Earlier this week I won freelance consumer journalist of the year at the Medical Journalists’ Association awards which was fantastic. You had to send in three features to enter and two of mine each focused on a different non-drug treatment that might help with Alzheimer’s. I mention this because looking at them again I was freshly shocked […]
Alzheimer’s: we want a cure but please don’t mention B vitamins
May 21, 2013 by 54 Comments
The article in today’s Daily Mail about B vitamins and Alzheimer’s is the story of the triumph of dogged scientific persistence – do read it first if you can because this blog would become impossibly long if I repeated all the details. But behind it is another story of indifference and prejudice that is preventing […]
The evidence–free drug that costs the NHS 70 million a year
March 4, 2013 by 9 Comments
Just as Catholic cardinals condemn paedophilia, so mainstream medicine formally rejects treatments not supported by evidence in the form of clinical trials. But in reality interfering with novices or failing to come up with the evidence, providing of course a drug is involved, doesn’t necessarily mean banishment. Both dodgy priests and drugs can remain on […]
Evidence based medicine. Blind but not in a good way
July 9, 2012 by Leave a Comment
Imagine you had bought a new house but after a few months the flow of water from the taps began to slow and within a few weeks it was down to a trickle. So you call the builders and they say, no worries, Evidence Based Plumbing Services will be with you within the hour. A […]
How drugs can mess with your vitamins
May 2, 2012 by Leave a Comment
You’ve probably seen warnings that herbs or supplements of one sort or another might interfere with any drugs that you are taking so you should always tell your doctor about them. Sound advice. What you are less likely to know about is that some of the drugs you are taking can reduce the production or […]
Alzheimer’s Funding boost 2
April 16, 2012 by Leave a Comment
The second alarming event (the first was here) concerns an announcement that never happened. Two years ago a high quality randomised trial showed that taking high doses of B vitamins significantly reduced brain shrinkage in patients who were beginning to have problems with memory and general thinking. Given that Alzheimer’s is such a huge problem and […]
Series: Drugged-Up Britain – No. 1
August 14, 2011 by Leave a Comment
No. 1 of 4 articles in Reader’s Digest UK. (August 2011) How did we get to the point where £22m is spent on prescribing drugs—every day? In the first of a four-part special, Jerome Burne launches our campaign to tackle Drugged-Up Britain. When 54-year-old John arrived at a nutritional clinic in south London, he was in a bad […]
Body of Evidence 
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