Even the Best Scientific Studies Can Lie: The Case of Craniosacral Therapy, 2020, Jarry (McGill) meta-analyses

Ha, I knew it...

In my last year at Osteopathy college we were given a special course on the exciting new treatment called Cranial Osteopathy or CranioSacral therapy. The patient lay on their back and you held their head cupped in your hands with your finger tips placed along the base of the skull and you were supposed to be able to feel the 'pulse' of the cerebrospinal fluid. Needless to say I felt nothing, either as therapist or patient. Some of my fellow students convinced themselves they were feeling it...

I can't remember exactly what the treatment we were taught involved, but it seemed to be gentle changes in pressure you applied to parts of the neck and skull.

Some years later a friend and fellow osteopath offered me some free Cranial treatment for my ME. It was a pleasant relax, but needless to say it made f*** all difference to my ME.

It's bunkum.

 

A friend of my wife is a practitioner. She performed her art upon my head in our kitchen. My duties as a polite host prevented me from saying "but this is a whole load of ridiculous horse-shit" so I went along with it, much as I would have if someone has asked me if I'd like to hear their two-year-old singing a new song.