2024 is behind us – a good time, I think, to review what has been happening during that year. Plenty of horrible stuff, I’m sure, but let’s look at the bright side. And, to be honest, I cannot complain:
- My wife and I are reasonably healthy, and we both enjoy life.
- I had the occasion to meet old friends who I had not seen for decades.
- I published a book that was well received.
- I coauthored 5 Medline-listed papers.
- According to ‘Google Scholar’, my research has been cited ~4000 times in 2024.
- And, of course, I kept this blog going with plenty of interesting discussions.
For today, I tried to list my most important blog-posts of 2024. I found this a surprisingly difficult task – maily because there are well over 300 posts to chose from and I am not sure what I should define as ‘important’.
- Important because of its impact?
- Important because of its contents?
- Important because of the volume or quality of the discussions it prompted?
- Important because it was picked up by the national or international media?
Eventually, I gave up the idea of ‘important’ and simply settled for posts that I liked best:
-
- The ‘Bavarian Homeopathy Study’ has been Aborted
- Donald Trump nominated SCAM promoter, Mehmet Oz, to lead the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS)
- Another dodgy SCAM paper has been retracted – here is some advice on how to avoid such calamities
- The infamous journal ‘Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine’ is no more!
- Spain’s Health Minister denounces homeopathy
- Against the Sale of Homeopathy (and Other Ineffective Medicines)
- Alternative cancer clinics’ use of Google listings and reviews to mislead potential patients
- Vaccine Hesitancy: A Study of a Childhood-Vaccine-Hesitant Population
- Trump’s Promotion of Dangerous Medical Nonsense
- The enemy are the professors! Really? Why?
- Chiropractic: a view from the inside of the cult
- Is chiropractic a health cult?
- Pseudoscience in the Cancer Services of the English National Health Service
- Political orientation predicts use of so-called alternative medicine (SCAM) in Europe
- Another dodgy SCAM paper has been retracted!!!
- Who believes in conspiracy theories? A meta-analysis
- Chiropractors’ profitable over-use of X-ray diagnostics: “scare tactics” and “fear-mongering”
- I fear that so-called alternative medicine (SCAM) research is in serious trouble
- Attitudes of Vaccination-Hesitant Parents Towards So-Called Alternative Medicine (SCAM)
- A comprehensive review on the hepatotoxicity of herbs used in the Indian (Ayush) systems of alternative medicine
- WOW! The German Medical Association bans homeopathy
- Increasing concerns about SCAM research originating from China
- Homeopathy’s most prominent researcher, Prof Michael Frass, has been found guilty of “data falsification, fabrication and manipulation”
- No one should see a chiropractor thinking they are seeing a doctor
- The NCCIH (formerly NCCAM, formerly OAM) has proven to be a monumental, unethical waste of money
- France outlaws practices which expose patients to a serious health risk
- Causes and consequences of ‘quack medicine’ in healthcare
- “It is unethical to offer or endorse alternative medicine”
- Measles are back – not least thanks to so-called alternative medicine (SCAM), I fear
As I stated, this is merely my PERSONAL choice. It would be nice, if YOU disagreed with me and suggested other posts that you liked best. In any case, I do realise that this blog would be a mere irrelevance without YOU. So, let me take this opportunity to thank all my readers, contributors, commentators and guests.
THANK YOU
and
A healthy, happy 2025 to you all.
7 Responses to Looking back: some highlights of 2024
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Happy New Year, and total respect for publishing opposing views!
Your total respect for opposing views is apparent in the article you shared in your other post:
https://edzardernst.com/2024/12/donald-trump-might-try-to-outlaw-some-vaccinations-in-the-us/#comment-154611
Welcome to a future where mRNA vaccines are fast becoming the norm:
https://www.technologyreview.com/2023/01/05/1066274/whats-next-mrna-vaccines/
Happy New Year!
Happy New Year, Dr. Ernst.
I published eight peer reviewed studies this year and none made your list of favorites. I will try harder in 2025.
https://www.thechiropracticexperts.com/research/
For your consideration, here’s my latest:
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2665910724000495?via%3Dihub
‘The SCAM market will grow from currently $148 to $1489 billion by 2033’
Edzard March 2024 blog post
I think that this was one of your most important articles of the year.
such market predictions are, in my experience, too often incompetent guesswork; therefore I never have attached much importance to them other than warning us that quackery is not going away in a hurry.
Edzard may be pleased to know that the Pharmiweb resource he stated was pretty accurate with their 2020 report for 2025. They stated 163 $billion CAM turnover for 2025. Their 2024 report stated CAM turnover was $147 billion in 2023 up from 55 $billion in 2018.
See https://www.pharmiweb.com/press-release/2020-08-10/complementary-and-alternative-medicine-market-to-grow-at-about-168-cagr-during-forecast-period
Previous success with predictions does not imply future success. However, this data is supported by other resources easily available.
The CAM tide is coming in. With all this support for CAMistry maybe those going on about ‘quackery’ had best go and duck.
I never doubted that quackery is regrettably popular.