With thanks to the Daily Telepgraph 22.6.09:

Aconite, gelsemiun, ignatia… just a few things you might want to have handy when Andy Murray steps out at Wimbledon this week.

For these homeopathic remedies can be helpful if, in respective order, you’re feeling anxious and fearful, suffering pre-match nerves in the stands at Centre Court or, worse still, concerned that you might be grief-stricken when the umpire calls game, set and match. read the entry »

Edmund Becket, Lord Grimthorpe was an enthusiastic and ardent devotee of homeopathy, and he wrote to The Times in 1888 to protest against the prejudice of the allopathic physicians in dismissing Kenneth Millican, which resulted in a month long battle of words in The Times, and the whole affair was written up in John Henry Clarke’s Odium medicum and homeopathy. read the entry »

With thanks to the Prince’s Foundation for Integrated Health 13.5.09:

Complementary healthcare should be offered ‘free, as of right’ on the NHS, a former government minister told the Prince’s Foundation for Integrated Health.

Calling for governments across the UK to act, Peter Hain, the former Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, praised a pilot scheme in the province that allowed GPs to refer patients for complementary therapies funded by the health service. read the entry »

With thanks to The International Times 5.6.09:

Syed Mahboob Alam, a doctor working towards his doctoral degree under the supervision of former Chairman of the University of Karachi (KU) Pharmacognosy Department Dr Mansoor Ahmed, has discovered that various types of cancer could be treated by administering herbal medicines to the patients in the homeopathic system.

It was usually perceived before this research that there was no cure for cancer in allopathic or homeopathic system of medicine. read the entry »

In 1828-9 Cosmo Maria De Horatiis conducted clinical trials into homeopathy in Naples, at the Military Hospital of the Trinity, and he published the results of these trials, causing a great sensation in Naples.

Francis I decided to definitivly manage this outcry with a series of clinical trials under his auspices, and Francis I issued a Royal Decree to open a homeopathic clinic and conduct clinical trials into homeopathy. read the entry »

With thanks to Scoop Sci Tech 4.6.09:

The New Zealand Council of Homeopaths (NZCH) welcomes a survey of the use of Homeopathic medicines that reported 92% of people who have taken Homeopathic remedies experienced a positive effect.

The study published in the New Zealand Medical Journal surveyed 124 people in Doctors’ surgeries [1]. Of these 65% said they had used homeopathic remedies with 92% reported experiencing a positive result. These findings confirm the results from studies conducted overseas (2,3,4). read the entry »

With thanks to the BBC:

Patients with persistent low back pain should be offered acupuncture, massages or exercises on the NHS, says guidance.

It is the first time the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence has explicitly backed the use of complementary therapies. The rationing watchdog said evidence suggests they help and will be cost effective if doctors stop providing less proven back services like X-rays.

The move was welcomed by some charities and experts but criticised by others. read the entry »

With thanks to The Irish Times.com:

Switzerland became the first country in Europe to enshrine complementary medicine into its constitution when more than 67 per cent of national voters opted in favour of a new constitutional article on complementary medicine last week.

That result, which followed a public campaign, will now make it more likely that certain complementary therapies will be re-instated into the basic health insurance scheme available to all Swiss citizens. read the entry »

With thanks to Harald Walach Research Professor in Psychology, University of Northampton:

Does the campaign against CAM indicate that powerful factions feel threatened?

A complacent CAM world has been slow to collect supporting data, but the waning of big pharma’s once unassailable economic and clinical dominance may be a significant motivator for some who oppose integration.

With biotech innovation slowing down, and adverse event scandals and research irregularities, users are distrusting flagship revenue producing medications.

As healthcare policy reshapes mainstream medicine we will need to understand the forces ranged against integrated medicine…. read the entry »

With thanks to Dana Ullman May 2009:

Our military thinking and our medical thinking have a surprising amount in common. It isn’t just happenstance that doctors proudly assert that they seek to attack illness, combat disease, kill infectious agents and create a war on cancer or on any disease.

Physicians seem so stuck in this medical mindset of militaristic thinking that it isn’t surprising—they have a long history of attacking other viable strategies that seem to be less medical or less militaristic. read the entry »