Hilary's Desk

Last week I was walking down the road, and gasped as I saw a mannikin dress which was high fashion when I was 14.  I still have a sepia-shaded photo of me in it.  The only thing that's changed is the fabric.  Not that the human body changes it's design, other than self-adjusted additions or removals. I thought, "How true, old becomes new."  The very next day I...

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Several times, I’ve been asked to explain my silence, and why I have not written about Andrew Wakefield in the past. My concerns started in 1981, and go much deeper and relate to much more fundamental issues than “that” paper. It’s up to Andrew Wakefield to clear his own name. It’s up to Deer to prove he’s right. There are far more serious, fundamental i...

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That about sums up the last week really. Meanwhile, Brian Deer shafts the parents in the 1998 Lancet study calling them worse words than being “nuts”; Dr Paul Offit calls Wakefield a fanatic; vaccine defending bloggers infer that Jenny McArthy is a slut, and the sun shines out of Dr Offit’s little pet Amanda Peet’s long legs... and Gregory Poland considers anyone wh...

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Yesterday, in discussing the cozy relationship of the medical profession with big pharma while paying lip service to nutrition, I remembered an old book I have on this topic.  It's quaint title is, "Intestinal Gardening for the Prolongation of Youth". It was written by Dr James Empringham, and published in 1926.  It's fascinating; makes me chuckle, and roll my eyes at the same ti...

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Open Letter to the Hon Minister of Health, Tony Ryall,  Dear Mr Ryall,  We realise that health policy is determined by your advisors, but we believe that it's time for you to independently do some research on Pubmed, Google Scholar and apply some commonsense to the escalating industry entrenchment around the expensive testing for and treatment of rheumatic fever.  What most conce...

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Those who know us well, know our views on Christmas.  And it's that time of year again.  But it comes with mixed blessings, for though we're annually aghast at the "waste" surrounding rituals adhered to by people who don't usually believe in the "reason" for the season, (and therefore it puzzles us as to what they actually get out of it...) the silly season does come with one advantag...

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By Peter Butler.  This morning in the junk mail, was an advertisement for a book called "The Shakey Isles", in which it says that only one out of nine people in this country is disaster-ready.  Earthquakes aren't the only disaster for which we need to be ready.  Constantly in our lives, we come across people who have endured events where were the last things they ever thought wou...

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On Saturday, Kim Hill interviewed Caldwell Esselstyn, a cardiology surgeon who has "seen the light" with regard to nutrition, and who is in New Zealand to spread the message. One which, in this interview, he readily admits his colleagues won't accept.  After all, cardiovascular events are the biggest problem in developed countries, and who out of the hundreds of thousands of cardiologists ...

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Dear Professor Crane,  In my print copy of the Herald (attached) the following comment is attributable to you: “The benefits of paracetamol for fever control still outweigh the potential of later allergy development..” and…”there were few other options for fever control in young children.” and ... that you don’t know how paracetamol is causing alle...

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On November 16th, 2010, Vaccine published an article titled “Public vaccination programmes against hepatitis B in The Netherlands: Assessing whether a targeted or a universal approach is appropriate”. This long, convoluted self-justifying article gives an extensive review on the Hepatitis B situation in the Netherlands; what is known; what is not; and the statistical ...

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What's your thoughts on Full Body Scanners?  That they are a total over-reaction?  My reaction is pretty much the same as The Washington Times, which unlike most New Zealand newspapers, does thoughtful analyses on really meaningful topics.  You all know the term, "The war on terror".  This "terror" can be interpretted in many ways, but lets start with the "terror" which resu...

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Today, we are told that fever is good for you!  Now where might you have heard that before?  Oh yeah.Here of course. And you'll find a chapter called "Fever Pitch" in the book we wrote in 2006.  And then there's the chapter called "Bringing chickenpox to the boil" in our second book, published in 2008, which detailed some of the dramas created by Pfizer, who didn't like IAS ...

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The function of the placenta is an overlooked non-thought, because the medical system considers it redundant the minute a baby's head makes an appearance.  Don't you think that strange, given that for nearly nine months, the placenta has provided nutrients, oxygen and... stem cells to the baby?  This magnificent organ provides an amazing service, which is utterly abused, particularly ...

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Long time readers here will know that immediate cord-clamping is something which makes me angry enough to write lots of blogs on it.  In the latest BMJ, a retired consultant obstetrician, in a column called Personal View calls for the practice to be stopped.  Why does an obstetrician have to be retired before saying the blindingly obvious?  It’s utterly insane&nbs...

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Today was yet another embarrassing day for the "love a quick fix" medical system.  The Sunday Independant in the UK revealed that secret documents marked "closed until 2014", showed that in 1982, the Medical Research Council was warned that benzodiazepines, which were marketted as "completely harmless", could cause brain shrinkage, and brain damage.  The Department of Health, ver...

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On April 6, 2010, Dr Marc Shuman, M.D., and Drs John Sedat, David Agard, and Robert Stroud PhD, posted an online open letter onto internet in which they raise concerns about the safety of the new airport scanners.  FDA and all the medical bods who "matter" to the USA administration have of course declared these scanners to have no health effects.  Well, fat chance do I belie...

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In the Sunday Star Times today, Judge David McNaughton delivered a swift message to Starship doctors about predictive and substandard medical care, and the presumption of guilt without good cause.  The Judge found Famaile Lino not guilty of abusing his six month old child after Starship jumped to conclusions, and robustly defended their own preconceived mindsets.  The L...

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 "Surprise: Scientists discover that inflammation helps to heal wounds".  Interesting headline, huh? Remind you of anything?  Like "Fever helps the body successfully fight disease, and using drugs to reduce fever, gives the infection the advantage." ??  So why did the medical mantra of treating sprains with RICE (Rest, Ice, Compression, Elevation), become so popula...

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In his book, "How Doctor's Think", Dr Jerome Groopman describes an ultrasound doctor, who detects in a baby, inside a woman 5 weeks from giving birth, a strange shaped space inside the baby's brain which should look like a tear-drop with sharp edges, but just doesn't look quite right.  Not badly wrong, but just not quite right. Because the shape is pretty near...

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