Truth will out!!!!

“Truth will out”
In my attempt to quit smoking over I have gone through many research papers, websites and spoken to a variety of people. I have come across the significant and the mundane, but never have I come across blogs that are the epitome of self marketing and a “BUY MY BOOK, TRY HYPNOTHERAPY!!!!! IT’S THE ONLY WAY TO QUIT SMOKING FOREVER “theory.
Yes, and added to this is the humanitarian “I am so concerned about people and what the pharmaceutical corporations aren’t telling us” angle (did I mention that the pharmaceuticals are inherently evil according to this guy?)
His blog spot is extremely biased in showing his point of view (and let’s not forget – please buy this guys’ book!!!) So you won’t see John Singers commentary because it’s pending moderation.
There’s also a heavy reliance on “statistics.” Does this guy think he’s the only bloke to have undergone a varsity level (probably even introductory) course in stats? And that makes him the magnum opus of statisticians!!!!
His blog spot is
http://www.truthwillout.co.uk/2008/04/champixchantix/comment-page-6/#comment-126516
Just skip to comments 286 and 287 although John’s commentary is blocked (aka pending moderation).
Here’s an excerpt (Wonder who this John. S. Singer guy is…… And is he using a pseudonym? Wait a minute! Singer is the guy who produces my favourite TV show Supernatural…… but then again, he’s a Robert and not a John…. But wasn’t John the name of one of the lead characters in the first season???)
John S. Singer, on October 10th, 2011 at 12:30 am Said:
Chris, you’re core business is hypnotherapy, which of cause is one of the methods that claim to assist smokers in quitting. Secondly, Pfizer also makes such “claims.” There is no magical cure, be it hypnotherapy or Champix or a combination of both. Just because your method is deemed safer does not make it more effective.
Each person is unique; each person will consequently have a different tolerance profile to the drug. One some it may work, on some it may not and on some it may have really bad side effects. If I assume that Pfizer wants to market the drug irrespective of its negative side effects, what stops the same assumption from being applicable to you, as both you and Pfizer would have as one of your objectives the creation of profits? Note that I say one, because well – being of people could also be another objective.
Everybody reading this commentary has one thing in common – they have imperfect information regarding how the drug works as well as objectives (of both you and Pfizer).
People are not stupid, most of the time they are rational – if they feel that the drug does more harm than good, they would stop it. The medication is a prescription medication for a reason – the patient needs to look at the good that he/she can presumably derive from it (benefits) against the risks/cost in conjunction with a doctor.
This website/blog seems as if you are intentionally creating herding behavior – instead of advising that you are not a doctor and/or have no qualification in medical science, you instead propagate fear among people that might come across your website/blog.
Do the responsible things instead – tell people that you do not have expert knowledge on medical science and that they should consult with their doctors if they have any side effects. If we assume that Pfizer is hiding the extremely worrying side effects to boost profits, than we can also assume that you (and that perhaps you are not acting in personal capacity, you could have colluded with fellow colleagues) are intensifying these worrying side effects as it erodes on the profits of your profession.
AT THE END ADVISE PEOPLE THAT IT HAS COSTS THAT IT HAS BENFITS AND THAT IT IS THEIR CHOICE. FURTHERMORE ADVISE THEM THAT YOU CANNOT SAY IF A SPECIFIC SIDE EFFECT WILL BE APPLICABLE TO THEM. ADVISE THEM THAT THEY SHOULD CONSULT A QUALIFIED AND EXPERIENCED HEALTH CARE PROFESSIONAL AND IF THIS DOES NOT SUFFICE, THEY SHOULD TRUST THEIR OWN JUDGEMENT AND SEEK ALTERNATIVE WAYS OF QUITTING.
Chris, on October 10th, 2011 at 1:40 am Said:
Hello John, nice of you to join us.
This thread is only one of many posts on this site, and on numerous others, that touch on the Champix debate. These blog posts are followed by hundreds of comments from smokers who have had differing experiences of Champix, and other methods of quitting. If you had read them all, as I have been doing over the last three and a half years, you would already know that SOME “experienced and qualified health care professionals” have been routinely handing out Champix without any warnings, with ignorant and false reassurances about a) its efficacy and b) its safety, and seem to be parroting Pfizer’s marketing hype – which is NOT “expert knowledge on medical science”.
This blog was originally about NRT, not Champix. The government, and also medical authorities around the world are perfectly well aware that NRT has a 6% success outcome at 1 year (see the EVIDENCE section here on this site, and the government’s own research in the Borland report) which is the same as willpower and well within the normal placebo range. Yet they still endorse it, and many doctors still prescribe it. Do they tell the truth about this fact? No, they keep quoting figures like 53% and 49% success rates, based on four-week self-reports from smokers which the medical people all know is grossly misleading. They are wasting smokers’ time with these methods, by deception, when it is unknown how much time any of these smokers has left.
“There is no magical cure” is a statement that is constantly used in pro-NRT or pro-Champix medical literature – a suggestion to which no-one can object because there aren’t any magical methods. This statement is used to suggest that no method is any more exiting in terms of results that NRT or Champix, which is either ignorant or just a false dismissal of all non-medical methods.
You are suggesting that the medics are the experts here, when they have failed miserably with smoking cessation.
I do not make false claims. I am warning people about Champix because someone has to, and the medics aren’t. To suggest that this is all about money is just a cheap shot, but you go ahead: take as many cheap shots as you like. The days when everyone kow-towed to the medical profession are over, and guess what? It’s their own fault. They lost their credibility when they sold the soul of modern medicine to the pharmaceutical industry, which now bleeds the NHS of more than 10 billion pounds a year for drugs.
All fact. So don’t tell me what to “advise” people.

Of course the blocked portions (i.e. pending moderation by Chris) are:

John S. Singer, on October 10th, 2011 at 8:18 am Said: comment is awaiting moderation.
Hello Chris thanks for the response. It is my opinion (biased by very definition by my own admission of course) that you are making false claims. My thinking is that “apples need to be compared with apples.” One cannot make a comparison without a yardstick and I think your yardstick is hypnotherapy. NRT is endorsed by the World Health Organisation. Champix is not. Neither is hypnotherapy. From a personal perspective I have been on Champix for around 12 weeks. The only unpleasant side effect was nausea. In comparison to Zyban and NRT my opinion is that Champix is better. Comapratievely speaking, hypnotherapy I do not think of it as a bona fide science. Neither does any non profit organisation against smoking.For example would it be viable to say that every doctor in every government in every state of country in the world has is engaging in “soul selling” to the benefit of Multi National Pharmaceuticals? Furthermore, it’s not as if doctors are just handing out Champix, Zyban or any other scheduled medication for that matter. In my country of residence, a prescription is needed after consultation with a doctor. If the doctor fails to adequately outline how the medication can adversely effect me, or does not properly explain how the medication works, that doctor can be sued in a court of law. Why do you think I am taking “cheap shots” at you? I am engaging in a robust discussion as I am in the process of quitting smoking. I too have engaged in research. Some websites advocate a mix of alprazolam (Xanax) with diazepam (valium) as an example. I would also say that these drugs are marred in controversy but they have use, for alcohol withdrawal, for people who suffer from extreme panic disorder, etc. You quote statistics quite often, but as a statistics lecturer once told me that they are like a bikini – they often hide more than they reveal. So do the pharmaceutical MNC’s (in their heavy use of statistics). The layman does not understand these statistics. So I think we should move away from quoting specific figures.On a relative basis, I would think that medical professionals have more knowledge on the subject matter than you and/or I. However, I am not saying that they never make mistakes. The average opinion of medical experts versus the average opinion on non – medical experts will be a greater approximation of the anticipated pro’s and con’s of any medication.
1. John S. Singer, on October 10th, 2011 at 8:37 am comment is awaiting moderation.
Oh yes Chris, I forgot to add. Let’s say that Champix, NRT, Zyban and all other medications MUST BE AVOIDED AT ALL COSTS. I accept this as a fundamental basis.
Based on the above, hypnotherapy is does NOT cause any bad side effects NOR does it address the symptoms caused by stopping or reducing smoking.
I can appreciate that you are looking at it from the humanitarian perspective, but do not market YOUR BOOK or YOUR PROFESSION AS A HYPNOTHERAPIST as the means to overcome nicotine addicition.
Move away from hypnotherapy and your book. If Champix is bad, so be it. But don’t use that as a platform to further your personal interests (your book and your book sales) and don’t further the interests of your profession.
It’s that simple.

?????

Apparently, the benefits of kicking your smoking habit arise within the first 20 minutes – your blood pressure decreases, within 12 hours carbon monoxide levels subside, blah, blah, blah. YEAH RIGHT.

It’s been around 5 weeks that haven’t smoked and today I feel as if I’m going crazy. I have no energy whatsoever, I literally had to drag myself out of bed this morning, I’m coughing every few minutes and my throat feels as if somebody is stabbing it with a blunt object.

I’m extremely edgy, have this fogginess in my head and can’t concentrate either. My sense of smell is better than Wolverines’ though – I can smell a fart in the wind miles away. And my sense of taste – the food I supposedly enjoyed doesn’t taste that good anymore.

The best strategy is to take this one day at a time; I’ll concentrate on tomorrow when tomorrow rears it (probably ugly) head (given my circumstances). So I need to get through today and tomorrow without severely pi$$ing somebody off because I’m so short tempered.

Soul Mate Sally and I

Have you ever noticed that when people get dumped they (and their friends) try to rationalize it by saying that he/she never was the right person for you in the first instance, and there’s somebody out there for you blah, blah blah (I prefer blah blah to etc).

Anyways, this points towards the concept or perception of a soul mate. I don’t agree. I don’t disagree. I simply don’t know if an ideal person for you or I exist out there. But the topic came up today and got me thinking.

Say that I find my soul mate. From the population of an estimated 26 million women out there this implies that my Soulmate Sally would be the singular lady that gives me the “most happiness” out of the entire female population. So a very crude measure of me hooking up with Soul mate Sally is roughly 1 in 25 million based on her attributes which I subjectively view as desirable.

Greater set of attributes subjectively viewed as desirable - means I’m “most happy.” But time changes everything doesn’t it? Specifically, it changes the set of attributes that made me the most happy. It’s not static. It’s dynamic. What made me happy before could make me sad now, vice versa.

The implication is that there’s more than one person out there for each of us as time progresses. Then there’s a bunch of soul mates out there for each of us. This isn’t a bad thing.

I'm a blogging virgin

Ok, I'm officially a blogger:-)