14 Reviews of me, the bees and cancer and a few words from me too.

MBC Trailer V3 from Jim Donovan on Vimeo.

me, the bees and cancer has two more showings Wed. at 7 and Thurs. at 9.30.  It has been a fine time for me to stretch my wings and get to listen and talk to strangers.  It has also garnered me 14 review so far and most are supportive of the movie, its content and direction and me too.    Enjoy!!!

Metro

Rating: 3/5

"...the film unfolds as a clear-eyed and even-handed assessment of the value of alternative medicine." - Adam Nayman

June 21-23, 2013

The Globe and Mail Online

Rating: 1/5

"That makes his film essentially an eccentric home movie promoting dubious alternative-medical advice." - Liam Lacey

June 21, 2013

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/film/film-reviews/me-the-bees-and-cancer-essentially-an-eccentric-home-movie-about-alternative-medicine/article12734354/

NOW Toronto

Rating: 3/5

"Charming and eloquent, he finds fresh ways to communicate the confusion cancer causes and the inadequacy of established medicine." - Radheyan Simonpillai

June 20-27, 2013

http://www.nowtoronto.com/movies/story.cfm?content=193140

The Grid

Rating: 6/10

"Whether or not viewers share Board’s enthusiasm for this, they may still enjoy his company." - Jason Anderson

June 19, 2013

http://www.thegridto.com/culture/film/me-the-bees-and-cancer/

Film Corner with Greg Klymkiw

Rating: 3.5/5

"...sit back and prepare yourself for one of the strangest, creepiest documentaries you'll have seen in quite some time - and, for that matter, an illuminating work that will generate more questions and discussion." - Greg Klymkiw

June 23, 2013

http://klymkiwfilmcorner.blogspot.ca/2013/06/me-bees-and-cancer-review-by-greg.html

The Star

"While Board says some have called him brave and heroic, he brushes that off and talks about his therapy with typical good humour." - Linda Barnard

June 15, 2013

http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/movies/2013/06/15/toronto_documentary_about_bee_sting_therapy_cost_less_than_1000_to_make.html

Toronto Film Scene

"It’s entirely entertaining due to Board’s good-natured personality and enthusiasm for his subject matter, but it also works as a starter guide for anyone who’s ever considered looking at alternative forms of medicine." - Kristal Cooper

June 20, 2013

http://thetfs.ca/2013/06/21/review-me-the-bees-and-cancer/

Dork Shelf

"His treatments look painful and labour intensive, but the film places the focus squarely on staying positive, and there’s nothing at all wrong with that." - Andrew Parker

June 19, 2013

http://dorkshelf.com/2013/06/19/me-the-bees-and-cancer-review/

Press Plus 1

"Board introduces us to a counter-culture that prefers to be outside of the medical system and often with great results." - Kindah Mardam Bey

June 21, 2013

http://www.pressplus1.com/canadian-film-reviews/me-the-bees-and-cancer

Shannon Kelly

Rating: 3.5/5

"There is something quite valuable to be learned from this documentary. The utmost important thing he teaches us is to Question everything!" - Shannon Kelly

http://www.shannonnkelly.com/2012/10/15/1k-feature-film-challenge-review-me-the-bees-and-cancer/

Exclaim

Rating: 5/10

"It's certainly not essential viewing for everyone, but Board's bravery should prove a valuable case study for those looking to re-evaluate how we treat our flesh vessels." - Scott A. Gray

June 21, 2013

http://exclaim.ca/Reviews/Film/me_bees_cancer-directed_by_john_board_jim_donovan_hector_centeno

Northern Stars

"Cheerfully he self-administers up to 20 bee stings a day, a routine that’s as fascinating as it is painful to watch." - Wyndham Wise

June 20, 2013

http://www.northernstars.ca/2013/me_the_bees_and_cancer_review.html

The Film Reel

"...there’s no mistaking that John is a wonderful person, and he’s created a film from his heart, allowing us to take part in a journey that is difficult for him to face."

http://www.the-filmreel.com/2013/06/20/me-the-bees-and-cancer-2012-or-not-just-for-honey/

National Post

Rating: .5/4

"It’s a testament to the profound, sordid depths of the Internet that the promotional rap music video John Board sandwiches around his alternative therapy documentary hasn’t already gone viral." - David Berry

June 21, 13

http://arts.nationalpost.com/2013/06/21/this-week-in-documentaries-the-sheepdogs-go-from-the-swamp-to-the-spotlight-plus-b-b-king-bees-and-more/

trailer Me the bees and cancer.  http://vimeo.com/61531449

Ill with Cancer and dealing with it.

Food - all organic, no bread, no dairy, little fruit(cancer loves sugar) no sugar.
Diet- Make almond milk drink with cacao and Xyla (Xylytol chemical sweetener)
Smoothie - make in the morning and drink all day.  Made with parsley, apple, bee pollen,
propolis, left over rice with quinoa, amarenth, bok choy, celery, chard, almond pulp, walnuts,
hazelnuts, Flax Oil, omega 3 oil  or variations of above.  Make about 4 cups and it gives me great energy and seems to keep me balanced.
Evening meal - fish or venison or moose or beef plus potato, carrot, mushrooms and onion with garlic.
Supplements - Vit Bs,B12 plus Folic acid C, D, E.  Magnesium and baking soda.
Homeopathy - Hyoscyamus Niger 1M, Rhopakraus 30C
Flower remedy - Pine, hornbeam, Elm, Gentian

I am about to embark on a regimin of Cannabis juice high in CBD and not THC taken an ounce or so three times a day.  Cannabinoids are in all of us and it is a system that becomes dysfunctional in some.  Every cancer cell has receptors for cannabinoids and if they enter they kill the cell.  I will see if that is true.  Great advantage having the offending lymph nodes under my arm and every morning when I shower I can feel them and the area around and tell if it is larger or smaller, more swollen or not.

A Call TO Arms

As our elected rulers in the sham of democracy lead us more and more in the wrong direction in every part of our existence, the enlightened populous, and I take it that most who read this are enlightened, have begun to take back their lives and go in saner directions. We have begun to recognize the errors of the rulers and are doing what we can to moderate and modify our lives in every way. We have begun to be more modest, living inside our personal wealth more. We are eating better and the farmers who are growing organic food are hard pressed to keep us supplied with cleaner food. The gyms are fuller as people start to care for themselves. In health we are seeing more people using alternative medicines and living healthier life styles. It is the obligation for each of the enlightened to encourage the others to better themselves in these ways. The entertainment community is by and large more aware of this than any other group in the working society. It is to a large extent why California is the leader for change to healthier living so often. It is why the famous lend their support to positive action against war and the many wrong directions of our rulers. My responsibility is clear in making my Pocket Pack and selling it as cheaply as possible; for the more I sell, the more I can give away to people waking up. I made my documentary, “me, the bees and cancer” so that I could show it and talk about other ways of healing and encourage people to take charge of their lives for the better. I am clear in creating a magazine that is called “Homeopathy and Us” for people to trade stories of their successful use of Homeopathy. It is right that the magazine is free so that the curious can begin to know that there are other safer ways to deal with health problems. It is my part in the education process that is going on in every direction to bring us into being better and more useful people. Each of us has an inner obligation to show by example how to deal with life in a better more humanistic way. Each of us can teach our children, our friends and our community what we ourselves know through our actions to support what we know. We are richer than the richest billionaire for we have the power of knowledge. Every Pocket Pack that reaches beyond those who know it is a tool for reform. Every person who buys two and gives one to a friend or strangers is giving a powerhouse of proof to that person. I encourage you all to think on this and whether it is inviting friends to partake of a meal of clean food or joining you in exercise or using gentle Homeopathy for illnesses, you are being a force for change. Our society needs your help to move to a better place. You can make a difference.

CANADA AT THE CROSSROADS.

Canadians voted Tommy Douglas the Man of the Century. They did this for he stood for us as people. He put people first in the creation of a Health Care System for all Canadians. I have lived happily under this system for over 50 years.

I realize in listening to the debate that the only one really addressing people is the New Democratic Party: the NDP.

People must take back their ownership of their country. This ownership does not belong to any political party unless that party wants that too.

The very great deed that Tommy Douglas helped all of us to benefit from, the Health Care System, has been abused and become the biggest boon doggle ever perpetrated on the Citizens of Canada.

We need a proper Health Care Committee struck to examine if our system that relies on Pharmaceuticals and our current Medical Doctors is the best system to be following. We are quickly being turned into beings that cannot stay alive without their help: from vaccines to their drugs of all kinds, from Tylenol to exotic created chemicals that cost hundreds of dollars to buy onr dose.

Canadians are paying an enormous amount of every budget to support this system. Everyone is terrified of the whole system and yet is being denied more and more from seeking other ways to take care of themselves and other paradigms of healing. Only a proper Enquiry will reveal that.

We have lost our freedoms at the hands of Pharmaceuticals snf Industrial Chemical Corporations like Monsanto, Political parties and Government Departments like Health and Agriculture who have been co-opted by the power of money, from graft to the Media; all media from print to the TV Ads that sell their way into our brains and the news that speaks of them as they wish to be spoken about.

If the people of Canada want to be recognized and not just used we have to vote NDP and call for Jack Layton whether as a majority leader or the leader of a coalition to come forward in Tommy Douglas' spirit and make it better for Canadians, the poeple of the country who they represent.

TIme tells all!!!

Lymphoma! Hodgkin’s! the gentle worried woman said
And followed with, “But you are far from dead.”
She waited calmly to feel my first reply
It was not news to me, not really, I know not why.

Encouraged by my tranquil unaltered state
She went on to describe my newfound fate
Chemo, radiation, who knows what for sure
She has a friend who’s studied, knows the cure

Relax and wait until this new sage can examine
There is much time for this woe is not like famine
It sits inside my right armpit that finds me
A royal cushion ready to move throughout its sea.

The news has passed to all who counsel this happy soul
And I, the keeper, shuttered eyes like some forest troll
Will wait to hear the sure fire paths
Of all the pundits who can kill this wrath.

Soon, quite soon I’ll choose the allies in this game
Will I choose right or wrong? Will I ever be the same.
Time is time and moves at its own pace.
There is always an end in the human race.

Karma plays its hand and always will
Tomorrow is day one of our fine film
Hello October is all ready, the first shot due.
My work some done, will now begin anew.

Britain's Parliament has struck for Peoples right to choose

Government defends right to homeopathy on the NHS

26 July 2010

By Ian Quinn (Pulse Today)

The Government has strongly rejected demands by MPs for the funding of homeopathy on the NHS to be withdrawn, claiming it would fly in the face of patient choice and local decision-making.

In its response to a report from the House of Commons Science and Technology Committee, which issued a damning verdict on the practice and called for GPs to be barred from referring patients under the NHS, the Department of Heath said it would not be stepping in - despite MPs' concerns over the lack of evidence and regulation of homeopathic treatments.

MPs had called not only for doctors to be barred from referring patients to homeopathic hospitals or homeopaths, but for the MHRA to intervene and to apply the same standards of regulation as for medicines, which they said would remove any medical claim supporters of homeopathy had.

But in its response today the DH said: ‘It is not appropriate for the Department of Health to remove the right of PCTs to make these decisions on a case-by-case basis.'

‘Capital investment decisions in the NHS are planned and decided at local level. The commissioning plans of local PCTs set out the type of services that need to be provided and therefore drive decisions about the nature of new facilities needed, or the need to maintain, update or replace existing facilities.’

The committee had also called for an investigation into the cost of homeopathy to the NHS and for new research into the evidence-base for homeopathy, but this too was rejected.

MPs had wanted regulators to ‘remove any medical claim and any implied endorsement of efficacy by the MHRA’ by ensuring the same evidence of efficacy used to assess conventional medicines was used, but the Government said this would potentially deal a fatal blow to the homeopathy market and limit consumer choice.

‘Homeopathy has a long tradition in Europe and is a recognised and widely used system of medicine across the EU,’ it said.

‘The Government takes the view that consumers who choose to use homeopathic medicines should be fully informed about their purpose and assured that standards of quality and safety are maintained. If homeopathic medicines were not subject to any kind of regulatory control consumers would not have access to such information or assurances.'

'Conversely, if regulation was applied to homeopathic medicines as understood in the context of conventional pharmaceutical medicines, these products would have to be withdrawn from the market as medicines. This would constrain consumer choice and, more importantly, risk the introduction of unregulated, poor quality and potentially unsafe products on the market to satisfy consumer demand.’

However the campaign group Sense About Science hit out at the Department of Health's ruling.

'The Government has ignored the Committee’s detailed consideration of the licensing of homeopathic products as medicines,' it said in a statement.

'It has acknowledged that “there will be an assumption that if the NHS is offering homeopathic treatments then they will be efficacious” and that homeopathic products can be licensed with no requirement for evidence that they treat any condition at all. However, the Government has put forward a weak point about ‘patient choice’ instead of considering what to do about these problems. At a time when PCTs are reviewing expenditure on ineffective treatments, this is perverse.'

'We urge them to go back and give proper consideration to this part of the Committee’s report. In the meantime, we recommend a warning on the label of homeopathic products telling people that the product is licensed without any evidence that it works.'

Edzard Ernst | 26 Jul 10

So much for evidence-based government and healthcare decisions!

Brian Kaplan - London | 26 Jul 10

This is truly marvellous news - simply the most heartening thing I've read in PULSE for years.

The government's decision is a victory for liberty and democracy in this country and a slap in the face for those who would seek to thwart the rights of GPs to send patients to fully qualified doctors on the NHS who use homeopathic medicine.

http://www.pulsetoday.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=35&storycode=4126664&c=2

The International Cartel that rules us.

Cartel - Definition

A group of companies or countries which collectively attempt to affect market prices by controlling production and marketing. Illegal in the United States and the European Union. Very few major cartels exist; the most prominent example is OPEC, a cartel which can not be considered illegal because it is made up of sovereign states, not companies. also called trust.

Merridian Webster
cartel
Main Entry: car·tel
Pronunciation: \kär-ˈtel\
Function: noun
Etymology: French, letter of defiance, from Old Italian cartello, literally, placard, from carta leaf of paper — more at card
Date: 1692

1 : a written agreement between belligerent nations
2 : a combination of independent commercial or industrial enterprises designed to limit competition or fix prices
3 : a combination of political groups for common action


I have been trying for some time now to understand what is going on in the world as we are being internationalized. In Canada it seems we are losing personal freedoms and these are being arbitrated outside our sovereign state. Hence I must conclude that our country is under other’s control. I do not feel comfortable with this idea.

I think the political/Corporate Cartel which includes all the major corporations and the banking empire of the world is working on its own behalf and not on the behalf of people.

The case below is a report from England in the Daily Telegraph. If you take the time to read it you will see that the winners of this fight should it be the BMA and the Pharmaceuticals is certainly not in the best interest of the people of England. Which is my point entirely.

The efforts of the International Cartel in every country of the world, is to direct the masses through media and marginalize all alternate competitors in the name of profits: Banking, chemical companies, military manufacturers, energy, etc. In the end it will mean less freedom of choice for individuals everywhere.

At this time peaceful people the world over have taken to the internet and the streets to bring the information forward and do what they can to influence governments through petitions and at the voting booths that this must stop. It is an uphill battle against a stacked deck.

If this fails I fear for the world will become a battleground as people rise up to claim their freedoms from this oppressive cartel.

Ayn Rand said it all:
" We are fast approaching the stage of the ultimate inversion: the stage where the government is free to do anything it pleases, while the citizens may act only by permission; which is the stage of the darkest periods of human history, the stage of rule by brute force.”

Following is the newspaper article. Read it and recognize the propaganda it spews in its efforts to denigrate and destroy this financially viable safe and successful alternate to their expensive questionable cures that have side effects which can even cause death.

Homeopathy is witchcraft, say doctors
Homeopathy is "witchcraft" and the National Health Service should not pay for it, the British Medical Association has declared.


By Laura Donnelly, Health Correspondent
Published: 9:00PM BST 15 May 2010
Homeopathy is witchcraft, say doctors
The BMA has previously expressed scepticism about homoeopathy Photo: GETTY

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.

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Now, the annual conference of junior doctors has gone further, with a vote overwhelmingly supporting a blanket ban, and an end to all placements for trainee doctors which teach them homeopathic principles.

Dr Tom Dolphin, deputy chairman of the BMA's junior doctors committee in England told the conference: "Homeopathy is witchcraft. It is a disgrace that nestling between the National Hospital for Neurology and Great Ormond Street [in London] there is a National Hospital for Homeopathy which is paid for by the NHS".

The alternative medicine, devised in the 18th century by the German physician Samuel Hahnemann, is based on a theory that substances which cause symptoms in a healthy person can, when vastly diluted, cure the same problems in a sick person.

Proponents say the resulting remedy retains a "memory" of the original ingredient – a concept dismissed by scientists.

Latest figures show 54,000 patients are treated each year at four NHS homeopathic hospitals in London, Glasgow, Bristol and Liverpool, at an estimated cost of £4 million.

A fifth hospital in Tunbridge Wells in Kent was forced to close last year when local NHS funders stopped paying for treatments.

Gordon Lehany, chairman of the BMA's junior doctors committee in Scotland said it was wrong that some junior doctors were spending part of their training rotations in homeopathic hospitals, learning principles which had no place in science.

He told the conference in London last weekend: "At a time when the NHS is struggling for cash we should be focusing on treatments that have proven benefit. If people wish to pay for homoeopathy that's their choice but it shouldn't be paid for on the NHS until there is evidence that it works."

The motion was supported by BMA Chairman Dr Hamish Meldrum, though it will only become official policy of the whole organisation if it is agreed by their full conference next month.

In February a report by MPs said the alternative medicine should not receive state funding.

The Commons science and technology committee also said vials of the remedies should not be allowed to use phrases like "used to treat" in their marketing, as consumers might think there is clinical evidence that they work.

In evidence to the committee, the Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain said there was no possible reason why such treatments, marketed by an industry worth £40 million in this country, could be effective scientifically.

Advocates of homoeopathy say even if the effect of the remedies is to work as a placebo, they are chosen by thousands of people, and do not carry the risks and side effects of many mainstream medicines.

A survey carried out at England's NHS homeopathic hospitals found 70 per cent of patients said they felt some improvement after undergoing treatment.

Crystal Sumner, chief executive of the British Homeopathic Association (BHA), said attempts to stop the NHS funding alternative medicines ignored the views of the public, especially patients with chronic conditions.

She said: " Homeopathy helps thousands of people who are not helped by conventional care. We don't want it to be a substitute for mainstream care, but when people are thinking about making cuts to funding, I think they need to consider public satisfaction, and see that homoeopathy has a place in medicine."

She said junior doctors' calls for an end to any training placements based in homeopathic hospitals ignored the lessons alternative medicine could provide, in terms of how to diagnose patients.

Estimates on how much the NHS spends on homoeopathy vary. The BHA says the NHS spends about £4 million a year on homeopathic services, although the Department of Health says spending on the medicines themselves is just £152,000 a year.

Two weeks ago, a charity founded by the Prince of Wales to promotes alternative medicines announced plans to shut down, days after a former senior official was arrested on suspicion of fraud and money laundering.

The Prince's Foundation for Integrated Health said its plans to close had been brought forward as a result of a fraud investigation at the charity.

George Gray, a former chief executive of the organisation, and his wife Gillian were arrested by Scotland Yard officers last month in an early-morning raid on their home in North London.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/alternative medicine/7113054/Homeopathy-medicine-thats-hard-to-swallow.html

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/7279872/Homoeopathy-should-not-be-funded-on-the-NHS-says-report-by-MPs.html

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/7279872/Homoeopathy-should-not-be-funded-on-the-NHS-says-report-by-MPs.html

Homeopathic use world wide.

I just got this article from HPathy which is the largest Homeopathic magazine in the world. I am surprised how well Homeopathy is doing in the world at present. What is most encouraging is the Pharmaceutical schools and some Medical schools are beginning to teach it and many doctors are embracing it in their practices. Read on
March 15, 2010 by Robert Medhurst



It might be useful for you to know the extent to which homoeopathic medicines are used around the world. Globally, homoeopathy is an extremely popular modality and to reflect this, in 1999 the World Health Organisation (WHO) called for closer incorporation of homoeopathy into “western medical systems”1 and a ranking of the world’s top healing systems (including pharmaceutical drug therapy) carried out in 2003 had homoeopathy second only in popularity to Traditional Chinese Medicine2.

In Germany, 20% of medical practitioners prescribe homoeopathic medicines for their patients 3, 4, 5 and they’re used by 90% of German veterinarians6. It’s interesting that given the fact that homeopathy was originally developed by Dr Samuel Hahnemann in Germany, there isn’t a higher level of use by medical practitioners.

In the UK a study carried out in 1994 found that 10 out of the 16 university pharmacy schools taught homoeopathy as an undergraduate subject and in 1999, 66% of pharmacies sold homoeopathic medicines7, 8, 9 with some particular pharmacy groups such as Boots producing their own range of homoeopathic medicines10 . Still in the UK, there are 5 homoeopathic hospitals run by the British National Health Service (NHS), as well as 2 private homoeopathic hospitals and homoeopathy has been supported by the NHS since it’s inception in 194811, 12. A 1992 study found that 42% of British doctors refer their patients for homoeopathic treatment13 . By 2001 20% of Scottish GPs had been trained in homoeopathy 14 and by 2003, 86% of Scottish GPs surveyed were found to be in favour of homoeopathy 15 . Currently, homoeopathy is the second most popular complementary medicine in the UK 16, 17.

The situation in France is also interesting. Most French pharmacies carry these products18, 19 and in 1999 the French Medical Association called for homeopathy to be included in all medical degree training20. A 1998 study concluded that people using prescribed homoeopathic medicine cost the French government half of that for patients who used pharmaceutical treatments21, 22 .

Around the rest of Europe, 45% of doctors in the Netherlands use homoeopathy (40% of GPs in the Netherlands use homoeopathy23, 85% of Belgian medical practitioners provide homoeopathic treatment for their patients24, 25, 47% of Dutch doctors use homoeopathy26 and in the 10 years to 2002, interest in homoeopathy in Switzerland had risen by 300%27 and homoeopathy is rebatable by most health insurance providers27. In 1997, 37% of Norwegians who were surveyed had visited a homoeopath 28 and homoeopathy is the most frequently used system of veterinary medicine in Norway29.

In Europe generally, a 2003 survey found that 20-25% of all Europeans used homoeopathic medicines30, 31 and homoeopathy was the most frequently used complementary medicine in France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Norway, Italy and Switzerland32. In 1999 The European Parliament called for homoeopathy to be integrated into medical practice33 and the EU recommended that homoeopathy and herbs be used as first line treatments in veterinary medicine34

Pakistan appears to have a high level of interest in homoeopathy. Last year, the Pakistani Government established homoeopathic dispensaries in Pakistani hospitals35 and there are 165 government recognised homoeopathic medicine colleges operating throughout the country36. For the last few years the Pakistan government has set up homoeopathic medicine camps to treat the pilgrims who travel on the Haj to Mecca. Last year, 50,000 people were treated in these camps37. In India, 54% of medical practitioners prescribe homoeopathic medicines38 .They are widely used in Indian hospitals and homoeopathy is the most commonly used complementary medicine in this country39, 40, 41.

In 2003 in Sri Lanka, construction began on a government-funded homoeopathic hospital at Welisara42 and Columbian President, Alvaro Uribe, uses homoeopathic medicines to “stay in mental shape”43. It’s estimated that there are 15,000 homoeopathic doctors practising in Brazil44 and it’s a government requirement that homoeopathy is taught as an undergraduate subject in all pharmacy courses at Brazilian universities45. In the USA, 58% of US medical schools teach homoeopathy46. In Australia, the level of use of these medicines is a little difficult to determine. One relatively recent study said that around 12% of Australians use homoeopathic medicines but this figure has yet to be verified47. However, 78% of pharmacies here carry products made from homoeopathic ingredients and many of the larger pharmacy groups recommend these products as a core range, i.e. it’s mandatory for anyone setting up one of these stores to have them on their shelves 48. In New Zealand49 and South Africa50, homoeopathy forms part of the undergraduate program in pharmacy courses in some universities.

1. Poitevin B, Integrating Homoepathy in Health Systems, WHO Bulletin, 1999, 77, 2, 160-166.

2. Kemper KJ, Jacobs J, Homeopathy in Pediatrics- No harm likely but how much good? Contemporary Pediatrics, May, 2003, 20, 97-111.

3. Ludtke R et al, Forsch Komplementarmed Klass Natureheilkd, 2001, 8, 4, 213-8.

4. BMJ 2 November 2002;325:990.

5. WHO Bulletin op cit.

6. HomInt R&D Newsletter, Glasgow Homoeopathic Hospital, 1998.

7. Jain, A, “Does Homeopathy reduce the cost of drug prescribing?” Homeopathy, 2003, 92, 71-6.

8. Barnes J, Uncovering Potential Problems with Complementary Remedies: A Survey of Community Pharmacies, Royal Pharmaceutical Society, Report on Complementary and Alternative Medicines, Response to the House of Lords Science and Technology Committee, Sob-Committee III, October, 1999, Appendix 2.

9. BBC News, 20 Aril 2003.

10. Authors personal observations, London 1995.

11. Owen DK et al, “Can doctors respond to patient’s increasing interest in complementary and alternative medicine?”, ”, British Medical Journal, 20 January, 2001, 322, 154-8.

12. Natural Medicine Society News, 21, June 1992.

13. Natural Medicine Society News, op cit.

14. Reilly D, The Puzzle of Homoeopathy, J Alt Compl Med, 2001, 7, Suppl 1, S103-9.

15. Hamilton E, Exploring General Practitioners attitudes to homeopathy in Dumfries and Galloway, Homeopathy, 2003, 92, 190-194.

16. “New research in the Times Body and Soul reveals disenchanted Britons turning to complementary therapy”, PRNewswire, London Jan 9, 2004.

17. The Independent, 17 November, 2003.

18. Author, personal observations, Paris, 1993, 1995.

19. Pharmacoepidemiol Drug Saf, 2004, Mar, 18, 13, 10, 711.

20. Archives of Internal Medicine, 1999, 17, September 27.

21. Archives of Family Medicine, 1998, 7, 537-40.

22. Economic facts and figures, European Coalition on Homoeopathic and Anthroposophical Medicinal Products, September 2003, 9-10.

23. Visser GJ, et al. Alternative Medicine and General Practitioners in the Netherlands, Family Practice, 1990, 7, 3, 227-232.

24. Aldridge D. Europe looks at Complementary Medicines, BMJ, 1989, 299, 1121-1122.

25. Watson R. “Belgium is to Regulate Complementary Medicine, British Medical Journal, 22 May, 1999, 318, 1372.

26. Pirotta MV et al, Complementary Therapies- have they been accepted in general practice?, Medical Journal of Australia, 2000, 172, 105-109.

27. Swiss Radio International, May 2, 2002.

28. News Briefs, Complementary Medicine, March/April 2003, 11.

29. Viksveen P, Antibiotics and the development of resistant microorganisms. Can homeopathy be an alternative? Homeopathy, 2003, 92, 99-107.

30. Viksveen P, op cit

31. European Coalition on Homoeopathic and Anthroposophical Medicinal Products, op cit

32. Viksveen P, op cit

33. Archives of Internal Medicine, 1999, 17, September 27.

34. Viksveen P, op cit.

35. www.paknews.com, 21.6.03.

36. www.paknews.com, 21.6.03

37. “Ailing Haj pilgrims provided treatment”, Pakistan Daily Times, Mar 3, 2003.

38. The Daily Star, Sept 26, 2002.

39. Times of India, 9.6.03.

40. J Ethnopharmacol, 2001, May, 75, 2-3, 71-5.

41. The Hindu, October 23, 2003.

42. Daily News, Sri Lanka, Jan 3, 2003.

43. “A Year In, Uribe Racing to Reform”, St Petersburg Times, August 4, 2003.

44. Yasgur J. “Homeopathy In Brasil”, Homeopathy Today, Jan 2003, 34.

45. Yasgur J. op cit

46. Acad Med, 2002, September, 77 (9), 876-81.

47. Brauer Natural Medicine, Industry marketing data 2004

48. Brauer Natural Medicine, Industry marketing data, op cit

49. Personal correspondance, Dr Steven Kayne, PhD, MBA, LLB, DAgVetPharm, MRPharmS, MCPP, MPS (NZ), ACNZP, Visiting Lecturer, Dept of Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Strathclyde, Tutor, Homoeopathic Hospitals of Glasgow and London, Tutor, Pharmacy Dept, Otago PolytechnicMay 1995.

50. Personal correspondance, Dr Steven Kayne, op cit.

Sad truths and why I advocate change

People sometimes ask me why I am so strong in my opposition to Pharmaceuticals and the AMA and the Governments who support this way of healing. The article below is one reason. They are irresponsible and continue to be so as much as possible to extend their earning powers. I am not prejudiced in this statement but just stating the obvious. What does any Pharmaceutical Company have to gain by not protecting its patients other than money.
When I read that the EU is doing an official investigation as to whether or not the Pharmaceutical companies pushed hard to get the WHO to declare a Pandemic when it is more and more clear that there is none and the hype is still going on perhaps you can see the clear reason for opposition on my part. I wish it were otherwise.
I am not happy about health in any way when the drug companies are rich and the Health Care system is broke and people have no more money. Does this not tell us something about horses and carts. The operative word is make money and patients for life are a good thing for they earn us money. I want to see people really getting well and not reliant on medicines and that is not what is presently here except for those who steer clear of the system.
If Governments stopped being led and started to examine honestly not only what is going on but how else they could care for people I would be happier.
Yes I see it as tragedy for this side of the fence, the side that is about healing, and the fence is high is kept out of the media except to denigrate with campaigns to smear and poison people against Homeopathy. I suppose you would have to follow their campaigns in England to see it in full bloom. It is all supported by the Pharmaceuticals and there is no response to be given for one is given no space in papers or media to respond. Burial is a place full of better ways of healing.clawing at the coffin side trying to be heard. I do not feel good about that.

Thanks to the ongoing demand for truth and change by places like Novus Medical Detox Center there is movement and people are waking up and I encourage all who read this to actively seek safe ways to heal themselves when ill. It is in your interest to do so.

I have just finished a bout of flu or something like that. Nausea, weakness, belching, coming in waves. Anas Barbariae 200C seemed to help as did Carbo Veg 30C which I took for the belshing but the kicker was Eupetorium 30c. My flue had been with me for 5 days and it was not so nice for I could not settle down and get into any living rythm and I was told by Homeopathy who is on his way to Haiti that Eupetorium 30c is called for with this illness. One pill last night and today the peanut butter and honey tasted good on the toast and the apple,orange,lime,celery,bannana,ginger,honey,cinnimon juice I squeezed was so good.

Be well,


Pain Management and Opioid Overdose
By Steve Hayes, Novus Medical Detox Center Director

MYTH-OPIOID OVERDOSES ONLY HAPPEN IF YOU ABUSE OPIOIDS

In February of 2009, the FDA announced that they were going to require Risk Evaluation Mitigation Strategies to be applied to dangerous prescription opioids like:

OxyContin
Oxycodone
Vicodin
Hydrocodone
Endocet
Fentanyl Patch
Percocet
Lorcet
Lortab

The FDA still seems to believe that there is something "dirty" about people who die from drug overdoses. They seem to have bought into the idea that these people did something wrong that caused the fatal overdose.

This explains why some at the FDA were happy to invite to testify at the REMS hearing a psychiatrist who acted like a paid stooge for the narcotic drug dealers. He said that the only people who overdose on these opioids were people who abused them and did not take the drugs as prescribed.

FACT-OPIOID OVERDOSES HAPPEN IF YOU TAKE OPIOIDS AS PRESCRIBED

One of the people with me, Ed Vanicky, was there because he lost his wife to an overdose of these narcotics and she was taking the drugs exactly as prescribed.

There are countless numbers of other reported incidents of this happening.

Many of the overdoses were not fatal and the patients were able to be saved, but they did go into respiratory failure and would have died without prompt medical attention.

PROOF-OPIOID OVERDOSES HAPPEN IF YOU TAKE OPIOIDS AS PRESCRIBED

At last, the medical community has conducted a study that confirms what those of us who speak with people on opioids have known-you can die from an overdose even if you take the prescription drugs as prescribed.

Few would argue that there is a place for these narcotic drugs that act in the same way as anesthesia to block pain if someone has cancer or other terminal disease. No one wants to deny them the right to end their lives as comfortable as possible.

That is why this study is so important-it concentrated on non-cancer or end of life people receiv­ing opioids.

Medicine Evidence and what is it.

This is a submission to the official inquiry by British Government through the Science and Technology with regards to Homeopathy and other alternative healing techniques and if they should be part of their system of medicine.

This submission is an interesting history of testing and what has happened to its basic concepts.


http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200910/cmselect/cmsctech/memo/homeopathy/ucm0402.htm

Sir Wiliam Osler to the rescue.

I was in a heated debate with an eminent doctor about Homeopathy and I sent him a quote by Sir William Osler. Here it is.

THE GREATER THE IGNORANCE THE GREATER THE DOGMATISM.
DR. WILLIAM OSLER, CHAUVINISM IN MEDICINE 1902

The doctor's answer was as follows.
"Funny you should quote Osler to me. He was one of Medicine's first scientifically oriented clinicians basing his ideas on observation research and the brilliant pathological studies of Rudolph Virkow.
He knew that homeopathy was bunk and said so along with comments about phrenology etc. ..."

I looked up Sue Young's site http://homeopathy.wildfalcon.com/ The site has histories of all the famous men who used Homeopathy or said something about it. It is surprising the famous people who used and spoke well of Homeopathy. Press search and enjoy... Below is what I found for William Osler to refute the eminent doctor's prejudicial and blind response to my first quote from Osler's book Chauvenism and Medicine 1909

William Osler 1849 – 1919

William Osler, Time Online - “Founder Hahnemann was given his historic due by no less a personage than Sir William Osler. “No individual,” said Dr. Osler, “has done more good to the medical profession than Samuel Hahnemann.”

Harvey Cushing The Life of William Osler P. 171

“His belief that over-treatment with drugs was one of the medical errors of the day has been hinted at, and it was always one of his favorite axioms that no one individual had done more good to the medical profession than Hahnemann, whose therapeutic methods had demonstrated that the natural tendency of diseases was toward recovery, provided that the patient was decently cared for, properly nurses, and not over-dosed.”

Hans J Eysenck on William Osler

“It is more important to know what kind of person has a disease than what kind of disease a person has”

William Osler A Concise History of Medicine

“One notable example is typhoid fever. At the outset of the nineteenth century it was treated with ‘remedies’ of the extremest violence–bleeding and blistering, vomiting and purging, and the administration of antimony and mercury, and plenty of other heroic remedies.

“Now the patient is bathed and nursed and carefully tended, but rarely given medicine. This is the result partly of the remarkable experiments of the Paris and Vienna schools in the action of drugs, which have shaken the stoutest faiths; and partly of the constant and reproachful object lesson of homeopathy.

“No regular physician would ever admit that the homeopathic preparations, ‘infinitesimals,’ could do any good as direct curative agents; and yet it was perfectly certain that homeopaths lost no more of their patients than others. There was but one conclusion to draw– that most drugs had no effect whatever on the diseases for which they were administered.”

William Osler

“It is not as if our homeopathic brothers are asleep; far from it, they are awake (many of them at any rate) to the importance of the scientific study of disease.

“It is distressing that so many good men live isolated in a measure from the great body of the profession. The grievous mistake was ours: to quarrel with our brothers over infinitesimals was a most unwise and stupid thing to do.” and “Our homeopathic brothers pursue very seriously the scientific study of disease.”

William Osler

“Variability is the law of life, and as no two faces are the same, so no two bodies are alike, and no two individuals react alike and behave alike under the abnormal conditions which we know as disease.”�

William Osler

“The greater the ignorance the greater the dogmatism.”

William Osler

“All scientific truth is conditioned by the state of knowledge at the time of its announcement.”

William Osler

“I fear that we may return to the state of polypharmacy, the emancipation from which has been the sole gift of Hahnemann and his followers….”

William Osler

“But, fortunately for medicine, some hundred and fifty years ago Hahnemann appeared…”

Dr. Osler not only recognized Homeopathy and Hahneman, he recognized the hate that ignorance could generate. I find that this kind of blind hate is still alive; this inordinate resistance to honest investigation.

I also find that there is a growing community who are using and examining Homeopathy and it includes many doctors, scientists, artist and everyday folk. Homeopathy is the medicine of the 21st Century.

Now have to band together to stop Pharmaceuticals from weakening our immune systems and harming our emotions and minds with the medicines they sell that have debilitating side effects.

A worthwhile talk by two doctors re flu and vaccines

So often one gets reports without substantial statistical backup and one is left wondering what is going on with regards to flu and vaccines. Here at last is a measured response that is clear and supported in its findings and its responses.

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2009/09/19/The-Truth-about-the-Flu-Shot.aspx

Diabetes Case Shows Pitfalls of Treatment Rules NY TImes

I am still learning how to reprint articles and I am sure in future I will improve. The article shows clearly that all people suffering similar symptoms cannot be treated in a single preordained way. Homeopathy recognizes each patient as unique.

It is clear in the article that the Pharmaceutical Industry is being challenged for conflict of interest by sitting on Boards that decide what is good and bad for the public.

It is a scary story for people started to die and the program was or is being withdrawn.




Diabetes Case Shows Pitfalls of Treatment Rules

By BARRY MEIER

It sounds like a simple idea for improving health care: draw up guidelines on how best to treat a particular illness and then pay doctors to follow
them. That strategy, which some insurers and health plans already employ, has been embraced during the health care debate by some lawmakers in Congress who want to extend it more broadly.

The goal is to improve treatment and, at the same time, save money. But setting guidelines that are good for every patient, it turns out, can get messy, with some experts warning that a big national plan of this sort poses risks. A recent case involving treatment for diabetes, one of the nation’s most pervasive illnesses, illustrates the difficulties.

Last year, a national guideline-setting group abruptly withdrew a controversial diabetes standard it adopted in 2006 that called for aggressive control of blood sugar, or glucose. The change came after a large federal study indicated that lowering glucose too quickly or too much in some patients could harm or even kill them.

In medical journal articles and elsewhere over the last year, some diabetes experts have lashed out at the group’s initial decision to approve the guideline, saying they warned back in 2006 that it was medically ill-advised for some patients.
“This was a case in which the advocates of a disease got caught up in their disease rather than the interests of patients,” said Dr. Rodney A. Hayward, a diabetes expert at the University of Michigan who had opposed the benchmark.

Critics like Dr. Hayward have also suggested that pharmaceutical companies influenced the guideline so they could sell more glucose-lowering drugs like insulin. The group that set the guideline, a Washington organization called the National Committee for Quality Assurance, received about $3 million, or 10 percent of its revenue, last year from drug and medical device makers. The group’s officials, and several outside experts who advise it, rejected such suggestions of industry influence. Still, some experts question why the group, which sets standards that are widely used by insurers and private health plans, should take even small amounts of drug-industry money.
“There should not be any industry funding of a group that is involved in working on national guidelines,” said Dr. Jerome E. Groopman, a professor of medicine at Harvard.

To many experts, the diabetes case shows how setting one guideline that works for all patients suffering from the same disease can be tricky. The main problem is that many guidelines are based not on rigorous studies like clinical trials but on weaker types of medical evidence. And critics like Dr. Groopman have argued that the guideline-setting process is often influenced by industry or by medical ideologues looking to advance their personal agendas.
“These guidelines often come out of specialty societies who tend to want to treat rather than not to treat,” said Arthur Levin, the executive director
of the Center for Medical Consumers, a patient advocacy group. Mr. Levin also serves as an adviser to the National Committee for Quality Assurance and took part in the diabetes decision.

The diabetes controversy began after several studies showed that patients with diabetes could significantly benefit from tighter control of their blood sugar. As a result, in 2005, the American Diabetes Association, along with others, began urging the National Committee on Quality Assurance to adopt an aggressive glucose control standard. The group’s guidelines are used by insurers and others to assess the performance of
doctors who work for them and, in some cases, to determine whether they qualify for a bonus.

On its face, the glucose proposal made sense. Excess levels of glucose can cause some of the worst complications of diabetes, including blindness and kidney failure. But lowering glucose too much can also create problems for some patients, particularly older, sicker ones, causing them to black out or to have seizures.

Pointing to such risks, some doctors like Dr. Hayward, who also works for the Veterans Administration, opposed extending the guideline too broadly. They said that one significant group of diabetics, those who also had heart problems or cardiovascular disease, had never been studied during the trials that showed the benefits of aggressive glucose control.

But supporters of the move, like Dr. Richard Kahn, then a top official of the American Diabetes Association, rejected such arguments. Dr. Kahn argued that even if the standard were adopted, doctors would still have plenty of discretion about how to treat their patients. “All of us can no longer sit silently thinking that our discipline is unified toward improving diabetes care,” he wrote in a 2006 e-mail message as the argument unfolded.

In mid-2006, a panel assembled by the National Committee for Quality Assurance that included insurers, major employers, doctors and Mr. Levin, the patient advocate, unanimously approved the new standard. Critics like Dr. Hayward were furious and later said they believed that diabetes experts with drug-industry ties had played a role in guiding the decision.

Both Mr. Levin and another adviser to the quality committee — Dr. Paul Wallace of Kaiser Permanente, the big health care provider — said they saw no evidence of that. Also, officers of the National Committee for Quality Assurance insist that medical products companies, who sponsor some of the group’s activities, do not play a role in setting its treatment standards. The diabetes standard was not in place for long. It was challenged last year when federal researchers abruptly halted a study of glucose control in older diabetics with cardiovascular disease, the group not previously studied.

In that trial, researchers aggressively treated patients with a variety of drugs in an effort to bring their glucose down to the level of a person without diabetes, but patients receiving the treatment started dying at an unexpected rate.

In light of the findings, the National Committee for Quality Assurance withdrew its standard and convened an expert panel that this time included critics like Dr. Hayward. A year ago, the group issued a more nuanced guideline that, among other things, exempted patients over 55 years old with heart or cardiovascular problems.

Those who opposed the initial measure, like Dr. Joseph Selby, a research director at Kaiser Permanente, feel their position has been vindicated. They see a straightforward lesson from the episode: faulty guidelines can pose risks to patients, particularly when linked to doctors’ pay, which is an idea under consideration in Washington.
If such treatment guidelines are created “in the absence of good evidence,” Dr. Selby said, “you risk perversion or even harm.”


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Cars, water, gas and Murray

Summer was special for me when I was growing up. We had a cottage at Cedar Springs about 18 miles from Hamilton Ontario. Out in the country where the Credit river runs through a valley of cedars. There were 80 wooden cottages spread around a one mile ring road in amongst the cedars. It was pure fun. We had a 9 hole golf course, two tennis courts, a barn that was a community hall and the river was dammed up so we could swim. Tons of kids. 1946 or 47 is when Murray Schwenger got a nice old 1925 or 30 sedan. What a ball. Dust roads and tooling about.

Murray knew all about cars and would tinker with it all the time. Once he added a device he made to drip water into the carburetor to see if the car would still run and if he could save gas. He tried it several times and if we were going fast enough he could add water and we could still drive but when he accelerated to go up a hill it would be slower and sometimes the engine would conk out. He did save gas but the care did not run as efficiently.

I was thinking about that today when I was trying to explain what I feel is wrong with most pharmaceutical drugs and vaccines in the human body. They do give you more life but you do not operate at your best capability. Unlike the water in the gas idea we humans can’t turn off the drug tap so easily and often can’t get rid of the effects and side effects of the drugs. Often they just stay with us and so we end up not running very well. Our quality of life is sometimes compromised forever and we never know when the hill will come along and we will conk out so to speak.

The body is a marvellous creation and meant to run as it was made. We have inside ourselves all the tools necessary to keep it going and healthy. If we do get sick there are ways to heal that will not leave us compromised. Rest, exercise, and proper diet have to be a given but if help is needed then Homeopathic remedies and/or Bach Flower remedies will help us get back on track safely. They have no side effects unlike most pharmaceuticals and leave nothing behind to compromise our systems. Think about it.

Thiomerosal - in our vaccines Not Good!!!

The WHO says the swine vaccine we will get has Thiomerosal in it and that it is safe. Others say it is not. I thought I would go to Wikipedia and read what they say. This is what they say. Does not sound safe to me on reading this.


Thiomersal
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
(Redirected from Thimerosal)
Thiomersal
IUPAC name

Ethyl(2-mercaptobenzoato-(2-)-O,S)
mercurate(1-) sodium
Other names Mercury((o-carboxyphenyl)thio)ethyl sodium salt


Thiomersal (INN) (C9H9HgNaO2S), or sodium ethylmercurithiosalicylate, commonly known in the United States as thimerosal, is an organomercury compound (approximately 49% mercury by weight) used as an antiseptic and antifungal agent.

It was invented and patented by Morris Kharasch. The pharmaceutical corporation Eli Lilly and Company gave it the trade name Merthiolate and it has been used as a preservative in vaccines, immunoglobulin preparations, skin test antigens, antivenins, ophthalmic and nasal products, and tattoo inks. The compound is being phased out from routine childhood vaccines in the United States, the European Union, and a few other countries.


Use

Thiomersal's main use is as an antiseptic and antifungal agent. In multidose injectable drug delivery systems, it prevents serious adverse effects such as the Staphylococcus infection that, in one 1928 incident, killed 12 of 21 children inoculated with a diphtheria vaccine that lacked a preservative. Unlike other vaccine preservatives used at the time, thiomersal does not reduce the potency of the vaccines that it protects.[3] Bacteriostatics like thiomersal are not needed in more-expensive single-dose injectables.

In the United States, countries in the European Union and a few other affluent countries, thiomersal is no longer used as a preservative in routine childhood vaccination schedules. In the U.S., the only exceptions among vaccines routinely recommended for children are some formulations of the inactivated influenza vaccine for children older than two years. Several vaccines that are not routinely recommended for young children do contain thiomersal, including DT (diphtheria and tetanus), Td (tetanus and diphtheria), and TT (tetanus toxoid); other vaccines may contain a trace of thiomersal from steps in manufacture. Also, four rarely used treatments for pit viper, coral snake, and black widow venom still contain thiomersal. Outside North America and Europe, many vaccines contain thiomersal; the World Health Organization has concluded that there is no evidence of toxicity from thiomersal in vaccines and no reason on safety grounds to change to more-expensive single-dose administration.

Toxicology

Thiomersal is very toxic by inhalation, ingestion, and in contact with skin (EC hazard symbol T+), with a danger of cumulative effects. It is also very toxic to aquatic organisms and may cause long-term adverse effects in aquatic environments (EC hazard symbol N). In the body, it is metabolized or degraded to ethylmercury (C2H5Hg+) and thiosalicylate.

Few studies of the toxicity of thiomersal in humans have been performed. Animal experiments suggest that thiomersal rapidly dissociates to release ethylmercury after injection; that the disposition patterns of mercury are similar to those after exposure to equivalent doses of ethylmercury chloride; and that the central nervous system and the kidneys are targets, with lack of motor coordination being a common sign. Similar signs and symptoms have been observed in accidental human poisonings. The mechanisms of toxic action are unknown. Fecal excretion accounts for most of the elimination from the body. Ethylmercury clears from blood with a half-time of about 18 days, and from the brain in about 14 days. Inorganic mercury metabolized from ethylmercury has a much longer clearance, at least 120 days; it appears to be much less toxic than the inorganic mercury produced from mercury vapor, for reasons not yet understood.

Risk assessment for effects on the nervous system have been made by extrapolating from dose-response relationships for methylmercury.[9] Methylmercury and ethylmercury distributes to all body tissues, crossing the blood-brain barrier and the placental barrier, and ethylmercury also moves freely throughout the body. Concerns based on extrapolations from methylmercury caused thiomersal to be removed from U.S. childhood vaccines, starting in 1999. Since then, it has been found that ethylmercury is cleared from the body and the brain significantly faster than methylmercury, so the late-1990s risk assessments turned out to be overly conservative. A 2008 study found that the half-life of blood mercury after vaccination averages 3.7 days for newborns and infants, much shorter than the 44 days for methylmercury.

Allergies

Thiomersal is used in patch testing for people who have dermatitis, conjunctivitis, and other potentially allergic reactions. A 2007 study in Norway found that 1.9% of adults had a positive patch test reaction to thiomersal; a higher prevalence of contact allergy (up to 6.6%) was observed in German populations. Thiomersal-sensitive individuals can receive intramuscular rather than subcutaneous immunization,[ so contact allergy is usually clinically irrelevant.[13] Thiomersal allergy has decreased in Denmark, probably because of its exclusion from vaccines there.

It was voted Allergen of the Year in 2002 by the American Contact Dermatitis Society.

Autism
Main article: Thiomersal controversy

Although there is no convincing evidence that thiomersal is a factor in the onset of autism, many parents, and some scientists and doctors, believe there is a connection. Parents may first become aware of autistic symptoms in their child around the time of a routine vaccination, and parental concern about vaccines has led to a decreasing uptake of childhood immunizations and an increasing likelihood of measles outbreaks. More than 5,000 U.S. families have filed claims in a federal vaccine court alleging autism was caused by vaccines, most implicating thiomersal; the majority of these claims are still being adjudicated. The U.S. federal government agreed to award damages in one case, to a girl with a mitochondrial enzyme deficiency who developed autistic-like symptoms after receiving a series of vaccines, some of which contained thiomersal. Many parents view this ruling as confirming that vaccines cause regressive autism;[20] however, most children with autism do not seem to have mitochondrial disorders, and the case was conceded without proof of causation.

History

Morris Kharasch, a chemist at the University of Maryland, filed a patent application for thiomersal in 1927;[22] Eli Lilly later marketed the compound under the trade name Merthiolate.[3] In vitro tests conducted by Lilly investigators H.M. Powell and W.A. Jamieson found that it was forty to fifty times as effective as phenol against Staphylococcus aureus.[3] It was used to kill bacteria and prevent contamination in antiseptic ointments, creams, jellies, and sprays used by consumers and in hospitals, including nasal sprays, eye drops, contact lens solutions, immunoglobulins, and vaccines. Thiomersal was used as a preservative (bactericide) so that multidose vials of vaccines could be used instead of single-dose vials, which are more expensive. By 1938, Lilly's assistant director of research listed thiomersal as one of the five most important drugs ever developed by the company.

Thiomersal's safety for its intended uses first came under question in the 1970s, when case reports demonstrated potential for neurotoxicity when given in large volumes as a topical antiseptic. At the time, the DPT vaccine was the only childhood vaccine that contained it; a 1976 United States Food and Drug Administration review concluded that this use of thiomersal was not dangerous. Concerns about mercury arising from Minamata disease and other cases of methylmercury poisoning led U.S. authorities to lower reference doses for methylmercury in the 1990s, about the same time that autism diagnoses began rising sharply. In 1999, a new FDA analysis concluded that infants could receive as much as 187.5 micrograms of ethylmercury during the first six months; lacking any standard for ethylmercury, it used methylmercury-based standards to recommend that thiomersal be removed from routine infant vaccines in the U.S., which was largely complete by summer 2001. Some parents of autistic children adopted thiomersal as an explanation for the increase in reported autism cases and sued vaccine makers; the mercury-autism hypothesis is accepted widely among parents of autistic children, despite scientific studies rejecting it.