The ‘Dr Rath Foundation’ just published a truly wonderful (full of wonders) article about me. I want to publicly congratulate the author: he got my name right [but sadly not much more]. Here is the opening passage of the article which I encourage everyone to read in full [the numbers in square brackets refer to my comments below].
Professor Edzard Ernst: A Career Built On Discrediting Natural Health Science? [1]
Professor Edzard Ernst, a retired German [2] physician and academic, has recently [3] become a prominent advocate of plans that could potentially outlaw [4] the entire profession of naturopathic doctors [5] in Germany. Promoting the nonsensical idea that naturopathic medicine somehow poses a risk to public health, Ernst attacks its practitioners as supposedly having been educated in “nonsense” [6]. Tellingly, however, given that he himself has seemingly not published even so much as one completely original scientific trial of his own [7], Ernst’s apparent attempts to discredit natural healthcare approaches are largely reliant instead on his analysis or review of handpicked negative studies carried out by others [8].
- When I was appointed at Exeter to research alternative medicine in 1993, I had already been a full professor at Hannover, Germany and subsequently at Vienna, Austria. If anything, coming to Exeter was a big step down in terms of ‘career’, salary, number of co-workers etc. (full details in my memoir)
- I am German-born, became an Austrian citizen in 1990, and since 2000 I am a British national.
- I have been critical about the German ‘Heilpraktiker’ for more than 20 years.
- This refers to the recent ‘Muensteraner Memorandum’ which is the work of an entire team of multidisciplinary experts and advocates reforming this profession.
- ‘Heilpraktiker’ are certainly not doctors; they have no academic or medical background.
- This is correct, and I stand by my statement that educating people in vitalism and other long-obsolete concepts is pure nonsense.
- Since I am researching alternative medicine, I have conducted and published about 40 ‘scientific trials’, and before that time (1993) I have published about the same number again in various other fields.
- This refers to systematic reviews which, by definition, include all the studies available on a defines research question, regardless of their conclusion (their aim is to minimise random and selection biases) .
I hope you agree that these are a lot of mistakes (or are these even lies?) in just a short paragraph.
Now you probably ask: who is Dr Rath?
Many reader of this blog will have heard of him. This is what the Guardian had to say about this man:
Matthias Rath, the vitamin campaigner accused of endangering thousands of lives in South Africa by promoting his pills while denouncing conventional medicines as toxic and dangerous, has dropped a year-long libel action against the Guardian and been ordered to pay costs.
A qualified doctor who is thought to have made millions selling nutritional supplements around the globe through his website empire, Rath claimed his pills could reverse the course of Aids and distributed them free in South Africa, where campaigners, who have won a hard-fought battle to persuade the government to roll out free Aids drugs to keep millions alive, believe Rath’s activities led to deaths.
The Dr Rath Foundation focuses its promotional activities on eight countries – the US, the UK, Germany, the Netherlands, South Africa, Spain, France and Russia – claiming that his micronutrient products will cure not just Aids, but cancer, heart disease, strokes and other illnesses…
I am sure you now understand why I am rather proud of being defamed by this source!
19 Responses to I AM SOOO PROUD!!! ‘Dr Rath Foundation’ published an entire article all about me!
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Dr. Rath is certainly right about one thing though: “Ernst’s apparent attempts to discredit natural healthcare approaches are largely reliant instead on his analysis or review of handpicked negative studies carried out by others.”
It is easy to find reports about the dismal results of conventional treatments. What is the Number 3 biggest killer of people in the USA, for example? … Conventional treatments. But you don’t pay any attention to that. You cherry-pick studies about natural treatments. “Medical errors now 3rd leading cause of death in U.S., study suggests” https://www.cbsnews.com/news/medical-errors-now-3rd-leading-cause-of-death-in-u-s-study-suggests/
Perhaps you’d like to do one of your reports about the effectiveness of chemotherapy, which during your career as a doctor you probably prescribed many times. Do a Google search with: “Chemotherapy kills 97% of patients with cancer”. One could do something similar with other conventional treatments.
I’d love to see you condemn natural treatments of illness with foods. Are you up the challenge? Then you’ll be taking on all the scientific studies at http://www.nutritionfacts.org. You’ve done homeopathy and chiropractice to death. Move on, please.
It’s time for your destructive and biased Blog to evolve into something useful and objective. Why not look at a natural treatment, and instead of condemning it, say something like, it works with this and this illness, but it doesn’t work with that and that illness? You seem to enjoy negativity.
what you call negativity, I call critical assessment.
this blog is meant to counter-balance the 1000s of blogs making bogus claims (http://edzardernst.com/2012/10/a-new-blog-on-alternative-medicine-why/)
@PMc: clearly you snuck out of the asylum again, found a Starbucks and usurped a computer. Shame on those guards…or do you render them unconscious with homeopathic chloroform?
Michael, you are quite right. I did go to Starbucks. My comment was most probably the effect of all the pesticides, insecticides, and herbicides used to grow the coffee sold at Starbucks. I left the asylum because it serves Nescafe, which is even worse for one’s health. However, Big Pharma won’t mind because it has the never-failing chemotherapy to treat the resulting cancers.
Give it a rest Peter; you’re way out of your league.
Talk about being hoist on his own petard! The detractor should retract – again. But people are gullible or desperately hopeful according to perspective. My daughter who has severe psoriasis has tried every insane restriction diet with no visible result. No use my pointing out it had no basis in authenticity. She just had to learn through experience.
If I had psoriasis I would be looking at what I was eating and drinking, which has caused the imbalance. Western food is full of chemicals, salt, and sugar. Meat and dairy products are full of chemicals. Fruits and vegetables are covered in them. My wife and I live in rural Thailand and we eat organic food from our land. We grow herbs, fruits, and vegetables to prevent any kind of ailment. If we get knee pain, then we eat broccoli and spinach, and the pain’s gone the next day. We eat nutrient-rich sea salt instead of supermarket salt. Etc. My point is that we maintain balance in the body through foods, which is hard to do, if one lives in a western-style environment. We also pray and meditate to remove any stress (including EFT, which is much maligned on this Blog) which causes 90+ of illnesses. Conventional medicine will only remove the symptoms. I hope that your daughter can get rid of her psoriasis soon.
I expect that this “alternative” reply will receive a few insults from Bloggers here, so let me have them before I return to my asylum!
Thank you Peter for your thoughtful comment. You have an idyllic life. Well done. Alan
I was immediately suite envious, until I realised that I ‘ve been called names quite regularly on this blog, informed as to my stupidity( where II Logos Bios now?) on this blog, told to get an education, called a twat, and had myself and my paintings called ‘perverted’.
You must feel like all your birthdays came at once.
Onward and upward.
Barrie, anyone on this Blog who is not a passionate, indoctrinated fan of Big Pharma, and who even remotely gives off the scent of supporting any kind of alternative medicine, including treatment of illness with foods, will be insulted here. I find it amusing, which I why I stay here.
Recognition at last! Congratulations Doctor.
I would not discount spelling your name correctly. For an anglophone such as myself Edzard Ernst is difficult to spell.
I loved this.
Ernst seems utterly oblivious to the fact that groundbreaking scientific discoveries are invariably made by people with open minds who test their theories by carrying out their own original experiments.
Clearly the author is completely ignorant of the history of science.
yes, his background is in music!!!
I hope he was better at that than at understanding science.
My clairvoyant powers (thank you James) tell me that it was written in recognition of Edzard winning the Ockham award.
I AM SOOO PROUD to be considered way out of my league!
First of all, I have to aplogize for my probably inapropriate English – I am not a natural speaker.
Second, congratulations to Prof. Ernst! It is definitely an honour to bece mentioned by the Rath foundation because this means you irritated them a lot.
Third, thanks to Mr McAlpine! Following his advice and searching for Chemotherapy kills 97% of patients with cancer with google let me find this interesting link: https://sciencebasedmedicine.org/chemotherapy-doesnt-work/.
Following your article about the Gerson ‘Therapy, you might be interested to know that Chaga Mushrooms are the latest ‘miracle’ cure discovered in Canada. http://www.collective-evolution.com/2018/01/12/canadian-community-works-with-elders-to-learn-traditional-remedies-to-treat-cancer-patients/
1. Please carry on the good work.
2. I was puzzled by the tenacity people cling to alternative medicine, labeling conventional medicine ‘Big Pharma’.
3. Nowadays, I think it’s because many conventional medical practitioners do not know enough of Alternative Medicine to discuss the the issues intelligently with the General Public (GP).
4. On the other hand, I was impressed by the knowledge regarding conventional rx by alternative medical practitioners like the side effects of chemotherapy etc. and are hence able to win over the Gullible Public (GP).
5. ALSO, I find that alternative practitioners peddle Hope whilst conventional medicine are gloomy, quoting statistics.
I would be interested to see how much alternative treatment/medicine would exist if it was offered for free ? If I could spend my 3 score and 10 years on this planet knowing my legacy would be that I had helped many live longer and more comfortably I would do it for nothing – just to further its use. Don’t see anyone doing this ?