cult
Guest post by Catherine de Jong
Academic circles have reacted with surprise to the announcement on 12 November of the appointment of chiropractor Sidney Rubinstein as endowed professor at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. The website of the Dutch Chiropractors Association (NCA) states:
“On 1 August 2024, Mr. Sidney Rubinstein was appointed professor by special appointment at the chair “Optimizing Management of Musculoskeletal Health” at the Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam. In addition to his work as a chiropractor in his own practice, Rubinstein has been working at the Vrije Universiteit for a long time. In addition to treating patients, he has always focused on research and development within chiropractic and musculoskeletal (MSK) disorders.”
Chiropractic is an alternative method of treatment. There is no scientific evidence for clinically relevant positive treatment outcomes. For that reason, chiropractic is not mentioned as a treatment option in the guidelines of general practitioners and medical specialists in the Netherlands. Both the profession and the education are not recognized in the Netherlands. On the website of the NVAO (Dutch-Flemish Academic Organization, www.nvao.net), chiropractic does not appear as an accredited program. There is now plenty of research, especially case reports, on the damage that treatment by a chiropractor can cause, such as cerebral infarctions due to arterial dissection of carotid arteries due to cracking of the neck by chiropractors.
On June 20, 2008, the website of Medisch Contact (magazine of KNMG, Dutch Society of Medical Doctors) stated: “First Dutch chiropractor gets his PhD: Sidney Rubinstein will be the first chiropractor in the Netherlands to obtain a PhD today. Rubinstein states that most of the side effects of chiropractic are harmless and temporary.”
This dissertation, for which Sidney Rubinstein obtained his doctorate at VU Amsterdam, was substandard and was criticized in a letter sent to the same journal. The subsequent correspondence with, among others, the supervisor can be read here. In short, a dissertation that VU Amsterdam cannot be proud of.
The Cochrane database contains two reviews published by Rubinstein on chiropractic, or Spinal Manipulative Therapy (SMT) for acute and chronic back pain, respectively. The conclusion was the same in both cases: In summary, SMT appears to be no better or worse than other existing therapies for patients with acute/chronic low‐back pain. In a 2013 update (Spinal manipulative therapy for acute low back pain: an update of the Cochrane review. Spine 2013; 38(3): E158-77), Rubinstein comes to the same conclusion: SMT is no more effective for acute low back pain than inert interventions, sham SMT or as adjunct therapy. SMT also seems to be no better than other recommended therapies. Rubinstein himself has concluded years ago that chiropractic or SMT has no greater effect than other treatments (like standard physiotherapy), but still it needs to be researched again and again?
At the end of the news item on the NCA’s website, the truth is revealed: the NCA subsidizes half of the chair! The members of this organization (there are now more than 500 chiropractors in the Netherlands) have diligently raised the money for this chair. Since its foundation in 1896 by the grocer/magnetizer D.D. Palmer, chiropractic has had every chance to prove its usefulness, but it has not succeeded. That Rubinstein can change that situation is, of course, extremely unlikely.
This appointment is therefore in fact a political publicity stunt for a still pointless alternative treatment. It will do both the practice of Sidney Rubinstein and that of other chiropractors a lot of good that there is now a professor of chiropractic in the Netherlands.
The other half of the chair is paid for by the university. This means that public money that could have been better spent is now going to be wasted on research into an alternative treatment that we already know is useless, by a researcher who has already shown that there is no added value of treatment by a chiropractor.
A substandard dissertation and a purchased chair, but Sidney Rubinstein can call himself a professor. With the appointment of chiropractor Sidney Rubinstein as endowed professor at VU Amsterdam, the university is jeopardizing its good name and contributing to the unjustified elevation of Sidney Rubenstein’s status and his pointless method of treatment, chiropractic.
Can this appointment really be reconciled with the scientific norms and values that VU Amsterdam wants to uphold?
While medical experts across the world have expressed dismay at Trump’s appointment of Robert Kennedy, the ‘International chiropractors Association’ has just published this remarkable note:
Donald J. Trump made it official that he was nominating Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. to serve as the Secretary of Health and Human Services. Secretary-designee Kennedy has spent his entire career championing the health of the nation through education, advocacy, research and when needed litigation.
Among his many accomplishments are protecting the environment with Riverkeeper and the Natural Resources Defense Council His work at Riverkeeper succeeded in setting long-term environmental legal standards. Kennedy won legal battles against large corporate polluters. He became an adjunct professor of environmental law at Pace University School of Law in 1986 and founded the Pace’s Environmental Litigation Clinic which he co-directed for a decade.
It would be in the Pace Law Review that the landmark paper, “Unanswered Questions from the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program: A Review of Compensated Cases of Vaccine-Induced Brain Injury” (https://digitalcommons.pace.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1681&context=pelr) would be published in 2011.
Kennedy became laser focused on the autism epidemic while giving lectures on the dangers of mercury in fish, he was repeatedly approached by the mothers of children born healthy who regressed into autism after suffering adverse reactions from childhood vaccines, including their concern about the mercury-based preservative, thimerosal, being used in vaccines including the Hepatitis B vaccine given at birth. Kennedy’s approach to the issue was the same as it always, looking at the science. He assembled a team who gathered all the science and reviewed the issues with him. This resulted in the publication of the book, Thimerosal: Let the Science Speak
The Evidence Supporting the Immediate Removal of Mercury—a Known Neurotoxin—from Vaccines.
After establishing and leading the nonprofit Children’s Health Defense, last year Kennedy stepped back from the organization to throw his hat in the ring to be President. Becoming the embodiment of his uncle John F. Kennedy’s famous quote, “Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country!”, Kennedy reached out to President Trump to form an alliance to focus on the crisis of chronic disease in the United States, and suspended his campaign to focus on the Make American Healthy Again (MAHA) Initiative.
ICA President, Dr. Selina Sigafoose Jackson, who is currently in Brazil promoting the protection of chiropractic as a separate and distinct profession stated, “Many ICA members have been supporters of Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.’s philanthropic activities and are all in on the MAHA Initiative. The Mission, Vision, and Values of the ICA align with the stated goals of the MAHA Initiative. We stand ready to provide policy proposals and experts to serve as advisors to the incoming Administration and to Secretary Kennedy upon his swearing in.”
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Perhaps I am permitted to contrast this with some health-related truths about Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. (my apologies, if the list is incomplete – please add to it by posting further important issues):
- Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. has, since about 20 years, been a leading figure of the anti-vaccine movement.
- During the epidemic, he pushed the conspiracy theory that “the quarantine” was used as cover to install 5G cell phone networks.
- He claimed that “one out of every six American women has so much mercury in her womb that her children are at risk for a grim inventory of diseases, including autism, blindness, mental retardation and heart, liver and kidney disease.”
- He wrote that, “while people were dying at the rate of 10,000 patients a week, Dr. Fauci declared that hydroxychloroquine should only be used as part of a clinical trial. For the first time in American history, a government official was overruling the medical judgment of thousands of treating physicians, and ordering doctors to stop practicing medicine as they saw fit.”
- He pushed the conspiracy theory that COVID-19 had been “ethnically targeted” to spare Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese people.”
- He claimed in a 2023 podcast interview that “There’s no vaccine that is safe and effective”.
- In a 2021 podcast, he urged people to “resist” CDC guidelines on when kids should get vaccines.
- He founded Children’s Health Defense’ that spreads fear and mistrust in science. One chiropractic group in California had donated $500,000 to this organisation.
- In 2019, he visited Samoa where he became partly responsible for an outbreak of measles, which made 5,700 people sick and killed 83 of them.
- He called mercury-containing vaccines aimed at children a holocaust. In 2015, he compared the horrors committed against Jews to the effects of vaccines on children. “They get the shot, that night they have a fever of a hundred and three, they go to sleep, and three months later their brain is gone. This is a holocaust, what this is doing to our country.”
- He repeatedly alleged that exposure to chemicals — “endocrine disruptors” — is causing gender dysphoria in children and contributing to a rise in LGBTQ-youth. According to him, endocrine disruptors are “chemicals that interfere with the body’s hormones and are commonly found in pesticides and plastic.”
- He stated “Telling people to “trust the experts” is either naive or manipulative—or both.”
- He plans to stop water fluoridation.
- He slammed the FDA’s “suppression” of raw milk.
- He said that a worm ate part of his brain which led to long-lasting “brain fog.”
- He has a 14-year-long history of abusing heroin from the age of 15. The police once arrested him for possession; he then faced up to two years in jail for the felony but was sentenced to two years probation after pleading guilty.
- He stated: “WiFi radiation … does all kinds of bad things, including causing cancer…cell phone tumors behind the ear.”
- He claimed that rates of autism have increased even though “there has been no change in diagnosis and no change in screening either.” Yet, both have changed significantly.
- He wrote: (Fauci’s) “obsequious subservience to the Big Ag, Big Food, and pharmaceutical companies has left our children drowning in a toxic soup of pesticide residues, corn syrup, and processed foods, while also serving as pincushions for 69 mandated vaccine doses by age 18—none of them properly safety tested.”
- He stated that cancer rates are skyrocketing in the young and the old – a statement that is evidently untrue.
- He authored a viral post on X: “FDA’s war on public health is about to end. This includes its aggressive suppression of psychedelics, peptides, stem cells, raw milk, hyperbaric therapies, chelating compounds, ivermectin, hydroxychloroquine, vitamins, clean foods, sunshine, exercise, nutraceuticals and anything else that advances human health and can’t be patented by Pharma. If you work for the FDA and are part of this corrupt system, I have two messages for you: 1. Preserve your records, and 2. Pack your bags.”
- He has also aligned himself with special interests groups such as anti-vaccine chiropractors.
- He stated categorically: “You cannot trust medical advice from medical professionals.”
- He said he’s going to put a pause on infectious diseases research for 8 years.
- He promoted the unfounded theory that the CIA killed his uncle, former President John F. Kennedy.
- He linked school shootings to the increased prescription of antidepressants.
- An evaluation of verified Twitter accounts from 2021, found Kennedy’s personal Twitter account to be the top “superspreader” of vaccine misinformation on Twitter, responsible for 13% of all reshares of misinformation, more than three times the second most-retweeted account.
PS
Let me finish with a true statement: The World Health Organization has estimated that global immunization efforts have saved at least 154 million lives in the past 50 years.
The BMJ just published an article entitled “Disinformation enabled Donald Trump’s second term and is a crisis for democracies everywhere“. Please allow me to show you a few excerpts from this paper:
Donald Trump did not win the 2020 election, but asserting that he did became a prerequisite for Republicans standing for nomination to Congress or the Senate to win their primaries. An entire party became a vehicle for disinformation. Trump did win the 2024 presidential election, and key to that victory was building on the success of that lie. If you control enough of the information ecosystem, truth no longer matters…
… Readers of The BMJ will recall the huge amounts of misinformation (wrong or misleading content that is unknowingly shared) and disinformation (false content that is deliberately spread) during the covid-19 pandemic, some generated or amplified by politicians. This reduced vaccine uptake, promoted ineffective treatments, and encouraged attacks on health workers. In the past, factually incorrect statements might have had only local consequences, but a lie can now circle the world in seconds. Yet the speed in which disinformation can spread is only part of the problem…
… Part of Musk’s reason for buying Twitter was to influence the social discourse. And influence he did—by using his enormous platform (203 million followers) to endorse Trump, spread disinformation about voter fraud and deep fakes of Kamala Harris, and amplify conspiracy theories about everything from vaccines to race replacement theory to misogyny. Musk’s platform is effective: his endorsement of Trump coincided with Republican leaning posts being algorithmically favoured over Democrat leaning posts. A more mundane example: after Musk published three non-evidence based posts on X that favoured one medication over another, sales of the former rose by 18% while the other fell by 11%. …
The warning signs are clear for democracies around the world. Firstly, governments must regulate social media companies more rigorously. Brazil’s victorious dispute with X shows what is possible, and a major battle between the European Commission and Musk is under way. Beyond that, we must grapple with how to hold the world’s richest people to account when they directly interfere with national and international politics.
Secondly, public health agencies must create robust surveillance systems for infodemics just as they have for epidemics. They must monitor the emergence of disinformation and counter it or, ideally, anticipate and counter (pre-bunk) it among vulnerable audiences (and build population resilience). Independent organisations that are countering disinformation are already being deliberately targeted (https://counterhate.com/). And we must accelerate research on “inoculating” people against the algorithms and content that attempt to radicalise them.
Finally, politicians and the public health community must not be afraid of calling out disinformation, and we must all support and applaud them in doing so. And moving beyond responding to false rhetoric, we must also get on the front foot and create compelling counter narratives of a better politics that can support a kinder, more inclusive, and socially just world.
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I’d like to thank the authors (Martin McKee, professor of European public health, Christina Pagel, professor of operational research, and Kent Buse, co-founder of ‘Global Health) for their courage to speak out and stand up for the truth. I am in full agreement with them and encourage all my readers to study their excellent paper in full.
This paper discussed the potential for collaboration of Rongoā Māori, the Indigenous healing practices of Māori, with New Zealand’s contemporary healthcare system. It aims to bridge the gap between Rongoā Māori and Western medicine by exploring the perspectives of practitioners from both fields, identifying barriers to integration, and highlighting potential areas for collaboration.
Qualitative interviews were conducted with both Rongoā practitioners and Western surgeons. The data collected were subjected to thematic analysis to extract key themes related to the integration process, challenges faced, and the potential for mutual recognition and respect between the two healing paradigms.
The study reveals a deep respect for Rongoā Māori among Western surgeons but identifies significant systemic barriers that impede its integration. These include bureaucratic challenges and the absence of clear referral pathways. Rongoā practitioners express concerns over being overlooked within the healthcare system and highlight a lack of awareness among healthcare professionals about their practices. Despite these challenges, there is a shared interest in collaborative approaches to healthcare that respect and incorporate Rongoā Māori.
The authors concluded that their findings underscore the need for systemic changes to facilitate the integration of Rongoā Māori into mainstream healthcare, including the development of clear referral pathways and initiatives to raise awareness among healthcare professionals. The study highlights the need for a more collaborative healthcare approach that values the contributions of Rongoā Māori, aiming to improve patient care through holistic practices.
The authors also stated that Rongoā Māori, the Indigenous healing system of Māori, encompasses a holistic approach to health that acknowledges the complex interplay of cultural values, connection to wairua, tinana, tikanga, whakaora, whānau, and whenua. Despite its comprehensive approach to health and well-being, Rongoā Māori remains largely marginalized within New Zealand’s mainstream healthcare system.
I beg to differ!
A ‘healing system’ – no matter what its origin or tradition might be – does not need to be adopted into current healthcare because it is ‘holistic’ or because it ‘acknowledges the complex interplay of cultural values’. It must be considered for integration once it has been shown to be effective and safe, i.e. if it demonstrably generates more good than harm.
And has Rongoā Māori been shown to fulfill these criteria?
No!
In this case, please do the research. Until compelling evidence is available, do me a favour and stop the BS!
During the past years, I have had multiple COVID vaccinations (5, if I remember correctly). Not once did I experience an adverse reation, and evidently, I did not die either!
This, however, if you remember, was vociferously predicted by many anti-vaxers many of them staunch advocates of so-called alternative medicine and several keen contributors to the comments section of my blog. Some anti-vaxers claimed that all vaccinated people would die within months; others said that not all but many or most of us would die. Therefore, they insisted, excess mortality would sky-rocket.
None of this happened!
Not only did excess mortality of the vaccinated population not increase, in the UK and US, it even fell slightly – as the graph below clearly shows.
So, the anti-vaxers were wrong!
Do they admit it?
No!
Do they apologise for scaring many and deterring thousands from getting vaccinated?
No!
Is it time they did?
Yes!
The ‘LIGA MEDICORUM HOMOEOPATHICA INTERNATIONALIS’ recently held its 77th ‘World Homeopathic Congress’ in Seville, Spain. No, I was not invited and did not attend, but I have seen the abstract of a keynote lecture by Prof. Josef M Schmidt from the
Ludwig-Maximilians-University of Munich, Germany (the university where I studied and worked for many years). I find it quite remarkable and hope you agree:
Today, homeopathy is having to face massive campaigns targeted at excluding it from what is considered to be scientific medicine, as well as from participation in markets. These attacks are based on philosophical and political presuppositions without which this could not happen.
The common denominator of these ideologies is a reductionist world view, in terms of a money-driven rationality, with a neglect of other dimensions of life. Within this mediocre frame of thought and judgment, there would be little choice left for homeopathy other than to fight for its recognition and market access by means of administrative standards established by their competitors, i.e. by randomised clinical trials, onerous approval procedures, etc.
In reality, however, homeopathy can be said to encompass far more dimensions of being than just lógos-thinking in terms of measurability, reproducibility, commodifiability and the like. Its theory and practice also rests on hómoion- and iásthai-thinking, i.e. on the principles of similarity and healing, as has been recently suggested by medical historical research and presented at the last LMHI congresses (Istanbul 2022, Bogotá 2023).
In order to exploit the unique multidimensionality of homeopathy and its potential impact on the current scientific discourse, another framework for homeopathy within medical and political theory may well be needed. First, the reductionistic view of man advocated by the “buffered selves” of modernity (Charles Taylor) would have to be challenged and overcome, then, a wider and richer anthropology as well as educational and political ideals be advocated and, finally, homeopathy be presented as an exemplary art of healing, in terms of reasonability, efficiency and safety. Only thus may it become clear that, given its multidimensionality, homeopathy may have much more to give and to offer than continually partaking in a desperate struggle to fulfill the one-dimensional requirements their opponents use to impose upon it.
Schmidt has a remarkable CV:
1. Academic Education
Medical School at the Ludwig Maximilian’s University of Munich 1973–1980
Doctoral Degree in Medicine (MD) at the Ludwig Maximilian’s University of Munich in 1980
PhD-Program in Philosophy, Theology, and History of Medicine at the Ludwig Maximilian’s University of Munich 1982–1988
Doctoral Degree in Philosophy (PhD) at the Ludwig Maximilian’s University of Munich in 1990
Habilitation (venia legendi) for the History of Medicine at the Ludwig Maximilian’s University of Munich in 2005
2. Professional Career
Resident at the Clinical Center of the Technical University of Munich (Klinikum rechts der Isar der TUM) and other hospitals and medical offices in Munich 1981, 1989–1991, 1993–1994
Medical Specialization (Consultant) in General Practice (Family Medicine) in 1994
Additional Medical Qualifications in Homeopathy (1985), Naturopathy (1990) and Quality Management (1999)
Trial Investigator and Physician at the Hospital of Naturopathy in Munich (Krankenhaus für Naturheilweisen) 1995–2001
Head of the Library of the Hospital of Naturopathy in Munich 1989–2003
Research Associate (freelance) at the Institute of the History of Medicine at the Ludwig Maximilian’s University of Munich 1988–2007
Research Associate at the University of California, San Francisco, USA, 1991–1992
Associate Lecturer (Lehrbeauftragter) for the History of Medicine at the Ludwig Maximilian’s University of Munich 1992–2005
Private Lecturer (Privatdozent) for the History of Medicine at the Ludwig Maximilian’s University of Munich 2005–2013
Research Associate (Wissenschaftlicher Mitarbeiter) at the Institute of the History of Medicine at the Ludwig Maximilian’s University of Munich 2007–2011
Research Associate (freelance) at the Institute of Ethics, History, and Theory of Medicine at the Ludwig Maximilian’s University of Munich since 2011
Adjunct Professor (außerplanmäßiger Professor) for the History of Medicine at the Ludwig Maximilian’s University of Munich since 2013
3. Awards
Scholarship of the Robert Bosch Foundation 1987–1988
Scholarship of the German Research Association (DFG) 1991–1992
Professor Alfons Stiegele Research Award for Homeopathy in 1993
Science Award Samuel Hahnemann of the Town of his Birth Meißen 2015
Honorary Membership of the German Central Association of Homeopathic Physicians 2016
Even more remarkably, Schmidt has 25 Medline-listed publications all on homeopathy. As far as I can see, only one of them relates to a clinical trial. Here is its abstract:
Objective: To test whether an ultramolecular dilution of homeopathic Thyroidinum has an effect over placebo on weight reduction of fasting patients in so-called ‘fasting crisis’.
Design: Randomised, placebo-controlled, double-blind, parallel group, monocentre study.
Setting/location: Hospital for internal and complementary medicine in Munich, Germany.
Subjects: Two hundred and eight fasting patients encountering a stagnation or increase of weight after a weight reduction of at least 100 g/day in the preceding 3 days.
Intervention: One oral dose of Thyroidinum 30cH (preparation of thyroid gland) or placebo.
Outcome measures: Main outcome measure was reduction of body weight 2 days after treatment. Secondary outcome measures were weight reduction on days 1 and 3, 15 complaints on days 1-3, and 34 laboratory findings on days 1-2 after treatment.
Results: Weight reduction on the second day after medication in the Thyroidinum group was less than in the placebo group (mean difference 92 g, 95% confidence interval 7-176 g, P=0.034). Adjustment for baseline differences in body weight and rate of weight reduction before medication, however, weakened the result to a non-significant level (P=0.094). There were no differences between groups in the secondary outcome measures.
Conclusions: Patients receiving Thyroidinum had less weight reduction on day 2 after treatment than those receiving placebo. Yet, since no significant differences were found in other outcomes and since adjustment for baseline differences rendered the difference for the main outcome measure non-significant, this result must be interpreted with caution. Post hoc evaluation of the data, however, suggests that by predefining the primary outcome measure in a different way, an augmented reduction of weight on day 1 after treatment with Thyroidinum may be demonstrated. Both results would be compatible with homeopathic doctrine (primary and secondary effect) as well as with findings from animal research.
So, Schmidt turned an essentially negative finding into a (cautiously) positive one by starting his conclusion with the sentence: Patients receiving Thyroidinum had less weight reduction on day 2 after treatment than those receiving placebo.
Altogether this seems to me to be a herculean effort that merits admission into my ALTERNATIVE MEDICINE HALL OF FAME where he joins all of the following members:
- Meinhard Simon (homeopathy0
- Richard C. Niemtzow (acupuncture)
- Helmut Kiene (anthroposophical medicine)
- Helge Franke (osteopathy, Germany)
- Tery Oleson (acupressure , US)
- Jorge Vas (acupuncture, Spain)
- Wane Jonas (homeopathy, US)
- Harald Walach (various SCAMs, Germany)
- Andreas Michalsen ( various SCAMs, Germany)
- Jennifer Jacobs (homeopath, US)
- Jenise Pellow (homeopath, South Africa)
- Adrian White (acupuncturist, UK)
- Michael Frass (homeopath, Austria)
- Jens Behnke (research officer, Germany)
- John Weeks (editor of JCAM, US)
- Deepak Chopra (entrepreneur, US)
- Cheryl Hawk (chiropractor, US)
- David Peters (osteopathy, homeopathy, UK)
- Nicola Robinson (TCM, UK)
- Peter Fisher (homeopathy, UK)
- Simon Mills (herbal medicine, UK)
- Gustav Dobos (various SCAMs, Germany)
- Claudia Witt (homeopathy, Germany/Switzerland)
- George Lewith (acupuncture, UK)
- John Licciardone (osteopathy, US)
It has been reported that King Charles is on a secret trip to Bengaluru, his first visit to India since being coronated as king of the United Kingdom on May 6, 2023, at Westminster Abbey, London. Charles arrived in Bengaluru on October 27 and will be at the Soukya International Holistic Health Centre (SIHHC) in Whitefield for wellness treatment till Wednesday (30/10) night, when he is expected to fly to London.
Sources privy to his secret visit said that King Charles arrived in Bengaluru directly from Samoa, where he attended the 2024 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting from October 21-26. His visit to Bengaluru was strictly kept under wraps, and he was directly taken to SIHHC, where he was also joined by his wife, Queen Camilla.
According to sources, the couple’s day begins with a morning yoga session, followed by breakfast and rejuvenation treatment before lunch. After a brief rest, a second round of therapies follows, ending with a meditation session before dinner and lights out by 9 pm. They have been enjoying long walks around the campus, visiting the organic farm and cattle shed. Considering the high-profile secret visit, a high-security ring was thrown around SIHHC.
The health centre, founded by Dr. Issac Mathai, is located in Samethanahalli, Whitefield, on Bengaluru’s outskirts. This integrative medical facility combines traditional systems of medicine, including Ayurveda, Homoeopathy, Yoga, and Naturopathy, along with over 30 complementary therapies like reflexology, acupuncture, and dietetics.
Although this is his first visit as a monarch, Charles has visited the centre on nine earlier occasions and celebrated Deepavali on three occasions there. The royal couple has earlier taken wellness treatments, including anti-ageing, detoxification and rejuvenation. On November 14, 2019, the couple celebrated the then Prince Charles’ 71st birthday at SIHHC, an event that attracted a lot of publicity, unlike this visit.
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The website of the SIHHC modestly claims to be “THE WORLD’S FIRST INTEGRATIVE HEALTH DESTINATION’
As I reported in 2022, at a press conference in Goa it was claimed, that Prince Charles had been cured of COVID-19 after seeking treatment from a Bengaluru-based alternative treatment resort, SOUKYA International Holistic Health Centre’ run by a doctor Isaac Mathai. The Palace later denied that this was true.
And what about Dr. Issac Mathai? This is what he writes about himself:
A journey that began from the hills of Wayanad (northern Kerala) in 1985, started to bloom in 1998, and today is an international destination for Holistic health and wellbeing. When Dr. Issac Mathai embarked on this journey influenced by his mother, a Homeopathy practitioner who “helped people get better”, little did he know that one day he would lead a team to redefine the essence of health and wellbeing.
As a confident youngster aspiring to be an ‘exceptional Homeopathic Doctor’, Dr. Mathai encountered two key turning points in life – one, an internationally well-received research paper on integrating Yoga with Homeopathy to cure respiratory disorders, and two, learning at the Hahnemann Postgraduate Institute of Homeopathy, London.
Later he was made a Consultant Physician at the Hale Clinic in London, where he treated a number of high-profile people. This helped him establish a reputation in the holistic healing community in quick time. SOUKYA, is today, a residential holistic centre comparable to any facility in the world.
In a world that is comfortable with the conventional practice of ‘popping pills’, the world at large practices a combination of self-medication based on preconceived notions about what is wrong with individuals. In such a scenario, Dr. Issac Mathai and his team of experienced practitioners from different streams have achieved an important goal – create awareness about the possibility of prevention of adverse health conditions, rather than just addressing the symptom.
Education:
M.D. (Homeopathy),
Hahnemann Post-Graduate Institute of Homeopathy, London M.R.C.H, London
Chinese Pulse Diagnosis and Acupuncture, WHO Institute of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Nanjing, China
Trained (Mind-Body Medicine Programme) at Harvard Medical School, USA
Of the 3 institutions mentioned above, I could only find the last one: Harvard CME | Mind Body Medicine.
And under MD (Homeopathy), I found this: MD in Homoeopathy is a 3-year long postgraduate course in medicine including a year of house job, and remaining 2 years of research and study.
So, should we be concerned about the health of our King?
What do you think?
The objective of the present double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled, feasibility trial was to identify the effects of individualized homeopathic medicinal products (IHMPs) against placebos in post-COVID-19 conditions. Sixty participants with post-COVID-19 conditions were randomised into either:
- group verum (n = 30; IHMPs plus concomitant care),
- group control (n = 30; placebos plus concomitant care).
Feasibility issues; primary—post-COVID-19 symptoms checklist; secondary—Measure Yourself Medical Outcomes Profile version 2 (MYMOP-2); all of them were measured at baseline, and monthly intervals, up to 3 months. The intention-to-treat sample was analyzed; group differences were reported using descriptive statistics: means, 95% confidence intervals (CIs), and between group effect sizes (Cohen’s d).
Feasibility concerns showed promise; recruitment, retention, and attrition rates were 34.2%, 95%, and 5%, respectively. Group differences in both primary and secondary outcomes favored IHMPs against placebos: symptoms checklist score mean difference after 3 months: −4.2, 95% CI −4.9 to −3.4, d = 2.854 and MYMOP-2 mean difference after 3 months: −2.2, 95% CI −2.8 to −1.7, d = 2.082, respectively. Natrum muriaticum (11.7%), Pulsatilla nigricans (10%), Rhus toxicodendron (8.3%), and Calcarea carbonica (8.3%) were the most frequently prescribed remedies.
The authors concluded that IHMPs produced better results than placebos in reducing symptoms checklist scores and MYMOP-2 scores in the treatment of post-COVID-19 conditions. Definitive trials are warranted to confirm the findings.
A feasibility study (the authors employ this term repeatedly) has – as I have often pointed out – the purpose of testing whether a trial disign, set-up, etc. is FEASIBLE. It is not meant to report other outcome data.
Why?
Mainly because such studies are far too underpowered for generating reliable results!
This means that the present findings can be ignored. They are most likely caused by chance.
Why are they published anyway, and why could the authors find a journal that goes along with such nonsense?
Are they too stupid or are they biased or both?
The nature of the journal might provide a hint for answering these questions (J Integr Complement Med), and so does the list of authors and their affiliations:
- 1Department of Organon of Medicine and Homoeopathic Philosophy, D. N. De Homoeopathic Medical College and Hospital, Govt. of West Bengal, Kolkata, India.
- 2Department of Pathology and Microbiology, D. N. De Homoeopathic Medical College & Hospital, Govt. of West Bengal, Kolkata, India.
- 3Department of Practice of Medicine, D. N. De Homoeopathic Medical College and Hospital, Govt. of West Bengal, Kolkata, India.
- 4Department of Homeopathy, East Bishnupur State Homoeopathic Dispensary, Chandi Daulatabad Block Primary Health Centre, Department of Health & Family Welfare, Govt. of West, Kolkata, India.
- 5Department of Repertory, D. N. De Homoeopathic Medical College and Hospital, Govt. of West Bengal, Kolkata, India.
- 6Department of Community Medicine, D. N. De Homoeopathic Medical College and Hospital, Govt. of West Bengal, Kolkata, India.
I rest my case.
- complement conventional and supportive care,
- be complemented with other supportive therapies,
- substitute for supportive drugs,
- replace other supportive therapies,
- not be suitable to replace all supportive therapies,
- be the only supportive option available in some situations.
Nearly every time that I talk to proponents of so-called alternative medicine (SCAM) I hear a lot about diet. Diet is a central theme to almost all of them, it seems. In such conversations, several issues often emerge and frequently take the form of accusations, e.g.:
- Conventional medicine neglects the importance of diet for our health.
- Medical students learn next to nothing about the subject.
- In conventional medicine, hardly any research is focussed on diet.
- By contrast, practitioners of SCAM know a lot about diet.
- Many are experts in the subject.
- Patients are well-advised to consult SCAM practitioners if they want to learn how to eat healthily.
- SCAM practitioners have developed a wide range of diets that keep their patients fit and healthy.
I usually try to object to some of these points. The truth is that medical students do learn about diet, that doctors are aware of its importance, and that research into diets is highly active.
Particularly about the last point, I can get rather irritated. Sadly, this impresses the SCAM fans very little. They have their opinion and rarely budge.
After one such conversation, I decided to go on Medline and produce some figures. Here they are:
- As of 6 October, there are 1 453 clinical trials listed on Medline as published in 2024.*
- Between 1957 and today, around 57 000 such trials have been published.
- Their number shows an almost exponential growth during this period.
- The diets tested range widely and include, for instance, the Mediteranean diet, the ketogenic diet, intermittent fasting, vegetarian diet, energy restricted diet, gluten-free diet.
- There are as good as no trials on any of the SCAM diets.
- The researchers doing the diet trials are almost exclusively conventional medics or nutritionist.
- I did not find any SCAM practitioners in the list of authors.
So, the next time a SCAM proponent bullshits you about diet, you can tell him or her to get lost!
*Not all are, in fact, clinical trials
