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sCAM at my Uni

cyborg

deus ex machina
cyborg
Joined
Aug 12, 2005
Messages
4,981
Ugh, had to visit the college health centre today so I could be examined before an exam - I had the most fortunate good luck to decide to have a particularly nasty throat inflammation before my first exam.

Whilst filling out forms and such, previous history and the like, I noticed there was a question that asked about other medication that included asking if I was taking any homeopathic remedies. Of course my first reaction was, "pfft, like it would affect real medicine."

From the website:

Other services

A psychiatrist and sports medicine specialist hold weekly clinics at the Health Centre. Physiotherapy and psychotherapy services are also available. Please see a Health Centre doctor if you wish to be referred for these servi€ces. Acupuncture, homeopathy, Alexander technique, reflexology and aromatherapy services are available and details are available at reception.
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http://www3.imperial.ac.uk/studenthandbook/facilities/thehealthcentre/

Now I may just have faulty recall, which is entirely possible since I am quite frazzled after not having eaten or drunk much for the last few days, but I was previously registered at a local GP and I don't recall seeing any mention of these 'alternatives' anywhere.

Now, just how consistent is the NHS on these matters? I assume it is perfectly possible for the college to waste money on additional services as well as just having NHS staff but I can't think of any reason why they would particularly do that.

My dismay, of course, comes from the fact that I happen to go to a very prestigious science college that really, REALLY should not be peddling this kind of crap, even if they are not directly involved.
 
Sadly the NHS does support homeopathy, and actually runs a few dedicated homeopathic hospitals. However, from the wording on the website I think they do not provide these sCAMs themselves, it sounds like they just give you details of how to contact them. Still wrong, and it might be worth complaining about, but not quite as bad. Makes me glad I turned Imperial down though :p.
 
Makes me glad I turned Imperial down though .
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Well I do wonder what the situation is like at other Unis, I suspect that it will probably be much the same - if the NHS offers it then it will likely be on offer.
 
Oh dear. Well fortunately I don't get to see a lot of woo in computer science - it's rather harder to get away with being too vague when either you have the maths/code or you don't.
 
I believe the Ashe Center at UCLA does offer acupunture and massage but for relaxation and not for cold-curing or whatever. This makes sense as UCLA Medical Center is among the top 5 best hospitals in the country and for the most part comprises the southern third of the campus. I doubt they would truly dabble in such Bulls Hit.
 
Since finding this link, drawn by one of the badscience posters, I have been wondering where to share it.

Acupunture Versus Voodo

Jim
 
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Here is a link
http://scienceblogs.com/insolence/2007/02/gotta_have_more_woo_in_my_medical_school_1.php
to an article that describes how woo is invading our (USA) finest medical schools. UCSF has the Osher Center for Integrative Medicine, which has a thoroughly woo-filled pamphlet. Even Harvard is supporting woo. Chiropractors and naturopaths are currently crowing about a conference they will have at Harvard this fall.

Surveys of CAM instruction in med schools (W. Sampson, Academic Medicine (2001) 76: 248-250. James J, Brokaw et al, Academic Medicine (2002) 77: 876-881.) show that AltMed is usually taught as though it is legitimate.

Whereas quackery tends to be an elective at most schools, Georgetown U has integrated is seemlessly into required classes! (You can find it via the link I cited, above.) For example, an acupuncturist lectures at some point in the regular anatomy course.
 
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Cuddles said:
Sadly the NHS does support homeopathy, and actually runs a few dedicated homeopathic hospitals. However, from the wording on the website I think they do not provide these sCAMs themselves, it sounds like they just give you details of how to contact them. Still wrong, and it might be worth complaining about, but not quite as bad. Makes me glad I turned Imperial down though :p.
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I find that disgraceful. As the NHS is slashing maternity services, they run homeopathic hospitals?
 
http://www3.imperial.ac.uk/studenthandbook/facilities/thehealthcentre/
Other services

A psychiatrist and sports medicine specialist hold weekly clinics at the Health Centre. Physiotherapy and psychotherapy services are also available. Please see a Health Centre doctor if you wish to be referred for these servi€ces. Acupuncture, homeopathy, Alexander technique, reflexology and aromatherapy services are available and details are available at reception.
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Its simple - Perhaps if anyone enquires about CAM therapies they are referred to the psychiatrist or psychotherapist.

Or am I being a bit too hopeful on this point?
 
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Far too optimistic, but let's be thankful for the occasional scathing press report on the infiltration of woo into academia.


Lesson in silly superstition:
Once we laughed at primitive superstitions. Now we teach them in TAFE colleges.

-snip-

Homeopathy is one of the "alternative therapies" now so fashionable among people who burn incense.

-snip-

But what astonishes me with homeopathy is that a treatment so bogus should be taught in our TAFE colleges and even a university.

What should be damned in our temples of reason is now preached instead.

-snip-

Victoria University is the most scandalous example, offering a Bachelor of Health Science - Naturopathy and Homeopathy last year, with courses even in "vibrational medicine" to teach "energy healing, the role of intuition, spirituality and all other areas related to the metaphysical".

For this New Age trash to be packaged by a university into a degree is tragic.

For it to call this abomination "science" is a fraud.

Where Victoria University led, TAFE colleges have followed - so enthused to be tripping the pixie path that Further Education Minister Andrew Robb this year complained they had slashed engineering courses while offering another million hours of teaching of "complementary therapies" from naturopathy to reiki healing.

Add homeopathy to that, too.

Thanks to taxpayer-funded TAFE colleges, graduates are now floating out with eyes of newts in one hand and Advanced Diplomas of Naturopathy in the other…

More:

http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,22765672-5000117,00.html
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I thought legit doctors were concerned, because the other garbage mixed into alternative medicines might be a compound that has a bad reaction with a real drug.

Here, disclosure is recommended for safety reasons...
 
Jimbo07 said:
I thought legit doctors were concerned, because the other garbage mixed into alternative medicines might be a compound that has a bad reaction with a real drug.

Here, disclosure is recommended for safety reasons...
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That would be nice; but there is little safety data on AM, let alone information about cross-reactivity. Plus, AM is often mis-labeled in that it contains known drugs which are not apparent when one thinks it is simply an herb. For example, the FDA regularly catches "herbal viagra" that contains the actual drug.

More to the point, these schools teach AM uncritically: such that students are left with the impression that is somehow effective. At Georgetown, they even bring in quacks to lecture in required courses (such as acupuncture in the anatomy class). Others have an "integrated medicine track" that (optionally) combines the quackery with the medicine.
 
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