Circumcision: A Response to Amy Tuteur

It's hard to believe there could be an actual physical home for what seems like such an abstract brain process. But, it could be true--morality has an address--1900 Ventromedial Prefrontal cortex street.

In May, the British Medical Association's annual conference of junior doctors declared that homeopathy is witchcraft and now the BMA’s conference in Brighton has voted overwhelmingly against commissioning or funding for homeopathic remedies or homeopathic hospitals in the health service. They also want training posts in homeopathic hospitals scrapped.

What’s more, pharmacists should remove homeopathic remedies from their shelves because this strongly suggests to the public they are medicines. Instead they should be put in a section marked ‘placebos’.

Martin Luther King declared that a riot is the language of the unheard. I don't think he meant this particular RIOTT but it’s good to see the Lancet paper on injectable heroin in the UK finally make it into print given the rather hasty pre-publication presentation at press conference in September 2009. This post is a follow up to 'I predict a RIOTT' I blogged back when the NAOMI study in Canada was published in the NEJM.

Hangovers offer rich pickings for complementary therapists. It's the perfect fodder for alternative medicine. Give them an affliction almost completely characterised by a progressive recovery and they will be tumbling over themselves to offer 'cures'. Staring bleary-eyed at the Sunday supplements the recommended homeopathic regime of nux vomica suddenly seem like a good idea. Rational individuals try to reason through the fog of hangover and decide to take one pill (sorry pillule – don't want to sound too allopathic) and then wait 24 hours. Hangover cured. Personally, I’d like to see a decent double-blind RCT looking at homeopathic nux vomica versus a bacon butty.