Homeopathic treatments should be banned from the NHS and taken off pharmacy shelves designated for medicines, doctors said today.

Members of the British Medical Association said homeopathic remedies should be relegated to shelves “labelled placebos” and that NHS money should not be spent on treatments that are scientifically implausible. Sarah Boseley, The Guardian.

Perhaps we can also add chiropractors and acupuncturists – I prefer my treatments to be evidence based – not based on belief.

The government is to take the controversial and potentially unpopular step of scrapping four-hour waiting time targets in accident and emergency departments and instead focus on delivering the “best possible results for patients”, it said. Alexandra Topping and Dennis Campbell, The Guardian.

Best possible results for patients! Is it really too much to ask that we be seen within four hours – if our health service can’t do that then surely something’s wrong – what is needed in our A&E units is more doctors and nurses but that costs money – this has nothing to do with patients and everything to do with deficit reduction – the health secretary Andrew Lansley is nothing but a murderer.

Supermarket chain Tesco says it wants to see curbs on the sale of cheap alcohol during this Parliament.

Tesco has welcomed a promise by the coalition government to ban below-cost sales of alcohol in England and Wales.

The UK’s biggest retailer goes further, saying it would back the more radical step of introducing a minimum price. BBC.

Of course Tesco backs a minimum price – more profit for them – it’s legal price fixing – as always with health and green issues all we get is a tax on the poor – the wealthy can carry on – don’t tell me there aren’t any wealthy alcoholics.

So why doesn’t Tesco put its money where its mouth is now?

During the World Cup, most retailers – including Tesco – are expected to offer significant discounts on alcohol.

In an exclusive BBC interview, Lucy Neville-Rolfe, Tesco’s director for corporate affairs, says in the absence of government action they have to compete on price. BBC.

So that’s anything for a profit then. Still I don’t believe the answer is trying to raise the price – people will still drink the same they’ll cover the extra expense by going without something else – the problems social – it’s what many people do with their leisure time. Dealing with alcohol abuse by bolstering the profits of Tesco and the like seems ludicrous.

Sleeping consistently for less than six hours a night can cause an early death, but too much sleep could also mean problems, according to a study that claims to have found unequivocal evidence of the potential harm from abnormal sleep patterns.

The research, by academics in the UK and Italy, analysed data from 16 separate studies across Europe, the US and Asia over 25 years, covering more than 1.3m people and more than 100,000 deaths.

It found that those who generally slept for less than six hours a night were 12% more likely to experience a premature death over a period of 25 years than those who consistently got six to eight hours’ sleep. Evidence for the link was unequivocal, the researchers concluded.

The study, published in the scientific journal Sleep, was carried out by a team from the University of Warwick and the Federico II University medical school in Naples. Peter Walker, The Guardian.

What’s meant by consistently I guess 5 days-a-week’s pretty consistent – well that’s me done for. Still expect a study long soon that concludes a lack of sleep is good for you – then again I’m always wary of newspaper reports on scientific studies – journalists seem unable to grasp facts instead preferring headlines – as always you need to pay to see the full study – so I can’t comment on its veracity.

Penny Red makes an urgent appeal on behalf of the Abortion Support Network a volunteer-run organisation that provides accommodation and grants to women living in Ireland travelling to London for an abortion.

Now the Republic of Ireland is a separate country but why women form Northern Ireland should have to travel to London is beyond me – abortion is legal in the UK – so why should Northern Ireland be excluded? Misogynistic religious mumbo-jumbo at work again – I fear.

Acupuncture could help period pain, researchers say reads the BBC.

Acupuncture may be an effective way of easing severe period pain, a South Korean review of 27 studies suggests.

Researchers said there was “promising evidence” for acupuncture in treating cramps, but that more work was needed.

In the British Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, they noted two studies found little difference between real and sham acupuncture in treating pain.

Acupuncture is a less contentious form of complementary medicine than some, but its value is still disputed.

Period pain can be severe in some women and may be accompanied by nausea, diarrhoea, migraine and backache. Common treatments include pain killers, applying heat and exercise – although a recent study questioned the efficacy of the latter.

This latest review involved 27 studies – which included nearly 3,000 women. They addressed a variety of forms of acupuncture – from classical to acupoint injection. BBC.

You now I’m fed up with such stupid headlines – as always to actually read the research you’d need to subscribe to the British Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at a cost of £149 for the year – what next 27 studies and 3,000 participants claiming acupuncture makes you live longer – won’t half drum up some business for acupuncturists.

The worst thing is that thousands of young women are going to have to suffer being pierced with needles for absolutely no benefit – and still suffering – lets carry out some effective clinical trials of these lunatic alternative treatments – if they pass I’ll happily eat my words.

Toyota was under pressure today over the accelerator fault that is forcing it to recall 2m cars across Europe as the RAC described the problem as “incredibly dangerous” and urged concerned owners to have their vehicles checked immediately.

Amid calls for the Japanese company to explain why it had waited for a year before issuing the recall, the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents called on the manufacturer to launch an immediate inquiry into why the potentially serious fault was not detected before millions of vehicles were released on to the market. Robert Booth and David Teather, The Guardian.

As an owner of a Toyota Aygo which is less than a year old I have a special interest in this story – I yet to hear a thing from Toyota: is my car affected or not? According to the Toyota‘s website Aygo’s from February 2005 to August 2009 – so yes it is. So much for Japanese reliability – how many deaths have they waited for before issuing a recall another case of profits before customer. The whole thing is troubling enough but if a reputable company like Toyota is willing to sacrifice customer’s lives for profits what on earth or less scrupulous companies up to? Capitalism it’s just amoral.

Still what to do if your pedal sticks – the best advice I can find is to put the car in neutral and brake hard – don’t switch the ignition off as you’ll lose power steering and braking. I’d also suggest being very careful where you overtake as there’s no way you want to be in the outside lane of a motorway when the pedal sticks – always making sure you can get to the hard shoulder easily.

A 10-year-old girl accidentally hanged herself with a dressing gown cord as she danced around her bedroom, a coroner has ruled at her inquest.

Megan Williams was taken to hospital after being found by her brother at their home in Harpurhey, north Manchester, in May 2009.

She died despite resuscitation efforts by her mother and paramedics.

Coroner Nigel Meadows said he hoped the case would highlight the dangers of playing with ropes and cords.

He recorded a verdict of accidental death at Manchester Coroner’s Court on Tuesday.

“It is an illustration of the significant dangers of playing around with things you put around your neck,” he said.

“I am entirely satisfied that Megan had been messing about. She had been dancing, listening to music, and she put her head through the loop.

“She was playing about without knowledge of the risks.” Source: BBC.

What a horrifying accident sends shivers through my body. As a father of an 8-year-old daughter I’m resisting the temptation to rush upstairs and remove all ropes, strings, scarves and the like from her room – it’s tempting – but that would be treating her like a prisoner in the police cells – what I will be doing is ensuring my daughters aware of the risks.

There is a worrying lack of safety data on electronic cigarettes, despite their growing popularity with the public, two leading Greek researchers have warned.

In the British Medical Journal, they say that without more evidence it is impossible to know if such products actually do more harm than good. Source: The BBC.

Unusually I side with anti-smoking campaigners.

Deborah Arnott, of the charity Action on Smoking and Health, said: “We do need better data on safety and appropriate regulation for e-cigarettes, although these products are certain to be significantly less hazardous than cigarettes, which lead to premature death in half all long-term users.”

She said there was demand for the products from smokers – UK estimates suggest around one in ten has already tried them. Source: The BBC.

So let’s get these tested and approved – no they aren’t going to be safe – just better than smoking the real thing.

Parents who allow their children alcohol at home may be increasing the chances of future drinking problems, says England’s chief medical officer.

Sir Liam Donaldson accused some parents of a “laissez-faire” approach and said “. Letting children taste alcohol to ready them for adulthood was “misguided

Evidence showed that this could lead to binge drinking in later life, he said. BBC.

Evidence – I’ve not the time needed too completely refute the evidence – personally I don’t accept Donaldson’s accusation, a brief look at the details as provided back up my instincts.

Firstly looking at the Chief Medical Officers Guidance and looking for any references I found this.

The work to support the Department of Health in producing this report has been carried out by Professor Mark Bellis and his team at the Centre for Public Health, Liverpool John Moores University. Department of Health.

So off to the John Moores University website where there are 60 reports on alcohol abuse alone – I looked through a few but couldn’t identify which reports might have been used.

So back to the Guidance where I downloaded the Guidance on the consumption of alcohol by children and young people and looked at section 6 references the first reference to Professor Bellis is.

Bellis MA, Hughes K, Morleo M, et al (2007) Predictors of risky alcohol consumption in schoolchildren and their implications for preventing alcohol-related harm. Substance Abuse Treatment, Prevention, and Policy 2:15.

The first thing that strikes me is the report was published two years ago, no wonder I didn’t locate it on the University website. Now looking at the Substance Abuse Treatment, Prevention, And Policy website we find the report Predictors of risky alcohol consumption in schoolchildren and their implications for preventing alcohol-related harm, which concludes.

Although previous studies have examined predictors of risky drinking, our analyses of access to alcohol and youth income have highlighted eradicating underage alcohol sales and increased understanding of children’s spending as key considerations in reducing risky alcohol use. Parental provision of alcohol to children in a family environment may also be important in establishing child-parent dialogues on alcohol and moderating youth consumption. However, this will require supporting parents to ensure they develop only moderate drinking behaviours in their children and only when appropriate. Substance Abuse Treatment, Prevention, and Policy.

Now how does that back up Donaldson’s claims – still I’ve a full time job to do and have only been able to carry out the most cursory investigation – but it didn’t take much using Donaldson’s own references to reach a different conclusion – Donaldson appears to be manipulating evidence to meet his own political agenda.