Homeopathy should be banned from use in the NHS, the conference agreed.

The meeting voted overwhelmingly in favour of stopping commissioning or funding for homeopathic remedies or homeopathic hospitals in the health service.

UK training posts in homeopathic hospitals should also be scrapped, the conference said.

MUMBAI: The police arrested a 28-year-old homeopath, Virendra Doni, for allegedly raping a seven-year-old patient inside his clinic at Santa Cruz East on Friday. A police officer from Vakola police station said they have booked him for rape and that investigations are currently on.

The victim, who had been suffering from cough since a few days, was taken to the clinic by her grandfather on Friday morning. Police officials said that after examining the girl, Doni prescribed some medicines and asked her grandfather to buy them from a shop in the vicinity.

Senior police inspector Anil Kharade of Vakola police station said, “Doni committed the crime when the grandfather went to purchase the medicine.”

The WA Coroner has been told it is possible to find that prominent researcher, Peter Dingle, and a homeopath contributed to the death of a woman from cancer.

The Coroner has been examining the case of Doctor Dingle's wife, Penelope, who used homeothapy and nutritional supplements to treat rectal cancer.

During the inquest, it was alleged Doctor Dingle and the homeopath, Francine Scrayen, had misled Mrs Dingle into believing the therapies could cure her

PROMINENT Perth academic and researcher Dr Peter Dingle has denied playing Russian roulette with his wife Penelope's health, in an exclusive interview on Nine News.

Penelope Dingle died in 2005 from colorectal cancer, after refusing conventional treatments and instead relying on natural remedies. Peter Dingle says he could not persuade her to have surgery.

"This isn't Peter Dingle the academic or the researcher, this is Peter Dingle the husband, who just got lost and didn't know what was going on in the end," he says.

A coronial inquiry into the death of Penelope Dingle has heard the "cruel" home-remedies to which she subjected herself to try and cure her cancer.

Mrs Dingle, who was married to prominent West Australian professor Peter Dingle, died in 2005 after her rectal cancer had spread to other parts of her body.

She had initially refused surgery and conventional treatments for the cancer, which was first detected in 2003, opting to be treated with homeopathic remedies instead.

A homeopath who treated cancer patient Penelope Dingle until her disease became terminal told a coronial inquiry she never promised to cure her.

Coroner Alastair Hope is examining what role Belgian-born homeopath Francine Scrayen and Mrs Dingle's husband, Peter, played in her treatment, and whether greater regulation of alternative medicines is needed.

Mrs Dingle died in August 2005 after initially refusing surgery for rectal cancer, opting to be treated with alternative remedies instead.

According to correo.com “the story of Penelope Dingle, an Australian who died of cancer in 2005, is terrifying and shows how dangerous can be the so-called alternative medicines.”

Homeopathy was the option that she chose to fight her illness, replacing surgery and chemotherapy, but triggered her death at 45 years with terrible suffering.

The coroner Alastair Hope is the one who is investigating the case to determine “if the homeopath who treated her recommended her to abandon conventional therapies and whether to tighten controls on the homeopathic industry.”

THE homeopath who treated a woman that tried to use alternative therapies to cure her cancer has denied asking her patient to sign a letter indemnifying her role in the treatment.

At an inquest into the 2005 death of Penelope Dingle, classical homeopath Francine Scrayen told the Perth Coroners Court her role was reducing the symptoms of Mrs Dingle’s illness and it was “against the principle of homeopathy” to be able to cure the colorectal cancer.

Mrs Dingle, who attempted to treat the cancer with homeopathy and natural remedies, died in August 2005 after suffering a rectal tumour.

The Finnish association of skeptics’ stunt to demonstrate the inefficacy of homeopathic medicines did not result in any fatalities, the national daily Helsingin Sanomat reports.

“A group of self-identified sceptics staged a homeopathic “mass suicide attempt” in Helsinki on Wednesday 9 June. About seven activists of the association Skepsis ry knocked back eight bottles of homeopathic medicines during the stunt.

THE State Coroner has questioned why a prominent Perth toxicologist did not confront the homeopath who was treating his cancer-stricken wife as her illness worsened.

At an inquest into the death of Penelope Dingle in 2005, her husband Dr Peter Dingle today told the Perth Coroners Court he was eager not to break the trust of his ailing wife, pledging to “remain positive” as she battled colorectal cancer.

A nurse has described her horror during an inquest after seeing the emaciated condition of a woman who tried to treat her cancer with homeopathic therapies.

Deborah Combes, a registered nurse and family friend of the woman, Penelope Dingle, said she believed Dingle was dying after seeing her during a visit in 2003, PerthNow.com reports.

"Nothing could prepare me ... Pen was lying naked in the bath in an emaciated state," Ms Combes told the Perth Coroner's Court.

The wife of a prominent Perth author and toxicologist would have died "in excruciating pain" after refusing to have surgery for bowel cancer, a coronial inquest has been told.

"It's one of the most painful diseases you could possibly get, particularly when it gets to the advanced stages," colorectal surgeon Professor Cameron Platell told the inquest on Monday.

"It's like torturing someone."

The State Coroner has been told a woman who shunned traditional medical treatment in favour of alternative therapies, was under the 'complete control of her homeopath'.

Penelope Dingle died of rectal cancer in 2005 after she refused traditional medical treatment and chose natural medicine instead.

An inquest is being held into her death to determine what role her homeopath and husband played in her treatment, and whether greater regulation of homeopathy is needed.

"A homeopath told a patient with rectal cancer to avoid mainstream medicine because alternative treatment alone could cure her, an inquest was told.

Perth's Penelope Dingle, the wife of prominent Perth environmental and nutritional toxicologist Peter Dingle, agreed to be treated with alternative therapies and refused to have surgery to remove the cancer soon after she was diagnosed in 2003.

Instead, she adhered to a strict diet and regular homeopath treatments before becoming so unwell she had to have emergency surgery to remove a bowel obstruction."

It what must be the dumbest suicide attempt in history, Billy Joels daughter Alexa Ray Joel apparently downed a bottle of Homeopathic pills. Maybe it was a cry for help, who knows, but trying to kill yourself, or appearing to try and kill yourself on Homeopathic pills is either very dumb, or very clever depending how you look at it.

I for one am very pleased she failed in her attempt to kill herself, if that is what it was. She is a beautiful young woman, with millions in the bank. She has her whole life ahead of her.

Perhaps the lesson here is that if you do want to make a cry for help, better to do it with homeopathy pills, than with real medicine.

Hundreds of members of the BMA have passed a motion denouncing the use of the alternative medicine, saying taxpayers should not foot the bill for remedies with no scientific basis to support them.

The BMA has previously expressed scepticism about homoeopathy, arguing that the rationing body, the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence should examine the evidence base and make a definitive ruling about the use of the remedies in the NHS.

Breaking News: The British Chiropractic Association has admitted defeat and dropped all charges against Simon Singh!

The website of William McCormick QC, who is one of the barristers acting for Simon Singh, the British Chiropractic Association has served a "Notice of Discontinuance".

This means that after years fighting bthe BCA, Simon Singh can now finally get his life back on track.

No news yet on what will happen regarding the hundreds of thousands of pounds that Singh has spent defending himself.

The homeopath behind a website advertising homeopathic immunisation kits is ignoring demands by regulators to publish a retraction acknowledging the therapeutic claims made for its products were "misleading and unverified".

The Homeopathy Plus! website claims homeopathic immunisation is effective against diseases ranging from poliomyelitis, chicken pox and meningococcal disease to cholera, smallpox and Japanese encephalitis.

The new consumer protection regulations (CPR 2008) have not yet lead to a single prosecution for false health claims.

The charity Healthwatch UK would like to find out why. They're looking for volunteers to submit a single complaint to Trading Standards, so that the responses can be collected and compared nationally.

The project is being organised by Professor John Garrow and Les Rose, a consultant clinical scientist.

I have already volunteered. If you'd like to take part in this vital research, please get in touch with lesrose@ntlworld.com

The Akaija is a necklace that apparently keeps your "energy biofield strong, even during electro-magnetic attacks".

<---- Here it is, modelled by Wim Roskam's lovely girlfriend.

If, like me, you find that the silver model isn't very attractive, you can impress your woo friends with a 14 carat gold version! I wonder which the ASA will prefer?

By Cassus - aka. Sceptical Letter Writer

The House Commons Science and Technology committee has recently undertaken an evidence check on the usefulness of homeopathy and has now published its report.

The conclusions are unequivocal. They say "To maintain patient trust, choice and safety, the Government should not endorse the use of placebo treatments, including homeopathy. Homeopathy should not be funded on the NHS and the MHRA should stop licensing homeopathic products."

Boots the pharmacy is a British institution, widely trusted and respected. However, they've decided to sell homeopathic remedies, a saddening choice. Join my campaign for truth and science, by replacing point-of-sale information with my own flyers detailing the facts about homeopathy.

About Boots
Boots has been a high street UK retailer for over 150 years, respected by the public and trusted to deliver sound medical solutions and effective medicines. They describe themselves as The UK's leading pharmacy-led health and beauty retailer, operating around 2,600 stores. Unfortunately Boots have decided to jeopardize their reputation in pursuit of profits, by selling mysticism in the form of homeopathic "remedies".

I have had many responses to my previous columns on alternative medicine, where people have argued I am wrong, and that thanks to their experience, they know that remedy X is effective.

So, if I and the scientific community are saying the majority of alternative treatments do not work, how can we explain why so many people believe in their efficacy?

Very easily.

I find the psychology behind what makes people believe in nonsense fascinating, and by getting to know the mistakes of reasoning that people typically make, you can protect yourself from being drawn into mumbo-jumbo healthcare.

Last month, a report in the Journal of the American Medical Association showed that the herbal supplement Ginkgo biloba does not appear to help memory or slow the rate of cognitive decline in healthy older people.
On Yale neurologist Steven Novella’s “Science-Based Medicine” Web site he explained, “The study was a direct comparison of Gingko biloba at 120 mg twice a day versus placebo—a double blind, randomized, multi-center trial involving 3,019 subjects aged seventy-two to ninety-six, followed for a median of 6.1 years.

Subjects were followed with standardized tests of cognitive function. The results are easy to report: every measure showed no difference between Gingko biloba and placebo. There was no difference in cognitive function, risk of developing dementia, rate of progression of dementia, or normal cognitive decline with aging.”

Gingko biloba is one of the world’s top-selling herbal supplements, widely advertised as having been proven effective in helping people increase memory and concentration. The fact that study after study has shown it is not effective comes as a blow to the herbal industry, but new research suggests that Gingko may actually harm some people.

Two homeopaths - Louise McLean and Helen Kimball-Brooke - attended the 10:23 event in London. Today, her report from the demonstration appeared on the "Homeopathy Heals" website.

In her report, Louise notes:

"Of course homeopaths know that one dose of however many pills taken together in one go, is the equivalent of only one dose, because it is the time frame that counts. So if they had repeatedly taken a dose every hour for the rest of the day, the skeptics would most certainly have felt the effects. "

Sounds like a challenge to me!

A public mass overdose of homeopathic remedies has forced the New Zealand Council of Homeopaths to admit openly that their products do not contain any "material substances". Council spokeswoman Mary Glaisyer admitted publicly that "there´s not one molecule of the original substance remaining" in the diluted remedies that form the basis of this multi-million-dollar industry.

The NZ Skeptics, in conjunction with 10:23, Skeptics in the Pub and other groups nationally and around the world, held the mass overdose in Christchurch on Saturday to highlight the fact that homeopathic products are simply very expensive water drops or sugar/lactose pills. A further aim was to question the ethical issues of pharmacies, in particular, stocking and promoting sham products and services.

I have just purchased a packet of Boots-brand 84 arnica homeopathic 30C Pills for £5.09, which Boots proudly claim is only 6.1p per pill. Their in-store advice tells me that arnica is good for treating “bruising and injuries”, which gives the impression that this is a very cost-effective health-care option.

Unlike most medication, it didn’t list the actual dose of the active ingredient that each pill contains, so I checked the British Homeopathic Association website. On their website it nonchalantly states that to make a homeopathic remedy, they start with the active ingredient and then proceed to dilute it to 1 per cent concentration. Then they dilute that new solution again, so there is now only 0.01 per cent of the original ingredients. For my 30C pills this diluting is repeated thirty times, which means that the arnica is one part in a million billion billion billion billion billion billion.

On January 30th, 2010, at exactly 10:23am, large groups of skeptics will gather in the town centres of around a dozen cities in the UK and consume a full bottle of homeopathic pills, in order to demonstrate the ineffectiveness of homeopathy. Marsh explains why...

Homeopathy in the UK is alarmingly pervasive - setting aside the fact that the industry is worth an estimated £40million per year, the National Health Service actually plows £4million per year of taxpayers' money into providing sugar pills as a Complementary Alternative Medicine - much of which goes into the upkeep of the four government-run homeopathic hospitals.