Daily Archives: September 9, 2022

Before he became Britain's monarch, King Charles III faced criticism over the years for promoting alternative medical therapies and treatments.

In 2019 for example, he received pushback for becoming a patron of the Faculty of Homeopathy.

According to the Cleveland Clinic, homeopathy "believes that using extremely minute diluted amounts of plants and minerals can help the body repair itself by promoting healing." Though popular, the Cleveland Clinic says that "there's no strong evidence for homeopathy's effectiveness greater than a placebo."

"We have been reminded only recently that plenty of homeopaths claim to be able to treat autism and discourage vaccination," Michael Marshall, of the Good Thinking Societya nonprofit organization that is self-described as "pro-evidence" and dedicated to combating "pseudoscience"said in 2019, according to The Guardian.

"If Prince Charles wants to have a genuine positive effect on the health of the nation he intends to one day rule, he should side against those who offer dangerously misleading advice, rather than fighting their corner," Marshall added.

Edzard Ernst, a former professor of complementary medicine at Exeter University, has frequently criticized King Charles III, writing a book about the royal's support of alternative medicine entitled Charles, the Alternative Prince: An Unauthorised Biography.

"Prince Charles contributes to the ill-health of the nation by pretending we can all over-indulge, then take his tincture and be fine again," Ernst said in 2009, according to Reuters. "Under the banner of holistic and integrative healthcare he thus promotes a 'quick fix' and outright quackery," Ernst added.

In a statement published by CNN in 2019 when King Charles III became the patron of the Faculty of Homeopathy, a spokesperson for the royal said the then-prince "believes that safe and effective, complementary medicine can play an important role in healthcare systems, as long as approaches are integrated with conventional treatments, a position he has reached after years of talking to experts in many different areas of medicine."

Newsweek has reached out to Buckingham Palace for comment.

The BBC reported in 2014 that an ex-cabinet minister claimed then-Prince Charles had asked him to press Welsh officials to add complementary medicine to the U.K.'s National Health Service.

"He had been constantly frustrated at his inability to persuade any health ministers anywhere that that was a good idea, and so he, as he once described it to me, found me unique from this point of view, in being somebody that actually agreed with him on this, and might want to deliver it," the former cabinet minister Peter Hain said, according to the BBC.

According to the Cleveland Clinic, complementary medicine "is a term used to describe types of treatments you may receive along with traditional Western medicine."

The BBC noted that a report commissioned by King Charles III that was published in 2005 found that the use of complementary therapies should be expanded within the National Health Service.

King Charles III became Britain's monarch after Queen Elizabeth II died Thursday at the age of 96. After his mother's death, the king said that he wants members of the royal family to observe official royal mourning for a week following her funeral.

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King Charles III Has a History of Promoting 'Quackery' Alternative Medicine - Newsweek

Save for the green leaves of a black olive tree, the interior of Remedy Place New York is completely gray. The spaces monochromatic scheme isnt a style statement. In fact, its the opposite. In color psychology, the ashen shade represents neutrality and balancewhich also happens to mirror the ethos of Remedy Place.

Founded by Dr. Jonathan Leary, Remedy Place is a social wellness club. ( Let Leary himself define that for you: Its a club that is temptation and toxin-free, that enhances health and social life at the same time.) Theres no gym equipment, massage tables, or beauty offerings. Instead, theres an extensive array of holistic treatments. Facilities include an infrared light sauna, acupuncture and cupping rooms, cryo chambers, hyperbaric chambers (theyre different!), and ice baths, just to name a few.

IV Suites, where two guests can lay facing each other.

Some experiences are solitary, but many can be done with friends. For example, those aforementioned ice baths are offered in group classes, where an instructor guides attendees through 10 minutes of holotropic breathwork followed by six minutes submerged in 38-degree water. Meanwhile, the vitamin IV suites are arranged so two people can sit facing each other while taking intramuscular B-12 shots.

Leary, who has his doctorate in chiropractic and alternative medicine, developed Remedy Place while he was a concierge doctor in Los Angeles. His practice catered to those seeking a non-surgical approach to chronic pain rehabilitation and attracted an impressive clientele of celebrities, CEOs, and pro-athletes.

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Remedy Place: The Fashionable Social Wellness Club Where You Can Bring All Your Friends - Vogue

BANGKOK, Sept. 5, 2022 /PRNewswire/ --Living with the COVID-19 pandemic, people start to recognize the equal importance of modern medicine and preventive practices in maintaining their good health and wellbeing. With a strong healthcare and wellness infrastructure and reputation for highly-skilled professionals, Thailand is more than ever ready to realize its goal to become "The Worlds's Medical and Wellness Hub". The country has pushed towards providing a comprehensive and holistic healthcare services to serve the rising consumer demand for the overall treatment of body and mind.

In 2021, Thailand has been ranked 5th place in the world, and 1st place in Asia, in the Global Health Security Index by John Hopkins University for its pandemic response capacity. The Health Care Index 2021 by CEO World magazine has ranked Thailand in the 13th place based on overall health factors.

Affordable costs, high quality medical professionals, world-class healthcare facilities and superb wellness services have propelled demand for Thailand's medical and wellness services from abroad. Before the coronavirus pandemic, the value of medical tourism in Thailand amounted to around nine billion U.S. dollars in 2019, and was forecast to reach approximately 24.4 billion U.S. dollars in 2027, according to Statista. Among the most sought-after medical services are general medical care and surgeries, sophisticated orthopedics, in vitro fertilization, dental care and physical check-up.

"The growing in strength of healthcare sector in Thailand has been supported by highly qualified and attentive medical personnels and world-class standard facilities. Of more than 370 hospitals and medical facilities, 60 of them are accredited by the US-based Joint Commission International (JCI) as of December 2021, making the country top-five in the world in terms of the number of JCI-accredited healthcare facilities," said Joel A Roos, Vice President of International Accreditation, Quality Improvement and Safety in an interview with the International Travel & Health Insurance Journal.

Building on a strong foundation, the country aims to promote ten areas of the medical and wellness services including regenerative and anti-aging sciences, alternative medicine, cardio science, musculoskeletal, dental clinic, In Vitro fertilization, cancer treatment, surgeries, ophthalmology (cataract) and precision medicine.

The traditional therapeutic treatment such as Thai massage and herbal medicine has increasingly gained worldwide recognition. Many hospitals in Thailand have bridged the gap between medical treatment and preventive care, making healthcare more effective and comprehensive. The country has also earned itself a reputation "The Spa Capital of Asia" for its top-rated wellness experience that blends a variety of traditional healing practices with state-of-the-art health and wellness technologies.

Banking on the growing awareness of alternative healthcare's benefits, especially the preventive and holistic healing effects, the Thai government has initiated Green Medicine to innovate from its rich heritage of traditional medicine. More scientific researches are being conducted to validate and develop traditional herbs for recognition and integration into modern healthcare services.

It's high time to embrace modern and traditional solutions for healthier and happier life.

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Thailand heightens its healthcare hub ambition with integrative medicine - PR Newswire UK

This week, a Twitter thread advertising to followers that cancer can be fought naturally, mostly through changes in diet, got 200,000 likes in just 48 hours. The post tells patients to fast in order to starve the cancer, and to hack your DNA and boost your stem cells by eating certain foods. It attracted scores of supportive comments.

Scientists and doctors then chimed in to debunk the misinformation on the thread. Dr. David Robert Grimes, a cancer researcher, was one scientist who responded, challenging some of its claims. This kind of advice doesnt help patients, and often shames them needlessly, or drives them to dangerous restrictive diets, he wrote, describing how dietary quackery for cancer is a huge, widespread problem that can push patients into dangerous choices.

Grimes told me last year that anyone with cancer is especially vulnerable to snake oil.

In those circumstances, even the most sober-headed realist can be taken in by those who promise miraculous cures with no side-effects, he said.

On the thread, scientists predictably became the targets of attacks, being told to stop poisoning cancer patients with chemo. The alternative cancer treatment movement is a massive, multi-million dollar industry dealing out false hope. Its a topic weve been tracking at Coda for years from the global campaign to discredit the HPV vaccine against cervical cancer, to the myriad bogus cancer treatments, such as light therapy and ozone treatments, that are peddled to vulnerable cancer patients and their families.

Ive written before about Ty and Charlene Bollinger, the former bodybuilder and ex-model who built an empire by promoting unproven cancer treatments, and who held an anti-science Make America Great Again freedom rally on January 6, 2021. They believe chemotherapy is poison and push vitamin C injections and vibrational therapy onto their 22 million viewers. They told me in a statement last year that theyre pro-science and pro-choice when it comes to cancer treatments and vaccines.

Theres a growing movement of scientists and doctors dedicated, like Grimes, to fighting back against this kind of cancer misinformation. A London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine researcher, Marco Zenone, posted a devastating series of screenshots showing comments from people who paid thousands of dollars to check into Mexicos myriad cancer treatment centers, which sell unproven and unapproved treatments to desperate patients whove run out of options.

When doctors tell you that your loved one has no chance of living due to cancer, wrote the daughter of a man who paid over $35,000 for alternative treatments in a Tijuana clinic, we all just want hope. Unfortunately this place sometimes gives false hope and takes advantage of people who are vulnerable. Her father went into septic shock and died within a fortnight of starting the alternative treatments.

Last year, Hungary promised to open a National Covid Vaccine Factory by the end of 2022. Its now September, and construction on the factory has barely progressed and its also shrouded in mystery. Recently the Hungarian government has been opaque about what vaccines will be produced there simply saying it will be a vaccine and the final cost of the factory is unknown. Before the invasion of Ukraine, Hungarys foreign minister promised to take vaccine cooperation with Russia to a new level with domestic production of Russias Sputnik shot. But since the war, theres been silence. Hungary was the first to break ranks with the EU in 2021 to buy Russias Sputnik V vaccine, a decision that came hand-in-hand with discussions of new, long-term gas shipments from Russias Gazprom. It now looks like the war in Ukraine is upending Russian vaccine diplomacy even as Hungary continues to step up its imports of Russian gas.

Staying in Hungary for a moment last month we brought you news of two meteorologists who were fired by Prime Minister Viktor Orbans government for getting the forecast wrong ahead of a patriotic event. Now weather announcers in Germany and Sweden too are facing a backlash. As Sweden prepares for elections on Sunday, a right-wing MP is accusing weather broadcasters of climate hysteria, falsely claiming that announcers are manipulating the graphic design of weather to exaggerate global warming. In Germany, a meteorologist who feels compelled to bring climate change into his forecasts has been facing accusations from climate deniers that he is secretly campaigning for the countrys green party. The weather reporter, Ozden Terli, told Politico he believes tracking climate change will increasingly become part of the meteorologists daily job. Perhaps weather reports wont exist anymore. Maybe well have climate reports instead, with the weather on the side, he said.Nearly 70% of South Africans oppose trophy hunting, the sport where animals are killed for fun, not food. Participants pay up to $150,000 to take part and bring a trophy back home with them. But the South African government has made repeated claims that regulated and sustainable hunting is an important conservation tool for South Africa. Its also a big tourist industry, worth more than $340 million to the countrys economy with South Africa exporting more than 4,000 trophies a year. But the governments claim that the practice is a helpful conservation tool has been widely disputed by experts. Only a quarter of the species hunted are managed under the national conservation plan, and earlier this year, South Africa announced it would allow the hunting of leopards, endangered elephants, and critically endangered black rhinos. Trophy huntings conservation claims made by the government are based on extremely little evidence, according to a recent report.

If you read one piece this week, make it Merope Millss devastating account of losing her daughter in a leading NHS Hospital in Britain, after a litany of shocking mistakes were made by the doctors caring for her. This newsletter champions the voices of doctors and scientists. It celebrates experts and evidence. But, as Mills writes for the Guardian, our blind faith in doctors should have limits. Educate yourself, ask questions, and, if you are unsure, insist on a second opinion, or a third, Mills writes. However indebted you feel to the NHS, dont be afraid to challenge decisions if you have a good reason to.

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How bogus cancer treatments prey on the most vulnerable - Coda Story