Articles by: Jerome BurneJerome Burne

Treating serious vitamin B12 deficiency: a case of risk-benefit balancing gone mad

32 by / on 17 Oct 2016, / in evidence based medicine

Have you heard about the NHS trust that recently introduced an incredibly brutal, and possibly illegal, form of drug rationing to save money? Patients suffering post -operative pain will get half the dose normally required to keep them comfortable, kidney dialysis will be done twice a week rather than three and all diabetics will get the same amount of daily insulin regardless of their blood sugar levels.

The serious trust deficiency afflicting medical advice and what to do about it

27 by / on 8 Oct 2016, / in evidence based medicine

Trust me I’m a doctor has become a knowing, cynical catch-phrase but the underlying truth is that we do need to trust our doctors, not only because trusted doctors exert a beneficial healing effect but also because we are entrusting them with something precious – our health.

Independent investigation reveals NICE approved treatment only a fraction as effective as experts claim it is.

46 by / on 26 Sep 2016, / in evidence based medicine

Would any doctor continue to prescribe a drug which they had been told would benefit 20 per cent of patients with a specific illness, once the truth was revealed to be around 7 per cent, only one percent better than no treatment at all? You’d have to hope not and that concerned and angry doctors would then shout loudly that they had been lied to and that patients had endured years of pointless treatment.

Massive statin trial that aims to silence all the critics. The iron fist in an evidence-based glove.

24 by / on 13 Sep 2016, / in statins

Last week a massive piece of research extolling the benefits of statins was published in the Lancet. Its headline message was that the benefits of statins are hugely underestimated and far outweigh any harm. It had found that only 2 people per hundred suffer side effects while 15 people per hundred avoid strokes and heart attacks.

It came garlanded with the full majesty of the medical profession. Thirty pages long with 28 authors, 300 references and a declaration of interests that filled 44 lines of small type and mentioned more than 20 of the largest pharmaceutical companies. This juggernaut was designed to bury the widely publicised doubts about the effectiveness and safety of these drugs already prescribed to 6 million people.

Current Posts – 13 September 2016

by / on 13 Sep 2016, / in editorial

The metaphorical thud of yet […]

Why are menopausal women still getting a form of HRT that’s clearly linked to cancer? There is an alternative

3 by / on 2 Sep 2016, / in evidence based medicine

So, women who take HRT to help with symptoms of the menopause have a three times greater risk of developing breast cancer, according to a paper in the British Journal of Cancer((Michael E Jones, Minouk J Schoemaker at al Menopausal hormone therapy and breast cancer: what is the true size of the increased risk? British Journal of Cancer (2016) 115, 607–615)) published a couple of weeks ago. That’s certainly alarming news if you are approaching or going through menopause but it should really not come as a great surprise. The issue of HRT and cancer has been rumbling away for over a decade.

Radical doctors throw away rule book to beat diabetes and obesity

11 by / on 22 Aug 2016, / in evidence based medicine

A small but remarkable trial of the effects that a change of lifestyle can have on diabetes and obesity has just been published in the relatively obscure SAMJ (South African Medical Journal).

The results are impressive and the implications ground breaking. The starting point is that the official ‘evidence based’, low fat, calories-in equals calories-out approach isn’t working.

Got cancer? Want to explore other options? This is all you need to start

12 by / on 20 Jul 2016, / in cancer

Twelve years ago Robin Daly’s 23-year-old daughter Bryony was dying of cancer when he set up a charity called Yes to Life to provide information about unconventional treatments such as changes in diet, supplements, vitamin C infusions, oxygen therapy and the like. At the time, although popular all such complementary options were sternly rejected as ineffective and possibly dangerous by conventional oncologists.

How senior medics use strong arm tactics to close down the debate on statin side effects

11 by / on 12 Jul 2016, / in statins

One of the alarming and intriguing things about the cholesterol lowering drugs statins is the vigour and ferocity with which supporters defend them. It’s alarming because it makes it almost impossible for both doctors and patients to get accurate information about their risks and benefits. Intriguing because it is so unscientific.

Doctors can only tackle chronic disease with the right tools. Teach them nutrition

5 by / on 16 Jun 2016, / in evidence based medicine

Here’s a really bad idea. Send a dozen nutritionists to work alongside regular doctors in a Medecins Sans Frontières team providing emergency treatment to the wounded in a war zone. It’s a bad idea because they would lack any relevant skills. They might help speed up recovery but in the operating theatre they’d be be worse than useless as the wounded come in.

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