Horizontal Perspective 横顾天下

In an announcement made last Monday, MPs sitting on the UK House of Commons Science and Technology Committee urged the UK government To withdraw NHS funding and MHRA licensing of Homeopathy. In its report: Evidence Check 2 – Homeopathy [PDF 1.6Mbytes], the committee concludes that the NHS should cease funding homeopathy. It also concludes that the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) should not allow homeopathic product labels to make medical claims without evidence of efficacy. As they are not medicines, homeopathic products should no longer be licensed by the MHRA.

The Committee carried out an evidence check to test if the Government’s policies on homeopathy were based on sound evidence. In preparing its report, the committee, which scrutinizes the evidence behind government policies, took evidence from scientists and homeopaths, and reviewed numerous reports and scientific investigations into homeopathy. It found no evidence that such treatments work beyond providing a placebo effect. The Committee found a mismatch between the evidence and policy. While the Government acknowledges there is no evidence that homeopathy works beyond the placebo effect, it does not intend to change or review its policies on NHS funding of homeopathy.

This was a challenging inquiry which provoked strong reactions. We were seeking to determine whether the Government’s policies on homeopathy are evidence based on current evidence. They are not.

It sets an unfortunate precedent for the Department of Health to consider that the existence of a community which believes that homeopathy works is ‘evidence’ enough to continue spending public money on it. This also sends out a confused message, and has potentially harmful consequences. We await the Government’s response to our report with interest.

The committee also urges governments in other European countries where homeopathy is popular – notably Germany, France and Austria – to be equally wary of funding homeopathy. “We feel there’s a real message, not just in the UK,” says committee chairman: Liberal Democrat MP Phil Willis.

The report draws attention to homeopathic remedies derived from body parts such as hip joints and colons, animals such as iguanas and dragonflies, and even products exposed to different kinds of sunlight. In the case of remedies derived from fragments of archaeological monuments such as the Great Wall of China and Stonehenge, they point out that it is hard to understand how even homeopathy’s own principle of “like cures like” could apply.

Edzard Ernst of the Peninsula Medical School in Exeter, Devonshire says the MPs’ report should be noted in other countries where homeopathy is widely practised but not subjected to serious critical scrutiny. “The evidence is negative, and it’s internationally negative, because there’s no difference between countries in terms of evidence,” he says.

The Prince’s Foundation for Integrated Health, which backs complementary therapies, including homeopathy, acknowledges that homeopathy is “scientifically implausible”, but defends the use of such remedies nonetheless.  In a published response to the committee’s report, the foundation wrote “For patients suffering from long term disease, where no scientific, evidence based medicine can offer effective treatment, it does not matter how it works. What matters to them is whether they get better, whether pain and other symptoms are alleviated.” It added that “Science is a vital tool in healthcare, but so are compassion and caring and treating patients with dignity. It is not clear that the Committee took that into account.”

More extensive coverage in New Scientist – Stop funding homeopathy, say British MPs

Hundreds of patients of Type 2 diabetes taking Avandia (rosiglitazone – GlaxoSmithKline) needlessly suffer heart attacks and heart failure each month, according to confidential government reports that recommend the drug be removed from the market. The reports say that if every diabetic now taking Avandia were instead given a similar drug named Actos (pioglitazone HCl- Takeda), about 500 heart attacks and 300 cases of heart failure would be averted every month. Avandia was linked to 304 deaths during the third quarter of 2009.

“Rosiglitazone should be removed from the market,” one report, by Dr. David Graham and Dr. Kate Gelperin of the Food and Drug Administration, concludes. Both authors recommended that Avandia be withdrawn.

(more…)

In my last post I wrote of how measures to obviate Nian’s attack become incorporated into our customs and practices during New Year, so much so that most are unaware of the painful origin of them all. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, as it serves little purpose to inflict these memories of suffering on the modern generation. So it came as no surprise that our ancients seeking to keep Nian on our mind would transform the much dredged beast into a more palatable form.

There are no detailed description of  Nian [年兽], presumably because no one ever survived an encounter with the beast. So the ancient conjured up a creature that is a direct opposite of what they knew.  So instead of a beast of ill fortune, it becomes a harbinger of great fortune.  Instead of living in remote seclusion and invade our habitat come spring time, it now hibernates in our midst, and comes awake to usher in the annual spring festival [春节 chun1 jie2]. In its presence, crops grow and flowers bloom. Instead of an ugly and ferocious beast, it’s a big, athletic cat with a collar bestowed with bells and plums, implying that it’s somewhat domesticated. (more…)

Today is the Lunar New Year eve. Chinese everywhere will be making their way home for reunion dinners with their family, and then keeping a vigil for the arrival of the new year with homes brightly lit. Children will look forward to receiving blessing from their elders in the form of red packet [红包 hong2 bao4] stuffed with money. It’s an event of joy and anticipation for all.

But it had not always been like this. In fact, according to ancient Chinese folklore, this used to be a time of fear and misery, a time to leave home en mass for the refuge of the jungle. How so ? The Chinese term 过年 [guo4 nian2] is taken to mean ‘transition to a new year’ in modern time, but [年] dose not mean year in an earlier period (before the Zhpu dynasty 周朝 in 1020 BC), when year is represented by the characters 岁 (sui4) and 载 (zai3, one revolution of the heavenly bodies). Thus the passage of time is 过岁月 (literally to ferry across years and months). So a more accurate translation for 过年 is ‘make it through Nian’. In fact in Chinese literature there are commonly found expressions such as 熬年 (ao2 nian2, endure or suffer through Nian) and 过年关 (guo4 nian2 guan1, to survive the Nian ordeal) to describe the event.

(more…)

One thin slice at a time.

During my second year in the university, I was elected to the position of social secretary for the students’ Pharmaceutical Society, not because I was popular, but because it was a job that nobody wanted. You see the social secretary exists mainly for one purpose: to raise fund and to organized the society’s annual dinner and dance. It was a monumental task for any team imaginable. I had a hard time forming a team because I can’t find even one person in my class who’d sit on my committee. (I don’t blame them, I would have done the same under the circumstance.) To make matter worse, the school decided from that year on to stop direct admission, choosing to select from those who had completed first year in Science. As I don’t have a pool of juniors to fill my committee, I am alone holding a very hot potato.

I called some hotels for quotes and did a quick estimate. Due to the small number of seat (the total number of students in Pharmacy is under 60) and the resultant high overhead, the price per head came to a whopping $120. As i didn’t want to ask the society of limited means to subsidies, I would have to raise about $6,000 (excluding door gifts and prizes) just to keep ticket price at $40 each. I realize right away I stood no chance of raising that kind of money on my own. In addition, there are also the work of coordination, getting sponsorship for prizes, hiring a band, games, etc; way too much details for just one person to handle. (more…)

Using the cell-phone while on the move is riskier than most people realise.

Distracted driving has gained much attention because of the inflated crash risk posed by drivers using cell-phones to talk and text. But there are other kinds of problems caused by lower-stakes multitasking like distracted walking, which combines a pedestrian, an electronic device and an unseen step, the pole of a stop sign, a toy left on the living room floor or a parked (or moving) car.

The era of the mobile gadget is making mobility that much more perilous, particularly on crowded streets where too many multi-taskers jostle for road surface on foot or wheels while immersed in the beat of their own devices like cell-phones and MP3/video players. But cell-phone is by far the most dangerous because it requires active participation from its users. Texting (and Twittering) is increasingly popular and newer devices like the iPhone have thousands of new, engaging applications to preoccupy phone users. (more…)

Last Friday night, the trio of internet technologies and investments watchers TechCrunch, GigaOm and VentureBeat (known to some of their detractors as the Unholy Trinity) held their annual Crunchies Awards for entrepreneurs and the venture capitalists who support them. The long list of nominees and winners includes big names like Facebook, Twitter, Android & Chrome & Wave (by Google), Bing & Silverlight (by Microsoft). But the highlight of the show was by a group act called the Richter Scales and their hilarious song ‘In the Valley’ (sung to the tune of Coco Cabana by Barry Manillow) about Silicon Valley.

Most people believe cold and flu viruses can contaminate doorknobs, faucets and other surfaces. But is that true? And for how long?

Studies have found that the survival time for both kinds of viruses varies greatly, from a few seconds to 48 hours. The reasons have to do with a number of factors, including the type of surface, humidity and temperature.

For example, cold and flu viruses survive longer on inanimate surfaces that are nonporous, like metal, plastic and wood, and less on porous surfaces, like clothing, paper and tissue. Most flu viruses can live one to two days on nonporous surfaces, and 8 to 12 hours on porous surfaces. But a 2006 study found that avian influenza virus can survive for as long as six days on some surfaces.

Cold viruses, however, deteriorate quickly. A study in 2007 found that when objects in a hotel room — light switches, telephones — were contaminated with a cold virus, 60 percent of healthy volunteers picked up the virus when they touched one of the objects an hour later. Eighteen hours later, the transmission rate was cut in half.

On skin, cold and flu viruses generally last less than a few minutes, but that can be plenty of time: studies have shown that most people touch their hands or mouth several times in the course of daily activities — enough to cause infection.

So it’s TRUE. Cold and flu viruses can contaminate doorknobs, faucets and other surfaces. And flu viruses in particular can survive much longer than most people think possible. So wash your hands, frequently and thoroughly; and avoid touching your mouth, nose and eyes for as much as possible.

The Senseable City Laboratory at M.I.T. has designed a wheel that captures the kinetic energy released when a rider brakes and saves it for when the rider needs a boost.  The new wheel uses a kinetic energy recovery system, the same technology used by hybrid cars, like the Toyota Prius, to harvest otherwise wasted energy when a cyclist brakes or speeds down a hill. With that energy, it charges up a battery inside the wheel’s hub. 

The sleek red hub, called the Copenhagen Wheel, can be retrofitted to any bike’s rear wheel, and it includes sensors that track air quality, a meter that logs miles and a GPS unit to track routes. All that data can be sent via Bluetooth to a rider’s smartphone and shared with others. This eliminates the clunkiness of other electric bikes with heavy batteries and unwieldy wires by placing all the technology into the wheel.

Another group back at M.I.T. is building a different electric bike wheel. It‘s designed to be plugged in to charge, and may add regenerative components as an external accessory, but not as a component embedded into the wheel’s hub.

It could be great for people who have a 10-mile commute and don’t want to show up at work sweating.
Elderly bikers might also make a good target. For my mother it would be perfect. She loves riding her bike and has one or two hills on her normal route that this could help with.

Last week BBC NEWS reported that Japanese police had uncovered the first case of biometric fraud. In this case, a 27 year old Chinese woman was discovered to have had her fingerprints surgically swapped between hands in order to fool Japanese immigration.

It is Japan’s first case of alleged biometric fraud, but police believe the practice may be widespread. … The apparent ability of illegal migration networks to break through hi-tech controls suggests that other countries who fingerprint visitors could be equally vulnerable — not least the United States

This highlight what is probably foremost on the mind of U.S. immigration officials, though few chose to voice it publicly. They are now aware that the biometric technology can be subverted easily if the passport issuing authority of the originating country does not ensure that the credentials presented is both authentic and accurate. What can be done about it? Perhaps this?