Celebrities include Naomi Campbell, Olivia Newton-John, Sarah Harding, Alex Reid, David Beckham, Joanna Lumley, Gisele Bündchen, Jennifer Aniston, Ashton Kutcher, Demi Moore, Cheryl Cole, Cliff Richard, and Robert de Niro.
Sense About Science review [pdf]

"I have repeatedly argued that the art and science of medicine must not be separated, e.g. both are core values for any good healthcare. Such a separation would mean that patients might receive ineffective treatments plus the benefits of a good therapeutic relationship from CAM practitioners or effective therapies plus inadequate therapeutic relationships from conventional clinicians. This would clearly be wrong; it not only means that healthcare is suboptimal but it also implies that patients are at risk. Good healthcare must incorporate both and the art the science of medicine…Providers of CAM tend to build better therapeutic relationships than mainstream healthcare professionals. In turn, this implies that much of the popularity of CAM is a poignant criticism of the failures of mainstream healthcare. We should consider it seriously with a view of improving our service to patients.” Edzard Ernst, International Journal of Clinical Practice (October 2010) [Subscription only]

“The curricula on the integrative medicine sites were strongly biased in favor of CAM, many of the references were to poor-quality clinical trials, and they were five to six years out of date. These "evidence-based CAM" curricula, which are used all over the country, fail to meet the generally accepted standards of evidence-based medicine. By tolerating this situation, health professions schools are not meeting their educational and ethical obligations to learners, patients, or society. Because integrative medicine programs have failed to uphold educational standards, medical and nursing schools need to assume responsibility for their oversight. The authors suggest (1) appointing faculty committees to review the educational materials and therapies provided by integrative medicine programs, (2) holding integrative medicine programs' education about CAM to the same standard of evidence used for conventional treatments, and (3) providing ongoing oversight of integrative medicine education programs.” Academic Medicine (September 2009)

“The marketing of so-called CAM or integrative medicine continues. These terms are just that – marketing. They are otherwise vacuous, even deceptive, and meant only to conceal the naked fact that most medical interventions that hide under the CAM/integrative umbrella lack plausibility or credible evidence that they actually work.” Steven Novella MD, Science Based Medicine (9th September 2009)

"The holistic approach of alternative medicine is nothing more than an excuse to avoid medical diagnosis. Alternative practitioners remove this burden by assigning the cause of disease to the realm of spirituality: the one aspect of the mind-spirit-body model that has no evidence to support it." (UK Skeptics)

"Research into complementary medicines relies on donations from enlightened philanthropists. Let's hope we can attract more of them." Edzard Ernst (The Guardian)

"The terms efficacy and effectiveness are frequently used in the medical literature. Seemingly similar in meaning, they express distinctly different concepts." Max H. Pittler and Adrian R. White, Associate Editors and Research Fellows, University of Exeter, UK, Focus on Alternative and Complementary Therapies [FACT]

An analysis of what 'proved to work' means. Edzard Ernst, MD, PhD, FRCP, FRCPEd, Focus on Alternative and Complementary Therapies [FACT]

Includes criticism of media reports on alternative medicine, and also looks at alternative medicine in relation to Christian religious beliefs. Article by Dónal P. O'Mathúna, PhD, fellow of The Center for Bioethics and Human Dignity and Professor of Bioethics and Chemistry at Mount Carmel College of Nursing in Columbus, Ohio, USA.

"A demonstrably favorable risk-free profile is an essential requirement for CM (Complementary Medicine), as it is for any other form of medicine. Without it, issues like regulation of and training in CM degrade to mere window-dressing exercises." Commentary by Edzard Ernst, MD, PhD, FRCP (Diabetes Care)

E. Ernst, M. H. Cohen and J. Stone (Journal of Medical Ethics)

"The biggest problem with so-called complementary and alternative medicine — CAM (a misleading name for it is neither complementary nor a legitimate alternative) is that its proponents overtly seek to create a double standard to medicine…..I think the worst can be avoided, however, if the public is made acutely aware of the true nature of CAM promotion…" Article by Steven Novella, MD (NeuroLogica Blog)

"Claims that conventional medicine is not widely based on evidence should be rejected, as should logically fallacious arguments based on such claims. The evidence fails to support them." R. Imrie and D. W. Ramey, Complementary Therapies in Medicine [Reprinted by Veterinarywatch.]

Reported uses of complementary and alternative medicine by 38 named celebrities. The therapies include the Atkins diet, homeopathy, acupuncture, gem therapy, dowsing, Ayurveda, reflexology, magnet therapy, the Eskimo diet, healing, breathing therapy, yoga, herbalism, the Alexander technique, Klamath Lake algae, cupping, ginseng, and bioenergy. Edzard Ernst and Max H. Pittler (The Medical Journal of Australia)

"The assumption we should really mistrust is that satisfaction with CAM services is the same as a demonstration of efficacy….. The danger of integrative medicine lies in creating a smoke-screen behind which dubious practices are pushed into routine healthcare." Edzard Ernst, Md, PhD, FRCP, (The Journal of Family Medicine) [pdf]

Professor Edzard Ernst addresses eight common arguments against testing the efficacy of therapeutic approaches in CAM. (Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine)

Arguably the 'holistic approach' is fragmented and the 'conventional approach' can prove to be more holistic than the naïve holism displayed by some complementary practitioners." Edzard Ernst, (British Journal of General Practice)

Experiments and thoughts on quackery, health beliefs and pseudoscience. Also provides help in judging whether information sources are trustworthy by counting words in web pages that quacks tend to use. The more such words, the more quackery is suspected.

Video clip of Simon Singh discussing alternative medicine. (8mins 19secs)