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
Tags: CAM, China, consumer, David Finer, drugs, education, efficacy, empowerment, health literacy, herbals, information, integrative care, integrative medicine, involvement, Johanna Hök, Macao, medicines, patient, patient safety, pharmaceuticals, quality, research, safety, self-care, TCAM, TM, Torkel Falkenberg, WHO, World Health OrganizationAfter integrative care for pain at the anthroposophical hospital Vidarkliniken in Sweden, prescriptions for pain medications could be halved. Patients in conventional care however, purchased twice as many analgesics as before treatment. These are some results of a unique comparative study published in the high impact journal PLOS One. Physician Hans Johansson, Södertälje Hospital (not involved with the study), says that it is interesting and important. Read more
Tags: anthroposophical integrative care, BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine, CAM, case-control study, complementary and alternative medicine, David Finer, drug utilization, evidence, health, health care, health care cost, health economics, I C, integrative care, Integrative Care Science Center, integrative medicine, Karolinska Institutet, National Board of Health and Welfare, pain, prescribing, prospective, research, retrospective, Tobias Sundberg, Torkel Falkenberg, VidarklinikenIn 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
Tags: Anna Bäsén, bogus, CAM, CAMbrella, David Finer, EU, Expressen, Göran Hägglund, Indian Traditional Medicine, journalism, NAFKAM, pseudoscience, TCM, TM, Torkel Falkenberg, WHO, World Health OrganizationIn 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
Tags: access, CAM, health, human right, integrative care, Johanna Hök, Margaret Chan, patient autonomy, person-centered care, self-care, TM, Torkel Falkenberg, WHOPolarized thinking about complementary, alternative and integrative care is negative, well, downright dangerous. It undermines the health care encounter and harms individuals and nations. This can be read in an opinion piece in the journal European Journal of Integrative Medicine, written by researchers at I C. Read more
Tags: alternative medicine, attitude, CAM, complementary and alternative medicine, CritiCAM, David Finer, ethics, European Journal of Integrative Medicine, health care, health journalism, integrative care, Integrative Care Science Center, Jackie Schwartz, Johanna Hök, Maria Arman, mass media, Media Doctor, nursing, patient, polarization, pseudoscience, sceptics, Tobias Suundberg, Torkel Falkenberg, WHOHomeopathy is generally superior to placebo, particularly in immune-related conditions. But it has been discounted by ideologically biased researchers, who have excluded almost all published studies, referring to virtual data, and using inappropriate statistics, writes physician Robert Hahn in a critical analysis in Forschende Komplementärmedizin. Read more
Tags: alternative medicine, bias, CAM, CI, communication, confidence interval, conflict, controversy, David Finer, Edzard Ernst, evidence, Forschende Komplementärmedizin, homeopathy, ideology, odds ratio, OR, placebo, randomized controlled trial, RCT, review, Robert HahnHomeopathic 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
Tags: bias, British Medical Journal, CAM, cost-effectiveness, David Finer, evidence, homeopathy, integrative medicine, meta-analysis, NAFKAM, Peter Fisher, Peter Viksveen, public health, research, skeptics, statistics, Trine Stub, validity, WHOThis 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
Tags: CAM, complementary and alternative medicine, conventional medicine, county council, drugs, evaluation, guidellines, gymnastics, healthcare, I C, illness, integrative care, integrative medicine, Ling, manual treatment, methodology, mortality, patient organisation, pharmaceuticals, physical activity, prevention, research, self-care, Tobias Sundberg, training, WHOWomen do not integrate conventional and alternative medicine because they think it is a romantic or rebellious thing to do. They do it because they must. Health providers, after all, do not build any bridges. A diary study from Australian reveals the pragmatic approach of older women towards medical pluralism. Researchers view them as role models for all of us as consumers of the future. Read more
Tags: allopathic medicine, alternative medicine, attitude, Australia, autenticity, biomedicine, BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine, bridging gaps, CAM, complementary and alternative medicine, David Finer, diaries, disease, empowerment, gender, health, home remedies, independence, integrative care, integrative medicine, Internet, knowledge, lay activism, lay knowledge, mass media, meaning, medical pluralism, narrative analysis, natural, nature, network, networking, old wives tales, patient-doctor communication, personalised medicine, pragmatism, qualitative study, resistance, responsibility, self-care, TM, traditonal medicine, wellbeing, women, women´s healthComplementary 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
Tags: 15th European Skeptics Congress, Almedalen, alternative medicine, bluff, BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine, CAM, Christer Fuglesang, Christopher Hitchens, Dan Larhammar, David Finer, dissidents, Edzard Ernst, ethics, European Union, evidence, homeopathy, Integrative Care Science Center, marketing, mobbing, National Board of Health and Welfare, Nobel Prize, Olof Palme, Osher Center for Integrative Medicine, persecution, PJ Råsmark, placebo, Police, pseudoscience, Simon Singh, Swedish Food Agency, Swedish Skeptics Association, Trick or Treatment, Vetenskap och Folkbildning, VoF