Bernie Simon's Blog (46)

Allopathy: Still Dangerous

Almost ten years ago a federal report called "To Err is Human" documented the astounding death toll of allopathic medicine, almost 100,000 deaths a year in the United States. The report included specific recommendations. The report:

* Encouraged states to require medical error reporting.

* Said the public "has the right to be informed about unsafe conditions."

* Recommended the creation of a national patient safety center.

* Urged that hospitals improve the level of… Continue

Added by Bernie Simon on August 10, 2009 at 7:54pm — No Comments

Diary of a Murderer

I read George Sodini's blog to see if I could find any clues to a homeopathic remedy. I couldn't discern any. What I found was envy, anger, and despair: all too common emotions and not indicative of any one remedy. I considered stramonium, aurum metalicum, natrum muriaticam, arsenicum album, and staphysagria. That's quite a list and shows my confusion more than anything else. I believe that many criminals can be helped by… Continue

Added by Bernie Simon on August 7, 2009 at 8:16pm — 2 Comments

Homeopathy Helps Sinusitis

A new study shows that homeopathy improves quality of life for chronic sinusitis patients:

Homeopathic treatment improves the quality of life of patients with chronic sinusitis, say German researchers. Their study followed 134 adults with long-term…

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Added by Bernie Simon on August 3, 2009 at 7:30pm — 3 Comments

Success Story

Here's a success story for homeopathy, a woman who was cured of fibromyalgia.

Added by Bernie Simon on August 1, 2009 at 7:07pm — 2 Comments

Unproven Additives in Flu Vaccine

The news about the H1N1 flu pandemic has taken a new and potentially troubling turn. First, the US government has given legal immunity to the companies that make antivirals and the flu vaccine. Second, it has suspended the usual requirement for testing for safety and efficacy. This would be troubling if the manufacturers were preparing a variation of the normal flu vaccine, with the H1N1 antigen replacing the usual mix of flu viruses. But the very disturbing development is that the flu vaccine… Continue

Added by Bernie Simon on July 30, 2009 at 9:17pm — 1 Comment

Crawling Through the Homeopathic Loophole

Once again, a company is trying to market nicotine laced water as a homeopathic product. This time it's being sold as a complex remedy, the water is laced with caffeine too. I don't know all the ins and outs of how homeopathic medicines are regulated in America, but this looks like another Zicam in the making -- another public relations black eye when the product is abused and causes problems. Can we see to… Continue

Added by Bernie Simon on July 24, 2009 at 7:51pm — 2 Comments

Bookmark These Articles

It occasionally happens that someone in the allopathic community tells the truth. It doesn't happen that often, so it's worth bookmarking for later reference. In the first article, a vice-president of Glaxo Smith Kline admits that the majority of people are not helped by the allopantic drugs they take:

The vast majority of drugs - more than 90 per cent - only work… Continue

Added by Bernie Simon on July 23, 2009 at 7:53pm — 3 Comments

Obama's Health Care Plan

I was wondering if anyone had definite information on whether licensed alternative health care practitioners: chiropractors, naturopaths, and acupuncture practitioners will be covered under Obama's Health care plan. A conservative friend told that they were not. I went searching on the web and found that Obama promised to cover chiropractic treatment before the election. Politicians' promises, though, are perishable goods and I don't have reliable information about the current… Continue

Added by Bernie Simon on July 19, 2009 at 9:13pm — No Comments

Us versus Them

Previously I mentioned one arm of the campaign against alternative medicine: the ongoing public relations campaign that plants slanted articles in the media. The second arm of the campaign is the pro-science community. This community enjoys attacking anything that they think is anti-science. Intelligent Design is one of their targets and, unfortunately, so is alternative medicine. What's evident here is the "us versus them" mentality. I believe this mentality is the most destructive force in… Continue

Added by Bernie Simon on July 17, 2009 at 8:22pm — No Comments

The Campaign Against "Allopathy"

Since I compile a list of news articles about homeopathy, I am often directed to skeptics' sites, where they campaign against it. You and I have heard most of their arguments by now, But recently I was surprised by their campaign against the term "allopathy." It seems they think (or act like they think) that the term is abusive and inaccurate. This article by Walter Jarvis is typical:

Although medicine never accepted… Continue

Added by Bernie Simon on July 11, 2009 at 8:06pm — 1 Comment

More Flu News

Sorry for my absence, I was busy building two new web sites (not homeopathy related.) I've tried to keep current with news about the H1N1 flu because I'm supposed to give a talk on the subject at our September Study Group meeting. Here's two news items you may have missed if you weren't paying close attention:

First, the pharmaceutical companies making the anti-virals used in allopathic treatment of flu have been given… Continue

Added by Bernie Simon on July 11, 2009 at 7:52pm — No Comments

A few links

I just wanted to let people know that I keep a list of links on Delicious about recent news articles on medicine that I find interesting. Also this article in Bloomberg about Zicam is the most accurate and fact filled I've found, much better than the axe grinding in the Associated Press, and I'd suggest referring people to it.

Added by Bernie Simon on June 27, 2009 at 8:36pm — No Comments

Death by Doctor

It looks like Michael Jackson's doctor is being "sought by police" in connection with Michael Jackson's sudden death. The facts are not yet clear, but the lack of cooperation with the police is suspicious. It may be that this is another celebrity dead from the allopathic medical treatment he received. Only time and more evidence will tell. As everyone remembers, Heath Ledger died last year from a lethal combination of drugs prescribed by his doctor and Elvis Presley before that. Death from… Continue

Added by Bernie Simon on June 26, 2009 at 9:06pm — 5 Comments

Two Celebrities Dead

Farrah Fawcett and Michael Jackson died today. Farrah died after a long struggle with cancer. Her treatment was mostly conventional, but there was a controversy several years ago when she travelled to Germany to be treated with Iscador, the Anthroposophic cancer treatment. I haven't heard any blowback yet from the usual quackbusters about this.

Michael Jackson died at home and there's no word yet on the cause. I always thought, here is a case for homeopathy, but as far as I know he… Continue

Added by Bernie Simon on June 25, 2009 at 8:05pm — 2 Comments

Homeopathy Works

I spoke with a friend today who used to suffer from migraines. Used to, that is, before I persuaded her to visit a local homeopath. She told me today that she hasn't had one in a month, when she's had them regularly for thirty years. And she told me, with amazement in her voice, the arthritis in her hand has disappeared and several other minor problems cleared up as well. This comes as no surprise to anyone who knows homeopathy. But I'd thought I'd post this to remind folks that among the high… Continue

Added by Bernie Simon on June 21, 2009 at 8:32pm — 2 Comments

How the Game Is Played

Some people may not be aware of the nature of the opposition that alternative medicine and homeopathy faces, so I'd like to explain it here. There's a long lived public relations campaign against alternative medicine in the United States and Great Britain. When I say public relations campaign, I mean exactly that: an agency sends out press releases every so often to their friends in the media to reinforce their talking points. Google News makes it easy to notice these press releases. You'll see… Continue

Added by Bernie Simon on June 13, 2009 at 7:54pm — 5 Comments

Vaccine Study Bias

It's no secret that the medical journals work hand in glove with the pharmaceutical industry that pays their way. A new analysis looked at clinical trials of the flu vaccine and found that drug company money is the top factor in publication of vaccine studies:

"Flu vaccine studies that are funded by industry are significantly more likely to be published in prestigious journals… Continue

Added by Bernie Simon on June 12, 2009 at 8:57pm — No Comments

The Sardonic Smile

The solution to an old riddle leads to a new rubric for an old remedy:

Thousands of years before the Joker gassed comic book victims into a grinning death, Phoenician colonists on the island of Sardinia were forcing smiles on the faces of the dead. Now scientists say they know just how the ancient seafaring traders created the gruesome smiles some 2,800 years ago—not with a toxic gas like Batman's… Continue

Added by Bernie Simon on June 4, 2009 at 8:28pm — 2 Comments

Homeopathy Gets Freeped

Tuesday Neal's Yard a British chain that sells natural remedies, including homeopathy, agreed to take part in an online question and answer forum hosted by The Guardian. They soon found that they were overwhelmed by a swarm of aggressively hostile questions from opponents of alternative medicine. Neal's Yard ignominiously backed out of the scheduled session and their opponents… Continue

Added by Bernie Simon on May 28, 2009 at 8:17pm — 3 Comments

Ah, The Irony

A committee in Great Britain has issued new recommendations on recommended treatments for lower back pain and the recommendations will be implemented by the National Health Service. They concluded that alternative treatments work, while standard allopathic treatments for back pain do not:

From among 200 treatments and devices… Continue

Added by Bernie Simon on May 27, 2009 at 12:00pm — No Comments