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.
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Articles on Alternative medicine
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Folk medicine has favoured apple cider vinegar for centuries and many claims are made for its supposed benefits. But what does the science say?
In many instances complementary medicines have no added benefit when compared to a placebo, or weak evidence of effectiveness.
We can't keep blaming the MMR-autism scare – there are other forces at play.
There are several natural remedies that have can help reduce cancer cells.
Support for homeopathy within royal and political circles is a danger for public health.
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…
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…
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…
A new study has found that kava, a plant-based relaxant used in the Pacific, is moderately effective at reducing anxiety…
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…
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…
The international credibility of Australia’s universities is being undermined by the increase in the “pseudoscientific” health…
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…
RMIT University’s School of Health Sciences has rejected the suggestion that it peddles pseudo-scientific quackery via its…
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…
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…
Read the argument for the use of complementary medicine. The question of whether doctors should provide “complementary or alternative” medicines and procedures for which there is no scientific proof of…
Top contributors
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Founder of the Australian Health Care Reform Alliance & Emeritus Professor, UNSW
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Chancellor's Research Fellow, Faculty of Health, University of Technology Sydney
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Ken Harvey is a Friend of The Conversation.
Associate Professor, School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, Monash University
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Professor of Neurophysiology, Department of Physiology, Flinders University
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Professor of Medicine, Monash University
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Professor of Oncology, University of Tasmania
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Honorary Associate, Australian Institute for Primary Care and Ageing, La Trobe University
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Clinical Senior Lecturer at Deakin University School of Medicine & Pain Specialist, Deakin University
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Emeritus Consultant, St Vincent's Hospital, Darlinghurst
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Nutritionist & Visiting Fellow, UNSW
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Adjunct Associate Professor, UNSW
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Professor of Pharmacology, UCL, UCL
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Professor of Psychology, University of Melbourne
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Professor of Medicine, Bond University
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Professor; NHMRC Clinical Research Fellow; NICM Health Research Institute Deputy Director, Western Sydney University
