What Future for Hahnemann's Therapeutic System?

This article explores the historical growth patterns in homeopathy, recent shifts in perception, and a likely future of this type of medicine. Homeopathic medicine developed as a contradictory approach to health compared to the orthodox view of mainstream medicine. Over the past two centuries, this form of health care has maintained its heterodox position under continued attacks from the established order. Modern medicine is being pushed by materialism and the drive to generate profits by large pharmaceutical and health care corporations. Whilst homeopathy has also enjoyed economic growth in many markets around the world, rising popularity of this type of treatment has been shown to generate regulatory concerns on some fronts. Recent pressures from regulatory authorities have resulted in both setbacks and improved situations for homeopathic prescribers, varying by country where they are located. Despite widespread attacks in the press and from some governmental authorities, users of homeopathic therapies remain staunchly attached to this form of treatment. The future of homeopathy will likely continue to be as rocky as it has been for the past two centuries.

The schism in chiropractic through the eyes of a 1st year chiropractic student.

Since its inception, the chiropractic profession has been divided along ideological fault lines. These divisions have led to a profession wide schism, which has limited mainstream acceptance, utilisation, social authority and integration. The authors explore the historical origins of this schism, taking time to consider historical context, religiosity, perpetuating factors, logical fallacies and siege mentality. Evidence is then provided for a way forward, based on the positioning of chiropractors as mainstream partners in health care.

New Canadian natural health product regulations: a qualitative study of how CAM practitioners perceive they will be impacted.

BACKGROUND: New Canadian policy to regulate natural health products (NHPs), such as herbs and vitamins were implemented on January 1st, 2004. We explored complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) practitioners' perceptions of how the new regulations may affect their practices and relationships with patients/consumers. METHODS: This was an applied ethnographic study. Data were collected in fall 2004 via qualitative interviews with 37 Canadian leaders of four CAM groups that use natural products as a core part of their practises: naturopathic medicine, traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), homeopathic medicine and Western herbalism. All interviews were transcribed verbatim and coded independently by a minimum of two investigators using content analysis. RESULTS: Three key findings emerged from the data: 1) all CAM leaders were concerned with issues of their own access to NHPs; 2) all the CAM leaders, except for the homeopathic leaders, specifically indicated a desire to have a restricted schedule of NHPs; and 3) only naturopathic leaders were concerned the NHP regulations could potentially endanger patients if they self-medicate incorrectly. CONCLUSION: Naturopaths, TCM practitioners, homeopaths, and Western herbalists were all concerned about how the new NHP regulations will affect their access to the products they need to practice effectively. Additional research will need to focus on what impacts actually occur as the regulations are implemented more fully.

New drug sugammadex: a selective relaxant binding agent.

Cyclodextrins are molecules with a hollow, truncated cone shape that possess unique lipophilic and hydrophilic properties. These unique properties enable cyclodextrins to engulf and bind lipophilic molecules while maintaining aqueous solubility. Encapsulation of molecules is the principal action of a new drug class, selective relaxant binding agents, which binds and inactivate aminosteroid nondepolarizing muscle relaxants. Sugammadex is the name of a modified cyclodextrin currently in phase 3 studies by Organon International (Oss, The Netherlands), and it may hold promise for a new concept in muscle relaxant reversal. Encapsulation rather than competitive antagonism of neuromuscular blockade may be a future modality of anesthetic practice.

Cultural components of behavioural epidemiology: implications for primary health care.

In this article we discuss the association of culturally linked behaviour and epidemiology: that patterns of disease are significantly related to cultural sets of normative beliefs and behaviour. The literature on this is vast and includes much of what is written under the headings of Medical Anthropology as well as, for example, Cross-cultural Psychiatry and Medical Geography. A comprehensive review is obviously impossible, but as this is presented primarily as a background paper, basic issues are raised, and related to examples from the literature, to stimulate discussion. The article is divided into four subsections which give an indication of our focus: culture, disease and illness causation; utilization and provision of health resources; health, illness and normative socio-political and economic behaviour and primary health care, community participation and culture--implications for the future.

Herbal and complementary medicine in dermatology.

This article is a description of how I have integrated Complementary Medicine into the practice of dermatology over the past 2 decades. It emphasizes observing the principles of the system being used, such as the herbal concept of the synergy of the entire plant extract. Examples discussed include the use of flavonoids to protect the liver and capillaries. Herbs and techniques for reducing the inflammatory response, as well as for enhancing immunity, are given. The concept of homeopathy and a few remedies to use in office practice are discussed. Finally, a few methods to complement the treatment of melanoma are presented.

Postmodern attitudes about health: a population-based exploratory study.

OBJECTIVE: This paper presents a preliminary exploration of the prevalence of postmodern attitudes about health. DESIGN: In a region of southeastern Australia structured telephone interviews with a random sample of 209 participants. RESULTS: Responses suggesting postmodern attitudes to health were prevalent: the majority of respondents appear to hold a holistic view of health, believe in individual responsibility for achieving health, reject medical authority, hold consumerist values, prefer natural products over chemical drugs, think most prescription drugs have side effects, do not believe all illnesses require medication from doctors and hold anti-technology sentiments. However, results reveal that most people have much faith in science. CONCLUSION: Attitudes prevalent among the public in south eastern Australia are congruent with the philosophy of most complementary therapists. This may be one reason for the growth of complementary medicine.

Complementary medicine: evidence base, competence to practice and regulation.

This paper describes the current status and evidence base for acupuncture, homeopathy, herbal and manipulative medicine, as well as the regulatory framework within which these therapies are provided. It also explores the present role of the Royal College of Physicians' Subcommittee on Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) in relation to these developments. A number of CAM professions have encouraged the Royal College of Physicians Subcommittee to act as a reference point for their discussions with the conventional medical profession and the subcomittee believes that they are able to fulfil this function.

Homeopathy in rehabilitation medicine.

Rehabilitationists must be able to assess not only the diagnostic entity, but also the person who is sick. The rehabilitation community's understanding of the holism involved in healing and the limitations of conventional therapies creates an openness to consider the usefulness of unconventional therapies. This article explores the role of homeopathy in rehabilitation medicine.

[Evidence-based medicine and the diverse cultures of healing]. / La medicina delle evidenze scientifiche e le diverse culture della guarigione.

The term "unconventional medicine" refers to a remarkably heterogeneous group of theories and practices (homeopathy, herbal medicine, acupuncture, etc.) different from those peculiar to the dominant health system of a particular society. An unifying characteristic of these practices is that they have not been scientifically tested and that unconventional practitioners largely deny the need for such testing. However, established research procedures are to be considered adequate to address the majority of questions related to unconventional therapies and promising unconventional therapies should be subjected to the same level of scientific scrutiny that is required for drug therapies used within the official medicine. While many questions about the risk/benefit ratio of unconventional therapies remain unanswered, millions of people are spending millions of dollars each year in several developed countries, thus, to define strategies aimed at the careful evaluation of these practices is needed.

Toxicology rewrites its history and rethinks its future: giving equal focus to both harmful and beneficial effects.

This paper assesses how medicine adopted the threshold dose-response to evaluate health effects of drugs and chemicals throughout the 20th century to the present. Homeopathy first adopted the biphasic dose-response, making it an explanatory principle. Medicine used its influence to discredit the biphasic dose-response model to harm homeopathy and to promote its alternative, the threshold dose-response. However, it failed to validate the capacity of its model to make accurate predictions in the low-dose zone. Recent attempts to validate the threshold dose-response indicate that it poorly predicts responses below the threshold. The long marginalized biphasic/hormetic dose-response model made accurate predictions in these validation studies. The failure to accept the possibility of the hormetic-biphasic dose-response during toxicology's dose-response concept formative period, while adopting the threshold model, and later the linear no-threshold model for carcinogens, led toxicology to adopt a hazard assessment process that involved testing only a few very high doses. This created the framework that toxicology was a discipline that only studied harmful responses, ignoring the possibility of benefit at low doses by the induction of adaptive mechanisms. Toxicology needs to assess the entire dose-response continuum, incorporating both harmful and beneficial effects into the risk assessment process.

Under pressure: homeopathy UK and its detractors.

Though homeopathy has been in successful and continuous use for well over 200 years, in the United Kingdom it is under growing pressure, from scientific detractors and sections of the media. As such, homeopathy's free National Health Service provision is threatened because it is derided as 'unproven', 'unscientific', and even 'deadly'. While refuting these and other detractions, this paper considers possible reasons for the current plight of homeopathy UK. Thus, the current attacks against homeopathy should be viewed more in the context of the globalised pharmaceutical industry which is itself in crisis, and a succession of UK governments seemingly supine in the face of legislation originating from the European Union.

Drug abuse in China: past, present and future.

Following British importation of opium to China in 1760s, the use and production of the drug in China increased dramatically. This situation was aggravated after the failure of Opium Wars that occurred between the United Kingdom and the Qing Empire in China with the aim of forcing China to import British Opium; this war made China open the door to a free flowing opium trade, with disastrous social and public health consequences. The subsequent rise of the new China created drug-free atmosphere by strict legislation and punishment, in which drug use greatly decreased. However, in the context of governmental reform and the open-door policies of the 1980s, drug abuse has re-emerged as a major public health problem. Today, drug abuse is highly linked to the spread of HIV/AIDS and to drug-related crimes in China. To combat the severe drug problem facing the nation, the Chinese government has adopted the Methadone Maintenance Treatment program, a multi-faceted therapeutic approach that aims to reduce the health and social problem induced by drug epidemics. In addition, traditional Chinese medicine, including herbal therapy and acupuncture, both found to be effective in the prevention of relapse and causes few side effects, making them useful for the treatment of opiate addiction. With continuous application of these therapies and managements that have been proved to be effective in harm reduction in the western countries, we believe that drug abuse and its related problems in China will be brought under control.

Homeopathy and mainstream medicine: a dialogue of the deaf?

Various definitions of complementary and alternative medicine have been proposed. Homeopathy is unique among CAM therapies in originating in European Enlightenment thought. It is controversial and scientifically implausible yet popular, widespread and durable. The result has been a longstanding 'dialogue of the deaf', with little progress or genuine discussion. Clinical collaboration and serious and scientific discourse concerning homeopathy is possible and should be pursued. The alternative is not that homeopathy disappears but that it is absorbed into a dis-affected medical counter-culture with adverse consequences, particularly for patients. The Royal London Homoeopathic Hospital is developing clinical integration and scientific collaboration with a major academic medical centre in London.