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
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…
Pseudosciences such as acupuncture have no place in universities, say the Friends of Science in Medicine.
Flickr/NYCTCM
The international credibility of Australia’s universities is being undermined by the increase in the “pseudoscientific” health…
Gawler claims to have cured himself of advanced cancer by a series of unorthodox treatments including herbal remedies, meditation, coffee enemas and diets.
Nick Olejniczak
It’s not often that a scientific article in a learned medical journal becomes front page news but that was the case recently when a paper I co-authored with Dr Ian Haines of Melbourne’s Cabrini Hospital…
Spicy debate: RMIT is researching the effectiveness of ginseng in improving lung function in patients with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease. Flickr/wparadiso.
Some complementary medicines are useful while others are just plain quackery so any attempt to regulate the industry requires an understanding of this heterogeneity. What’s more, the regulator of the industry…
Vitamins, minerals and herbal therapies should live up to the claims on their packaging.
Peter Sunna
Two out of three Australians use complementary medicines to boost their nutrition, alleviate various symptoms and improve their overall health and well-being. There are around 10,000 products to choose…