We can further eat even if we are full. This only a human can do. Animals eat when they are hungry and then they stop as they are full. They have inborn understanding of when to stop eating. We too have this inborn sense. But we can neglect the real hunger and can modify our behavior at our will. This seems the real problem. As we 'can' eat more even if not needed, we do it sometimes and that can lead to increased weight.
But this need not be looked with pessimism. This ability to control our behavior presents new opportunities as it presents threats. Because having ability to control our behavior means that we can remain hungry at will as well. Which an animal can't do. So remaining hungry even when our body is demanding food is something which only a human can!
Last week, the BBC covered the latest development in our campaign to stop NHS homeopathy, revealing that the Royal London Hospital for Integrative Medicine will no longer be allowed to offer homeopathy consultations to NHS patients, effectively ending NHS support for homeopathy in the capital:
NHS homeopathy ending in London
A major centre of homeopathy will no longer be able to spend NHS money on the controversial practice.
The Royal London Hospital for Integrated Medicine – formerly the Royal London Homeopathic Hospital – will stop providing NHS-funded homeopathic remedies in April. Read more >>
Curbs on hospital linked to Queen over rule breach
The hospital where the Queen’s homeopath works has been banned from offering homeopathy to NHS patients for disobeying health service policy.
An audit found that the Royal London Hospital for Integrated Medicine had been wrongly charging the alternative treatment to taxpayers. Read More >>
The decision to end NHS homeopathy at the facility is no surprise to us – we have been tracking spending on homeopathy in the area since 2014, when we were told by 17 London CCGs that they had no way of knowing how much of their funding was being spent on homeopathy (though we subsequently came to estimate the spend to be around £3m per year).
During the last four years, we discovered that each of the CCGs in the city had a policy which prevented funding from being spent on homeopathy, yet we were aware that the RLHIM was certainly treating NHS patients with homeopathy. To try to get to the bottom of things, we wrote to CCGs in London encouraging them to investigate whether their policies were being breached at the RLHIM.
Partly as a result of our encouragement, in April 2017 NHS Camden CCG undertook an audit of 100 of their patients at the Royal London Hospital for Integrative Medicine. The audit found significant non-compliance with their policy on complementary medicine, with 41 out of the 41 homeopathy treatments tracked by the audit breaching the policy.
As a result of the audit, the CCG reiterated that the RLHIM was not to treat any NHS patients with homeopathy – bringing to an end the homeopathy service at the facility, and across London as a whole.
The end of homeopathy in London is a major milestone in our campaign to stop NHS homeopathy, and has taken many months and years of our work to understand NHS policies, write to CCGs and health bodies, make Freedom of Information requests, liaise with media outlets and more. If you feel, as we do, that this work has been worthwhile, you can sign up to make a one-off or monthly donation to Good Thinking, and help us keep our work going.
With the end of homeopathy in London, following our previous successes in the North West of England and our ongoing project to have the Department of Health add homeopathy to the NHS Blacklist, only the Bristol and Glasgow regions continue to spend NHS resources on these ineffective treatments. Our attention, and our campaign, turns to those cities next.
We like to thank all the people who gave us help and support in our campaign so far – including Bindmans LLP, Alan Henness from the Nightingale Collaboration, Prof Edzard Ernst, Skeptics in the Pub groups around the country, and the many supporters of evidence-based medicine who follow our work. With your support, we can bring NHS wastage on homeopathy to a close, and help make sure that limited resources are spent more effectively.
A major centre of homeopathy will no longer be able to spend NHS money on the controversial practice.
The Royal London Hospital for Integrated Medicine - formerly the Royal London Homeopathic Hospital - will stop providing NHS-funded homeopathic remedies in April.
Homeopathy is based on the idea that "like cures like", but scientists says patients are getting nothing but sugar.
Campaigners said the move was "hugely significant and long overdue".
How homeopathic pills are made
Image copyrightSPL
Homeopathy is based on the concept that diluting a version of a substance that causes illness has healing properties.
So pollen or grass could be used to create a homeopathic hay-fever remedy.
One part of the substance is mixed with 99 parts of water or alcohol, and this is repeated six times in a "6c" formulation or 30 times in a "30c" formulation.
The end result is combined with a lactose (sugar) tablet.
Homeopaths say the more diluted it is, the greater the effect.
Common homeopathic treatments are for asthma, ear infections, hay-fever, depression, stress, anxiety, allergy and arthritis.
The NHS itself says: "There is no good-quality evidence that homeopathy is effective as a treatment for any health condition."
The Royal London Hospital for Integrated Medicine has a long history with homeopathy. It was founded as the London Homoeopathic Hospital in 1849 by one of the first doctors to practise homeopathy in Britain.
But now patient leaflets say: "From 3 April 2018, the Royal London Hospital for Integrated Medicine (RLHIM) will no longer be providing NHS-funded homeopathic remedies for any patients as part of their routine care."
The hospital is run by University College London Hospitals NHS Trust.
A spokeswoman for the trust said: "No NHS funding will be spent on homeopathic medicines at the RLHIM."
It is just the latest clampdown on NHS homeopathy.
Simon Stevens, the chief executive of NHS England, has described homeopathy as "at best a placebo and a misuse of scarce NHS funds".
The Good Thinking Society, which has campaign for the NHS to stop spending money on homeopathy, said the latest move was "hugely significant, and long overdue".
Its project director, Michael Marshall, told the BBC: "This move means that London has now joined the vast majority of the country in consigning homeopathy to the history books.
"The only areas of the UK still wasting money on these disproven treatments are Bristol and Glasgow.
"Hopefully, sensible decisions will be made in those cities too, and we can finally move away from throwing limited NHS resources at these ineffective treatments."
Last week, the BBC covered the latest development in our campaign to stop NHS homeopathy, revealing that the Royal London Hospital for Integrative Medicine will no longer be allowed to offer homeopathy consultations to NHS patients, effectively ending NHS support for homeopathy in the capital:
GETTY IMAGES
SPL