More people are seeking out traditional forms of medicine, from acupuncture to herbal medicines. The WHO is working to develop standards to make these healing practices implementable on a wide scale.
Patients who undergo transcranial magnetic stimulation say it’s painless, with few to no side effects. The treatment isn’t yet widely accessible, but for those who use it, the effects can be profound.
For some, too much medication might make migraine worse.
peterschreiber.media/iStock via Getty Images Plus
Many elite athletes turn to alternative therapies to improve performance and enhance recovery. But are these treatments helping or hindering their quest for sporting success?
Traditional Chinese herbal remedies are today used in many countries.
From shutterstock.com
Most countries need to find a happy balance between the American attitude that all pain needs to be cured – and the ethos in other countries that pain is to be endured.
It makes a tasty dressing, but the health claims are overblown.
Madeleine Steinbach/Shutterstock
Two years in the making, a statement released by the National Health and Medicine Research Council has found no reliable evidence that homeopathy is effective.
There is nothing more likely to raise the hackles of any self-respecting rationalist than to be confronted with the latest celebrity story about the miraculous healing power of homeopathy or some other…
Combining complementary medicine with conventional cancer treatment opens up the possibility of drug interactions.
hkpuipui99/Flickr
Recent German research found that more than 70% of people with cancer supplement their regular hospital treatment with complementary and alternative medicine. More worryingly, many do so without advising…
Prince or medical expert: which hat shall I wear today?
PA/Eddie Mulholland
A constitutional monarch is purely ceremonial and plays no part in politics. But in the UK it isn’t quite as simple as that. The first problem is that we have no constitution. Things haven’t changed much…
Kava, traditionally used in some Pacific island customs, may have a moderate effect in reducing anxiety symptoms, the study found.
AAP Image/Peter Williams
Sunanda Creagh, The Conversation e Catherine Durkin, The Conversation
A new study has found that kava, a plant-based relaxant used in the Pacific, is moderately effective at reducing anxiety symptoms in people with diagnosed Generalised Anxiety Disorder. However, while the…
Being blindly and unrelentingly positive can be a burden to disease sufferers.
Image from shutterstock.com
Of all the cultural beliefs about health and illness that saturate the developed world, there is none so pervasive and deeply held as the idea that you can “battle” an illness by sheer force of will. We…
Practicing a particular form of meditation is associated with improved health outcomes and greater overall wellbeing, according…
Despite recent attempts to retain traditional healing practices in China, modern medicine is supplanting traditional medicine there.
Jean-François Chénier
Most of traditional healing practices are based on intuitive principles of diseases involving the imbalance of elemental qualities. For the ancient Greeks and Romans, whose systems of traditional healing…