Forschende Komplementarmedizin und klassische Naturheilkunde = Research in complementary and natural classical medicine最新文献

{"title":"Integration of complementary and alternative medicine into German medical school curricula -- contradictions between the opinions of decision makers and the status quo.","authors":"Benno Brinkhaus,&nbsp;Stefanie Joos,&nbsp;Martin Lindner,&nbsp;Ralf Kohnen,&nbsp;Claudia Witt,&nbsp;Stefan N Willich,&nbsp;Eckhart G Hahn","doi":"10.1159/000085227","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1159/000085227","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Introduction: </strong>There is a growing demand for complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) in Western societies. This trend has lead to the gradual integration of CAM courses into medical school curricula. The aim of this study was to survey key decision makers at German medical schools with regard to their views on CAM and to examine the extent to which CAM has already been integrated in the German medical school system.</p><p><strong>Materials and methods: </strong>A questionnaire was sent to 753 clinic and institute directors at German medical schools.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>A total of 500 questionnaires (66%) were returned. 39% of respondents had a positive opinion of CAM, 27% had a neutral opinion and 31% had a negative opinion. 3% of respondents were unsure. The CAM therapies viewed most positively were osteopathy (52%), acupuncture (48%), and naturopathy (41%). Most respondents were in favor of integrating CAM into the medical system. However, a larger percentage favored its use in research (61%) and teaching (59%) rather than in the treatment of patients (58%). Only 191 respondents (38%) indicated that CAM treatment methods had been integrated into the curriculum of their respective medical schools. In these schools, CAM was mainly used in patient treatment (35%), followed by research (22%) and education (21%).</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>Our data show that the majority of respondents were in favor of integrating CAM into medical school curricula. However, at the time of our survey, only a small percentage of medical schools had actually put this into practice. The reasons for this discrepancy are unclear and should be further investigated.</p>","PeriodicalId":80278,"journal":{"name":"Forschende Komplementarmedizin und klassische Naturheilkunde = Research in complementary and natural classical medicine","volume":"12 3","pages":"139-43"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2005-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1159/000085227","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"24872156","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"[Oral enzyme therapy for chronic hepatitis C--a retrospective analysis].","authors":"Roman Huber,&nbsp;Isabel Futter,&nbsp;Roland Goedl,&nbsp;Matthias Rostock,&nbsp;Rainer Lüdtke","doi":"10.1159/000082479","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1159/000082479","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background and objective: </strong>Data from a randomized trial in hepatitis C infected Egyptian patients suggest that the oral intake of the enzyme preparation Phlogenzym results in a significant reduction of aminotransferase levels and is equally effective to the therapy with interferon alpha. In our study, we investigated whether comparable effects can be found in daily practice in German patients.</p><p><strong>Patients and methods: </strong>We retrospectively evaluated the aminotransferase levels of all patients with chronic hepatitis C who were treated with Phlogenzym at a dose of 6 tablets/day in our outpatient department between 1998 and 2003. Inclusion criteria for the study were treatment duration >3 weeks and elevated alanine-aminotransferase (ALT)levels 6 months prior to and at the beginning of the treatment with Phlogenzym. Liver cirrhosis Child B or C, interferon therapy within the last 3 months before treatment with Phlogenzym and alcohol intake >30 g/day were exclusion criteria.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>22 patients were included into the analyses. The mean duration of treatment with Phlogenzym was 77 +/- 41 days. ALT, aspartate-aminotransferase (AST) and gamma glutamyl transpeptidase (GGT) levels did not change significantly during treatment. Fitting a generalized linear model, we estimated that a hypothetical patient who started with a baseline value of 50 U/I after 90 days of treatment ends up in an ALT level of 52 U/I (95%-CI:27-77 U/I), an AST level of 51 U/I (35-67 U/I) and a GGT level of 42 U/I (22-61 U/I). 5 out of 22 patients had to stop treatment because of side effects.</p><p><strong>Conclusion: </strong>6 tablets Phlogenzym per day do not seem to reduce permanently elevated aminotransferases in patients with chronic hepatitis C.</p>","PeriodicalId":80278,"journal":{"name":"Forschende Komplementarmedizin und klassische Naturheilkunde = Research in complementary and natural classical medicine","volume":"12 3","pages":"144-7"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2005-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1159/000082479","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"24871594","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Addendum to a recent systematic review on ginger.","authors":"S Chrubasik, M H Pittler","doi":"","DOIUrl":"","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":80278,"journal":{"name":"Forschende Komplementarmedizin und klassische Naturheilkunde = Research in complementary and natural classical medicine","volume":"12 3","pages":"168; author reply 168-9"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2005-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"25224559","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Assessing homeopathic proving using questionnaire methodology: consideration and implications for future studies.","authors":"Sarah Brien,&nbsp;George Lewith","doi":"10.1159/000084837","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1159/000084837","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Homeopathic pathogenetic trials (or provings) provide the foundations for the clinical practice of homeopathy. The most recent review of proving studies indicated that provings are generally of poor methodological quality. Methods to improve the quality and scientific rigour are needed to critically assess the clinical basis of homeopathy. This article describes a methodology using a symptom diary with a selection of predefined remedy specific symptoms (proving questionnaire). The proving questionnaire was developed as an alternative to the traditional qualitative proving methods in an attempt to provide a quantitative method that could rigorously validate the original provings. This article considers the advantages and disadvantages of this approach and provides suggestions for future work in this area.</p>","PeriodicalId":80278,"journal":{"name":"Forschende Komplementarmedizin und klassische Naturheilkunde = Research in complementary and natural classical medicine","volume":"12 3","pages":"152-8"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2005-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1159/000084837","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"24871596","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"[Does dark field microscopy according to Enderlein allow for cancer diagnosis? A prospective study].","authors":"Samer El-Safadi,&nbsp;Hans-Rudolf Tinneberg,&nbsp;Richard von Georgi,&nbsp;Karsten Münstedt,&nbsp;Friede Brück","doi":"10.1159/000085212","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1159/000085212","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Dark field microscopy according to Enderlin claims to be able to detect forthcoming or beginning cancer at an early stage through minute abnormalities in the blood. In Germany and the USA, this method is used by an increasing number of physicians and health practitioners (non-medically qualified complementary practitioners), because this easy test seems to give important information about patients' health status.</p><p><strong>Objective: </strong>Can dark field microscopy reliably detect cancer?</p><p><strong>Materials and methods: </strong>In the course of a prospective study on iridology, blood samples were drawn for dark field microscopy in 110 patients. A health practitioner with several years of training in the field carried out the examination without prior information about the patients.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Out of 12 patients with present tumor metastasis as confirmed by radiological methods (CT, MRI or ultra-sound) 3 were correctly identified. Analysis of sensitivity (0.25), specificity (0.64), positive (0.09) and negative (0.85) predictive values revealed unsatisfactory results.</p><p><strong>Conclusion: </strong>Dark field micoroscopy does not seem to reliably detect the presence of cancer. Clinical use of the method can therefore not be recommended until future studies are conducted.</p>","PeriodicalId":80278,"journal":{"name":"Forschende Komplementarmedizin und klassische Naturheilkunde = Research in complementary and natural classical medicine","volume":"12 3","pages":"148-51"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2005-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1159/000085212","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"24871595","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Building an evidence house: challenges and solutions to research in complementary and alternative medicine.","authors":"Wayne B Jonas","doi":"10.1159/000085412","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1159/000085412","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Conventional biomedicine is having a revolution in scientific input from genomics to imaging to information and systems biology. Biomedicine is also struggling to find a balance between rigor and relevance such that public values and health care costs can be properly managed. At the same time complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) is becoming increasingly popular. Can rigorous research in CAM be developed? Can it be held to the same standards of evidence as conventional medicine? Should it be held to those standards? Are there additional standards and better integration strategies for CAM that are of value to all medicine, complementary or conventional? In this article, I address some of the major challenges faced by investigators when conducting research in CAM. These challenges include: quality standards of research; the evolving nature of science; accommodating pluralism; addressing underlying assumptions; and, managing controversial topics in CAM research. These challenges are formidable and will require that CAM attain a sufficient level of science to move it out of the margins of health care and a more careful approach to research integration that can keep its focus on public benefit and the public's health. I suggest a framework of an 'Evidence House' for addressing many of these challenges.</p>","PeriodicalId":80278,"journal":{"name":"Forschende Komplementarmedizin und klassische Naturheilkunde = Research in complementary and natural classical medicine","volume":"12 3","pages":"159-67"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2005-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1159/000085412","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"24871597","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"[Status of alternative medicine in Crohn disease and ulcerative colitis patents: a questionnaire survey].","authors":"Brigitte Ausfeld-Hafter,&nbsp;Simone Hoffmann,&nbsp;Frank Seibold,&nbsp;Christina Quattropani,&nbsp;Pius Heer,&nbsp;Alex Straumann","doi":"10.1159/000084785","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1159/000084785","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Patients with M. Crohn or colitis ulcerosa live with a chronic disease. Pharmaceuticals used in convention-al medicine have been proven to be effective but can have strong side-effects. Thus, it is no surprise that affected patients are very interested in complementary and alternative medicine (CAM).</p><p><strong>Objective: </strong>The aim of our survey was to investigate the use and the application of CAM by patients with M. Crohn and colitis ulcerosa in Switzerland.</p><p><strong>Patients and methods: </strong>Out-patients of the gastroenterological centre at the University Hospital Bern and of two gastroenterological private practices in a medium-sized city completed a self-administered questionnaire on CAM. Demographic variables, disease-related data, use of different approaches of complementary medicine, attitudes towards and the use of CAM were asked for.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Out of 204 mailed questionnaires 71% (144) could be evaluated, 44% from patients of the University Hospital, 56% from patients of the gastroenterological private practices. CAM was used by 47% of the patients. The most commonly used methods of CAM were: homeopathy, traditional Chinese medicine and acupuncture. 67% of the patients benefitted by CAM in the long run, whereas 10.5% suffered a relapse of their disease during CAM therapies. The main reason for the patients to apply to CAM was to complement conventional treatment.</p><p><strong>Conclusion: </strong>Our survey points out that the studied out-patients have a strong interest in CAM. It is therefore important that clinical research in the various unconventional therapies will be further promoted.</p>","PeriodicalId":80278,"journal":{"name":"Forschende Komplementarmedizin und klassische Naturheilkunde = Research in complementary and natural classical medicine","volume":"12 3","pages":"134-8"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2005-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1159/000084785","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"24872155","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Multi-site recording and spectral analysis of spontaneous photon emission from human body.","authors":"Eduard P A Van Wijk,&nbsp;Roeland Van Wijk","doi":"10.1159/000083935","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1159/000083935","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>In the past years, research on ultraweak photon emission (UPE) from human body has increased for isolated cells and tissues. However, there are only limited data on UPE from the whole body, in particular from the hands.</p><p><strong>Objective: </strong>To describe a protocol for the management of subjects that (1) avoids interference with light-induced longterm delayed luminescence, and (2) includes the time slots for recording photon emission.</p><p><strong>Material and methods: </strong>The protocol was utilised for multi-site recording of 4 subjects at different times of the day and different seasons, and for one subject to complete spectral analysis of emission from different body locations. An especially selected low-noise end-window photomultiplier was utilised for the detection of ultraviolet / visible light (200-650 nm) photon emission. For multi-site recording it was manipulated in three directions in a darkroom with a very low count rate. A series of cut-off filters was used for spectral analysis of UPE. 29 body sites were selected such that the distribution in UPE could be studied as right-left symmetry, dorsal-ventral symmetry, and the ratio between the central body part and extremities.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Generally, the fluctuation in photon counts over the body was lower in the morning than in the afternoon. The thorax-abdomen region emitted lowest and most constantly. The upper extremities and the head region emitted most and increasingly over the day. Spectral analysis of low, intermediate and high emission from the superior frontal part of the right leg, the forehead and the palms in the sensitivity range of the photomultiplier showed the major spontaneous emission at 470-570 nm. The central palm area of hand emission showed a larger contribution of the 420-470 nm range in the spectrum of spontaneous emission from the hand in autumn/winter. The spectrum of delayed luminescence from the hand showed major emission in the same range as spontaneous emission.</p><p><strong>Conclusion: </strong>Examples of multi-site UPE recordings and spectral analysis revealed individual patterns and dynamics of spontaneous UPE over the body, and spectral differences over the body. The spectral data suggest that measurements might well provide quantitative data on the individual pattern of peroxidative and anti-oxidative processes in vivo. We expect that the measurements provide physiological information that can be useful in clinical examination.</p>","PeriodicalId":80278,"journal":{"name":"Forschende Komplementarmedizin und klassische Naturheilkunde = Research in complementary and natural classical medicine","volume":"12 2","pages":"96-106"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2005-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1159/000083935","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"25129373","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Photon emission from perturbed and dying organisms: biomedical perspectives.","authors":"Janusz Slawinski","doi":"10.1159/000083971","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1159/000083971","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Living systems spontaneously emit ultraweak light (ultraweak photon emission, UPE) during the process of metabolic reactions associated with the normal physiological state. Stress factors and pathological states change parameters of that emission, such as intensity, yield, temporal, statistical and spectral characteristics. Thus, properties of UPE are inherently associated with and derived from biochemical and biophysical excitation processes. UPE can be considered as a holistic expression of the perturbation of the physiological state of the bio-system and may carry information on the bioenergetics, kinetics and character of biochemical and physiological processes, functioning of the regulatory feedback systems and the degree of perturbation by internal and external factors. This article presents an overview of the fundamentals of UPE and its relation to physiological processes.</p>","PeriodicalId":80278,"journal":{"name":"Forschende Komplementarmedizin und klassische Naturheilkunde = Research in complementary and natural classical medicine","volume":"12 2","pages":"90-5"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2005-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1159/000083971","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"25129372","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Effect of meditation on ultraweak photon emission from hands and forehead.","authors":"Eduard P A Van Wijk,&nbsp;John Ackerman,&nbsp;Roeland Van Wijk","doi":"10.1159/000084028","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1159/000084028","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Various physiologic and biochemical shifts can follow meditation. Meditation has been implicated in impacting free radical activity. Ultraweak photon emission (UPE, biophoton emission) is a constituent of the metabolic processes in a living system. Spectral analysis showed the characteristics of radical reactions.</p><p><strong>Objectives: </strong>Recording and analysing photon emission in 5 subjects before, during and after meditation.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>UPE in 5 subjects who meditated in sitting or supine positions was recorded in a darkroom utilising a photomultiplier designed for manipulation in three directions.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Data indicated that UPE changes after meditation. In 1 subject with high pre-meditation values, UPE decreased during meditation and remained low in the postmeditation phase. In the other subjects, only a slight decrease in photon emission was found, but commonly a decrease was observed in the kurtosis and skewness values of the photon count distribution. A second set of data on photon emission from the hands before and after meditation was collected from 2 subjects. These data were characterised by the Fano factor, F(T), i.e. variance over mean of the number of photoelectrons observed within observation time T. All data were compared to surrogate data sets which were constructed by random shuffling of the data sets. In the pre-meditation period, F(T) increased with observation time, significantly at time windows >6 s. No such effect was found after meditation, when F(T) was in the range of the surrogate data set.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>The data support the hypothesis that human photon emission can be influenced by meditation. Data from time series recordings suggest that this non-invasive tool for monitoring radical reactions during meditation is useful to characterise the effect of meditation. Fano factor analysis demonstrated that the time series before meditation do not represent a simple Poisson process. Instead, UPE has characteristics of a fractal process, showing long-range correlations. The effect of meditation waives out this coherence phenomenon, suggesting a weaker and less ordered structure of UPE. In general, meditation seems to influence the complex interactions of oxidative and anti-oxidative reactions which regulate photon emission. The reason for the statistical changes between pre- and post-meditation measurements remains unclear and demands further examination.</p>","PeriodicalId":80278,"journal":{"name":"Forschende Komplementarmedizin und klassische Naturheilkunde = Research in complementary and natural classical medicine","volume":"12 2","pages":"107-12"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2005-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1159/000084028","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"25236184","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}