Ritalin Free Kids is a wonderful book by  Robert Ullman and Judyth Reichenberg-Ullmman. The success stories in the book attests to the ability of well trained homeopaths to treat ADHD and similar disorders. From their web site:

Homeopathy is a safe, no side effects, natural alternative to Adderall, Concerta, Ritalin, Metadate, Dexedrine, and Strattera for ADHD, behavior problems, learning disabilities, oppositional defiant disorder, autism, depression and anxiety. Read our books, Ritalin-Free Kids, and Rage-Free Kids, and you will be amazed how a homeopathic remedy will help your child focus, behave better, do well in school, and be healthier and happier.

Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a developmental disorder characterized by distractibility, hyperactivity, impulsive behaviors, and the inability to remain focused on tasks or activities.

ADHD, also known as hyperkinetic disorder (HKD) outside of the United States, is estimated to affect 3-9% of children, and afflicts boys more often than girls. [answers.com]

The simple clinical success of homeopathy is in contradistinction to a deepening scandal that finds the psychiatrist who is behind the official guidelines for conventional drug treatment of children with these conditions, (and also claims there are no long term side effects from these drugs) to have taken over 1.6 million dollars in kickbacks from pharmaceutical companies. Governments around the world  have used these guidelines and as in Australia are now reconsidering:

A cloud has been cast over the draft’s validity after one of the psychiatrists, whose research into anti-psychotic drugs helped form the guidelines, was accused of failing to reveal payments from drug companies. The US Congress investigation has found Dr Biederman failed to declare where all the money came from and has possibly breached federal and Harvard University research laws. US-based child psychiatrist Dr Joseph Biederman is under investigation in America by authorities who have uncovered $1.6 million in payments.  [news.com Australia]

Ben Goldacre, a psychiatrist along with Sense about Science have been attempting to set guidelines for (i.e. stop)  the practice of homeopathy and distribution of homeopathic remedies without having practiced it and without any real knowledge of the practice of homeopathy. The organization has received  large sums of money from Pharmaceutical Companies and Ben Goldacre receives “awards” from them. Both claim that only pharmaceutical drugs are the answer to most medical problems and want to restrict the choice of ANY alternative particularly in emerging pharmaceutical markets.

Yet on the Ullman-Recheinberg web site the two practitioners with their many years of real and deep clinical experience says that homeopathy as an alternative to Ritalin:

• Treats the whole person at the root of the problem

• Considered safe, without the side effects of Ritalin and other medications

• Uses natural, nontoxic medicines

• Treats each person as an individual

• Heals physical as well as mental and emotional symptoms

• Lasts for months or years rather than hours

• Is inexpensive

• Is cost-effective

Tracy Brown, an experienced Public Relations Consultant for drug companies and oil companies, will be leading and presenting arguments against homeopathy in a British parliamentary committee this week. Tracy Brown is now director of Sense about Science which is directly sponsored by drug and medical appliance companies. Other associates of hers, including Ben Goldacre have received funding from Drug Companies in the form of “awards” and they will be joining her in presenting “evidence” against homeopathy. Some of the “evidence” against alternative medical practitioners has been created using fraudulent sources.

Sense about Science has led the attack on homeopathy and homeopaths in the UK. Some prominent British homeopaths and supporters will be presenting pro-homeopathy arguments.

Tracy Brown also worked as a Research Associate in the Sociology Department at the University of Kent, Canterbury, where Frank Furedi is a professor.  Frank Furedi is a founder of the Revolutionary Communist Party and members have taken up the anti homeopathy cause since it is not representative of the materialist philosophy of their charismatic leader. Furedi continues to be a leading figure in a network of organisations, characterised by a vigorous anti-homeopathy, anti-environmentalist and pro-GM stance.

Some strange happenings in England.

Dana Ullman Masters of Public Health, is a new writer for the Huffington Post. His Masters of Public Health status and homeopathic training  has led him to write some articles which take a look at modern health challenges from a different perspective. Homeopathy is more than just the taking or selling of homeopathic remedies. It has to do with an approach to health and disease that determines a real curative modality. The homeopathic profession have a lot to offer individuals considering the dismal overall results of modern medicine. WebMD reports that one in five individuals entering their 60s will have some sort of disability.

Dana Ullman in one of his articles writes about differentiating real healing from suppression of disease. Suppression of disease may be the reason we are seeing such a rise in disability statistics:

Differentiating Real Healing from Suppression of Disease

When a person experiences relief from any treatment, conventional or alternative, one should not necessarily assume that a real healing has occurred.  While it is possible that the person may really have been healed, it may also mean:

• the symptoms went away on their own, and the treatment had nothing to do with it.
• the treatment palliated the symptoms, providing short-term relief but resulted in the recurrence of symptoms in the near future.
• the treatment “worked” by suppressed the person’s symptoms or his/her own immune and defense system, thereby pushing the disease deeper into body. Although suppression of symptoms may cause them to disappear, they tend to be replaced, sooner or later, with more serious, deeper symptoms that are more discomforting and potentially dangerous.

Homeopaths and naturopaths both assert that there is a big difference between real healing, palliation of symptoms, and suppression of disease, even though each of these results may initially seem to be the same.

What people don’t usually understand is that there may be a danger in the frequent or recurrent application of treatments that suppress symptoms.  The concept of suppressing symptoms is well accepted and understood in psychology.  It is commonly observed when a person suppresses his or her emotions, such actions tend to push the emotional turmoil deeper, leading the person to explode at some future time, often at people who are not directly related to the origin of the person’s problem.

Link here to see a list of all of Dana Ullman’s articles on Huffington Post.

O, The Oprah Magazine is a monthly US magazine founded by Oprah Winfrey and the Hearst Corporation and has an average paid circulation of  over 2.6 million copies. Dr. Oz is the famous Medical doctor appearing on her show and bringing sensible suggestions for health problems. In a recent article written by him he recommends homeopathy as one option for the treatment of migraine headaches.

Oprah Winfrey said “that since Dr. Oz’s first Oprah Show appearance in 2004,  he’s been both a teacher and a healer for millions of viewers.”  The Oprah show has over 8 million viewers per show. Dr. Oz has his own television show now- The Dr. Oz Show.

In the November 2009 issue of O (The Oprah Magazine), Dr. Oz analyzes four approaches to treating headaches: Neurology, Acupuncture, Nutrition and HOMEOPATHY!  Dana Ullman is quoted in the section on homeopathy-Dana has been really active promoting homeopathy in the US media, Huffington Post Online as well.

Under ‘MY RECOMMENDATION’ Dr. Oz  says: “Acupuncture and homeopathy are worth considering as adjunct therapies once you are sure that the headache is not a sign of serious disorder.”-Luminoshomeopathy Blog

Dr. Mehmet Oz is a cardiac surgeon, a professor and Vice Chairman of Surgery at Columbia University in New York City, Director of the Cardiovascular Institute, and Founder and Director for the Complementary Medicine Program at New York Presbyterian Hospital.

A pilot project in Kenya using inexpensive homeopathic remedies has shown great promise in the treatment of AIDS . “More than 90 per cent of the patients showed significant improvement in their health. “

The study was funded by the AIDS Remedy Fund .  The specially prepared homeopathic remedy  used in the study could revolutionize the treatment of AIDS. It inexpensively offers the millions of people suffering from AIDS who cannot afford the expensive pharmaceutical drugs dramatic relief.

In the study, no one was taken off their anti-viral conventional medications but some participants who could not afford conventional medications were also included in the study. Those individuals did incredibly well using the homeopathic remedy alone.

The team of homeopathic Medical Doctors were led by dutch homeopath Jan Scholten MD. The homeopaths donated their time and energy to this pilot project.  A foundation has been started  ”with the purpose of promoting complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) in the treatment of AIDS. The founders are convinced that alternative medicine has a lot to offer in the treatment of HIV infection and AIDS.”

The report  giving the preliminary results showed dramatic improvement in those taking this homeopathic remedy. Here is part of a summary from the report:

Results

Within two weeks, an improvement in appetite and an increase in energy and weight could be observed. In addition, in more than 90 percent of the patients recovery from opportunistic infections, such as the disappearance of diarrhoea, respiratory infections and skin problems was seen.  This applied to both patients treated with conventional drugs and the group not receiving any ARV treatment. The CD4 tests, which had initial values under 200, showed significant improvement. The levels increased by an average of 123 points (a CD4 value of 200 or less is a critical lower limit for which anti-viral therapy is deemed necessary).

An improvement in quality of life could be observed in the whole research group. Restoration of independent functioning became possible for practically the whole population after treatment with Iquilai, [the homeopathic remedy].

More Results:

The results of this pilot study in the treatment of HIV/AIDS are as follows:

• More than 90% of the patients had a positive response to the remedy,  defined as an increase of 10 points or more on the Karnofsky score. 68% had an increase of 20 points or more.

• There was a strong improvement in their health status. Opportunistic infections healed without further intervention.

•  65% of the patients were requiring assistance (Karnofsky  score < = 60) and changed their status to being able to perform their normal duties again.(Karnofsky>80)

• The CD4 cell values of the tested group showed significant  increases.(average of 123 points).

•  Side effects from regular ART were reduced.

Professor Luc Montagnier is a French virologist and joint recipient  of the 2008 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his co-discovery of the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV).

He and  his team of researchers have been doing rigorous experiments using homeopathically prepared biological substances. They have conclusively shown that homeopathically prepared biological substances give off electromagnetic waves and therefore have effects.

The researchers also noted that one experiment found significant effects from dilutions as high as 10(-18) (equivalent to 18X).  The EM signature changed with dilution levels but was unaffected by the initial concentration and remained even after the remaining DNA fragments were destroyed by chemical agents.  Of additional interest was the researchers’ observation that they observed the SAME results whether their initial concentration of cells were just 10 or 10(9)(this is 10 to the 9th power = 10,000,000,000 cells).

The researchers also quote Italian physicist, E. Del Guidice for positing that water molecules can form long polymers of dipoles associated by hydrogen bonds and that electromagnetic radiations that they emit enable them to avoid decay.

Click here for the full report from Dana Ullman MPH

Anti-homeopathy letters and emails from Voice of Young Science  innundated officials at the World Health Organization complaining about the few homeopaths treating patients in Africa. It prompted an unofficial response by some individuals in W.H.O.

Voice of Young Science as part of Sense about Science is directly sponsored by pharmaceutical companies such as GlaxoSmithKline and Pfizer Plc who have joined together to deal with the emerging African HIV drug market. Sense about Science also has links to a number of prominent online blogs,  magazines and other media outlets.

Many of the directors and workers in this “non-profit” Sense about Science organization previously worked or consulted as public relations representatives for drug companies.One of the directors was a specialist  in what is called “reputation risk management” and “crisis management” public relations and has been involved in “countering campaigns by environmental, health and development NGOs”. Her public relations company’s clients “were previously nearly all pharmaceutical, oil or biotechnology companies”.(SourceWatch)

Sense about Science is also a lobbying organization for the pro-genetically modified food lobby in the UK. They  are currently attempting to inundate UK Members of Parliament with anti-homeopathy letters in a similar fashion to their WHO anti-homeopathy campaign. This is also similar to the Sense about Science pro-genetically modified food  and anti-environmental campaigns.

On 17 May 2009 the Swiss people voted in favour of a constitutional article for complementary medicine in a national vote. Sixty Seven percent of voters supported the new constitutional article.

Federal constitution Art. 118a BV (new):

The Federal government and cantons shall ensure that, within the scope of their jurisdiction, complementary

medicine is taken into consideration.

Definite need for action

On this constitutional basis, parliament and the authorities have to implement the following requirements:

1. Admission of doctors of complementary medicine in the fields of anthroposophical medicine, homeopathy,

neural therapy, phytotherapy and Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) into obligatory health insurance. 2.

Creation of national diplomas for non-medical therapists. 3. Integration of complementary medicine into

teaching and research. 4. Safeguarding of proven remedies.

Source JA Kukunft mit Komplementar-medizin

Dana Ullman, who has a Masters of Public Health is positively behind homeopathic medicine and gives both scientific evidence and philosophical reasons for the public to support and choose homeopathy.

After examining current clinical research of homeopathy, Dana Ullman has referenced over 200 successful controlled clinical trials of homeopathy in an e-book he has published.

As a supporter of homeopathy, he has brought it into the 21st century. He has also written a book called the “The Homeopathic Revolution” describing how famous people have chosen homeopathy and also many articles and books about the scientific underpinnings of homeopathy. On the web site, Homeopathic Educational Services or Homeopathic.com you can get many articles including introductory ones on homeopathy.

In one chapter of the Homeopathic Revolution,  Dana Ullman describes how Charles Darwin survived a serious illness with homeopathy but also talks about many famous individuals, including medical doctors, who have used homeopathy.

One of the most amazing stories came from the life of Charles Darwin. Because so many of Darwin’s personal letters have been maintained and are now available online, there is a veritable treasure-trove of information about his life, illnesses, and his medical treatment. What will be described here is a part of his story, with much greater detail provided in The Homeopathic Revolution .

Darwin’s story is but one story in the chapter on “Physicians and Scientists: Coming out of the Medicine Closet.” Some of the others included in this chapter are: Sir William Osler (the “father of modern medicine”), Emil Adolf von Behring (the “father of immunology”), Sidney Ringer, Charles Frederick Menninger (founder of the Menninger Clinic), August Bier (the “father of spinal anesthesia”), Royal S. Copeland (homeopathic physician and New York Senator), William J. Mayo and Charles H. Mayo (founders of the Mayo Clinic), C. Everett Koop (former Surgeon General, U.S.), and Brian Josephson (modern-day Nobel laureate and Cambridge professor).

During Darwin’s trip to South America in the mid-1830s, he became very ill. Although different historians and physicians have hypothesized on what ailment he had, there is no consensus, except to say that he was seriously ill. Ever since 1837, he suffered from persistent nausea and vomiting, heart palpitations, widespread boils, and trembling, and since 1847, he had fainting spells and spots before his eyes…and his symptoms were getting increasingly worse.

Although Charles Darwin was only 39 years old in November, 1848, he was so ill that he couldn’t attend his own father’s funeral. In March, 1849, Darwin himself acknowledged that he was unable to work one day in every three, and further, he felt that he was dying. He said this specifically,

“I was not able to do anything one day out of three, & was altogether too dispirited to write to you or to do anything but what I was compelled.­ I thought I was rapidly going the way of all flesh.”

When you consider that Charles Darwin was this sick in 1849 and that he published his seminal book, The Origin of Species, 10 years later in 1859, one cannot help but wonder if he would have even survived that long or if he would have been as productive as a scientist or as an author if he didn’t see Dr. James Manby Gully in March, 1849.

On the advice from one of his cousins as well as from a fellow shipmate from the Beagle, Charles Darwin brought himself and his family to the clinic and “water-cure” spa of Dr. James Manby Gully, a well-known and respected homeopathic physician and advocate of hydrotherapy (“water-cure”).  For more details about this story, click HERE.

A recent editorial in the New Zealand Journal of Medicine describes how Dr. David Colquhoun, a pharmacology professor and one of the leading science skeptics and attackers of alternative medicine (including homeopathy) has used unsubstantiated sources and even non-existent Medical Journals as sources for an attack on chiropractics.

” Is it acceptable to make up a reference to try and slip any unsupported statement into a “scientific” argument and thereby give it some degree of credibility?” asked Frank Frizelle, the chief editor of the conventional Medical Journal.

This same skeptic, David Colquhoun, has attacked homeopathy and described it as dangerous using a similar methodology. Other skeptic internet web sites use similar fraudulent strategies- referring to other skeptic web sites and non existent statistics attempting to make their opinion look like fact.

Is this reference correct?
Frank Frizelle
The NZMJ receives a large number of manuscripts every year and 10–15% of these are published. The editorial staff do not check the details of the submitted author’s references except to ensure they appear in the correct style and to find missing details such as article name, page numbers, and authors on PubMed’s Single Citation Matcher. This is the normal situation with most journals, because to check every detail in the references is a burden that journal editorial staff and reviewers could not realistically cope with. Therefore we rely on authors to list their references accurately and we suggest they check using the Single Citation Matcher as outlined in the NZMJ Instructions to Authors: http://www.nzmj.com/journal/Instructions%20to%20authors.pdf

Mistakes inevitably happen and some journals make a significant point of highlighting and rectifying such mistakes­as in the “department of error” found in the Lancet. When such an error happens we at the NZMJ like to work with the authors to correct the error and republish the correct reference or data via an erratum.
Recently a reader send us the following email:

The paper is Doctor Who? Inappropriate use of titles by some alternative “medicine” practitioners. Colquhoun D. N Z Med J. 2008 Jul 25;121(1278):6-10.
The quote [in question] is the public should be informed that chiropractic manipulation is the number one reason for people suffering stroke under the age of 45.
Long PH. Stroke and Manipulation. J Quality Health Care. 2004:3:8-10
This quote actually comes from the following blog article http://www.skepticreport.com/medicalquackery/strokespinal.htm

I have attached all my personal communications with Colquhoun. They demonstrate this is not a citation error. Prof Colquhoun believes the origin of the quote doesn’t matter because Long was quoting from a Canadian Neurologists’ report (this is also incorrect). As you can see he fails to provide any evidence at all to support the existance of the “J Quality Health Care.” This would not be an issue at all if he had admitted it came from a blog site­but I guess the link would have eroded the credibility of the quote.
Colquhoun ’s belief that my forwarding this complaint is me “resorting to threats” is the final nail in the coffin. If he had any leg to stand on where is the threat?

This may seem pedantic but it surely reflects a serious ethical breach. Is it acceptable to make up a reference to try and slip any unsupported statement into a “scientific” argument and thereby give it some degree of credibility?

Incidentally, at the end of the article, conflicts of interest are listed as none. As Colquhoun is a Professor of Pharmacology and much of his research funding no doubt comes from the pharmaceutical industry how can he have no conflict of interest with therapies that do not advocate the use of drugs and compete directly against the billions spent on pain medications each year?

If I may quote Colquhoun himself in his defence of his article (Journal of the New Zealand Medical Association, 05-September-2008, Vol 121 No 1281) I’ll admit, though, that perhaps ‘intellect’ is not what’s deficient in this case, but rather honesty.

David Owen
Mr Owen had emailed the author to enquire as to the source of the reference and ask if there had there been a mistake. I made the same enquiry and received the reply below:
I admitted doing something that I criticise other people for doing and that is citing a paper without having read it. The Journal is not listed in PubMed and I can’t find it either. As reason (not excuse) all I can offer is to say that I yielded to the temptation to use a widely cited quotation without checking its source properly. The actual source seems to be…
Long, PH (2004) Stroke and Spinal Manipulation http://skepticeport.com/sr/?p=88
…so same author, same title, same quotation but different reference.
David Colquhoun
Mr Owen is correct and the reference is wrong. The quote the public should be informed that chiropractic manipulation is the number one reason for people suffering stroke under the age of 45 appears not to be from Long PH. Stroke and Manipulation. J Quality Health Care. 2004:3:8-10 but from the website http://www.skepticreport.co-medicalquackery/strokespinal.htm
In fact even the Journal of Quality Health Care appears impossible to find (at least for me). While the International Journal of Quality Health Care appears on the web, this is not the same journal. The usual search engines for identification of the journal fail to find it as do searches on the authors name in places such as PubMed and Ovid.
In conclusion it is important for everyone’s creditability that references are correct and that when queried the authors make the appropriate correction.
Competing interests: None known.
Author information: Frank A Frizelle, Editor, New Zealand Medical Journal (NZMJ)
Correspondence: Professor Frank A Frizelle, Department of Surgery, Christchurch Hospital, Private Bag 4710, Christchurch, New Zealand. Fax: +64 (0)3 3640352; email: frank.frizelle@cdhb.govt.nz