Behind me is the Royal London Homeopathic Hospital.
And I'm here because it's been an interesting week for alternative medicine in Britain.
This week, Noel Edmonds, television star, and promoter of mid-90s fever dream Mr Blobby,
endorsed something called the EMP Pad. It’s a yoga mat,
and its inventors claim that its very low intensity electromagnetic fields
help cells in the body function.
Now, I’m not going to go into loads of detail about the evidence for the Pad.
I’m very skeptical, but there are early studies that say
carefully applied, specific electromagnetic fields may actually do some good.
I know, I was surprised too.
Okay, a yoga mat probably isn’t going to work like that,
but there are devices using EM fields that are working well enough
that insurers are starting to pay for them.
I’ll also skip over the insulting reaction that Noel Edmonds got from people on Twitter,
particularly after he told someone suffering from cancer
that it might be because of their “negative attitude”.
Instead, let’s look at the reaction of the folks who make the EMP Pad.
Because, okay, the skeptics won’t like them whatever they do,
but there are plenty of alternative medicine believers out there.
Surely the company would welcome a celebrity endorsement?
No. At the top of their web site, in big letters, they disavowed Noel Edmonds entirely.
Nothing to do with us, they said.
And the reason was: he’d claimed they could help cure cancer.
Now across Europe, advertising prescription drugs and medical treatments to the public is banned.
They can advertise to doctors, sure, but those American drug adverts
with their list of side effects just don’t happen here.
"Serious, sometimes fatal events such as infections, lymphoma,
"or other types of cancer have happened.
"Blood, liver and nervous system problems, serious allergic reactions,
"and new or worsening heart failure have occurred."
But in Britain, there are even stricter laws about cancer treatments.
You can’t get away with saying, "oh, it’s not really a medical device",
or, "oh, it’s just some herbs".
If you sell something to the public, saying it can help or cure cancer,
you can be prosecuted.
Even if it does cure cancer.
The idea, back in 1939 when the law was passed, still holds true today.
Sell your cure to doctors. If you give them an alternative medicine that works,
with evidence to convince them, they’ll start prescribing it,
and you, the person who discovered it, you’re probably in line for a Nobel Prize.
And if they don’t start prescribing it: well, it probably doesn’t cure cancer, does it?
If you’re selling your cure directly to the public,
it's almost certainly not a cure.
And it’s probably going to hurt people that would otherwise go to the doctor.
With this law, no-one has to prove that your cure doesn’t work:
they just have to prove you’re selling it without going through someone qualified.
Noel Edmonds was in the clear when he said “this cures cancer”.
I think he’s irresponsible, but he can believe that,
and he’s not selling any yoga mats himself.
"I then had my tumor destroyed by sound waves,
"proving yet again that energy is at the heart of this issue."
But the folks who do sell them:
they needed to shut down that claim right away,
or risk an investigation that they would really want to avoid.
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