2017 – a year in alternative medicine

At this time of the year it is customary to look back and highlight some remarkable things that occurred during the last 12 months. Here I will try to identify for each month the most important event. My choice is entirely subjective, and I invite everybody to disagree with it and add other happenings.

JANUARY
[…] Read the rest here: 2017 – a year in alternative medicine

How should alt med practitioners be educated and trained?

The German Heilpraktiker (a phenomenon vaguely equivalent to the ‘naturopath’ in English speaking countries) has become a fairly regular feature on this blog – see, for instance here, here, and here. The nationally influential German Medical Journal, a weekly publication of the German Medical Association, recently published an article about the education of this profession.

In […]

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The German ‘Heilpraktiker’ is a dangerous and anachronistic nonsense

I have mentioned the German alt med phenomenon of the ‘Heilpraktiker’ before. For instance, a year ago I wrote this:

…The German ‘Heilpraktiker’ (literally translated: healing practitioner) is perhaps best understood by its fascinating history. When the Nazis came to power in 1933, German health care was dominated by lay practitioners who were organised in […]

Read the rest here: The German ‘Heilpraktiker’ is a dangerous and anachronistic nonsense

More on the situation of homeopathy in Switzerland | Edzard Ernst

According to Wikipedia, Swiss state insurance funding of homeopathy and four other alternative therapies had been withdrawn after a review in 2005, and a 2009 referendum vote called for state backed health insurance to once more pay for these therapies. In 2012 the Swiss government reinstated them for a trial period until 2017, pending an […]

Read on: More on the situation of homeopathy in Switzerland

More on the German ‘Heilpraktiker’: are his days counted? | Edzard Ernst

The Subject of the German ‘Heilpraktiker’ has recently been the topic of one of my blog-posts. In Germany, it has been a taboo for decades, but now the ‘Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung’ (FAZ) have courageously addressed the problem. In today’s article, the FAZ reports that, Josef Hecken, the chair of the an organisation called ‘Selbstverwaltung im Gesundheitswesen’ (self-administration in healthcare), demands […]

Read on: More on the German ‘Heilpraktiker’: are his days counted?

The German ‘HEILPRAKTIKER’ is a relict from the Nazis that endangers public health | Edzard Ernst

Two of my recent posts directly related to the German ‘Heilpraktiker’ (here and here) and to the risks which this profession poses to public health in Germany. As this is a very German phenomenon, it might be time to provide some explanations to my non-German readers. 

The German ‘Heilpraktiker’ (literally translated: healing practitioner) is perhaps best […]

Read on: The German ‘HEILPRAKTIKER’ is a relict from the Nazis that endangers public health

Fatalities in a German alternative medicine clinic caused by 3BP? | Edzard Ernst

According to an article in DER SPIEGEL, 4 patients of an alternative medicine centre died, while several other websites reported that the figure amounted to ‘just’ three. The centre in question is the Klaus Ross clinic in the German town of Bruggen-Bracht on the border with the Netherlands. In addition to these fatalities, several further patients are being treated in hospital […]

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Ansbach suicide-bomber had alternative treatments for severe psychological trauma | Edzard Ernst

Last Sunday evening, the Syrian, Mohammad D., tried to enter an open air festival in Ansbach, Germany. As he had no ticket, he was barred from entering. Later he exploded his bomb in front of one of the entrances of the festival. It killed him and injured 15 others, 4 seriously. 

According to a report published in […]

Read on: Ansbach suicide-bomber had alternative treatments for severe psychological trauma