A new RCT of craniosacral therapy … for once, I am really embarrassed

Cranio-sacral therapy is firstly implausible, and secondly it lacks evidence of effectiveness (see for instance here, here, here and here). Yet, some researchers are nevertheless not deterred to test it in clinical trials. While this fact alone might be seen as embarrassing, the study below is a particular and personal embarrassment to me, in fact, I am shocked by it and write these lines with considerable regret.

Why? Bear with me, I will explain […]Read the rest here: A new RCT of craniosacral therapy … for once, I am really embarrassed

American Loon #1890: Janet Levatin

Janet Levatin is a pediatrician and one of few actual pediatricians who sympathize with the anti-vaccine movement – she has, for instance, been used in the marketing campaign for the anti-vaxx film “The Greater Good” after praising the movie for “offer[ing] a balanced discussion of...

Read the full lunacy: #1890: Janet Levatin Encyclopedia of American Loons

Cranio-sacral therapy: misleading? dishonest? unethical? | Edzard Ernst

Cranio-sacral therapy has been a subject on this blog before, for instance here, here and here. The authors of this single-blind, randomized trial explain in the introduction of their paper that “cranio-sacral therapy is an alternative and complementary therapy based on the theory that restricted movement at the cranial sutures of the skull negatively affect rhythmic impulses […]

Read on: Cranio-sacral therapy: misleading? dishonest? unethical?

Craniosacral therapy: wild assumptions, flimsy science and wrong conclusions | Edzard Ernst

Alternative medicine encompasses many bizarre treatments, but one of the weirdest must be craniosacral therapy (CST). The assumptions underlying CTS are: light manual touch of the head moves the joints of the cranium; this movement stimulates the flow of the cerebrospinal fluid; the enhanced flow has profound and positive effects on human health. None of […]

Read on: Craniosacral therapy: wild assumptions, flimsy science and wrong conclusions

Breastfeeding advocate is anti-vaccine activist?

Of all the public health interventions the world has ever known, very few compare to breastfeeding… Wait, is breastfeeding a public health intervention? Yes and no. It isn’t because it’s something that is natural, and something that almost all women can do for their babies. Then again, it is because we have to remind women […]

Read more at: Breastfeeding advocate is anti-vaccine activist? by Reuben

Craniosacral therapy: for ‘physical aches and pains, acute and chronic disease, emotional or psychological disturbances’ ? | Edzard Ernst

In my last post, I made a fairly bold statement without any evidence to support it: “[this] demonstrates once again that, in the realm of alternative medicine, organisations and individuals make statements that sound fine and are politically correct, while at the same time disregarding these pompous aims/visions/objectives by promoting outright quackery. This sort of thing is so wide-spread that most of us just take it for granted and very few have the nerve to object. The result of this collective behaviour is obvious: on the one hand, charlatans can claim to be entirely in line with public health, EBM etc.; on the other hand, they are free to exploit the public with their bogus treatments.” […]

Read on: Craniosacral therapy: for ‘physical aches and pains, acute and chronic disease, emotional or psychological disturbances’ ?