I UNDERSTAND that Mr Jim Watson (letters, October 18) clearly doesn’t like homoeopathic remedies.

I signed the letter Mr Watson is challenging, which also referred to herbal remedies.

His argument revolves around ‘evidence’.

Has he taken any homoeopathic remedies himself, I wonder?

Published evidence is certainly stacked against the effectiveness of homoeopathy but this ‘evidence’ is unconvincing to me as I’ve used homoeopathic remedies all my life, along with my children and grandchildren and I can say from personal experience that it works.

When I hear the word ‘evidence’ coming from certain quarters, I’ve learned to be cautious.

In my opinion it would be a socially good thing if this attitude became more widespread.

Certain people demonstrably don’t like certain things, and they don’t want anyone else to like them, either.

I don’t much like allopathic medicines but I do not object to Mr Watson taking them, in spite of much adverse published ‘evidence’ surrounding them, including iatrogenic illness being the third-largest cause of death in the USA (Jrnl American Med. Assoc. 284 (4), 2000: 483-4).

I remember the thalidomide tragedy.

Not to mention the horrendous profits and lobbying of the drug industries and the horrific animal experiments.

None of the latter form any part of the homoeopathy movement.

There are two further reasons I supported the original letter.

First, whose NHS is it? – ours (the public), or the government’s?

If cost isn’t an issue, what right does Government have to prohibit prescribing certain medicines if there are patients who want them and qualified doctors choosing to prescribe them?

Finally, the scientific argument.

It’s based on the Avogadro Constant which refers to the number of particles in a mass of substance.

I’m sure it’s true, however I certainly wouldn’t stake my reputation on it being the whole truth.

Human life, including health and illness, is certainly more complicated than the current scientific orthodoxy would have us believe.

I could describe the Mona Lisa by itemising its dimensions and the chemical composition of its paints and everything I described would be ‘true’.

But it wouldn’t tell you much about the picture.

Be careful what you believe!

Jonathan Swann

Stroud