Speaking of stupid stuff, the struggle continues to persuade the future king to act like a responsible adult and not endanger the health of his ‘subjects.’
The Prince of Wales is being challenged today to withdraw two guides promoting alternative medicine…The documents, published by the Prince and his Foundation for Integrated Health, misrepresent scientific evidence about therapies such as homoeopathy, acupuncture and reflexology…Edzard Ernst, Professor of Complementary Medicine at the University of Exeter, and Simon Singh, a science writer and broadcaster, call on the Prince to recall the publications, one of which was produced with a £900,000 grant from the Department of Health…Professor Ernst and Dr Singh say the Prince accepted the importance of “rigorous scientific evidence” to alternative medicine, in an article he wrote for The Times in 2000, and point out that more than 4,000 research studies have since been published…The first document is a pamphlet, part-funded by the taxpayer, that gives advice on finding practitioners of alternative therapies. It is misleading, Professor Ernst said, because it includes disorders for which alternative remedies have been shown to be ineffective. It states, for example, that chiropractic is used to treat asthma, digestive disorders and migraine, when it has been shown by rigorous trials only to be useful for back pain. The guide also promotes acupuncture for addiction, when studies suggest that it has no benefit, and homoeopathy, which a major review for The Lancet has indicated works only as a placebo.
That’s a good wheeze, isn’t it – to describe worthless treatments as being ‘used to treat’ diseases it can’t treat. It’ll be true, because there are people who ‘use’ them that way, but it’s misleading, because ‘using’ them that way is like me using a hammer to paint the wall blue. It doesn’t work.
Natasha Finlayson, of the Prince’s Foundation for Integrated Health, said: “We entirely reject the accusation that our online publication Complementary Healthcare: A Guide contains any misleading or inaccurate claims about the benefits of complementary therapies. On the contrary, it treats people as adults and takes a responsible approach by encouraging people to look at reliable sources of information . . . so that they can make informed decisions.”
That’s rather disgusting. It’s manipulative bullshit to talk about ‘treating people as adults’ by giving them misleading pseudo-information. It’s not treating people as children to give them information that is careful not to mislead, especially when it comes to medical treatments. It’s disgusting that Chuck abuses his unearned power and influence to do this kind of thing. He’s not a doctor, he’s not a medical researcher, he’s not a physiologist, he’s not even a competent journalist, but here he is pushing quack medicine on people who will take him seriously because of who he is. Bad, very bad.
Comments
14 responses to “Time for Chuck to grow up”
“The guide also promotes acupuncture for addiction, when studies suggest that it has no benefit, and homoeopathy, which a major review for The Lancet has indicated works only as a placebo.”
There is a centre in Dublin for drug addicts/homeless people and the staff there are trained in acupuncture. It offers this free acupuncture service to its clients.
I would surmise that the staff would look at one as if one had ten heads at the mere utterance to them – that a placebo was a preparation which was pharmacologically inert but which may have a therapeutic effect based solely on the power of suggestion.
There is a call on the Prince to recall the publications, one of which was produced with a £900,000 grant from the Department of Health.
There should also be a call on the Health Minister to pay back the tax payer – its monies.
He hasn’t had any good ideas.
It’s not sad, it’s an outrage.
The lad clearly needs to go out and get a decent job.
Completely off topic here, but . . .
the headline you’ve chosen for this note
. . . could the late Princess Diana be described as “the bride of Chucky”?
Yes I know you disagree, Tingey, you’ve given us your unvarying thoughts on Chuck many times.
And the fact that he makes a good biscuit hardly means that he has good ideas. (Nor do you know whether or not I’ve eaten any of his biscuits, and as a matter of fact I have. They’re no better than any other boutique biscuits.)
BTW, what are ’boutique biscuits’?
“Boutique biscuits” are cookies made in a bakeshop with pretensions.
I heard Natasha Finlays on the Today programme crooning that this was treating people like adults, letting them make up their own minds. If I go into Boots and ask the pharmacist for a cream for athlete’s foot I don’t want her to give me a list of ingredients and tell me it’s up to me to decide whether it will fix my athlete’s foot, I want her, with her professional expertise, to sell me the correct cream that does the job. She was a real radio-hurler, that one.
Really. Nor do you want the pharmacist to present you with a jar of marmalade, a tube of pastilles, a bottle of antihistimines, a bag of Smarties, and a jug of homeopathic remedy, and tell you to choose among them.
Treating people like adults – honestly.
http://www.princes-trust.org.uk/ This isnt a good idea?
“Boutique biscuits” are cookies made in a bakeshop with pretensions.”
Right, Elliot, I see, cookies of ‘Mrs Bouquet’s’ ilk come from a bakery with fancy knobs on its door. While the rest of us come from a bakery with an old jaded out oven and a cracked knocker on its creaking door.
I do not mean to be cynical or pretentiously callous – but suddenly an uncomfortable crapulous feeling – due to an imaginary excessive amount of munching on ’boutique biscuits’ – has overcome me
All this super-abundance, superfluous. gorging has filled me to the brim. Give me a marietta ,anyday.
“Dulled by surfeit; sated: “the sickeningly sweet life of the amoral, jaded, bored upper classes” (John Simon)
Not just no good ideas, no brain at all.
There’s more, much more, at his side-splitting coffee-spluttering website.
Yeah, stuff that doesn’t work really isn’t suited to having its effectiveness ‘proven’ by DB-RCTs.
Ah yes the gold-standard – those elitist bastards! That sturdy peasant the prince of Wales should give them a right dressing-down.