William B. Grant, PhD, of Sunlight, Nutrition and Health Research Center in San Francisco strongly recommends this book to those working on natural ways to reduce the risk of disease.

Tarnished Gold: The Sickness of Evidence-based Medicine
by Steve Hickey, PhD, and Hilary Roberts, PhD
342 pp, ISBN 9781466397293
Available from Amazon.com

The book is a strong critique of modern health care systems as controlled by the FDA and NIH in the US and NICE in the UK.

Here are selected quotes from the concluding summary on pages 310-313.

"The large-scale randomized trials and meta-analyses of EBM are not appropriate for clinical medicine."

"EBM does not adhere to the scientific method. It is a poor induction system, unable to make breakthroughs or even reasonable progress."

"EBM has no underlying rational structure, it lacks coherence and theoretical underpinnings. EBM is debasing science and failing to progress medicine."

"EBM selects its data.... Because of this selection, EBM has the appearance of science but is nonsense."

"EBM uses pre-computer and related statistical methods for separating groups"

"EBM wastes research funds. Using scarce resources on large-scale trials slows progress. A single large-scale trial could be replaced by numerous PhD studies or 1970s-sized trials."

"Placebo-controlled drug trials are unethical. The purpose of placebo-controlled trials is to introduce poor but profitable therapies. The slight benefits of such new drugs are likely to be overwhelmed by hidden side effects, awaiting discovery."

"EBM encourages totalitarian medicine."

"There is no such thing as scientific proof. All treatments are scientifically unproven. ... 'Evidence-based' medicine implements restrictions on medicine for the benefits of professionals, corporations and governments."

"EBM inhibits progress by restricting scientific and clinical innovation. Find a cure for cancer and, unless you have tens of millions of dollars or can promise massive profits for a pharmaceutical company, it will remain 'unproven.' The trials will not be performed and all other data will be described as 'no evidence'."

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