Alternative Medicine in Australia

Professor Edzard Ernst is the first Professor of Complementary Medicine in the world and worked at the University of Exeter, England. He is in Australia to speak at the Australasian Pharmaceutical Science Association conference in Adelaide. The professor once called Prince Charles a “snake oil salesman” for his dandelion and detox remedy which eventually led to his early retirement.

Australia is one of the highest users of alternative medicine in the world and around half the population take some form of it every day. Professor Ernst thinks it's unethical, criminal and probably contributed to the death of Apple boss Steve Jobs. He’s particularly critical of homeopathy, aromatherapy, herbal remedies, Bach flower remedies and magnetic therapies but supports evidence-based tested medicine such as St John's wort.

His run-in with Prince Charles over a “confidentiality claim” proved fatal and the University of Exeter treated him as “persona non grata”. His funding eventually dried up, his staff drifted away, and he took early retirement this year.

In 2008 he wanted to crack down on chemists in the UK who sold homeopathic remedies without a warning. “My plea is simply for honesty, let people buy what they want, but tell them the truth about what they are buying. These treatments are biologically implausible and the clinical tests have shown they don't do anything at all in human beings. The argument that this information is not relevant or important for customers is quite simply ridiculous."

I find this a totally grey area and believe the Jury is still out on alternative medicine. Steve Jobs admitted he made a terrible decision not to embrace traditional medicine when he first discovered he had cancer, perhaps he could have been around a lot longer if he had. But if the professor agrees that St John's wort is a proven herbal treatment, there must be others. If Aspirin originally came from the willow tree, it’s reasonable to assume that other cures, as yet undiscovered, will also be found in nature and I’ll wager that’s where the cure for cancer will come.