Homeopathy UK

Last updated

Homeopathy UK previously the British Homeopathic Association (BHA) is a British charity founded in 1902 by John Epps [ citation needed ] to promote homeopathy and advocate for its training and research. The BHA was re-branded in 2021 to Homeopathy UK. It supports the use of homeopathy within general and specialist healthcare, and provides a listing of homeopathic practitioners. From 1902, the BHA co-sponsored the Missionary School of Medicine, a school of medicine for medical missionaries. The charity also campaigns for more homeopathy in Britain's National Health Service (NHS). [1]

Contents

Homeopathy is a form of alternative medicine in which practitioners treat patients using highly diluted [2] [3] preparations based on the Law of Similars of Paracelsus, one of the first documented proponents of modern toxicology".

The BHA has been accused of misrepresenting evidence submitted to the House Of Commons Evidence Check On Homeopathy. [4] Analysis of the evidence submitted by the British Homeopathic Association contains many examples of quote mining, where the conclusions of scientific papers were selectively quoted to make them appear to support the efficacy of homeopathic treatment. For example, one paper's conclusion was reported as "There is some evidence that homeopathic treatments are more effective than placebo" without the immediately following caveat "however, the strength of this evidence is low because of the low methodological quality of the trials. Studies of high methodological quality were more likely to be negative than the lower quality studies." [4] [5]

NHS England's public consultation in July 2017 "to drive out wasteful and ineffective drug prescriptions" [6] resulted in the recommendation, in November 2017, that GPs should stop prescribing homeopathy to patients. The BHA "believed it had identified serious flaws" [7] in the consultation's process and sought a judicial review, crowdfunding donations from supporters to support the legal action. [8] In May 2018, Mr Justice Supperstone heard the case at the Royal Courts of Justice, London [9] and, in June, he upheld NHS England's original decision to cease funding homeopathy. [10] NHS England announced its intention to "reclaim £120,000 in legal costs" [11] from the BHA, arguing "that taxpayers should not pick up the tab for “tap water masquerading as medicine”".

In May 2019, the charity changed its name to Homeopathy UK. [12] [13]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Homeopathy</span> Pseudoscientific system of alternative medicine

Homeopathy or homoeopathy is a pseudoscientific system of alternative medicine. It was conceived in 1796 by the German physician Samuel Hahnemann. Its practitioners, called homeopaths or homeopathic physicians, believe that a substance that causes symptoms of a disease in healthy people can cure similar symptoms in sick people; this doctrine is called similia similibus curentur, or "like cures like". Homeopathic preparations are termed remedies and are made using homeopathic dilution. In this process, the selected substance is repeatedly diluted until the final product is chemically indistinguishable from the diluent. Often not even a single molecule of the original substance can be expected to remain in the product. Between each dilution homeopaths may hit and/or shake the product, claiming this makes the diluent "remember" the original substance after its removal. Practitioners claim that such preparations, upon oral intake, can treat or cure disease.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Allopathic medicine</span> Term for science-based, modern medicine

Allopathic medicine, or allopathy, is an archaic and derogatory label originally used by 19th-century homeopaths to describe heroic medicine, the precursor of modern evidence-based medicine. There are regional variations in usage of the term. In the United States, the term is sometimes used to contrast with osteopathic medicine, especially in the field of medical education. In India, the term is used to distinguish conventional modern medicine from Siddha medicine, Ayurveda, homeopathy, Unani and other alternative and traditional medicine traditions, especially when comparing treatments and drugs.

Humanists UK, known from 1967 until May 2017 as the British Humanist Association (BHA), is a charitable organisation which promotes secular humanism and aims to represent "people who seek to live good lives without religious or superstitious beliefs" in the United Kingdom by campaigning on issues relating to humanism, secularism, and human rights. It seeks to act as a representative body for non-religious people in the UK.

Quoting out of context is an informal fallacy in which a passage is removed from its surrounding matter in such a way as to distort its intended meaning. Context may be omitted intentionally or accidentally, thinking it to be non-essential. As a fallacy, quoting out of context differs from false attribution, in that the out of context quote is still attributed to the correct source.

An online pharmacy, internet pharmacy, or mail-order pharmacy is a pharmacy that operates over the Internet and sends orders to customers through mail, shipping companies, or online pharmacy web portal.

The NHS treatments blacklist is an informal name for a list of medicines and procedures which will not be funded by public money except in exceptional cases. These include but are not limited to procedures which the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has ruled of limited effectiveness and particular brand name medicines. In 2017 there was a proposal for 3,200 over-the-counter (OTC) drugs to be restricted and 18 procedures to be added to the list. This generated some controversy amongst doctors with some arguing that OTC should be blacklisted instead, and others believing the move did not take into account individual patient needs.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sense about Science</span> British non-profit organisation

Sense about Science is a United Kingdom charitable organization that promotes the public understanding of science. Sense about Science was founded in 2002 by Lord Taverne, Bridget Ogilvie and others to promote respect for scientific evidence and good science. It was established as a charitable trust in 2003, with 14 trustees, an advisory council and a small office staff. Tracey Brown has been the director since 2002.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">National Health Service (England)</span> Publicly-funded healthcare system in England

The National Health Service (NHS) is the publicly funded healthcare system in England, and one of the four National Health Service systems in the United Kingdom. It is the second largest single-payer healthcare system in the world after the Brazilian Sistema Único de Saúde. Primarily funded by the government from general taxation, and overseen by the Department of Health and Social Care, the NHS provides healthcare to all legal English residents and residents from other regions of the UK, with most services free at the point of use for most people. The NHS also conducts research through the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Regulation and prevalence of homeopathy</span> Alternative medicine

Homeopathy is fairly common in some countries while being uncommon in others. In some countries, there are no specific legal regulations concerning the use of homeopathy, while in others, licenses or degrees in conventional medicine from accredited universities are required.

The Complementary and Natural Healthcare Council (CNHC) is a regulatory body in the United Kingdom which provides a voluntary register of complementary, rather than alternative medicine, therapists. The key purpose of CNHC is to act in the public interest and enable proper public accountability of the complementary therapists that it registers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michael Dixon (doctor)</span> British general practitioner (born 1952)

Michael David Dixon, (Hon) is an English general practitioner and current Head of the Royal Medical Household. He is Chair of The College of Medicine and Integrated Health and Visiting Professor at the University of Westminster.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Boots (company)</span> British multinational pharmacy store chain

Boots UK Limited is a British health and beauty retailer and pharmacy chain that operates in the United Kingdom. It also operates internationally, including Ireland, Italy, Norway, the Netherlands, Thailand and Indonesia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Good Thinking Society</span> Organization

The Good Thinking Society is a nonprofit organisation promoting scientific scepticism established by Simon Singh in September 2012.

Pharmacy in the United Kingdom has been an integral part of the National Health Service since it was established in 1948. Unlike the rest of the NHS, pharmacies are largely privately provided apart from those in hospitals, and even these are now often privately run.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michael Marshall (skeptic)</span> British skeptical activist and journalist (born 1983)

Michael "Marsh" Marshall is a British skeptical activist and the editor of The Skeptic magazine since September 2020. He is the co-founder and vice-president of the Merseyside Skeptics Society and co-host of its official podcast, Skeptics with a K, project director of the Good Thinking Society, and has occasionally written for The Times, The Guardian and New Statesman. As of 2022, Marshall is a fellow with the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry.

The UK National Health Service has historically supported a number of hospitals which were created to primarily offer homeopathic treatments. Following declining support within the NHS for homeopathy as a treatment, all but one have now either closed down or substantially modified their activities.

CEASE therapy is a pseudoscientific practice used by naturopaths who claim that it can treat or even cure people with autism, claims which have been adjudicated by the UK's Advertising Standards Authority as "bogus". It involves a mixture of supplements, high-dose vitamin C, 'orthomolecular support', dietary restrictions, and homeopathy. The therapy was developed by Dutch doctor Tinus Smits, who claimed to have used it to treat over 300 children with autism. It became more notable in 2017/2018 because of regulatory action taken by professional bodies in The Netherlands, UK, and Canada following a series of complaints about unfounded claims.

The Society of Homeopaths (SoH) is a British private limited company formed in 1978 by "a small group of homeopaths who were keen to work together for the development of the profession and to ensure high standards in the practice of homeopathy" and at September 2018 had 997 members on the Society's register who can refer to themselves as RSHoms. The SoH's register was first accredited by the Professional Standards Authority (PSA) in September 2014 allowing members to display the Accredited Register's logo at the time. In January 2021 the PSA suspended the society's accreditation for failure to meet standards the PSA had set.

The infinitesimally low concentration of homeopathic preparations, which often lack even a single molecule of the diluted substance, has been the basis of questions about the effects of the preparations since the 19th century. Modern advocates of homeopathy have proposed a concept of "water memory", according to which water "remembers" the substances mixed in it, and transmits the effect of those substances when consumed. This concept is inconsistent with the current understanding of matter, and water memory has never been demonstrated to exist, in terms of any detectable effect, biological or otherwise.

Homeopaths Without Borders (HWB) is a nonprofit organization based in Hebron, New Hampshire, which was founded in 1996 by Nancy Kelly. Modelled after Doctors Without Borders, it sends practitioners to developing countries to administer the pseudoscience of homeopathy, in an attempt to gain traction in countries where it does not already have a foothold. It has several different national associations, including Germany and North America.

References

  1. ↑ Kayne, Steven B. (2006). Homeopathic pharmacy: theory and practice. Elsevier Health Sciences. pp. 62–63. ISBN   978-0-443-10160-1.
  2. ↑ Ernst, E. (2002), "A systematic review of systematic reviews of homeopathy", British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology, 54 (6): 577–82, doi:10.1046/j.1365-2125.2002.01699.x, PMC   1874503 , PMID   12492603
  3. ↑ UK Parliamentary Committee Science and Technology Committee - "Evidence Check 2: Homeopathy"
  4. 1 2 Robbins, Martin (4 February 2010). "Homeopathic association misrepresented evidence to MPs | Martin Robbins | Science | guardian.co.uk". Guardian. Retrieved 18 August 2012.
  5. ↑ My Response to the British Homeopathic Association, Martin Robbins, The Lay Scientist, February 9, 2010
  6. ↑ "NHS England launches action plan to drive out wasteful and ineffective drug prescriptions, saving NHS over £190 million a year". NHS England. 21 July 2017. Retrieved 4 August 2018.
  7. ↑ "BHA's brave legal bid to overturn NHS decision on homeopathy fails". British Homeopathic Association. 5 June 2018. Retrieved 4 August 2018.
  8. ↑ "Judicial review sought against NHS England". British Homeopathic Association. 6 November 2017. Retrieved 4 August 2018.
  9. ↑ "Judge considers BHA challenge to NHS homeopathy 'ban'". Society of Homeopaths. 11 May 2018. Retrieved 4 August 2018.
  10. ↑ "High Court backs NHS decision to stop funding homeopathy". The Telegraph. 5 June 2018. Retrieved 4 August 2018.
  11. ↑ "NHS demands legal costs from failed homeopathy challenge". The Times. 31 July 2018. Retrieved 4 August 2018.
  12. ↑ "Homeopathy UK - Overview". Companies House. Retrieved 19 July 2019.
  13. ↑ "Homeopathy UK". The Charity Commission. Retrieved 19 July 2019.


This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.