Secret remedies: 100 years on

How much does Professor Colquhoun know about his own brand of medicine? And would Professor Colqhoun agree it is much more difficult to be a skeptic when encumbered by facts?

Blood letting is of course not a CAM treatment but one used in commercial medicine for 2000 years.

It seems it is still in use in commercial medicine:-

With ferritin levels > 500 microg/, both hereditary hemochromatosis and iron overload (of unknown cause) are treated with blood-letting ..... RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS: At enrollment and after a 2-year bloodletting period, euglycemic-hyperinsulinemic clamp, oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT), liver histology (nonalcoholic fatty liver disease activity score [NAS]), and liver iron content (LIC) were assessed ......... CONCLUSIONS: Iron depletion ameliorates insulin secretion and sensitivity in NGT and diabetic carriers of HFE gene mutations. This amelioration occurs in parallel with decreased LIC and improved NAS. These results justify glucose tolerance testing and prophylactic iron depletion in asymptomatic carriers as well.: Hagve TA, Asberg A, Ulvik R, Borch-Iohnsen B, Thorstensen ."Hemochromatosis--from an underdiagnosed curiosity to a common disease" Tidsskr Nor Laegeforen. 2009 Apr 30;129(9):863-6.

Bloodletting ameliorates insulin sensitivity and secretion in parallel to reducing liver iron in carriers of HFE gene mutations.Diabetes Care. Equitani F, Fernandez-Real JM, Menichella G, Koch M, Calvani M, Nobili V, Mingrone G, Manco M Transfusion Medicine, SanFilippo Neri Hospital, Rome, Italy..2008 Jan;31(1):3-8. Epub 2007 Oct 24.

PubMed gives 305 results for the search "hemochromatosis blood letting" and these references were included on the first page of results.

Competing interests:
None declared