Stop the teaching of pseudoscience

[Soroush Ebrahimi]

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I have just sent the following:

Surprisingly so far as Homeopathy is concerned, both Prof Ernst and Prof Calquhoun have got stuck on
the issue of dilutions and never moved on! What they fail to understand is that homeopathy (or the
concept of Similar cures similar) was practised for many years using undiluted substances.

Dilution and succussion was brought in to reduce any adverse effects that there might be and also to
strengthen the effects. Although the little science that these profs know about cannot explain why
such an effect should exist, it does not mean that the effect does not exist. It is like saying
there were no radio waves before Marconi.

It is almost as if they belong to the flat Earth Society. Prof Ernst (of Complimentary Medicine)
has done little to promote complimentary medicine and reading his writings one develops a notion
that this man is bent of destroying anything that is not conventional. In this process he says
little about the damage done to some patients by the use of conventional medicine and ignores all
reports of patients who after many years of suffering at the hands of conventional practitioners
resort to homeopathy and then experience a vast and almost miraculous improvement. Surely this kind
of reports makes the subject worthy of deep investigations.

They have witnessed experiments on Animals, plants etc that show that extremely diluted substance
have effects which are not placebo. After all you cannot fool a plant or an animal by saying I am
giving you this pill it will make you better.

As a result of their bias they carry out experiments not to investigate the phenomenon but to prove
that the phenomenon does not exist. For example Prof Ernst carried out an experiment where patients
were given Arnica for many days before and after an operation and their experiences were compared to
a control group. When I wrote and asked him who had been the advising or consultant homeopath for
this experiment he did not have the curtsey to respond which leads me to think that he did not have
one (we already know that he knows little about homeopathy - and a little knowledge is a dangerous
thing). No properly qualified homeopath would give Arnica before an operation and would only
prescribe a few doses post operation

They cannot explain why it is that in so many countries homeopathy is so popular. Have all the
patients who get better been taken in by the placebo effect or is there a real effect here that is
worthy of investigation? Are they happy to ignore the works of Nobel prize winners in their process
of dismissing homeopathy?

Best Regards
Soroush
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When I started my Exeter post in 1993, I became the director of the country's very first university
course in complementary medicine. This was a surprising and somewhat traumatic experience. I soon
realized that much of what was being taught for this BSc degree course was hair-raising nonsense and
pure pseudoscience.
I therefore spent much of my first year in Exeter trying to disassociate myself from this dubious
outfit. To achieve this aim, I even agreed to give £50,000 of my research funds to the 'Centre for
Complementary Health Studies', as the unit that ran this course was called. Despite this injection
of cash, the unit had to close a couple of years later.
Problem solved, I thought. But I was wrong. In the years to come, a multitude of similar courses
cropped up in universities across the UK. Pseudoscience, it seemed, was popular and about to invade
British institutions of higher education at an unprecedented speed.
Realising the danger in all this, Prof David Colquhoun , emeritus
professor of pharmacology, UCL, has fought relentlessly for several years to first obtain
information about such courses and subsequently disclosing the nonsense that was being taught to a
wider public. His work was hugely successful, and most universities have now closed these
quackery-infested courses.
Now, a new organisation, The Nightingale Collaboration ,
has been formed which is currently targeting the pseudoscientific remnants at UK universities. Only
few institutions still run such courses:
The latter provides a multitude of BSc courses with overtly nonsensical contents. It thus provides
the current focus of action. The Nightingale Collaboration wants to assist the vice-chancellor of
Westminster to save the reputation of his institution by discontinuing the teaching of
pseudoscience.
If you think that pseudo- and anti-science have no place at UK universities, the Nightingale
Collaboration provides detailed instructions as to what can be done. In the interest of good
science, of more evidence-based healthcare, of progress and, most importantly, in the interest of
your patients, I think you should consider helping.
Professor Edzard Ernst is professor of complementary medicine at the Peninsula Medical School,
University of Exeter