OP/ED: Making choices between treatments or practitioners without solid comparative information. Using products of unknown quality, safety and efficacy from Internet websites or local drug sellers. These are some of the many challenges we face as consumers of traditional, complementary and alternative medicine (TCAM). I recently participated in a WHO workshop in Macao SAR, China, on consumer education and TCAM. Read more
In reference to the recent articles in the Swedish tabloid newspaper Expressen criticizing certain CAM therapies, the Swedish Minister of Health Göran Hägglund emphasized the need for reliable information, a critical approach and training of health care staff. Associate Professor Torkel Falkenberg, Head of IC, welcomes critical journalism but emphasizes that the newspaper erroneously lumps all CAM therapies together as if they were the same Read more
Contemporary Sweden is a multicultural and multireligious society. Whether we like it or not. That is the message of the anthology "Holy Health", writes Göran Ståhle, a senior lecturer in the Psychology of Religion at Södertörn University in Stockholm, who is one of the editors of the book. After his article, journalist David Finer provides a description of the contents. Read more
- From a patient perspective, it is of course encouraging that a usage which has been made an exception for decades now will be accepted, Johanna Hök, pharmacist, PhD and I C researcher comments on the decision by the Swedish Medical Products Agency (MPA) to approve mistletoe preparations for injection. Read more
- Ignorance and fear are at the heart of the resistance to our proposals. Sweden is at least ten years behind in the field of diet and health. Our politicians must be bold enough to allocate more resources, says Dr. David Stenholtz, President of the recently formed NGO Physicians for the Future in this interview. Read more
In the future, we need to secure access to health care, which safely and effectively integrates traditional, complementary and alternative medicine (TM/CAM). It is a human right. So says the World Health Organization, whose Director-General Dr. Margaret Chan recently signed a new strategy to this effect. Read more
Homeopathic IC´s reporters are not easily daunted. Recently, we reported from the European Sceptics Conference in Stockholm. This time, we have attended the First Nordic Homeopathy Research Conference, held in Gothenburg, Sweden. All with the aim of giving our readers hot news from the frontiers of CAM research and debate. Following on Dr. Peter Fisher´s characterization of Sweden as a “homeopathic desert”, the meeting was a revitalizing oasis, at least for the already converted. Read more
This year it is 200 years since Per Henrik Ling founded the Royal Gymnastics Central Institute in Stockholm, Sweden. Ling´s extensive gymnastic system integrated physical activity, training and manual treatments for health promotion and health care. It became a Swedish success story and a strong “export product” all over the world. Read more
Complementary and alternative medicine slips through the cracks of the government agencies, and consumers have to pay. That is why there is a need for sceptics´and consumer organizations. Molecular cell biologist Professor Dan Larhammar, Uppsala University focused on ineffective and fraudulent alternatives in a lecture on the eve of the 15th European Sceptics Congress in Stockholm recently. Read more
During the recent state visit of US President Barack Obama to Sweden, there was an almost hour-long press conference during which Obama and Sweden´s PM Fredrik Reinfeldt affirmed their debt of gratitude to each other´s countries in various respects. At I C (Integrative Care Science Center), we view the US as a role model in terms of concerted, long-term and large-scale efforts in the field of complementary, alternative and integrative care/medicine, writes Torkel Falkenberg, Head of I C in an editorial. Read more