Hilary's Desk

You don't think you need to know?  Well, according to Dr Jerome Groopman, you do.  Dr Groopman belongs to a rare species in medicine who tell it as it is - perhaps because he's been at the butt end of a few medical bum deals in his day. He knows what it feels like to be run over by his own medical system, and has the clout to write about it.His writing is vitally important, and utterl...

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Warning.  Having an opinion is dangerous.  Have you noticed the plethora of "needed" (choke) rules, regulations and safety requirements which stalk anyone who might want to do something adventurous?  Take for instance a group who sets up a children's adventure camp.  They analyse any possible problems, and try to cover every eventuality. Parents sign their kid...

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Mannnnny years ago (1984 - 86), I wrote an article on obstetricians dogmas on cord cutting in hospital ,which landed up in various incarnations in several journals worldwide, finally landing up in Mothering Magazine.  The thrust of this article was that obstetricians had their heads firmly located in the pavement, and that babies of any age, and condition are not born with a scissor d...

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In a brilliant article called Lies, Damned Lies and Medical Science (pdf) a bright light was shone upon the reality of medical practice across the board, .... by what I thought was an almost extinct species - honest scientists.Thank goodness that some actually exist. It gives me hope for the future!  The fact that medicine is often damned lies, is something we've b...

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(By Peter Butler) Especially when it's been spent dealing with issues and systems governed by engrained mindsets, and heavily influenced by huge vested interests more interested in profits, than making available all of the facts ...without restriction; or providing customized care to unique individuals, rather than trying to fit everyone into their "one-size-fits-all" moulds. Health and...

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....then you have to use all the other vaccines to the max. Where have we heard that before? In a previous blog was a URL showing that influenza manufacturers told governments that if they wanted pandemic influenza vaccines, then they better work harder than hard, at making sure everyone possible was needled with ordinary influenza vaccines.  Governm...

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I've had all my shots."  So said Javelin Thrower Stewart Farquhar.  This just about epitomizes the effort which the average New Zealander puts into learning about the real world. Fact.  The things which bite you on the bum in India, are NOT likely to be the things for which you have had shots. FACT: What might hit you harder on the bum if you go to India now a...

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What epidemic? "Numbers have been on the rise since June this year, but they really spiked up in August," said Dr Alison Roberts, of the Ministry of Health' ... Hiding behind the word "epidemic", as a scare tactic, Alison Roberts continues: "We have been expecting an epidemic around now. New Zealand has a whooping cough epidemic every four to five years, and the last one started in 1999." ...

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By Peter Butler.  This website provides you with two “clicking” options, representing two people and two different perspectives – HILARY’S DESK and OUT OF THE MOULD. I suppose you could say that it is two sides of the RRMT “coin”. It is not a case of which side is more important. Both are needed equally to make the “whole”. If you ...

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By Peter Butler.  Here is the follow up to “VOICES AND CHOICES”. I make no apology for returning to a topic which I believe is absolutely crucial in everybody’s lifestyle. Most of us would agree that the ability to exercise freedom of choice is a fundamental human right. It plays a big part in our uniqueness (See “Facts many People Prefer to Ignore”) but it ...

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When I wrote our home education curriculum it incorporated what I consider an essential foundation stone. A lifestyle must surely include the integration of every aspect of daily living. You cannot put different issues into little boxes with an appropriate label, and then apply differing standards and values to their implementation. To do so will produce inconsistencies, double standards and hy...

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I was a gutless wonder once. For the last 21 years of my first 28 years, I was a coward. How is that, you might ask? Well, until I was seven, I wasn’t a gutless wonder. Born In Scotland and raised by aupair girls with a gaelic granny on their days off, my first 5 years were relatively stable. I was, after all, just a child. Then circumstance brought us to New Zealand, without au pair gi...

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Further to the superb piece in today's Otago Daily Times paper written by Otago Medical Schools Professor of Medical Ethics (and neurologist) Professor Grant Gillett, calling into question the ostrich attitudes of medical practitioners, it needs to be said that Ascor L 500, which is what is used in intravenous vitamin C, cannot be considered "alternative".  Ascor L...

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Oh the irony of it all. Peter Griffin of Sciblogs fame reckons he has H1N1.  Would love to know how he knows that. After all, the only people being tested for H1N1 are those in ICU. Not even “normal” patients in the “fly-by" outpatients get tested. Perhaps he has special connections? Called in a favour maybe? Perhaps he should post the ‘laboratory pro...

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 Professor Hemila quite rightly asks sciblogs why they blethered on about mice and cancer instead of actually DOING a literature review on vitamin C and Pneumonia....  Did Sciblogs...  actually put their brains into gear?  Professor Hemila's Finnish website is the BEST place on internet to find early and more recent published medical information...

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In another piece of cherrypicking nonsense called “Clash of the anecdotes”, Peter Griffin seems to think no-one else reads newspapers. He says: If you read today’s letters to the Sunday Star Times you’ll see the flip side of anecdotal evidence on the use of intravenous vitamin C to treat serious illness. The letter below … illustrates well why it is potentially v...

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Professor Roger Short was Janet McIntyre’s premier “expert” for her “wonder drug” programme. It would seem that 80 year old veterinarian, Professor Roger Short, has a major bee in his bonnet, which filtered out in his enthusiastic endorsement of the pill to solve the world’s global warming problem... which is... far too many people.  Two months before t...

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(Written by Peter) How easy it is to fail to heed the significance of essential facts. The seriousness of this causes me to return once against to a statement I have made on many occasions especially when I have been talking to people. Setting aside all the complexities that seem to permeate the screeds of material dealing with this theme, let me identify it in a very simple straightforward st...

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Watching TNVZ SUNDAY’s programme about the oral contraceptive pill, called “Wonder Drug”, my mind kept flitting back to the fair grounds of old. Merry go round horses, ever rising, and lowering and the ceaseless crackly potted music;  metal clown heads, swinging wide open mouths, and the croaky voiced candy floss man intoning his automated speil. This was how I ...

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