Internet Kills Doctor

Personally I think the Internet is a wonderful thing in many respects, but I got emails today from internet pharmacies that are practically boasting that you can cut out the medical advice and just buy anything you want! Someone calling themselves Heinig put this in the Subject line:
“Prescriptions are a thing of the [...]

Nicotine Contradictions

Haven’t we seen an extraordinary shift in the way nicotine is regarded over the last couple of decades? When Nicotine Replacement products first appeared, they were only available on prescription. A doctor had to review each case, to see if it was safe enough or appropriate for the patient to use that. After [...]

The Trials of Edzard Ernst

Show me a hundred different scientific studies into the efficacy (or lack thereof) of any kind of therapy.  Will they all produce more or less the same findings?  No.  But why not?  If the RCT is the gold standard of assessment, surely it will just come up with truth, will it not?  Isn’t this the [...]

“How to Stop Your Doctor Killing You”

Even by my forthright standards, this is a provocative title but it is not hyperbole. Former GP and hospital physician Dr Vernon Coleman has published this book, which warns the public that: “The person most likely to kill you is not a burglar, a mugger, a deranged relative or a drunken driver. The [...]

Ignorant Assumptions

Sometimes analytical people say to me: “You know, I don’t think I’d be a very good candidate for your hypnotherapy - I’m very strong-minded!”
The implication and the assumption that lies behind that is that people who respond well to the hypnotherapy process must be weak-minded people who are easily influenced! The comment also masks [...]

Pharma Skeptics

Support continues to pour in daily:
“Have seen the website and it’s great! We were wondering if we could include it in our newsletter website of the month feature? It is very much in line with our thinking… We will also link your site to ours as it’s the sort of information we want potential clients [...]

Stopping clinical trials early

I see the drug companies are coming under fire again, this time for stopping clinical trials of anti-cancer drugs early, because of encouraging signs of benefits.  They have  the bare-faced audacity to claim that their motivation is to get approval as fast as possible - based on short-term effects only - in order to get [...]

Early Responses

This campaign is only a month old, but the response is very encouraging already. Comments so far include:
“Well done on the site - it’s excellent!”
“I feel as strongly about anti-depressants… Someone has to take these people on - as my husband would say, if it wasn’t for the one individual who got the ball [...]

A Nice Surprise

Now I must admit, after four years slogging away at this book, the months it took to publish it and the months we’ve spent creating this site, I was feeling a bit like going far away and sitting in a dark cave for a while. And maybe never coming back.
Of course I do have a [...]

Champix/Chantix

by Chris Holmes
*Update: If you or a loved one has suffered a bad reaction to Champix and you are based in the U.K., you can report it to the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) here. The more people do that the clearer the true picture will become. Protect others! Report [...]