Hilary's Desk

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 deficiency and do not need their cords immediately clamped and cut.  Can you imagine any other mammalian species, like cats, dogs or sheep, frantically asking their peers for a cord clamp and scissors? Wouldn't you think it would occur to medical people that our bodies might have been designed correctly, to do a job efficiently and correctly?  Wouldn't you think they'd wonder what might go wrong if they "interfere"?  Of course not.  But then, I also know mothers who believe that if a clamp isn't used, all the blood will leak back out of their baby, who will then die.  Sigh.  Today, a group of fossilised medical non-thinkers, enraptured their world with the news that delaying cord clamping for babies born before 28 weeks is a good thing.  Perhaps they will get the Nobel Price for this priceless discovery?  Interestingly, they have no questions or shame about their "findings".  Indeed, they say they don't even understand the "mechanism" [choke], when it's blindingly obvious.  By their enthusiasm, you'd think they were telling the world about a new, previously un-thought-of miracle!  But note this... before they implement this, they will require many more multicenter studies to be done....!!!! - kaching.... which might take how long???? : Read Full Blog

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 been talking about for decades. But the question is, Why do people believe that medical practice is automatically the truth with halos? Read Full Blog

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." Really?  has Dr Roberts read this from the ESR? which has a graph showing this:    Read Full Blog

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.  Read Full Blog

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 hypocrisy. The societal attitudes of the present day however, would suggest that this need not be too much of a concern. After all, absolutes seem to have little impact on many people’s lives because the “Absolute” Himself has been dethroned, relegated to a back seat, completely ignored or completely forgotten, leaving the “marvels” of secular humanism to solve the world’s problems. I believe that all of life issues have their answers in the one and only Creator and Saviour God. I respect anyone’s right to disagree with this, but if so, with what will it be replaced? Read Full Blog

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?  Read Full Blog

 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 on Vitamin C.  I'd like to think that Sciblogs might learn something from this airhead episode, but seriously, ...  I very much doubt it.  Here is Professor Hemila's post, for anyone interested: Read Full Blog

(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.  Read Full Blog

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 perceived the surreal presentation which characterised Janet McIntyre's uncritical canonization of a British Medical Journal article published on 11 March 2010. She followed the rest of the media who described this study as “titanic”.... forgetting that the unsinkable Titanic,...  sank.   Janet was unblinkingly content to present people who thought that the Pill should be available over-the-counter, with no controls, to anyone of any age.  Caution and monitorring be damned. Let’s get with it, full speed ahead. Titanic, indeed. Which will of course, fix global warming!  Hurray.... Read Full Blog

How much medicine is actually ‘evidence based?” Nineteen years go, in a British Medical article called “Where is the wisdom?” the opening paragraph contained this information:  Read Full Blog