Hilary's Desk

Where are the skeptics, when it comes to looking at the “responsibility” of using intravenous vitamin C in serious illness? Where you’d predict them to be. Shoring up the medical system like good little marionettes.  Read Full Blog

In the wake of the TV3 documentary "Living Proof",  thoughout New Zealand, families who have members in ICU with H1N1, are being told that their near-death family members cannot be given intravenous vitamin C because it would cause renal failure. The medical literature does not support this statement. Many times we hear about vitamin C and kidney stones, but where did that "information" come from? According to Professor Hemila of Finland, it is an "urban legend". Quite why the medical profession feel it so necessary to create urban legends, is another matter altogether. Professor Hemila details the literature on this on his a page on his website called "Safety of Vitamin C: Urban Legends" (page pdf'd):  Read Full Blog

Amonst all the whining ricochetting around the hallowed halls of pharmaceutically driven medicine in New Zealand, a couple of points should be logged into the system's hard drive. The first is that the medical profession should stop going on about how irresponsible and dangerous vitamin C is. The second is, by extension, stop the ludicrous, continual attempts via suitably brainwashed report-ersss in the newsmedia, to demonise herbs and supplements.  It seems to me that Medsafe et al, have forgotten that in 2006, at the request of the then Minister of Health, Annette King, the coronial system did a thorough investigation into deaths from alternative medicine, which found just about zilch.  Instead, the finger came right back pointing at the medical system, not the alternative medical system, supplements or herbs.  Read Full Blog

It never ceases to amaze me, when people who put themselves out as scientists, display woeful researching skills, and appear not to hear what is said on programmes they criticise. Peter Griffin at Sciblogs had this to say about the 60 Minutes documentary “Living Proof”. Amongst his various ramblings, he misses the fact that experts were asked to comment.. but refused. He also asked heaps of redundant questions:   Read Full Blog

“Warning on blood thinning medicine” rang out the headlines in the Herald on 10 June 2010, in an article which warned that warfarin can result in strokes. This type of article is particularly dangerous, because readers can assume that what is said is the only danger there is. Warfarin is way more dangerous than just causing strokes. Warfarin is a major nutrient robber, to the proportions of being a biological weapon of slow mass destruction. Read Full Blog

Systemic rot in Pfizer has got too deep for the authorities to turn a blind eye to any more.  Pfizer has paid censured experts to educate doctors, has illegal ghost-writing practices; been warned about significant violations in paediatric trials of Geodon, was found guilty of pushing Neurontin for illegal purposes: tried to force NEMJ to hand over peer review comments... , their litany of dishonesty and corruption, just goes on, and on and on.  To me the one incident that really says it all about the system is what the FDA organized when Pfizer was caught illegally marketting Bextra.   Read Full Blog

From Bobby Cowans Press Relations:  Members of TruthAboutGardasil.org and women around the world are disappointed with the panel of investigators selected to examine alleged violations of guidelines for conducting 'clinical trials', inadequate research, false advertising, along with various moral and ethical concerns in connection with a recent health 'demonstration project' involving HPV vaccines amongst disadvantaged women in India.  Read Full Blog

“Demand for jabs puts squeeze on supply” squealed page 2 of the New Zealand Herald. And those of us who have collected these headlines for decades realise that there will be suckers out there who think the news is for real. Even if they know that this is the typical selling technique for all advertising. “Stocks limited” “One per person”. A few discrete enquiries, revealed a few baffled medical practice receptionists, who said that it was pretty much business as usual. The New Zealand Herald – if they keep clippings files, which I doubt – seemingly doesn't remember that just these sorts of headlines have been trotted out with monotonous regularity: 2000: “Early demand exhausts flu vaccine” and “100,000 more flu jabs on the way”; 2004: "Vaccine readied to ward off killer flu strain” 2005 “Bird Flu shots coming in winter” (Yeah, right...) “Crisis talks on flu vaccine” and so the headlines roll on. Read Full Blog

Dear Paul,  On rethinking your email to me, and given that you are our electorate member of parliament, I feel I need to address a few issues to you more thoroughly. You say:  Read Full Blog

Thanks to an observant reader of the blog, who sent me this link, a fourth "mysterious" death has come to light. There is a new term for these deaths. They are being called Sudden Adult Death Syndrome". So there you go. What this means is you shouldn't be surprised when a "child" of any age, dies in their sleep Read Full Blog