There are certain figures in the world of medicine who seem to take a delight in knocking anything complementary. One of these is Edzard Ernst, Professor of complementary medicine at University of Exeter.
His latest attack is on Prince Charles’ Duchy Herbals’ Detox Tincture which is a dandelion and artichoke complex. Recently I contacted him to find out why he was head of complementary medicine at an eminent university but spent much of his time knocking it.
His response to this question was that he was a Professor of Complementary Medicine, as if that answered the question. He said that he had been involved in writing the Oxford Dictionary of Complementary Medicine so he was not against complementary medicine.
He said that there was no scientific evidence that the detox tincture worked and that it gave the impression that people could live unhealthily by drinking too much and taking drugs and then take a detox tincture to make it all right again.
I suggested that most people who drank too much alcohol and took drugs were not interested in herbal medicine. ‘What evidence do you have for that?’ he asked. ‘Only anecdotal,’ I replied. To which he scoffed that anecdotal evidence did not count. Only scientific evidence counted.
I asked, ‘But do you think that this tincture is harmful?’ He replied that it is harmful in several ways, ‘One way it is harmful is to the pocket’. He claims people are wasting their money on remedies that are not scientifically proven. At £10 it is a bit pricey, but when compared with the cost of pharmaceutical drugs it’s a snip.
His premise that it is exploiting people at a time when they are less well off is ridiculous. Who on the breadline would buy a detox tincture in favour of feeding their family?
It is not the first time that Ernst has accused Prince Charles of ‘quackery’ and claimed that there is no scientific evidence to support the detox properties of artichoke and dandelion despite the fact that herbalists have used them for thousands of years.
The BBC website reported that the head of Duchy Originals, Andrew Baker, said that the tincture ‘is not – and has never been described as – a medicine, remedy or cure for any disease. In response to Ernst's accusations he said, 'There is no "quackery", no "make believe" and no "superstition" in any of the Duchy Originals herbal tinctures. We find it unfortunate that Professor Ernst should chase sensationalist headlines in this way rather than concentrating on accuracy and objectivity.’
What people like Ernst fail to notice is that many of the drugs prescribed to an unsuspecting public are not fully proven either, and doctors often do not know which drugs interact badly with others. Hence prescription drugs are the 4th leading cause of death in the world.
What I find worrying is that people like Ernst are connected to a group called Sense about Science who are hell bent on quashing the public’s love of complementary medicine. So why would they do that? Do they have vested interests?
The fortunate thing is that the majority of users of herbal remedies are not interested in what they say - at least until herbal medicine becomes (like drugs) one of the main causes of death in the world and there is no certainly no evidence that this is the case!
Read more about complementary medicine on www.healthysoul.co.uk
Tuesday, 31 March 2009
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