ANH Press Release: Are we being hoodwinked by Alternative Medicine - or by one of its professors?
Posted: Tue Apr 22, 2008 5:33 pm
ANH Press Release
ARE WE BEING HOODWINKED BY ALTERNATIVE MEDICINE - OR BY ONE OF ITS
PROFESSORS?
A leading Harley Street physician, also President of the British Society for
Ecological Medicine and Medical Director of the Alliance for Natural Health,
claims that Professor Ernst, the UK's first professor of complementary
medicine, is unscientific in his approach.
Dr Damien Downing, responding to a flood of media last week in advance of a
new book by Professor Ernst, which slams the vast majority of complementary
medicine modalities, said, "Professor Ernst must know how bad, how
unscientific, is much of the literature on which he relies. After all he
wrote some of it. He should speak out against the deliberate bias in many
studies - but that might not boost sales of his new book."
Last week, Professor Edzard Ernst, the UK's first professor of
Complementary Medicine, received widespread publicity for his forthcoming
book 'Trick or Treatment: Alternative Medicine on Trial'. The book is
co-authored with Simon Singh, described as a 'leading scientist and
documentary maker.' The Daily Mail wrote on 8 April, "They have produced a
definitive - if controversial - guide to what works, and what doesn't. It
makes indispensable, if sometimes alarming, reading."
In the same week, Professor Ernst published a Guest Editorial in the
mainstream medical journal, BMJ Clinical Evidence. In it, Ernst says that
'patients are being continuously and seriously misled by both sides of the
debate on complementary medicine'. In his editorial, he claims that sceptics
often ignore the evidence for complementary medicine and despite thousands
of clinical trials and hundreds of systematic reviews, mainstream journals
rarely publish positive findings, giving the impression that little serious
research is being done in this field, or that the findings show
complementary medicine to be useless or even dangerous. Ernst concludes that
patients are the real losers in this controversy.
The Alliance for Natural Health has released today an article By Dr Downing
on its website, at www.anhcampaign.org, which exposes some of the poor
science relied upon by Prof Ernst.
Dr Robert Verkerk, Executive and Scientific Director of the Alliance for
Natural Health, said, "Evidence-based medicine was always meant to include
clinical experience and the patient's view; Ernst has no current experience
of either. He bases his arguments entirely on the so-called scientific
literature, which he says himself is biased."
EDITOR'S NOTES
Link to Dr Damien Downing's article, entitled 'Lies, Damned Lies and ..
Professor Ernst's New Book':
http://www.alliance-natural-health.org/ ... oc_303.pdf
About the Alliance for Natural Health
www.anhcampaign.org
The Alliance for Natural Health (ANH) is a UK-based, international,
non-governmental organisation, founded in 2002, which is working on behalf
of consumers, medical doctors, complementary health practitioners and
health-product suppliers worldwide, to protect and promote natural
healthcare, using the principles of good science and good law.
The ANH's main objective is to help develop an appropriate legal-scientific
framework and environment for the development of sustainable approaches to
healthcare, while also helping to promote natural health. Within this
setting, consumers and health professionals should be able to make informed
choices about a wide range of health options, and in particular those that
relate to diet, lifestyle and non-drug-based or natural therapies, so that
they may experience their benefits to the full while not exposing themselves
to unnecessary risks.
The ANH has pioneered the concept of sustainability as applied to
healthcare - a concept that is already the most acceptable long-term
approach for a variety of other industries, including agriculture, energy,
construction and tourism. But pharmaceutically based, orthodox western
medicine has strenuously avoided associating itself with the notion of
sustainability. Western healthcare is now considered to be the third leading
cause of death in industrialised countries in the West, and it is
increasingly threatening and continuing to replace long-established
traditional systems of healthcare from Asia, southern Africa, South America
and other parts of the world.
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ARE WE BEING HOODWINKED BY ALTERNATIVE MEDICINE - OR BY ONE OF ITS
PROFESSORS?
A leading Harley Street physician, also President of the British Society for
Ecological Medicine and Medical Director of the Alliance for Natural Health,
claims that Professor Ernst, the UK's first professor of complementary
medicine, is unscientific in his approach.
Dr Damien Downing, responding to a flood of media last week in advance of a
new book by Professor Ernst, which slams the vast majority of complementary
medicine modalities, said, "Professor Ernst must know how bad, how
unscientific, is much of the literature on which he relies. After all he
wrote some of it. He should speak out against the deliberate bias in many
studies - but that might not boost sales of his new book."
Last week, Professor Edzard Ernst, the UK's first professor of
Complementary Medicine, received widespread publicity for his forthcoming
book 'Trick or Treatment: Alternative Medicine on Trial'. The book is
co-authored with Simon Singh, described as a 'leading scientist and
documentary maker.' The Daily Mail wrote on 8 April, "They have produced a
definitive - if controversial - guide to what works, and what doesn't. It
makes indispensable, if sometimes alarming, reading."
In the same week, Professor Ernst published a Guest Editorial in the
mainstream medical journal, BMJ Clinical Evidence. In it, Ernst says that
'patients are being continuously and seriously misled by both sides of the
debate on complementary medicine'. In his editorial, he claims that sceptics
often ignore the evidence for complementary medicine and despite thousands
of clinical trials and hundreds of systematic reviews, mainstream journals
rarely publish positive findings, giving the impression that little serious
research is being done in this field, or that the findings show
complementary medicine to be useless or even dangerous. Ernst concludes that
patients are the real losers in this controversy.
The Alliance for Natural Health has released today an article By Dr Downing
on its website, at www.anhcampaign.org, which exposes some of the poor
science relied upon by Prof Ernst.
Dr Robert Verkerk, Executive and Scientific Director of the Alliance for
Natural Health, said, "Evidence-based medicine was always meant to include
clinical experience and the patient's view; Ernst has no current experience
of either. He bases his arguments entirely on the so-called scientific
literature, which he says himself is biased."
EDITOR'S NOTES
Link to Dr Damien Downing's article, entitled 'Lies, Damned Lies and ..
Professor Ernst's New Book':
http://www.alliance-natural-health.org/ ... oc_303.pdf
About the Alliance for Natural Health
www.anhcampaign.org
The Alliance for Natural Health (ANH) is a UK-based, international,
non-governmental organisation, founded in 2002, which is working on behalf
of consumers, medical doctors, complementary health practitioners and
health-product suppliers worldwide, to protect and promote natural
healthcare, using the principles of good science and good law.
The ANH's main objective is to help develop an appropriate legal-scientific
framework and environment for the development of sustainable approaches to
healthcare, while also helping to promote natural health. Within this
setting, consumers and health professionals should be able to make informed
choices about a wide range of health options, and in particular those that
relate to diet, lifestyle and non-drug-based or natural therapies, so that
they may experience their benefits to the full while not exposing themselves
to unnecessary risks.
The ANH has pioneered the concept of sustainability as applied to
healthcare - a concept that is already the most acceptable long-term
approach for a variety of other industries, including agriculture, energy,
construction and tourism. But pharmaceutically based, orthodox western
medicine has strenuously avoided associating itself with the notion of
sustainability. Western healthcare is now considered to be the third leading
cause of death in industrialised countries in the West, and it is
increasingly threatening and continuing to replace long-established
traditional systems of healthcare from Asia, southern Africa, South America
and other parts of the world.
--
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It has removed 20700 spam emails to date.
Paying users do not have this message in their emails.
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