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, VidarklinikenHomeopathic 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 healthDuring 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
Tags: acupuncture, alternative medicine, anthroposophy, Barack Obama, BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine, CAM, CAM use, collaboration, complementary and alternative medicine, DNA, drug, editorial, education, Elisabeth Blackburn, evidence, Fredrik Reinfeldt, health care, Hong Kong, I C, integrative care, Integrative Care Science Center, integrative medicine, Middle East, National Board of Health and Welfare, newsletter, pain, patient-doctor communication, prohibition, register, research, stress, telomer, The Integrative Care Science Center, Tieto, Torkel Falkenberg, training, utilization, Vetenskap och Folkbildning, VoF, WHOThe concept of personalized medicine has become synonymous with risk factor identification and treatment. But according to a German study, our understanding of the term is in fact more in line with personal development, integrative care, authenticity, self-determination and wellbeing. Values which we look for in complementary, alternative and integrative care. Read more
Tags: attitude, authenticity, biomarker, Brigitte Franzel, CAM, communication, complementary and alternative medicine, conceptions, cytochrome P450, David Finer, discourse, ethnography, grapefruit, health care, individualized medicine, integrative medicine, meaning, narrative, patient, patient-doctor communication, person-centered, personalized medicine, researchA national Swedish survey shows for the first time that a majority of surgeons want to learn more about CAM, Complementary and Alternative Medicine. The study was carried out in 2010-2011 by Kristofer Bjerså, RN and collaborators at the Sahlgrenska Academy, Gothenburg University and is published in the journal BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine. The […] Read more
Tags: acupuncture, attitude, bias, BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine, CAM, complementary and alternative medicine, David Finer, Gothenburg, healing, herbal, integrative medicine, knowledge, Kristoffer Bjerså, manual therapy, massage, Nils-Olof Jacobson, nutrion, nutritional supplement, qualitative, qualitative research, qualitative study, quantitative, quantitative research, quantitative study, Sahlgrenska Academy, social psychiatry, study bias, surgery, surgical, yoga- I C is just what we have been missing in Sweden. As politicians we will really be able to use your results and I am looking forward to them, says professor of medicine and MP for the Swedish conservative party Finn Bengtsson, at the opening ceremony of I C. Read more
Tags: Antonovsky, Arvid Carlsson, ayurveda, CAM, clinical pharmacology, comprehensibility, Conservative, Conservative Party, conventional medicine, David Finer, Eastern Medicine, Finn Bengtsson, health care, health care system, I C, Integrative Care Science Center, integrative medicine, Johanna Hök, Linköping University, manageability, meaningful, meaningfulness, Member of Parliament, MP, National Board of Health and Welfare, Nobel Prize, patient, patient rights, patient rights law, Riksdag, Riksdagen, salutogenesis, salutogenetic, Sense of Coherence, SOC, Socialstyrelsen, Stockholm, Sveriges Riksdag, TCM, Torkel Falkenberg, United Spaces, Waterfront Building, Western medicine