Edzard Ernst

Therapeutic Touch for Labor Pain? No, thanks!

Edzard — Fri, 28 Aug 2026 10:34:14 +0000

This single-center, randomised clinical trial compared the efficacy of distraction and therapeutic touch for reducing labor pain in primiparous women. the study was conducted in Khalkhal County, Iran, involving 93 primiparous women at 28-32 weeks of gestation. Participants were selected through convenience sampling and then allocated via blocked randomisation into three groups: distraction, therapeutic touch, […]

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Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and his alternative medicine for measles: chicken soup!

Edzard — Fri, 28 Aug 2026 07:56:44 +0000

The medical world, in its deplorable lack of imagination, has spent decades under the misconception that infectious diseases require widespread immunization programs. Enter Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who already in 2021 graciously unveiled the alternative medicine breakthrough of the millennium to a crowd in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania: CHICKEN SOUP! Why bother with the MMR vaccine, when […]

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Heidi Overton and her questionable quest to “reform” US medical research

Edzard — Thu, 27 Aug 2026 11:04:44 +0000

Heidi Overton, President Trump’s nominee to lead the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), has called for a political reorientation of US medical research. Specifically, she argued that agencies like the NIH, FDA, and CDC must be “reformed” to fund more “conservative-based” work: “We need publications and academic journals that are conservative based. We need […]

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The end of reimbursed homeopathy in Germany

Edzard — Thu, 27 Aug 2026 07:28:42 +0000

It has long been predicted to come; now it has arrived: Germany – the birthland of homeopathy – has finally decided to stop reimbursing homeopathic and anthroposophic medicine through statutory health insurance. The decision marks an important attempt to align public spending with evidence-based medicine. Under the reform statutory health funds can no longer finance […]

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Dolly Parton (1946–2026)

Edzard — Wed, 26 Aug 2026 10:58:52 +0000

Dolly Rebecca Parton (1946–2026) was an American singer‑songwriter, actress, businesswoman and philanthropist, widely known as the “Queen of Country.” Born into a poor farming family in Tennessee, she began performing already as a child. Parton rose to fame in the 1960s and 1970s with several hits eventually crossing over to pop and film. She wrote […]

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Transcendental Meditation (TM): plenty of positive evidence … false-positive, most likely!

Edzard — Wed, 26 Aug 2026 08:16:35 +0000

The super-rich Transcendental Meditation (TM) movement has funded hundreds of studies of TM on various aspects of human health. While there is, as far as I know, no global master registry that tracks every single TM-sponsored study, systematic reviews and meta-analyses consistently document that these TM-supported studies virtually never report negative findings. In other words, investigations […]

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The alarming mental decline of Donald J Trump

Edzard — Tue, 25 Aug 2026 11:32:37 +0000

Numerous medical experts have observed and commented on what they consider a cognitive decline in Donald Trump. Frequently cited behavioural patterns and linguistic changes that point in this direction include the following: Phonemic Paraphasia and Verbal Slips: Trump regularly starts a word without being able to complete it. Similarly, he substitutes incorrect words, or mispronounces […]

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Are conflicts of interest in manual therapy trials for low back pain transparent?

Edzard — Tue, 25 Aug 2026 07:35:31 +0000

Accurate disclosure of conflicts of interest (COI) is vital for trust and transparency in clinical research, but few studies have evaluated these disclosures in the manual therapy literature. The primary aim of this study was to review study-disclosed COIs in manual therapy trials for low back pain (LBP) and compare them with those discovered by […]

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Our 150-year struggle with anti-vaccination attitudes

Edzard — Mon, 24 Aug 2026 11:41:18 +0000

Anti-vaccination sentiments are a global phenomenon with deep historical roots. Across Europe, North America, and parts of the British Empire, organized resistance to vaccination has unfolded over roughly 150 years as a recurring struggle over social control, individual autonomy, and medical authority. Despite changes in technology and media, the movement shows striking structural, ideological, and […]

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Didier Raoult is in the news again

Edzard — Mon, 24 Aug 2026 08:23:55 +0000

Remember Didier Raoult? He famously published irreproducible findings claiming that hydroxychloroquine worked for Covid; he has thus featured on this blog before, e.g.: Didier Raoult has now turned to cosmetics Didier Raoult’s research is being called into question Didier Raoult and the hydroxychloroquine controversy ( part 1 ) HYDROXYCHLOROQUINE: This is NOT a Hollywood blockbuster […]

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