MD, PhD, MAE, FMedSci, FRSB, FRCP, FRCPEd.

The 30 most recent comments from all posts are listed below. Click on the post title to go to the comment on the post’s page.

  • Comment by Edzard on Homeopathy: An Ongoing Public Health Failure Saturday 23 September 2023: 17:09 once you have learnt that youtube videos are not evidence, perhaps you might then learn wich name is my surname
  • Comment by Krishna on Homeopathy: An Ongoing Public Health Failure Saturday 23 September 2023: 17:09 Dr. Edzard “An Ongoing Public Health Failure” Some REAL Public Health Failure. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F3StJGMs0Q4 ““….there have been two waves of injury to the world the first has been the surge cov2 infection which preyed upon the frail and the elderly and then the second wave of injury now has been the covid-19 vaccines the role of the who appears to be adverse in both of these the role of the who appears to be operating within a biopharmaceutical complex a Syndicate a complicated Syndicate that has formed over time it includes the WHO, the United Nations the World Economic Forum, The Gates Foundation, Rockefeller Foundation, The Welcome trust, Gavi sepi, the Coalition for epidemic preparedness and Innovation that Gates Foundation in the Waf formed largely, the Department of State in the United States, the National Institutes of Health, the CDC, the FDA, the MHRA in the UK the TGA in Australia, Safra in South Africa, the EMA here in Europe, this grouping of non-governmental organizations with governmental Public Health agencies is operating as a unit they’re carefully coordinated and the impact has been adverse at the outset of the pandemic there was an investigation by The WHO on the origins of SARS cov2 that’s when the beginning of the cover-up began Rear Admiral Brett Gerard in the United States nominated three independent scientists to go to Wuhan and figure out what was going on we knew at that time and this has all come out in a Congressional hearing that Anthony Fauci Francis Collins Jeremy Farrar who was at the welcome trust who’s now the chief scientist at The WHO Christian Andersen at Scripps Edwin homes in Sydney Peter desicc at the ecohealth alliance they all conspired in January of 2020 to cover up what they knew that the virus was engineered in a joint U.S Chinese collaboration in the lab in Wuhan China and they deceived the world with 12 subsequent fraudulent papers in the peer-reviewed literature these were quarterbacked by Jeremy Farrar who is the chief scientist at the who this is all in the series of reports in the house Select Committee in the United States by the U.S Congress led by representative Brad wenstrup the who has played an adverse a role from the very beginning deceiving the world on the origins of the Sars Covid………. Worth listening to. You can also find out the injuries expected from the vaccine that you took and make sure you have the right insurance that covers each possibility. You still believe Homeopathy can be “Public Health Failure”?
  • Comment by DavidB on Homeopathy: An Ongoing Public Health Failure Saturday 23 September 2023: 09:09 “containing or purportedly containing” is interesting. Do homeopathic companies preparing Rhus tox 30C purport that it does, or does not, “contain” Rhus toxicodendron? They should be forced to say!
  • Comment by Lenny on Homeopathy: An Ongoing Public Health Failure Saturday 23 September 2023: 09:09 How can we take this seriously? None of them spoke to Dana to hear his rational and evidence-based views on the subject. His foaming lunacy would have offered the final concrete support for their conclusions.
  • Comment by Hallie Whaley on “Heal”, the documentary: nonsense and cruelty on health and disease Friday 22 September 2023: 23:09 Eliizabeth Craig I just wanted to reach out to you and say Hi!and I hope your doing well . I really enjoyed the Heal documentary it was so uplifting and good . I’m really wanting to go to a Rob Wergin seminar can you give me some kind of insight on attending a seminar .
  • Comment by David Nette on Cervical manipulation for neck pain: DON’T DO IT! Friday 22 September 2023: 21:09 Well said Språkdoktorn Olle Kjellin! Thank you for sharing your thoughts on this very important topic. Unfortunately as victims of a neck manipulation gone horribly wrong, we can only hope for change from within the Chiropractic community itself we fear. Be well. Dave & Sandy
  • Comment by Språkdoktorn Olle Kjellin on Cervical manipulation for neck pain: DON’T DO IT! Friday 22 September 2023: 15:09 DC wrote: “I had a good friend stroke out during an adjustment. He died. My desire has been, and continues to be, to educate chiropractors and spur research into this area to hopefully avoid these tragic cases in the future.” This seems to indicate that you do have a secret, gnawing thought that maybe, just MAYBE, the chiropractor’s manipulation could indeed cause stroke, so they have to be better educated “to hopefully avoid these tragic cases in the future”. I understand that you are reluctant to admit it here and lose face, but hopefully you can understand where the “hostility” here comes from, and you will be very careful in your daily practice “to hopefully avoid these tragic cases in the future”. Thank you in advance!
  • Comment by Richard Rasker on So-called alternative medicine (SCAM) and vaccine hesitancy among physicians: findings from Germany, Finland, Portugal, and France Friday 22 September 2023: 14:09 @Edzard Also note that Meryl Nass has had her medical license suspended by her state medical board for COVID misinformation, and for prescribing ineffective medicines (hydroxychloroquine) to a patient, and then falsifying medical records in order to obfuscate this fact. And now she tries to pull a ‘Donald Trump’ by suing the medical board while drawing as much public attention as possible, claiming among other things that her right to free speech has been violated. Not a very reliable source of medical information, in other words. But what else can we expect from our resident troll …
  • Comment by Edzard on So-called alternative medicine (SCAM) and vaccine hesitancy among physicians: findings from Germany, Finland, Portugal, and France Friday 22 September 2023: 11:09 some day, you should learn what evidence is!!!
  • Comment by Old Bob on So-called alternative medicine (SCAM) and vaccine hesitancy among physicians: findings from Germany, Finland, Portugal, and France Friday 22 September 2023: 11:09 Where is the evidence for myocarditis from the vaccine? Here it is: https://merylnass.substack.com/p/im-saving-this-for-when-we-get-into
  • Comment by Edzard on Camel urine as a treatment for cancer patients? Friday 22 September 2023: 09:09 good point. I would include the ‘similar therapies’ issue under plausibility.
  • Comment by Richard Rasker on Camel urine as a treatment for cancer patients? Friday 22 September 2023: 09:09 @Edzard why not just abandon and discourage the use of ridiculous therapies? Of course I fully agree here, but I also think that one more question is in order before dismissing these ‘therapies’: are there other, similar therapies(*) that have proven efficacy? If not, then it is extremely unlikely that this one would do anything. All this apart from the fact of course that urine is basically toxic chemical waste that the body needs to get rid of, which already lowers the probability that it is beneficial in any way, other than as a fertilizer. *: Yes, I am aware that the hCG pregnancy hormone is extracted from urine from pregnant women in order to help other women get pregnant. Human women, mind you, not camels.
  • Comment by Edzard on Camel urine as a treatment for cancer patients? Friday 22 September 2023: 08:09 I partly agree and merely meant that the study of efficacy is a waste of effort for certain implausible therapies. as to safety: why not just abandon and discourage the use of ridiculous therapies?
  • Comment by WolfgangM on Camel urine as a treatment for cancer patients? Friday 22 September 2023: 08:09 Dear Edzart, I don`t agree. If something is an old treatment method, and might be an effective therapy, one should ask for potential risks. And for infectious diseases the risk has changed in the past. Smallpox is globally eradicated, the oral polio vaccine was improved, so that the vaccine related poliomyelitis risk was sharply reduced with OPV and eliminated with IPV. But we have some newly emerging disease. HIV and Corona Viruses. One of the Corona Viruses popped up in 2012 it was MERS (Middle east respiratory disease) it was transmitted by camels also to humans. https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/middle-east-respiratory-syndrome-coronavirus-(mers-cov) So when one uses camel urine as therapeutic option, it should not have an infectious risk- a validated virus inactivation procedure is a must to avoid zoonotic infections such as MERS or rabies etc pp.
  • Comment by Pete Attkins on Craniosacral Therapy for Headache Disorders: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis Thursday 21 September 2023: 20:09 Craniosacral Therapy Is Not Medicine Steve E Hartman, PhD, James M Norton, PhD Physical Therapy, Volume 82, Issue 11, 1 November 2002, Pages 1146–1147, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/ptj/82.11.1146 To the Editor: Although the prescientific thinking emblematic of most “alternative” health care may lead infrequently to fortuitous insights, many of these techniques have been tested, have failed, and should be abandoned. For example, we have observed in our laboratory and described in Scientific Review of Alternative Medicine one of the manipulation procedures (craniosacral therapy/cranial osteopathy) used by many physical therapists, occupational therapists, osteopathic physicians, and others. Based on our observations, we have drawn several conclusions. … We are not characterizing craniosacral therapy as just another approach to health care about which knowledge is incomplete. To the contrary, we believe that craniosacral therapy bears approximately the same relationship to real medicine that astrology bears to astronomy. That is, this approach to “health care” is medical fiction, and it is not appropriate to teach fiction as part of medical or allied health curricula. See also: craniosacral therapy, The Skeptic’s Dictionary https://skepdic.com/craniosacral.html
  • Comment by Esoallergicdoctor on Craniosacral Therapy for Headache Disorders: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis Thursday 21 September 2023: 14:09 It is bad enough that useless methods are used for a relatively harmless symptomatology that causes a high burden of illness and a high number of absences from work. I myself know a young colleague who recently completed her state exams, is the daughter of a so-called alternative practitioner for psychotherapy and herself suffers from bipolar disorder. She was helped out of her last depressive phase not by medication but by craniosacral therapy? Really? But how do institutions educate? The Australian non-profit organisation “Beyond Blue” promotes SCAM like craniosacral therapy in its brochure “A guide to what works for depression”, even though it writes on page 46: “Does it work? There are reports that craniosacral therapy has been used to treat people with depression. However, no scientific study has been carried out.” https://fbeu.net/wp-content/uploads/Beyond-Blue-A-guide-to-what-works-for-depression.pdf 🤷 The young colleague L. makes me sad, especially as she herself is affected and sees her vocation as a therapist. I remember the cited survey of German medical colleagues, which proved a connection between the prescription of homeopathic “medicines” and vaccination phobia.
  • Comment by jrkrideau on Craniosacral Therapy for Headache Disorders: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis Thursday 21 September 2023: 12:09 Seven hundred and thirty-five papers identified and four usable? This is not a meta-analysis. I think your idea is better. It’s a bit like some of the recent COVID meta-analyses, the quality of the research (and/or data fabrication) is often so bad that one cannot really trust the results. On the other hand, a good meta-analysis or comprehensive review can help point out systematic problems in a research area.
  • Comment by Les Rose on Craniosacral Therapy for Headache Disorders: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis Thursday 21 September 2023: 10:09 I don’t see the point of including very poor quality studies in a review or meta-analysis. A very short and conclusive paper could be written simply by saying “no good quality evidence was found”. Why do peer reviewers accept such rubbish?
  • Comment by Esoallergicdoctor on Does mind body exercise improve cognitive function? Wednesday 20 September 2023: 20:09 But 🥳 According to the “Clinic for Naturopathy and Integrative Medicine” (and anthroposophy) at the Evangelical Hospital Essen-Steele, “mind-body medicine” is one of the pillars of the temple of health. Really? And what happens, if you have not consumed enough grains that were nourished according to Demeter. https://anthroposophie.home.blog/tag/hornmist/
  • Comment by Krishna on Death by homeopathy Wednesday 20 September 2023: 13:09 Dr Julian Money-Kyrle on Tuesday 19 September 2023 at 12:52 The ulterior motive! “Paucity of hepatobiliary surgeons in China”? The available hepatobiliary surgeons in China show this study to the patients and ask them to go home, because of lack of surgery capacity? Is that a valid reason? The Chinese seem to have additionally evaluated studies and added liver cancer to Cholecystectomy outcome along with cirrhosis of liver. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36999804/ Cholecystectomy and risk of liver disease: a systematic review and meta-analysis of 27 million individuals “We identified 20 studies with a total of 27 320 709 individuals and 282 670 liver disease cases. Cholecystectomy was associated with an increased risk of liver disease (OR: 1.63, 95% CI: 1.34-1.98). In particular, cholecystectomy was found to be significantly associated with a 54% increased risk of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (OR: 1.54, 95% CI: 1.18-2.01), a 173% increased risk of cirrhosis (OR: 2.73, 95% CI: 1.81-4.12), and a 46% increased risk of primary liver cancer (OR: 1.46, 95% CI: 1.18-1.82).” Being a Meta Analysis, I would expect many studies originating from numerous other regions/sources (other than China?) What would you say?
  • Comment by Dr Julian Money-Kyrle on Death by homeopathy Tuesday 19 September 2023: 12:09 Have you actually read this paper? If so, you appear not to have understood it. This is a cross-sectional retrospective study. It did not examine either liver fibrosis, or cirrhosis, both of which are pathological diagnoses requiring a biopsy, but the elasticity of the liver as assessed by ultrasound, which is a surrogate measure. The authors did not explain how good a surrogate it is, but from the large numbers found to have an abnormal score I would think that it picks up a lot of people who do not have clinically relevant liver disease. They also use the term “ultrasound TE” without explaining it. The most that can be concluded is that people in the study who had had cholecystectomy were subsequently found to have changes in the elasticity of their liver. Since cholecystectomy is only used for people who have symptomatic gallstones (asymptomatic gallstones are a very common incidental finding when imaging the abdomen), it is not entirely surprising that biliary stasis and chronic cholecystitis might be associated with changes in liver texture. I note that the authors of the paper were all working in China, and yet they were examining a dataset collected in the US. Bearing in mind the established unreliability of research papers from China I am tempted to wonder about an ulterior motive, such as being able to justify a paucity of hepatobiliary surgeons in China on the grounds that surgery was largely unnecessary.
  • Comment by Dr Julian Money-Kyrle on Death by homeopathy Tuesday 19 September 2023: 12:09 In 1950, the average lifespan of Indians was 35.21 years. As India became self sufficient in food, the life expectancy of Indians improved. For 2023, it is estimated to be 70.42. Exactly 100% improvement over 73 years… For the same period the average American lifespan increased from 68.14 years to 79.11 years representing 16.1% improvement… May be you can explain the reason for this poor performance of change in American lifespan over past 73 years with such large investment in healthcare and environment. I get the impression from this comment that you have no training in medical statistics or epidemiology, and that you may have a problem with maths. It should be fairly clear from these figures that the childhood mortality rate in India in the 1950’s was much higher than in the US. Without searching for detailed figures I am guessing that this was mainly from diarrhoea and other infectious diseases. Since the 1950’s, there has been better sanitation, better availability of safe drinking water, the use of oral rehydration solution as an effective treatment for diarrhoea and the introduction of vaccination against fatal childhood diseases. This is true for India and for the US, but India clearly had a lot further to go and therefore there was a lot more potential for improvement.
  • Comment by Krishna on Death by homeopathy Tuesday 19 September 2023: 11:09 Pete Attkins on Monday 18 September 2023 at 20:45 “Professor Ernst’s blog is about so‑called alternative medicine (SCAM); and this particular blog post on which you are commenting is entitled Death by homeopathy, discussing cases of people who were injured/killed by homeopathy.” I am sure everyone here can read as good as you. Try understanding also. Whatever Dr. Edzard writes in this blog is a running comparison with “scientific medicine”. (Even the name says so: SCA medicine). In this particular blog, Dr. explained that in “scientific medicine” such deaths DO NOT TAKE PLACE and this should be brought to the notice of unsuspecting public. I pointed out that death because of cirrhosis of liver is common occurrence in “scientific medicine” and thousands die in USA alone or get liver transplant at high costs, only because of the Cholecystectomy induced liver cirrhosis. I also enclosed a study as evidence. If you refuse to understand or consider it as off-topic, you are at liberty to do so. Remember, I have never addressed any message to you. Only responded back. You could have tried to understand that between 1950 and 2023, the average life span of Indians (3rd world country) increased by over 35 years because of improved availability of food. During this period, the life span of the people living in the USA, the “Mecca of scientific medicine” increased by under 11 years. Rather poor performance, by “scientific medicine” in case the reason being ascribed was effect of medicine. There is no need for your answer.
  • Comment by Pete Attkins on Death by homeopathy Monday 18 September 2023: 20:09 @Krishna, I’m not the slightest bit interested in your incessant off‑topic wittering. wittering: • to ramble, usually about total shite; • something you do when you talk rubbish with no particular reason, meaning, or audience. — Urban Dictionary Professor Ernst’s blog is about so‑called alternative medicine (SCAM); and this particular blog post on which you are commenting is entitled Death by homeopathy, discussing cases of people who were injured/killed by homeopathy. Good day to you, Sir!
  • Comment by Richard Rasker on Death by homeopathy Monday 18 September 2023: 19:09 @Krishna Here in the western world, we completely abandoned our traditional medicine long ago, and for very good reasons: we found out that it didn’t work. In fact, it was often more harmful than doing nothing (this is why homeopathy, which boils down to doing nothing, appeared to work quite well 200 years ago). We replaced our traditional medicine with science-based medicine that did work. And we got better and better at it. And oh, it was this science-based medicine that in fact dramatically improved life expectancy in China(*), NOT ‘traditional medicine’. Now if countries such as China and India were sensible, they’d start phasing out their traditional medicine as well – as it is just as bad as our European traditional medicine. Unfortunately, both India and China have lots of rather stupid people who still believe that traditional medicine and homeopathy are actually any good, and even promote it as a source of national pride. They really should know better than that. Homeopathy does nothing for anyone except give homeopaths money and undeserved respect as healers. *: Life expectancy is a bit of a tricky metric, as it is heavily influenced by demographic developments from decades ago. For this reason, I prefer looking at infant and child mortality, as that is a much more direct indicator of a country’s state of healthcare. And no, India is still NOT doing all that well in that respect, with one in every 30 children dying before the age of 5, placing it in the worst quartile of countries worldwide.
  • Comment by Krishna on Death by homeopathy Monday 18 September 2023: 17:09 Pete Attkins on Sunday 17 September 2023 at 23:00 “An utter disgrace! To match the India life expectancy improvement of 100%, the average lifespan of US citizens should now be 136.28 years. Thank you for bringing this to our attention.” That is true. But why only 16.1%? Why not run a comparison with Hong Kong that started behind USA at 61.51 years in 1950 and is 85.29 years. Way ahead of USA? How many pharmaceutical companies in Hong Kong? Or China? Or Japan? Try fitting this data into “medical research and development” and explain it. There was another point you refused to acknowledge: “Also maybe you can hazard a guess as to the reason for the life expectancy to reverse between 2014-2018 for USA. ” You can try and explain? The doctors went on mass leave?
  • Comment by Dr Mike Sutton on Are people who oppose COVID-19 vaccinations intellectually challenged? Monday 18 September 2023: 13:09 Here is proof https://dysology.blogspot.com/2018/07/archive-dysology-for-history-before-its.html
  • Comment by Edzard on Joe Dispenza: a chiropractor excells in pseudoscientific bullshit Monday 18 September 2023: 10:09 thanks
  • Comment by Edzard on The ‘WHO Traditional Medicine Global Summit’ on so-called alternative medicine (SCAM) Monday 18 September 2023: 10:09 ONCE AGAIN: this blog is not intended to be ‘science’; if you want to read my science, please read my peer-reviewed papers [there are plenty to chose from]
  • Comment by Krunker on The promotion of quackery by the WHO: an odd and potentially disastrous direction to take. Monday 18 September 2023: 10:09 Scientific advancement has shown that traditional medicine is not only worthless, but frequently extremely hazardous; this is why western medicine has almost abandoned practices like bloodletting and nostrums based on things like animal manure.
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