Sunday, January 31, 2010

Homeopathy: medicine that's hard to swallow? - Telegraph


David Colquhoun, professor of pharmacology at University College London, has long been concerned about the rising popularity of homeopathy. When he passes a chemist, he likes to carry out an experiment, asking the pharmacist what natural remedy they would recommend for his sickly grandchild, who has suffered from "terrible diarrhoea for days". Just one in 10 chemists advises him to send the child to a doctor immediately, or choose a conventional rehydration treatment – the course of action recommended by the medical profession.

"It's terrifying," says Prof Colquhoun. "Any sensible parent would be searching out Dioralyte, but nine out of 10 times the pharmacists will start rummaging through the homepathic shelves."

via telegraph.co.uk

Posted via web from Jack's posterous

1 comment:

PharmaHeretic said...

I hate to say this, but the attitude of doctors and the shenanigans of big pharma have reduced public confidence in the system.

Think about this, at one time the following BS was touted as medical truth.

1. COX-2 Inhibitors are harmless.
2. Statins are wonder drugs for everyone, and ezetimibe was therapeutically useful.
3. Atypical anti-psychotics are better than older ones.
4. SSRIs cause only mild sexual side effects.
5. Eating fat causes you to get fat.
6. High carb diets are good for you.
7. Moderate alcohol consumption is bad for you.
8. Reducing blood sugar reduces the incidence of macrovascular complications in Type-2 Diabetes.
9. Moderate weight gain has serious effects on mortality in old people.
10. Plavix is so much better than low dose aspirin.

Credibility is easy to lose and hard to build.