Anthroposophic Medicinal Products (AMPs) are truly mysterious

The ‘European Scientific Cooperative on Anthroposophic Medicinal Products‘ claim that there is a need for a regulatory framework for anthroposophic medicinal products (AMPs) in Europe. The existing regulatory requirements for conventional medicinal products are not appropriate for AMPs. Special registration procedures exist in some countries for homeopathic products and in the European Union for herbal […]

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Use of alternative medicine is associated with low vaccination rates

The fact that some alternative medicine (the authors use the abbreviation ‘CAM’) practitioners recommend against vaccination is well-known and often-documented. Specifically implicated are:

• Physicians practising integrative medicine 
• Doctors of anthroposophical medicine 
• Naturopaths 
• Homeopaths 
• Chiropractors 

As a result, children consulting homeopaths, naturopaths or chiropractors are less likely to receive vaccines and more likely to get vaccine-preventable diseases. These effects […]

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Mistletoe for cancer: Does it improve patients’ quality of life? | Edzard Ernst

Many caner patients use mistletoe extracts either hoping to cure their cancer or to alleviate its symptoms. The evidence that mistletoe treatment (MT) can achieve either of these goals is mixed but, on the whole, however, it is not positive. Our own systematic review of 2003 concluded that ‘rigorous trials of mistletoe extracts fail to demonstrate efficacy of […]

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Eurythmy: too weird for words | Edzard Ernst

No, this post is not about the pop duo ‘EURYTHMICS’*, it is about ‘EURYTHMY’ which pre-dates the pop duo by a few decades.

Eurythmy is a movement therapy of anthroposophic medicine which, according to its proponents, has positive effects on a person’s physical body, spirit, and soul. It is involves expressive movements developed by Rudolf Steiner in conjunction with […]

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* Although Eurythmics did get their name from this - AT

Anthroposophic medicine: an exercise in critical thinking | Edzard Ernst

Anthroposophic medicine is based on Rudolf Steiner’s mystical ideas. It is popular in Germany and is slowly also spreading to other countries.  Anthroposophic drugs are prepared according to ancient notions of alchemy and are fly in the face of modern pharmacology. Anthroposophic doctors treat all sorts of diseases, and their treatments  include anthroposophic medications, and a range of other […]

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That Time I ….. Ruined Friendships By Telling The Truth | The Laura Experiment

About a year ago I quit my job. I quit because I had to. I found working for the company that employed me extremely stressful, and it was not only affecting my ability to do my job but also ruining my personal life too. I was with the company 7 years before I finally quit. Not all of those years were stressful, I had some amazing times and I learnt so much, but on the whole it was a bad experience for me.

After I left I wrote a blog post about my time at the company (on a now deleted blog). In no part did i mention where the company was located, the name of the company or the names of anyone who worked there. I made sure it was unidentifiable (the only way you would know where it was was if you know me and you also worked there). I wrote, in an informal style, about my experience. Why did I do it? It was part of the healing process for me. I also wanted to share my experience of working within an Anthroposophical company with the world, as I felt at the time it was important for the outside world to know a little of the truth. Nothing I wrote was a lie, and it was all about MY experience and MY feelings...

Read on: That Time I ….. Ruined Friendships By Telling The Truth | The Laura Experiment

Anthroposophic medicine: guided not by evidence but by wishful thinking | Edzard Ernst

Poor sleep quality during pregnancy is a frequent problem. Drug treatment can be problematic due to possible adverse effects for mother and embryo/foetus. Many pregnant women prefer natural treatments and assume that ‘natural’ equals harmless.

In the present study, the sedative effects of Bryophyllum pinnatum were investigated. This remedy is a phytotherapeutic medication predominantly used in anthroposophic medicine. In previous clinical studies on its tocolytic effect, B. pinnatum showed a promising risk/benefit ratio for mother and child. A recent analysis of the prescribing pattern for B. pinnatum in a network of anthroposophic physicians revealed sleep disorders as one of the most frequent diagnosis...

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Steiner Waldorf Schools Part 3. The problem of racism

This post deals with the most contentious and serious aspect of Steiner schools, racism. It makes, in my view, a convincing argument that Steiner’s undoubtedly racist views remain a problem today. They can’t be dismissed simply by saying that Steiner was a child of his times.

This post was written by an ex-Steiner school parent, known on the web as @ThetisMercurio.

The essay supplies yet more reasons to think that Steiner schools are all based on pseudo science: Steiner’s Spiritual Science. It is important that we understand these schools because funding of these schools is imminent, through Michael Gove’s Free Schools policy.

Extracts from works by Olav Hammer and Peter Staudenmaier are included with the permission of the authors.

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The true nature of Steiner (Waldorf) education. Mystical barmpottery at taxpayers’ expense. Part 1

I have to admit that until a few years ago I had thought of Steiner schools as being rather cuddly experiments in progressive education. Perhaps a bit like Montessori schools or A.S. Neill’s Summerhill School.

But then I discovered that they advocate "biodynamic farming". That includes utterly barmy doctrines about how the phase of the moon affects crops and such like astrological baloney (as well as some possibly sensible stuff about compost). Then I had a series of mails from a correspondent that made me realise that Steiner schools have some much more unpleasant ideas than a bit of astrological baloney, including the dangerous ideas about anthroposophical medicine.

Read on, it gets worse: The true nature of Steiner (Waldorf) education. Mystical barmpottery at taxpayers’ expense. Part 1