The Herbalists are Delighted.

21st February, 2011 1

Government announces statutory Regulation to Save Herbal Medicines The SaveHerbalmedicine.com Campaign is delighted to announce and welcome the Government’s decision, issued today, that herbal medicine practitioners are at long last to be statutor… [read more…]

How to Spot Bad Regulation of Alternative Medicine.

17th February, 2011 22

There are a number of differences between the practices of medicine and the pseudo-medicines, such as homeopathy, acupuncture and herbalism. One of the most important is the practitioners attitude to a treatment’s safety and efficacy. Within the world of alternative medicine, efficacy and safety is axiomatic. That is, practitioners believe in the power of their treatments because it is doctrinal and not as a result of robust empirical and theoretical [read more…]

The Homeopaths’ Desperate Campaign to the MHRA

16th February, 2011 28

More leaks from homeopathy land… Tomorrow is the last day that you can submit a response to the MHRA regarding how they should regulate the sale of homeopathic products – or ‘medicines’ as homeopaths like to call them. Meanwhile, it would appear that the homeopaths have been wanting to bombard the MHRA with responses. It would appear that the homeopaths, at all costs, do not want honest labelling on their [read more…]

Green Science

10th February, 2011 2

What is science? And how do you define a scientist? Anyone who has given these questions any serious thought will realise that these are not trivial questions and they continue to exercise the philosophers of science. It might then appear quite harsh to then criticise the UK Advertising Standards Authority who recently were asked to decide upon just this issue. An anonymous complaint was made to the Advertising Standards Authority [read more…]

The Media Code for Homeopaths

4th February, 2011 7

As I reported in December, various homeopathy groups from the UK have held a conference, hosted by a PR firm, in order to develop a ‘single voice’ in the face of criticism of their trade. One of the results of that conference was a ‘Media Code’, a set of rules designed to help homeopaths present their views to the media. Recent attempts to defend their practices have been pretty disastrous, [read more…]