably a good thing as we both recently started our usual “ah Síofra is such a wee darling, one more wouldn’t really be that much extra hassle”.
Technorati Tags: vasectomy, contraception, Dr+Pillay, Veet, Betadine, Hammock
62 Comments
One Breast Less
Posted on November 22, 2006, by Conor O'Neill, under Family, Food, Health.
Catherine discovered Haydn and Roos’ latest blog yesterday, it is called One Breast Less and I don’t think I need to tell you what it is about. This is a shockingly good blog with a raw honesty that caught me off-guard but is a mandatory read if you have any interest in health, illness and recovery.
My granny had a mastectomy due to breast cancer and my aunt has just finished a course of radium so I’ll be reading closely. It is blogs like One Breast Less that remind you what a powerful medium blogging really is, one which allows you to get to the heart of a subject without ever needing to think about a publisher or demographics.
Haydn’s recent writing has got me thinking (but not doing yet) a lot about diet. As soon as Catherine is getting a decent nights sleep we’ll switch back to the healthy us as we usually do after each baby. I’ll be using a lot of the information on The Diet Cast and My Diet Friends for that.
Technorati Tags: One+Breast+Less, OneBreastLess, Cancer, Haydn+Shaughnessy, The+Diet+Cast, My+Diet+Friends
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John Braxton Hicks has a lot to answer for
Posted on November 1, 2006, by Conor O'Neill, under Babies, Family, Health.
Not only did he invent those horrible contractions which didn’t exist before 1872 but he also plays the saxophone.
For once, would one of our bloody children arrive early before my wife loses her mind and what’s left of her pelvis?
The Tailor of Secours had better hand over the Oxytocin, Prostaglandin, Epidural and Red Bull Slammer next Tuesday.
technorati tags:Braxton+Hicks, Epidural, Induced+Pregnancy, Bons+Secours
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Quick Health Round-Up on Stomachs and Nuts
Posted on October 6, 2005, by Conor O'Neill, under Health.
Run off my feet this week so blogging has been even lighter than usual. Two health related stories caught my eye:
Discoverers of H.Pylori get Nobel Prize
This is fantastic. I’ve had the treatment and unfortunately it appears I am in the 10% for whom the little bastard bacteria are not the problem. My problem is more likely to be Curry, Coffee and Sauvignon Blanc.
The discovery that Helicobacter Pylori is responsible for the majority of stomach ulcers is often used by the alternative medicine brigade to beat up “traditional” medicine. It was originally found in 1982 but it took until the late 90’s before it became accepted as fact. Treatment is a simple three way drug course for two weeks (two anti-biotics and Nexium - the stomach drug of the gods).
The quacks would claim that mainstream medicine tried to suppress it as they are all in thrall to the drug companies and one dose of three drugs generates a lot less income than a lifetime on Tagamet or Zantac. In fact, mainstream medicine simply insisted that proper scientific testing was done on the hypothesis (including the dreaded double-blind testing that most alternative medicines fall down on). After years of research and testing and trials, it was proved beyond any shadow of a doubt that H Pylori is the baddie in most cases (not over-active acid-producing cells). Most doctors now send those suffering from bad stomach complaints for a test and then treat accordingly.
Yayy Science!!
Shock horror. C’est pas possible? I’m dumbfounded. Smashing your nuts against a hard bicycle seat over long periods causes damage? It took research to figure this out?
Best quote in the article “there are only two kinds of male cyclists - those who are impotent and those who will be impotent”.
I got a bike last year and did quite a few short blasts around the locality early in the morning. This year has been a disaster and I’ve only been out a few times. I should really take it back up again. It’d be a damn sight cheaper than the snip……..Ah bugger, I got impotent and sterile confused again, didn’t I?
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Quack Quack Quack. Homeopathy doesn’t work shocker
Posted on September 18, 2005, by Conor O'Neill, under Health.
The BBC has an article on the most recent study of Homeopathy showing, yet again, that it is no better than placebo.
Whilst I consider most alternative therapies to be rubbish being pushed by idiots and charlatans, Homeopathy has managed to inhabit that grey zone where one doesn’t want to completely dismiss it. This was down to a few factors - the fact that it has been around for a long time, the fact that they do seem to get some form of results and finally the desire of those who have followed a formal course of study to be officially recognised and to not allow actual charlatans to calls themselves homeopaths.
A friend of ours is a qualified homeopath By ‘qualified’, I mean that she followed a formal course for several years and was subject to examinations etc. As opposed to someone who "read a book about it once".. She genuinely believes that homeopathy works. We had a great night a few years back where I had a few drinks and decided to "have a go". We argued back and forth. My main point was that the recent (at the time) James Randi programme had done a proper double-blind test and homeopathy had failed miserably. Her response to this was that she thought there were some "subtleties in succussion" which caused it to fail. This is another way of saying "they shook the water wrong".
Her belief in the efficacy of the treatment in general unfortunately came across as faith-based rather than fact-based. I was accused of having science as my religion. My point was that science is based around hypothesis, analysis and correction. Homeopathy is based around a set of theories which they refuse to test and validate.
To be fair, she has treated a lot of people and has seen lots of success. Success of course is very subjective in the world of alternative medicine. To quote the brother of a friend of mine who is a consultant in Vincents - "Alternative medicine that works is just called medicine".
Belief in Homeopathy is one thing, but our friend was also unwilling to criticise any other form of alternative medicine. I guess once you are in the gang you don’t want to rock the boat. This includes not accepting criticism of crystal therapy or those morons who hold vials of substances over your belly and can tell if you are allergic to them by how your body reacts to the presence of the vial.
But, to prove how "open-minded" I am, I agreed that I would attend a homeopath to see what they could do for my disastrous stomach which has pumped excess acid every day since I was 16 years old. Only one drug has ever stopped it completely and that is Nexium which you get as part of the triple-treatment for H-Pylori. Sadly, the symptoms returned as soon as the course was over. To keep the test fair, I went to another homeopath instead of my friend.
The session went exactly how I expected it to go. Immediate focus on "do you worry much", "are you protective of your family" etc etc. It went on a for a good hour or two and of course I ended up with a warm fuzzy feeling that the homeopath "cares". She prescribed a course of X, Y and Z. Several variations of diluted water in fact. I took the course - outcome: zero change in symptoms. Re-visit, another set of water vials prescribed - outcome: zero change in symptoms. At this point my patience with happy clappy water had run out and I declined any further "treatments".
Now to provide a balanced picture, we also brought Oscar to have his dry skin and (non-severe) eczema looked at around the same time. In his case there was a definite improvement in symptoms over several months. A score for homeopathy possibly? Well, all the other kids had similar dry skin and they all grew out of it too without treatment. The fact the the treatment also occurred as we moved from spring to summer means we did not have a solid baseline in terms of clothes, heat and sunshine.
As I said, I don’t totally dismiss homeopathy, but until the apply proper scientific analysis to what they are doing, it will always remain outside of the mainstream. The final quote in the BBC article from the homeopathy movement is very telling: "It has been established beyond doubt and accepted by many researchers, that the placebo-controlled randomised controlled trial is not a fitting research tool with which to test homeopathy." i.e. we’re special, we don’t obey the laws of physics and repeatable action-reaction. As long as they think like this, they shall continue to be called quacks.
I have a theory on why is works sometimes. It is the same reason I think Chiropractic worked for me. Chiropractic has two sides to it - the bone manipulation to solve back problems and the "medicine" side. I had great results with sorting out a very sore back that I was suffering from. I did a re-visit in the new year (around 2002) and the guy started messing with this new hammer like thing on various parts of my body. After analysis, he decided that I was dehydrated. An amazing diagnosis considering I had been drinking all christmas. Even more amazingly, several others I know who went to him around the same time were also dehydrated. Must have been an epidemic! He then started doing other diagnoses and at that point I’m afraid I had to stop seeing him. I’m not paying good money for someone to press one finger against my heart and one against my liver and say "oh you are dehydrated".
John Diamond wrote a great book on alternative medicine (sadly unfinished) called "Snake Oil and Other Preoccupations", as he was dying from throat cancer. There is a great quote in there from the chiropractors "double-blind? Oh yeah, we always fail those". Give me patience with charlatans.
So why did Chiropractic work for me? Because it pushed me to fix myself. After a session I would walk down the street slightly sore but erect of posture. For the entire treatment I was making huge efforts to improve how I sat in work, how my chair was adjusted and how I set up my PC. These are things I would not have bothered with unless I had gone to have my back seen. So I have no issue with handing over cash to those guys for my back because in an indirect way, they did fix me. The reverse was true with homeopathy. If I had taken it seriously at all and got caught up in the whole "holistic vibe", then you can be sure I would have given up coffee, spicy food and excess alcohol and I would have seen a major improvement in the state of my stomach and thus homeopathy would have "cured me".
If it was just well intentioned quackery for non-serious ailments then we should leave them be. But as long as savages like that wan in the West (who should be in jail for manslaughter) are out there telling seriously ill people to avoid real medicine, then we must formalise the control of all forms of alternative medicine in this country.
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