Charlies dodgy influence strikes again

[jean]

there are important issues around use of resources.They are the resources of the people who want to access homeopathy as much as they are yours and mine.

Besides, as has already been pointed out, some GPs already prescribe homoeopathic remedies.

And I have met a NHS physiotherapist who uses acupuncture.

So the patients of these people have an unfair advantage even now.

[Frances_iom]

10 % is a big number. ...
If 10% of people wanted some other thing we would want to respect that, at least.....

I suspect 10% or more of UK population would like to see public executions brought back - should we respect that ? - maybe in a watered down version as public floggings ?

[french frank]

Besides, as has already been pointed out, some GPs already prescribe homoeopathic remedies.

And I have met a NHS physiotherapist who uses acupuncture.

So the patients of these people have an unfair advantage even now.

And don't forget - there are medications duly prescribed on the NHS which can have near lethal side effects . If - I say if - homeopathic remedies are a load of rubbish - at least they don't have the same possible consequences as anti-convulsants (osteoporosis) or certain drugs for osteoporosis (blood clotting, strokes). Or do they?

[Pabmusic]

I suspect 10% or more of UK population would like to see public executions brought back - should we respect that ? - maybe in a watered down version as public floggings ?

Or perhaps so watered down that it doesn't contain any floggings at all, just a 'memory' of them?

[Pabmusic]

And don't forget - there are medications duly prescribed on the NHS which can have near lethal side effects . If - I say if - homeopathic remedies are a load of rubbish - at least they don't have the same possible consequences as anti-convulsants (osteoporosis) or certain drugs for osteoporosis (blood clotting, strokes). Or do they?

When homeopathy began in the very early 1800s, it was quite successful. But that was because, compared with conventional medicine, with its emphasis on bleeding as a cure-all, and very dodgy hygiene, far fewer people died. Some even recovered. In later generations, this was all reversed, as the descendants of - say - Kenneth Horne can testify.

[teamsaint]

I suspect 10% or more of UK population would like to see public executions brought back - should we respect that ? - maybe in a watered down version as public floggings ?

A rather different issue to being able to access the type of healthcare that you want, for which you have helped to pay through taxes, I would think.
Incidentally, there are plenty of things done with NHS money that we might disagree with, but which we have to accept that other people want, and should be able to have.

[amateur51]

A very large number of people use Homeopathic treatments.Looking at the figures, maybe 10% of the population regularly use them
That is a lot of taxpayers to deny the kinds of treatment that they want.

The evidence question aside, do these people go to a licensed practitioner or do they pick up their tablets/tinctures from Boots counters?

I have a friend who is heavily into homeopathy & was going on a trip to China. She developed bronchitis three weeks before leaving which she treated homeopathically. It got worse. Then she read about the outbreak of the SARS virus in China. and began to flap. Eventually she was persuaded to take antibiotics prescribed by her GP and her chest conditiion cleared up. Rescue Remedy may work for pre-flight nerves but when you have a serious chest infection, Go Western!

[Resurrection Man]

Those people who wish to access Homeopathy pay their taxes too, and if they want NHS money spent of it then that should be their choice.
The 10% that seems to be a common figure is a very significant number of people, and whether or not people on here call them "nutters " and so on is irrelevant, IMO.
Plenty of treatments under conventional medicine are (also?) completely useless, EG incorrect prescription of antibiotics.
Two wrongs don't make a right, but 10% is a very large number of people, and they deserve to have their opinions respected, and their wishes taken into account.
Or is it ok to ride roughshod over this particular group of peoples wishes?

Very well said, TS. It's a shame that some posters here believe that their views are The Only View.

[Pabmusic]

...Rescue Remedy may work for pre-flight nerves but when you have a serious chest infection, Go Western!

It's not even "go Western" - it's go with tested medicines.

In how many other areas of life do you encounter this phenomenon? How many people who want a holiday eschew cars, trains, boats and planes and simply levitate their bodies, or use thought transference, or magic carpets? It would certainly be cheaper.

[Mandryka]

There is no evidence that Prince Charles was involved personally in the lobbying.


That gives the game away and renders this article, in its entirety, an irrelevance.

Yet another boring example of this newspaper's petty and futile republicanism.

[amateur51]

And don't forget - there are medications duly prescribed on the NHS which can have near lethal side effects . If - I say if - homeopathic remedies are a load of rubbish - at least they don't have the same possible consequences as anti-convulsants (osteoporosis) or certain drugs for osteoporosis (blood clotting, strokes). Or do they?

There is a drug (name escapes me) that is a useful anti-candida agent (candidiasis = thrush). However it has a side-effect such that taken with alcohol it makes you feel nauseous. The same drug, re-marketed (as Antabuse) and at a different dose, was used as a powerful deterrent against drinking relapse in the treatment of alcoholism.

[amateur51]

Very well said, TS. It's a shame that some posters here believe that their views are The Only View.

I resist your shame Sir! Ha!

[Pabmusic]

There is a drug (name escapes me) that is a useful anti-candida agent (candidiasis = thrush). However it has a side-effect such that taken with alcohol it makes you feel nauseous. The same drug, re-marketed (as Antabuse) and at a different dose, was used as a powerful deterrent against drinking relapse in the treatment of alcoholism.

[This is an aside] Listerine was first sold as a surgical antiseptic for hospital use in the 1880s. It was a flop and was re-branded as a treatment for gonorrhea and a floor cleaner before - in the 1920s - becoming a cure for bad breath (for which the company invented the name 'halitosis').

[teamsaint]

I like rescue remedy.
It should be on the NHS.
Only then it would be more expensive, unless I was on free prescriptions !:

[amateur51]

I like rescue remedy.
It should be on the NHS.
Only then it would be more expensive, unless I was on free prescriptions !:

I am on free prescriptions included in which is paracetamol. Surely I could pay for my own paracetamol, I hear you cry. Indeed I could - and would- but I take eight tabs/day and I'm only allowed to buy sixteen (two days supply) at a time from Sainsbury's and 32 from my pharmacist and yet my GP can prescribe two hundred at a time. Now that's barmy