Have some Treatment
Got a broken leg? Hepatitis? Chapped lips? Have you tried some nice medicine?
A pharmacy supplying homeopathic remedies to the Royal Family…, Ainsworths, has been accused of “quackery” for supplying bottles of pills labelled as “Swine Flu Formula” for people suffering from the disease…Ainsworths has been granted a Royal Warrant by the Queen and Prince Charles, who are both said to be supporters of homeopathy…Its treatment is in the form of small “sugar pills”, which dissolve under the tongue. It is sold in £7 bottles, containing 50 pills, which can be bought on the company’s website or over the counter of its central London store. The label on the bottles reads: “SFF (Swine Flu Formula). Treatment: One to be dissolved in the mouth three times a day until improved.”
£7 for fifty little sugar pills! What is the other £6.95 for? Overhead? Malpractice insurance? A day in Brighton?
A Telegraph reporter got a ‘pharmacist’ at Ainsworths to sell him some. She said ‘the pills would help the body “overcome the symptoms” of the virus.’
David Colquhoun and others pointed out that this is dangerous bullshit. Tony Pinkus, the director of Ainsworths, on the other hand, said something rather different.
“At Ainsworths we cater for our many homeopathic customers who have requested a remedy to alleviate the symptoms of swine flu. Most of our customers are people who routinely use homeopathy and find it a satisfactory alternative to allopathic or conventional medicine and are exercising their freedom of choice.”
They ‘cater for’ their customers who have asked for a remedy to alleviate the symptoms of swine flu by giving them a very expensive bottle of sugar pills? That’s a funny kind of ‘catering for.’ At that rate I could go to a restaurant and request a remedy to alleviate my hunger, and be given a brick, or a hank of magenta cashmere, or a hand-painted Breton soup bowl. And the bit about freedom of choice is very patriotic and nice, of course, but it’s a damn cynical way to defend quackery. I’m free to choose a hank of magenta cashmere for breakfast lunch and dinner, too, but if I keep it up I will either starve or die of wool-poisoning, so people who peddle me the stuff are being…unhelpful.
“The remedy is available on request and we do not advertise or encourage people to buy it. We also make it clear that homeopathy can be used in conjunction with conventional medicines and do not feel we are ignoring or going against any governmental guidelines.”
Now that’s interesting. They’re in the business, but they do not advertise or encourage people to buy it. Well why not? Because it doesn’t work? Because it doesn’t do anything? Because it’s just common or garden sugar? And yet they do put a label saying ‘SFF (Swine Flu Formula) Treatment’ on the bottle.
Dr Catherine Zollman, a Fellow of the Prince’s Foundation for Integrated Health and a GP in Bristol, said she uses homeopathy in her every day care of patients. “Homeopathic treatment can be helpful where conventional medicine doesn’t have much to offer and there are ongoing symptoms in the patient which are causing distress. But it does have to be used with care and good assessment where serious progressive illness or disease has been ruled out.”
Helpful in what sense? Consoling for chronic pain or other misery when ‘conventional’ medicine isn’t working? ‘Helpful’ could mean anything or nothing. But even this Fellow of the prince’s whatsit is careful to warn against using it for anything real and treatable.
I would say more, but mindful of Simon Singh and the British Chiropractic Association, I will let you work it out for yourselves.
I’m free to choose a hank of magenta cashmere for breakfast lunch and dinner, too, but if I keep it up I will either starve or die of wool-poisoning, so people who peddle me the stuff are being…unhelpful.” That made me laugh out loud, OB. Classic Ophelia Benson. Thanks for that, you brightened my day.
Pinkus is [not telling the truth].
He said: “we do not advertise or encourage people to buy it [Swine Flu Formula]”, but it’s advertised on his website for all to see at: http://www.ainsworths.com/site/product.aspx?ProductId=22383&CategoryId=44.
You’d have thought after being asked questions about it that he’d have checked to make sure he [had told the truth].
Pinkus is marketing this product at a consumer segment proven to benefit from homeopathic remedies. The only benefit to be derived from such remedies is the meaning effect, but this is far from trivial – so it is very likely that his product really will help those who use it.
Interesting moral questions hang over whether it is ethical behaviour, and I don’t think those questions are simple ones. The fact is that he’ll be making profit from selling quack medicines, and that’s not good – but they’ll be harmless (and thus better than an inappropriate active drug) and it is probable that purchasers will experience some benefits. Bear in mind that this is in the absence (so far) of an especially effective alternative.
Plus 7 quid ain’t that much, really. It’s less than the standard prescription charge for NHS medications:)
“Plus 7 quid ain’t that much, really. It’s less than the standard prescription charge for NHS medications:)”
Not if you are in Wales or Scotland.
*Reminder, or new information for new readers*: please do not say people are “lying” here. This is for legal reasons.
This is reminiscent of the homoeopaths who were caught by supplying malaria treatments by Panorama.
Everyone criticised the homoeopaths for it, but hardly anyone dared to point out the reason why homoeopathy shouldn’t be used for malaria and other serious conditions. Even homoeopathic bodies condemned it so they must know – at some level – that their “treatments” don’t actually work.
Pinkus is doing the same thing when he points out that Ainsworth doesn’t encourage people to use the swine flu “treatment.” He obviously realises that it would be wrong to do that.
The question we should be asking homoeopaths is “if your medicines work then why don’t you encourage people to use them for serious conditions? Isn’t it unethical to deny people treatment which could alleviate their suffering?”
If sugar remedies work (as placebos or as gen-yoo-wine medicine) why not just make it at home and skip going to the shops? I haven’t checked but I bet there are recipes on the internet. . .
20 grains table sugar
1 drop of spit of a person ill w/swine flu
blend for three seconds.
compress
let dry in 400 degree oven
I know, I know!
Because if you make it at home you know it’s a placebo – but if you get it from a ‘pharmacist’ in a ‘bottle’ with a ‘label’ that says ‘Treatment’ then you can pretend you don’t know it’s a placebo.
Claire
Your formula wouldn’t be homeopathic.
Homeopathy is based on several principles, the two most important being that the greater the dilution, the more effective the treatment and second, that like treats like (hence the name).
You would need to take many, preferably millions, of tons of sugar to a drop of some chemical that would induce flu-like symptoms at normal doses. That would be homeopathic.
Terry
Thank you. Yes of course, I overlooked the dilution principle.
So I guess making the meds in a home kitchen presents a problem of scale.
Well, it’s done in steps so that you don’t really need a planet sized pile of sugar, but there is this weird shaking thing you have to do between steps or the sugar will lose its memory. That part is supposed to be tricky and if you don’t do it just right, you might cure dandruff instead of flu. This is why you need a real, experienced homeopath to make the stuff.
Hahahahahahahahahahahahaha
please do not say people are “lying” here. This is for legal reasons.
And what legal reasons are those?
For shame, Terry! It’s not a “weird shaking thing,” it’s succession. The activity has an official technical term attached to it, so you know it must be legitimate and scientifical*.
*SAT analogies time!
1. scientific is to scientifical as
[A] fanatic :: fanatical
[B] truth :: truthiness
[C] optics :: optical
[D] hierarchy :: hierarchical
Thank you for explaining. I imagine the shaking procedure, or succession, creates the added value and that explains the price for the little bottles of miniscule pills.
It’s all clear now! I’ll cancel my order for several tons of sugar, and neutralize my vats of spit w/baking soda.
Peter – lawsuits under UK libel laws, which are grotesque. See the Simon Singh case if you don’t already know about it.
Colour me enraged. Bunch of exploiting gits the lot of them. What’s next – patrolling cancer hospices pedalling a cure?
GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR.
Aren’t you all being a bit harsh? They should be taking it FURTHER. Homeopathy should be used in A&E!
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