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Four letters to the editor critical of papers on Reiki have been published.

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Featured topic: CDC website on vaccines and autism

David Gorski (Science Based Medicine): “The CDC is lying to you about vaccines and autism.”
Edzard Ernst: “CDC: The claim ‘vaccines do not cause autism’ is not evidence-based!”
Paul Offit (Beyond the Noise): “CDC 1946-2025: R.I.P.”
Washington Post: “CDC in turmoil after agency backpedals on rejecting vaccines-autism link.”
New York Times: “Kennedy says he told C.D.C. to change website’s language on autism and vaccines.”
Center for Inquiry: “Shameful dereliction: CFI condemns revision of CDC website to suggest autism-vaccine link.”
Jerry Faust (Inside Medicine): “RFK Jr.’s CDC fills its autism webpage with anti-vaxxer talking points.”
Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA: “Statement on CDC’s vaccines and autism webpage.”
National Academies of Science: “Statement on CDC’s changes to guidance on vaccines and autism.”

Other topics

On Science-Based Medicine,

Mark Crislip:

Discussed a study of acupuncture for low back pain. “This is a pragmatic study. A pragmatic study is defined as one that ignores all the subtleties and biases that might render a study negative… No sham, no way to know if the effects one sees are the real deal or not…And so it was a ‘positive’ study. I mean, why even bother to waste the time and money on such a worthless study. It tells us nothing and does not add to our understanding.”

Steven Novella:

Asked “Are cardiac calcium CT scans useful?” “This history of this diagnostic tool also shows nicely how science-based medicine works. After the scan was developed, it did not immediately go into widespread use. Doctors were skeptical of its utility, and asked every possible question about what it did and did not predict, and eventually developed an evidence-based recommendation for how it can be incorporated into the total care of patients. This stands in stark contrast to many ‘alternative’ or pseudoscientific medical interventions, where a diagnostic or therapeutic intervention is developed, often out of whole cloth based on some hand-wavy justification, and then widely adopted without any real assessment of its safety and utility. Never do you see three decades of careful research before use is cautiously recommended.”
Posted “Systematic review of homeopathy for rheumatological disease.” “So of the 10 studies that were blinded and controlled, six were straight-up negative. Of the four with positive results, all were very small studies (essentially pilot studies) with some highly problematic features. Non-blinded studies with subjective outcomes are essentially worthless in terms of determining efficacy. Overall this is the pattern we expect to see for a treatment that does not work – small preliminary studies showing mixed results, with better studies that are mostly negative. The review authors are simply wrong in saying that ‘most’ of the studies were positive, and they failed to consider the relationship between the quality of the study and the outcome. They authors believe these results are encouraging, but they are the opposite…There isn’t a single indication for which any homeopathic product or treatment has been shown to be effective. Instead what we get is what we see in this review – a scattershot of poorly designed small studies with unreliable results. Studies of any quality tend to be negative. But there is no replicable effect here.”
Discussed “Creatine supplements for brain function.” “The claims for creatine are semi-plausible, and low-dose supplementation is likely safe (with the caveats above). But the clinical evidence is mixed and preliminary. I am especially concerned that the evidence shows no effect for ‘overall cognitive performance.’ Given the overall false positive bias in the medical literature, especially for preliminary studies, the probability that creatine will turn out to be significantly effective is somewhat low, but non-zero.”
Wrote “A new test for chronic fatigue syndrome?” “What we have here is a potential new puzzle piece in the complex story of CFS. It needs to be confirmed, and if so then there needs to be lots of follow up research to know what it all means. I suspect we are still 10-20 years away from an actually useful clinical test of CFS based on these findings (if they pan out).”

Edzard Ernst:

Posted “Reiki for postmenopausal symptoms? No, thanks!” “The study was designed to compare Reiki plus standard care with standard care alone. Thus it followed the infamous A+B versus B design about which I have written repeatedly. It is popular amongst researchers of so-called alternative medicine (SCAM) because it invariably produces positive results, even if the tested therapy is a mere placebo.”
Wrote “Traditional medicine and its contributions to science, health equity and sustainability.” “The WHO aim to ‘advance the contribution of evidence-based traditional, complementary and integrative medicine’ seems laudable, yet it also raises concerns: once any form of medicine is ‘evidence-based,’ it is not ‘traditional, complementary and integrative.’ Then it is by definition EBM, evidence-based medicine!...The fact that ‘traditional medicine is the primary or preferred care for billions of people worldwide’ does not necessarily mean that its ‘clinical potential is considerable.’ More likely it means that billions have to rely on obsolete forms of medicine from the dark ages because they cannot afford effective treatments…One would have hoped that, instead of promoting unproven ‘traditional medicine’, an urgent task of the WHO would be to warn people of bogus and often dangerous claims that are ubiquitous in this sector.”
Posted “Qigong for well-being in pregnancy?” “I beg to differ and claim that qigong has no effects per se, and that the observed outcomes are entirely due to placebo effects…Firstly, there are no compelling reasons to believe that qigong has meaningful health effects. Secondly, as the study does not control for placebo effects and qigong is likely to generate such responses, my claim seems much more plausible. My conclusion: lousy study designs must generate unreliable results.”
Reported “Another Walach paper has been retracted!” The paper dealt with placebo effects and Walach’s concept of “entanglement.”
Discussed “Osteopathic manipulative treatment in the management of headaches associated with musculoskeletal dysfunction.” “Yes, the authors try to be cautious in their conclusions and admit that the evidence is weak. Yet, I simply do not see enough compelling evidence to agree with them that the data are even suggestive of a positive effect.”
Posted “Joe Dispenza and his ‘landmark’ study of 'Dr Joe's Week Long Retreat'.” “So, what can we conclude? The answer is, as always with uncontrolled observational studies, VERY LITTLE!...Have they considered that the simple act of taking 20 people out of their daily stress and routine and put them in a retreat would have profound impact on most of the parameters they measured? Evidently not! Why not? Could it be, I wonder, that the entire study was little more than a sophisticated promotional exercise for ‘Dr Joe’s Week Long Retreat’ (an all-inclusive package sets you back US$3,500)?”
Wrote “Effectiveness of dry cupping for women with MS.” “Oh dear, where to begin? One is spoilt for choice when criticising this study…In view of this, I think I ought to re-phrase the conclusions as follows: Like most treatments, cupping therapy is associated with significant placebo effects which can significantly reduce the patients’ fatigue and increased their QOL. Studies that fail to control for placebo effects cannot tell us about the specific effects of medical interventions and therefore are prone to mislead the public.”
Posted “A study of homeopathy for reducing anxiety symptoms…just increased my anxiety significantly.” “This paper lacks almost everything that is required to assess its alleged findings. In fact, I don’t remember ever seeing a clinical trial reported in such an insufficient way…One thing, however, seems quite clear to me: nobody can advance CAM by publishing papers that have all the hallmarks of being fraudulent!”
Discussed “'Aroma shiatsu’ for enhancing cognitive function?” “Let me point out just the most obvious flaws in this study…[list of five flaws]…So, here is my conclusion of this study: If you design a lousy trial, you get a lousy result.”
Wrote “The Nuremberg Code: is it being followed by researchers of so-called alternative medicine (SCAM)?” Three key features of the code are often violated.
Published “Finally! The long-awaited ‘retraction notice’ of the infamous study by Frass et al (on homeopathy for cancer) has been published.”
Posted “Six reasons why poorly designed clinical trials are unethical and/or dangerous.”
Wrote “The effects of taekwondo versus tai chi on health status.” “My conclusion is therefore (yet again): If you design a nonsense study, you are bound to get a nonsense result.”
Discussed “Non-pharmacological and non-surgical treatments for low back pain in adults: an overview of Cochrane reviews.” “On both of these measures chiropractic spinal manipulation is less convincing than some of the other options available, as we have discussed ad nauseam on this blog. So, in a nutshell, the message to LBP patients can be put simply: stay away from chiros, keep active and, if you insist, use whatever other form of SCAM [so-called alternative medicine] that you fancy, that is safe and inexpensive.”
Posted “Effect of Bach flower therapy in mothers of premature newborns.” “The remedy does not contain relevant doses of pharmacologically active molecules (other than alcohol). This means that, in this study, the authors tested one placebo against another one. Why then is there a difference in the outcome?” Ernst doubts that blinding was effective. “In any case, the conclusion (even if the ‘Five-Flower essence’ did work exactly as described) is far too optimistic. Before anyone might accept the results, we need an INDEPENDENT replication of this dubious study.”

On McGill Office for Science and Society:

Jonathan Jarry:

Wrote “Extracting drugs from nature is hard.” “Natural medicine enthusiasts will often refer to nature as a pharmacy in disguise and claim that various herbs, trees, seeds, fruits, roots, and leaves have healing properties. The fact that a natural molecule has some anticancer activity when added to cells in a plastic dish does not mean it will be safe and effective when given to a patient; in fact, most of these promising compounds fail when rigorously tested in humans.”
Posted “Who is the low-histamine diet really for?” “Histamine intolerance is said to be a condition that affects certain people who develop symptoms like skin rashes and stomach upset after consuming food that has a high histamine content, like fermented products, fish, and cheese. A low-histamine diet is difficult to define because the histamine content of a particular ingredient can vary a lot depending on storage, ripeness, and processing. The main diagnostic test for histamine intolerance (the serum DAO test) is not reliable, as many healthy people also test positive. In studies where people suspected of having histamine intolerance are given a tea that has not been spiked with histamine, the majority develops symptoms of histamine intolerance, casting doubt on the diagnosis.”
Wrote “Ayurveda can harm your liver.” “Ayurveda is a prescientific healing system from India that is comparable to the four-humour theory of Ancient Greece. Ayurvedic preparations can include animal dung as an active ingredient. Many Ayurvedic preparations have been found to contain alarming amounts of heavy metals like arsenic and mercury, which can cause or worsen liver disease.”
Discussed “The strange story of nicotine patches to treat long COVID.” “The idea behind using nicotine patches to treat long COVID comes from the observation that smokers appeared to be less likely to be hospitalized with COVID-19 early during the pandemic. A French group of scientists hypothesized that nicotine, which is found in cigarettes, binds a type of receptor inside the body, thus preventing the coronavirus itself from binding to it. There are problems with this hypothesis: the underrepresentation of smokers in COVID wards was due to incomplete data, and experiments in the lab trying to validate if the coronavirus does bind to the same receptor as nicotine have resulted in contradictory results. While nicotine patches are relatively safe in smokers trying to quit, the risk of developing a nicotine addiction in nonsmokers who use them has not been properly evaluated. Nicotine patches, as opposed to cigarettes and other types of nicotine replacement therapy, are thought to not lead to addiction because the dose of nicotine is low and continuous.”
Wrote “Hydrogen-rich Gary Brecka is floating on air.” “Gary Brecka, who has undergraduate degrees in biology and work experience in the insurance industry, believes he has found ways to turn yourself into the ultimate human, cure diseases, and live longer. His recommendations include questionable interventions with no rigorous scientific evidence behind them, including drinking hydrogen-rich water. Brecka is an example of how selling a lifestyle based on preliminary scientific findings can make a person very rich in the wellness industry.”

Eva Kellner:

Posted “The 'nappuccino': myth or midday miracle?” “The moral of this story is that we don’t really know how effective caffeine naps are – if at all.”

Joe Schwarcz discussed:

Tart cherry juice for sleep (video with transcript).
Styrian pumpkin seed oil (video with transcript). “Pumpkin seed oil has vitamin E, various polyphenols, phytosterols and carotenoids that have been associated with antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects but it is unlikely that the amounts found in the amount of oil that would be consumed have any practical significance.”
Olive oil. “Some epidemiological evidence has indeed shown that people who consume a lot of olive oil may have a lower risk of breast and colon cancer and a lower risk of heart attack.”
Light therapies. “Treatments range from nonsensical to possibly useful to those proven to be effective…There is no clinical evidence that IV light therapy is effective for any disorder, and neither is any efficacy physiologically plausible. Light does not travel through the bloodstream for any significant distance since it is readily absorbed by hemoglobin in red blood cells preventing any effect on tissues.”
“Miracle Mineral Solution.” “The pushers of MMS for autism, or indeed for anything else, are not championing ‘health freedom’ as they claim. They are quacks handsomely profiting from repackaging a cheap, potentially dangerous industrial bleaching agent that they shamelessly promote as a cure for an incurable disease. They are criminals.”

November 2 – Trisha Thadani (Washington Post) wrote “This mom has three children with autism. She’s spent thousands on false hope.” “Over the past few years, Paduchowski estimates, she and her husband have spent at least $30,000 on unproven alternative treatments for her children: An intravenous therapy to remove heavy metals from her son’s body. A clinic with hyperbaric oxygen chambers. Supplements, new diets and naturopathic doctors. While some helped in small ways, others made no difference. In a few cases, she said, her children became ‘sick and pale’ or regressed.”

November 3 – Allyson Chiu (Washington Post) wrote “New story links melatonin and heart faiure, but experts say don’t panic yet.” Another story by Caroline Legaspi (New York Times) noted “But sleep experts say it is not possible to draw conclusions about melatonin from its findings, noting some major limitations of the study — which has not been peer-reviewed — including the fact that it did not prove cause and effect. A more likely explanation of the results, experts argued, is that insomnia itself — or a health condition that can cause insomnia, such as undiagnosed sleep apnea — could be to blame.”

November 3 – Trisha Pasricha wrote “As a doctor, here’s my advice on creatine supplements.” “Multiple randomized controlled trials have found that creatine supplementation can create small but real boosts in upper and lower body strength — but only when combined with resistance training…As a physician, I’d love to see a benefit for my patients in bone mineral density, especially for postmenopausal women, and, ultimately, a reduction in fractures. Unfortunately, there have been no real-world studies clearly showing this is the case…The data on cognitive function is still in its infancy, and it’s mixed.” (See also Steven Novella story above.)

November 5 – Nick Tiller (Skeptical Inquirer) wrote “Pickle juice: cramping cure or congruence bias?” “It arrived on the sporting scene without evidence, and it’ll endure without evidence. Pickle juice, then, could be a metaphor for wellness itself: an experiment in belief. Was this a crowdsourced discovery that was later rationalized by science or just another fitness fad retrofitted with a bogus mechanism?”

November 8 – Andrew Higgins (New York Times” reported “In China, the dream of outrunning time.” “Longevity labs, ‘immortality islands’ and grapeseed pills are part of China’s national project to conquer aging, despite sometimes shaky science and extravagant claims.”

November 13 – Mitchell and others published “Conceptual and methodological flaws undermine claims of a link between the gut microbiome and autism (Neuron. 2025 Nov 13:S0896-6273(25)00785-8. Epub ahead of print). “The idea that the gut microbiome causally contributes to autism has gained currency in the scientific literature and popular press. Support for this hypothesis comes from three lines of evidence: human observational studies, preclinical experiments in mice, and human clinical trials. We critically assessed this literature and found that it is beset by conceptual and methodological flaws and limitations that undermine claims that the gut microbiome is causally involved in the etiology or pathophysiology of autism.”

November 14 – Scott Jacobsen (The Good Men Project) wrote “Stuart Vyse on autism pseudoscience: facilitated communication, S2C, and ‘Telepathy Tapes’.” “How does Stuart Vyse explain the resurgence of debunked autism ‘communication’ methods—and what evidence-based strategies can counter social-media-boosted claims about FC, S2C, and alleged telepathy?”

November 16 – As noted in Consumer Health Digest, “The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) has created a resource page to counter obstetric and gynecologic health care misinformation.”

November 23 – Alsbrook and others published “From kratom to 7-hydroxymitragynine: evolution of a natural remedy into a public-health threat” (Pharm Biol. 2025 Dec;63(1):896-911). “U.S. market offers chemically enriched or semi-synthetic 7-OH products, often marketed as 'kratom' yet chemically distinct from botanical preparations…Collectively, the evidence demonstrates that concentrated 7-OH products are pharmacologically and toxicologically distinct from kratom leaf and pose significant risks of morbidity and mortality under typical conditions of use.”

Additions to previous months

August 7 – Anahad O’Connor (Washington Post) discussed sleep supplements: melatonin, magnesium, probiotics, vitamin D, and ashwagandha.

October 9 – Marcon and others published “The marketing of ’stem cell’ supplements on Amazon.com: Assessing alignment with regulatory frameworks in the United States and Canada” (Stem Cell Reports, Volume 20, Issue 11, 102675). “Whether aligning with current regulations permitting vague marketing or conflicting with regulation prohibiting a distortion of the evidentiary base, stem cell supplements with no clear consumer benefit are being promoted and sold on Amazon.com.”

October 22 – Lurie and Gostin published “The Make America Healthy Again Strategy Report” (JAMA. 2025 Oct 22. Epub ahead of print Abstract). “While the MAHA Commission’s goal of reducing chronic diseases is vital, its proposals are weak and unproven…the strategy fails to mention sodium, tobacco, or guns; added sugars appear only once; and alcoholic beverages arise only in the context of an unspecified surgeon general education initiative…It prioritizes issues with a limited role in chronic disease prevention (food additives) and those widely refuted by scientific research (linking vaccines and autism). The reports ignore gaping health inequities, even though effective public health action could reduce major gaps in health outcomes.”

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