December 2006

Top British researcher gives thumbs down to chiropractic

Britain’s first professor of complementary and alternative medicine dismisses chiropractic manipulation as ineffective.

In an article appearing online in the Dec. 12 issue of the Daily Mail (www.dailymail.co.uk), Edzard Ernst, MD, who is professor of complementary medicine at the Peninsula Medical School at the universities of Exeter and Plymouth, gives a thumbs down to chiropractic, which he claims is no more effective than other remedies, such as exercise, and carries the risk of dangerous side-effects, including strokes.

Ernst, a trained homeopath, acupuncturist, massage therapist, and spinal manipulator, says that some alternative and complementary medicine does not pass scientific muster that includes double-blind testing. He endorses acupuncture and massage and some herbal remedies but not spinal manipulation.

Ernst and his research team have written and published The Desktop Guide To Complementary And Alternative Medicine: An Evidence Based Approach (Elsevier).

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