A true skeptic does not reserve their skepticism for alternative and complementary medicine.

 

Picturbnne1 The article below was published in Pulse “MHRA under pressure to withdraw Rosiglitazone”.  and another article was published earlier in the week in the Independent newspaper

This is another example of why “evidence” does not necessarily make something true and should be the principle guideline for scope of practice.

It is also interesting that the justification for this drugs continued use is that there is nothing out there with better evidence of efficacy . In April I asked skeptics for  evidence of a better intervention than chiropractic for colic and am still waiting.

Nevertheless skeptics are still whinging to the GCC because chiropractors are still recommending a spinal adjustment as being an effective intervention for colic, unfortunately skeptics seem to have limited their understanding of the relationship between the function of spine and the central nervous system, to paralysis and death.

 

07 Sep 10

By Lilian Anekwe

The UK drug regulator has come under fire for failing to act on an expert recommendation to withdraw the type 2 diabetes drug rosiglitazone.

A Freedom of Information Act request by the BMJ has uncovered a report from July from the Commission on Human Medicines, an advisory group to the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency, saying the drug’s risks ‘outweigh its benefits and it no longer has a place on the UK market.’

It followed evidence that the drug increased the risk of myocardial infarction and heart failure. But instead the MHRA issued advice prescribers should follow ‘current contraindications and monitoring requirements for rosiglitazone‘.

A BMJ editorial has called for the drug to be withdrawn immediately but the MHRA has said it is waiting for an EU decision, expected later this month.

Dr Richard Lehman, a GP and senior research fellow at the University of Oxford, writing in the BMJ, said: ‘If the regulatory bodies do not insist on definite evidence of greater benefit than harm to patients, rather than changes in surrogate end points, they are failing in their basic purpose.’

Professor Nick Fremantle, professor of clinical epidemiology and biostatistics at the University of Birmingham, said: ‘If we are to avoid similar problems in other clinical areas, we need a far more widespread overhaul in the standards of regulatory trials.’

A spokesperson for rosiglitazone manufacturer GSK said: ‘No other diabetes medicine introduced in the last ten years has such an extensive safety database.

Richard Lanigan
Richard Lanigan

Richard Lanigan DC.BSc (Chiro) MSc( Health Promotion) was born in North London 1957 of Irish Parents and was educated in Ireland. Originally trained as a PE teacher, he moved to Denmark 1979, where a serious knee injury got him interested in rehabilitation and training methods. Richard founded Denmarks premier fitness centre "Sweat Shop" in 1982 and travelled all over the world to find how best to prepare athletes for competition. In 1984 he became fitness and rehab consultant to the Danish national badminton teams, handball teams and many football club sides. This approach to optimal performance is normal in 2010, however back in the early 80s it was very revolutionary, when stretching was limited to putting on your socks and knee injuries were immobilised for months in plaster.
Richard developed rehabilitation and fitness programmes for many of Denmark’s top athletes including Kirsten Larsten and Ib Frederickson, all England singles badminton champions in late 80s. "Team Denmark" hired him and his facilities to help prepare many of Denmarks athletes for the LA and Seoul Olympics. In 1990 he worked with Anya Anderson, Olympic gold medallist and voted worlds best female handball player at the Atlanta Olympics.
Richard advised Copenhagen’s main teaching (Rigs) Hospital on starting their rehab facility in 1984. In the same year he started working with Denmarks leading chiropractor; Ole Wessung DC, who demonstrated the effectiveness of Chiropractic in improving athletic performance, so impressed was Richard that in 1990 he moved back to England to study chiropractic at Anglo European College of Chiropractic and was student president for two years between 1993-1995.

Richard was awarded a fellowship by the College of Chiropractors in 2008, however in January 2009 Richard chose to stop using the title chiropractor in the UK because the British regulatory body for chiropractic (The GCC) had not maintained international standards of chiropractic education in the UK and including prescribing medicines in the chiropractic scope of practice, a fig leaf for incompetent UK chiropractors to hide behind. Richard has another clinic in Dublin and is a member of the Chiropractic Association of Ireland and the European Chiropractic Union.
Richard has four children Eloise aged 3, Molly and Isabelle aged five and the eldest Frederik aged twenty one is pursuing a career as a professional tennis player and has represented Norway in the Davis Cup in 2006 & 2007. None of Richards children have ever taken any medicine, www.vaccination.co.uk they eat healthy food, take lots of exercise and have their spines checked every month, www.familychiropractic.co.uk
Richard has had much experience working in the Cuban health service where Doctors are keen to incorporate drug free interventions (acupuncture and chiropractic) and prevention in their health care programmes www.henryreevebrigade.org

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