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Trans-Fatty Acids and Their Effect on Health access our website on http://www.healthwatch-uk.org Registered Charity no. 1003392 HealthWatch for treatment that works Newsletter 65 April 2007 “UNELECTED, OPINIONATED, AND INVIOLATE” WAS BROUGHT up to respect the Royal Family without question, writes Les Rose. How times have changed. On 12th March Channel 4 TV aired a concerted attack on “Charles: the Meddling Prince”. It focussed on the knotty problem of whether the IPrince of Wales is straying outside the confines of political impartiality, by his 38-year campaign of intervention with government. Yes, it started when he was 21, just after his investiture, and we to influence decisions that affect our access to health care. were shown letters to the then Prime Minister Harold Wilson from There was quite detailed coverage of the Prince’s Foundation for the Prince, and also from ministers who felt that His Royal Integrated Health. Like Clarence House itself, this is a lobby group Highness was already creating a potentially dangerous situation. which seeks to advance the Prince’s views, in the absence of any The programme covered a wide range of topics close to the Prince’s scientific understanding on his part. This last point was made by heart, but readers here will be most interested in his views on alter- HealthWatch member and 2002 award winner Professor Michael native medicine. The programme described how its producers had Baum, who said that the Prince has a romantic and archaic world attempted, since September 2006, to obtain documents under the view, and does not understand what evidence is. The story of how Freedom of Information Act, regarding contacts between the Clarence House tried to silence another HealthWatch award winner, Prince’s household and the Medicines and Healthcare products Professor Edzard Ernst (2005), by complaining to his university Regulatory Agency (MHRA). It has been admitted by the MHRA was explained in detail, with Professor Ernst testifying on camera. that such documents do exist, but they are embargoed under section This all centred on the Smallwood Report, commissioned personal- 37 of the Act, which exempts the Royal Family. The programme ly by the Prince in 2005, and which tried to make an economic case didn’t clarify that this is not a blanket exemption, and is subject to for escalating use of complementary and alternative medicine in the a public interest test. The MHRA chooses to claim that the public NHS. The report’s authors, the banker Christopher Smallwood in interest is not served by our knowing whether the Prince is seeking conjunction with the market research agency Freshminds, had ...continued on page 2 Should NICE evaluate complementary medicine? RESEARCHERS went head to head recently in the British Medical College London, argues that NICE cannot afford to re-examine evi- Journal over the issue of whether the National Institute for Health dence that has shown little benefit. He points out that NICE already and Clinical Excellence (NICE) should review complementary and have alternative treatments in several of their reports and, in all alternative therapies. these cases, they have found no good evidence for anything more Around half of general practitioners provide access to comple- than placebo effects. None of this is intended to deny the important mentary medicine, and two thirds of Scottish general practitioners role of supportive and palliative care for patients for whom that is prescribe herbal or homoeopathic medicines, so a thorough review the best that can be done, he says. But there is no need to subscribe by NICE would benefit the NHS and patients, argue Professor to the early 19th century pseudoscientific hocus pocus of Linda Franck and colleagues from University College London homoeopathy to treat sick patients sympathetically and holistically. Institute of Child Health. Some people within conventional medi- And there is no need for NICE to spend time and money coming to cine remain deeply convinced that alternative medicine cannot have that conclusion when it has more important things to do, he concludes. any possible benefit, but this is all the more reason that these ther- NICE is the independent body set up in 1999 to get the best from apies should be rigorously evaluated, they maintain. They believe NHS resources by examining the value of treatments used in the NHS. that failure to evaluate complementary therapies also leads to health British Medical Journal 2007; 334: 506-7. inequalities because of uneven access and missed opportunities. For Linda Franck paper: example, as complementary therapies are often relatively cheap, if http://press.psprings.co.uk/bmj/march/ feat506.pdf shown to be effective they could save money. David Colquhoun paper: But David Colquhoun, Professor of Pharmacology of University http://press.psprings.co.uk/ bmj/march/feat507.pdf Contents NEWS The meddling prince; new faces on the committee; and challenges to media “nutrition experts” . 1, 2 OBITUARY A sad farewell to Michael Allen, who passed away in January . 3 POSITION PAPER An authoritative summary of the issue of trans-fatty acids and their effect on health . 4, 5 INTERNET A one-woman campaign for evidence-based health information on the web . 6 MEETING REPORT John Garrow listens in awe to gerontologist-philosopher-author Professor Raymond Tallis . 7 TREATMENTS Hoodia and detox footpads are all over the Internet. David Bender explains why not to buy . 8 HealthWatch Newsletter 65 Page 1 news and media FRESH FACES ON COMMITTEE OME DISTINGUISHED new members have joined the HealthWatch Committee in the last year. SThe most recent is Dr James May (below, left) a GP Principal at Lambeth Walk Group Practice in Kennington, London. Dr May, who graduated from Sheffield Medical School in 1997, sent to NHS trusts last year, asking has a long-term interest in history and philosophy of science and them to avoid untested treatments. world views, and has been involved with HealthWatch ever since he Finally, a leading clinician who attended the presentation by the late John Diamond at the 2000 has lectured and published exten- HealthWatch AGM. sively in his field, Keith Isaacson One of our most active (above, right) has also been con- HealthWatch members and tributing to the HealthWatch newsletter contributors has now Newsletter for several years. Mr become one of our most vocal Isaacson is Senior Consultant committee members. Les Rose Orthodontist currently at the North (below, right), freelance consultant Hampshire Hospital, Basingstoke. He clinical scientist, brings to is particularly concerned about the HealthWatch his 28 years’ experi- number of patients that he sees who ence in managing clinical trials, report unsubstantiated claims that training researchers, and evaluat- have been made for the benefits of ing results. He coordinates a group orthodontic treatment. These can of experts associated with Sense include in some cases, improving the About Science, who were responsi- patient’s spinal curvature and posture. ble for the highly-publicised letter MEDIA NUTRITION “EXPERTS” CHALLENGED IN RECENT WEEKS there have been a number of high-profile Story/0,,2011095,00.html challenges to the credibility of “nutrition therapists” in the media. There have also been heated exchanges between dietitian On 12th February the Guardian newspaper indulged last year’s Catherine Collins and Patrick Holford of the Institute of Optimum HealthWatch Awardwinner Ben Goldacre to the extent of publish- Nutrition over his “Food for the Brain” programme which has run ing his multi-page diatribe (no fewer than 4,600 words in length) for a number of months at Cricket Green school in Mitcham, against media personality Gillian McKeith. Surrey. The programme, which has received publicity on national The article, headed, “A menace to science”, was prompted by a television, involves children eating a healthy diet boosted with vita- complaint to the Advertising Standards Authority about the multi- min, mineral and essential fatty acid supplements and claims to millionaire celebrity author using the title “doctor” on the basis of a improve behaviour. Unfortunately Ms Collins’ letter to the qualification gained by correspondence course from a non-accredit- Independent of 7th January 2007, and an Independent article of the ed American college. Ms McKeith has now agreed voluntarily not same date titled, “Doctors warn against food fad dangers: Nutrition to call herself “doctor” in print advertising. Her website experts ‘massively concerned’ over unqualified and unregulated http://www.drgillianmckeith.com/ continues to use the title, diet gurus”, by Sophie Goodchild and Jonathan Owen, can no which appears more than 30 times on the home page alone. In his longer be accessed on the Independent web site. However the gist article Dr Goldacre (who is a bona fide doctor of medicine) high- of the argument can be gleaned from Patrick Holford’s reply on lighted a public challenge that HealthWatch’s John Garrow made to http://www.patrickholford.com/content.asp?id_Content=1750 Ms McKeith in 2000, in which he invited Ms McKeith to substan- and more details about the Food for the Brain programme are on tiate claims made for her products. She did not respond. http://www.foodforthebrain.org/content.asp?id_Content=1 Read Goldacre’s article on http://www.guardian.co.uk/food/ “Unelected, opinionated, and inviolate” ...continued from front page rejected Professor Ernst’s advice on evidence, and he had then invited comment from Clarence House, and read out extracts from talked to a newspaper when presented with a previously leaked a very long written reply from Sir Michael Peat, the Prince’s private draft (I can sympathise, as Freshminds also interviewed me for the secretary. The mindsets which prevail in that household, and the report and then excluded all my material). Our good professor stat- general tone of the reply, can be judged by Sir Michael’s claim that ed that the report’s conclusions appeared to have been written whatever the Prince has said, he is usually right.
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