Homeopathic supporting MP David Tredinnick misleads Parliament and offers staggeringly dimwitted endorsements.

What is it about supporters of homeopathy and their inability to honestly appraise evidence (and indeed be honest)? In the early hours of Tuesday 19th Feb MP David Tredinnick (Bosworth, Con) spoke out in support of homeopathy. Like many public statements of support for homeopathy his speech is riddled with inaccuracies, half-truths, lies and appallingly dangerous endorsements.

I am pleased to have the opportunity to introduce this important debate about the threat to the homeopathic hospitals. Their very survival may be at stake and I look forward to hearing from the Minister.

This debate comes at a time when support for homeopathy is at an all-time high, including in the House, with one third of Members signing early-day motion 1240 in the last Session, in support of homeopathy. The Government claim to support choice in health care, but as far as homeopathy is concerned, they are reducing choice. It is not commonly known, but homeopathy has always been available on the health service because its founder, Nye Bevan, had a homeopathic doctor and insisted that that was the case.

Now the EDM merely confirmed to me that a substantial minority of parliamentarians lack critical faculties, and is covered in splendid fashion here, here, and google will link to many more here. More laughable is the claim that support for homeopathy is at an all time high. The H:MC21, homeopathy worked for me site, claims that as of late January 5,000 people have signed the petition online and 382 in person. Now I suspect for some reason that not all the online signatures will be genuine but nevertheless will take this at face value, so 5,382 people support homeopathy. Now the population of Great Britain is approximately 60m so that makes 0.00897% willing to declare support for homeopathy. By comparison there are close to 400,000 Jedis in the UK, a fictional religion from a sci-fi film. I don’t see any MP’s arguing that support for Jedis is at an all time high and we should have state-funded lightsabers (although it goes without saying that we should). So how does this nitwit speak out for a minority lifestyle choice?

……homeopathy does not fit normal—that is, orthodox—methods of assessment. For example, the scale of prescribing is in reverse so that the weaker the dose, the more powerful or effective it is. That subject has always been hotly disputed by many doctors, but homeopathic treatments have been operating on the reverse scale of prescribing for 200 years. Some of the most powerful—the constitutional remedies—are so diluted that they can hardly be detected. There are similar problems with acupuncture and its acceptance, as some doctors and commissioners do not necessarily believe in meridians. The same issue occurs with herbs that are unknown in this country.

Another simpler explanation of why complementary services, and the homeopathic commission in particular, have been cut recently is that they are the easiest therapy to cut. Just as advertising gets cut when times get hard in business, when the primary care trusts try to balance their budgets under the new devolved arrangements they often go for homeopathy and other complementary therapies as the soft target.

I think this is subtle proof that Tredinnick isn’t exactly a man with a firm grasp of the physical sciences. I can barely bring myself to mock the thought processes of a man who appears so credulous. But then he goes on to say this which is perilously close to a falsehood:

the Royal London Homeopathic hospital has conducted more than 130 randomised and controlled trials of homeopathic treatments that show very effective results, so surely it is in the Department’s interests to make sure that those results are publicised to PCTs.

Now there is no evidence for the existence of these 130 trials, not least in the Complementary and Alternative Medicine Specialist Library, whose own evidence base has been skilfully dissected and exposed by apgaylard, which reports a mere 40 or so trials. Is David Tredinnick deliberately lying or is he simply mistaken? Personally I opt for idiocy over deception. There is ample evidence elsewhere in his speech for this.

Another problem that homeopathic hospitals have had to face is ill informed and hostile media coverage, as well as a dirty tricks campaign. The Minister may recall that in May 2007 some doctors issued a spurious document—printed on official paper, with the NHS logo—claiming that homeopathic services should be decommissioned. The Government have never written to PCTs to refute that document.

Now I cannot think of any dirty tricks played on homeopaths by David Colquhoun, Ben Goldacre, or indeed any other critic of homeopathy. On the contrary homeopaths and quacks have only been too keen to resort to spurious, and occasionally successful, legal attempts to suppress criticism. David Tredinnick then goes on to prove that not only is he an idiot but he is a stupid and dangerous cunt as well:

I want to allow the Minister time to reply, because the fate of the Royal London Homeopathic hospital is of great concern internationally. I shall illustrate that, and the importance of the treatment, by looking at the results that have been achieved in Africa by homeopaths who have been trained at the hospitals that I have mentioned. Those results are especially instructive, as the homeopaths involved are treating patients with AIDS, HIV or other serious diseases such as malaria, in countries where the problems are very great.

For example, at Kendu bay in Kenya’s Nyanza province, the Abha Light foundation is an organisation that partners mothers and orphans in the rural community who are suffering from AIDS, and it has had great success in returning those people to an active life. There has also been considerable success in the use of the local herb product called neem as a homeopathic medicine. It has produced what has been described as

“a convincing reduction in malaria attacks”

in a highly endemic area.

I shall close with a note about what is happening in Swaziland in southern Africa. I know a homeopath who has worked there well, and I asked her for a description of what was happening in the clinics there. Her letter to me states:

“Seven years ago I introduced Homeopathy to Swaziland, providing a community of 10,000 people with the only health care available to them. In addition I travelled around with a mobile clinic reaching other very remote areas. On an average day I could see up to 50 patients…Five years ago I built a homeopathic clinic…it was so successful that the people wanted to ensure my tenure which ensured their continued treatment on a daily basis.”

The letter goes on to say that other homeopaths were brought in to help, and that the clinic treated patients who came from as much as 300 miles away.

“Aside from the predominant treatment for HIV, TB and malaria, treatment is being given for many other common ailments such as urinary infections, diarrhoea, skin eruptions, diabetes, epilepsy, eye infections, intestinal parasites, treatment from pregnancy to childbirth, to more serious but locally common ailments like cancer, gangrene, toxaemia…and general injuries…In other words the list is endless.”

The letter states that the homeopathic treatments have achieved success rates of close to 100 per cent.

“As a result many lives have been saved, and pain and misery alleviated, in a community which can simply not afford orthodox treatment even if it were available.”

That is a very important issue for developing countries. Homeopathy is so inexpensive that it is available to everyone. When homeopathic services are introduced, they tend to increase in size very quickly. My acquaintance’s letter goes on to say:

“The low cost of the remedies and the relatively short dosage period, together with the positive results of the treatment are responsible for the expansion and ever increasing demand in a Country that is unable to give the majority of the population even the most basic of health care. Therefore, Homeopathy is excellent value and has saved countless lives as well as alleviating the suffering of the countless unemployed, elderly and orphaned in Swaziland.

We will of course continue with our work. At the end of a day, when we simply cannot see any more patients, the remaining untreated patients usually start fighting among each other as to who will be the last to be seen. A true vote of confidence!”

It has been a common theme of many bloggers, myself included, that NHS support for homeopathy supports the dangerous quacks who believe, in apparent sincerity, that homeopathy is a panacea for all of humanities incurable diseases. Sadly the Quackometer is offline at the moment or I would link to Le Canard Noir’s excellent dissection of homeopathic AIDs and malaria quackery so you will have to make do with Ben Goldacre’s thoughts instead. Ben Goldacre has written to Mr Tredinnick asking some very pertinent questions. It beggars belief that an MP, a supposed pillar of the establishment, would openly endorse such ludicrous theories in parliament and I hope he can come up with a convincing excuse or in my eyes he will become the pillock of the establishment.

PS The homeopath in Swaziland is Jacqueline Shearer should anyone want to ask her some questions.

*update*

And thanks to the magic of google cache you can read the Quackometer posts by following the cached links here.