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Due to its progressive nature, dementia is now the leading cause of death in England and Wales, so a palliative approach to care is beneficial because of its emphasis on supportive care. Many people with dementia also have other comorbid health conditions common in older age, that in themselves may induce pain. However, people with dementia may have difficulty in understanding what they are feeling and in describing and locating the pain due to having issues with communicating their needs as their dementia progresses. This paper considers the recognition, assessment, treatment and management of pain in older people with dementia. It introduces the learner to what is known about the subject and why it is important to know the person's past history and previous ways of self-managing pain and discomfort using information gained from their family, carers and friends. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: Nausea is one of the most important symptoms of patients undergoing chemotherapy. This study aims to determine the effects of aromatherapy with sour lemon on nausea in patients undergoing chemotherapy. Methods: A total of 50 patients undergoing chemotherapy were randomly assigned to experimental and placebo (control) groups. The two groups completed the visual analogue scale for nausea before and the first to the fourth week after starting the intervention. The intervention was performed during chemotherapy. Using a dropper, a paper towel was saturated with 3 drops of sour lemon essential oil; however, for the control group, 3 mL of water as a placebo was spread on a paper towel. The intervention in the experimental and control groups was performed once a week for 4 weeks during weekly chemotherapy sessions. Results: At the beginning of the study, no significant difference was observed between the mean score of nausea in the two groups (P>0.05). The first to the fourth week after starting the intervention, significant differences were observed between the mean score of nausea in the two groups (P<0.05). The results of the repeated measures analysis of variance indicated that the mean score of nausea changed over time in the experimental group, indicating a gradual decrease in the mean score of nausea (P<0.05). Discussion: Our findings indicated that aromatherapy with sour lemon can be effective in reducing nausea in patients undergoing chemotherapy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper starts with a discussion on the concept of medical pluralism, then presents a theoretical framework of the exclusive medical model, which recognizes only one legal system for medicine. The author then considers psychotronics activities as a specific form of alternative healthcare, along with describing and analysing the healthcare situation that existed during the socialist period in former Czechoslovakia and compares it with the contemporary pluralistic situation that emerged in both the Czech Republic and Slovakia. The findings of this paper suggest that, despite the prevalent rationalist view during the socialist period and the tendency to promote biomedicine as the only legitimate and superior healthcare practice, the conditions for the development of pluralism in medical healthcare were nevertheless created. The paper concludes that research on the shifting relationship between alternative medicine and mainstream medicine reveals how scientific objectification fluctuates, or at least is negotiable, under the influence of social circumstances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The presence and influence of complementary and alternative therapies have been increasingly felt in recent years. One reason for this is the active promotion of its services and products through various media channels. The current study focused on information brochures that are placed on pharmacy counters and shelves, and examined how they function as persuasive texts in promoting products and persuading potential users to buy them. The study utilised genre analysis as a method for examining how language and information in texts are systematically selected and structured to perform particular actions and achieve particular communicative purposes. Genre hybridisation as a theoretical concept is drawn on to explain the inter-generic realisation of forms of discourse. One hundred brochures providing information on complementary and alternative health products produced by pharmaceutical companies were collected from pharmacies in Malaysia and analysed for their communicative content in terms of rhetorical moves used to promote the products. This paper describes the generic structure of the print content in the brochures and discusses how it functions to present a favourable view of complementary and alternative health products to the reader. The results show that across all the brochures, regardless of the type of product, a uniform set of moves that is comparable to the sales promotional genre is identified. The findings also reveal that such information brochures on pharmacy counters are in fact persuasive promotional literature. As these brochures are ubiquitous in pharmacies and drugstores in most countries, they are an important force in influencing consumer and patient knowledge, and beliefs about complementary and alternative medicine. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In January 2007, former president of The Gambia Yahya Jammeh created the Presidential Alternative Treatment Program (PATP), which introduced a fraudulent "HIV cure." PATP and the fraudulent HIV herbal cure (PATP cure) were widely advertised in state media through patient testimonials and specially produced broadcasts of Jammeh administering treatment, enticing people living with HIV to join the program. Jammeh faced little to no opposition from within The Gambia. Due to the great power and influence he wielded, PATP was nothing short of a health dictatorship. This paper argues that PATP and the PATP cure violated the human rights of people living with HIV in The Gambia and compromised HIV health service delivery. In addition, during PATP's 10-year operation, the global health community was derelict in its duty to stop Jammeh's promotion and use of the PATP cure and to protect people living with HIV. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Paper presents researches about Euphorbia cyparissias' structure. The great number of scientific papers on this topic reveals that Euphorbia has in its structure, compounds with known activity especially against cancer, in homeopathy, molluscocide, repellent and insecticide, antiviral, galactagoue etc. All of these highlighted essential aspects about presence of the bioactive compounds in all parts of the plant, the main components being sesquiterpenoids, with the preponderance of elemene şi cariophyllene, great part of this being found in his epoxydic state (as cariophyllene oxide). The sesquiterpenoids concentration diminished in the order: root -- stalk - inforescence (elemene concentration was reduced to one third in the inflorescence extract comparatively with the root's one), in the same time than monotherpene and aromatic concentration grow in the inflorescence samples. The TG analyse of pure β-ciclodextrine denoted a 11.7% mass loss to 100°C, loss rate augmenting to 76.3% in 100 - 500°C temperature interval, with β-ciclodextrine's decomposition. In the case of Euphorbia T5/β-CD (5%) raw extract complex, the mass loss was lower than 8.9%, until 225°C, being registered 2.8% mass loss, probably corresponding to the encapsulated bio active's compounds de complexion phase. A similar behaviour was recorded for the Euphorbia T10/βCD (10%) raw complex, until 100°C, mass loss being of 8%, between 100 and 225 °C of 2.9%, with a total mass loss of ~78%. In the case of Euphorbia T5/T10/β-CD concentrated extracts complex, the mass loss until 100°C was up to 11.9%, between 100 and 225°C, being under 1%. This fact can be translated as a loss / degradation of initial complexed bioactive compounds from the initial extracts. The obtained results bring new data about pharmaco-chemical structure of Euphorbia cyparissias, the research being fully justified through therapeutic multiple valences, but yet unclear known of this plant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes the development of the blind protocol, and its place in this history of consciousness research. It was first devised by Croesus, King of the Lydians (BCE 560–547) and reported by Herodotus (≈ BCE 484 - ≈ 424), and was created to protect against fraud in assessing an Anomalous Perception (AP) event; a Remote Viewing (RV) experiment little different from those conducted today. Its next use in the 17th century was to study a peasant farmer, Jacques Aymar, who solved crimes with Anomalous Perception, using dowsing. Not only was a blind protocol employed, but the rudiments of controls were introduced to assess Aymar. The next documented use of a blind protocol in consciousness research occurred in 1784, when it was explicitly employed in the interest of science, and its history as a research technique can be said to have formally begun. King Louis the XVIth created a commission to evaluate Franz Anton Mesmer’s claims concerning healing through “animal magnetism,” administered while people were in a trance, and asked Benjamin Franklin to be the commission’s head. The paper proposes that Franklin be considered the first parapsychologist. He created the blind protocol to answer the king’s question as to whether “animal magnetism” was real, and he not only introduced demographic variables and controls, but literally blindfolded people, which is why today we call it the blind protocol. Franklin’s observations also present the first recorded Western description of psychosomatic illness. An unintended consequence of Franklin’s Mesmer study was the loss of the idea of psychophysical self-regulation (PPSR) as a research vector, although the English surgeon John Eliotson (1791–1868) apparently saw through the failure of Mesmer’s explanatory model to the deeper insight in the form of hypnosis that was Mesmer’s real discovery. He seems to have avoided all attempts at explaining how it worked but conducted a considerable number of surgeries using hypnosis as the anesthetic, anticipating its usage in this capacity a century later. So great was the disapproval of Mesmer, however, that no one seems to have gotten Eliotson’s point. Franklin’s protocol, though, rapidly became the gold standard of science. Rupert Sheldrake, however, carried out a survey of the leading scientific journals and discovered that the main use of the blind protocol is not in medicine per se, but parapsychology and consciousness research, in which it is used for the same purposes it was originally conceived: to winnow out fraud in anomalous consciousness events and to avoid introducing experimenter effects. Ultimately, though, the protocol may be based on a false assumption, because increasingly research in areas such as therapeutic intent/healing and remote viewing suggest that all consciousness from single-celled organisms to human beings may be interlinked through a nonlocal aspect of awareness they all share. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Clinical discussions usually taking place in healthcare structures allow medical specialists to focus on critical cases, debate about different diagnostic hypotheses, identify therapeutic protocols, or choose among alternative treatments. This paper presents an argumentation-based approach to the analysis of clinical discussions, with the aim of providing a multidisciplinary medical team with a support tool that may help discover whether clinical discussions are affected by any weak points, such as contradicting conclusions, invalid reasoning steps, hidden assumptions, or missing evidences. To this end, we have adopted an approach based on argumentation schemes, which provide an intuitive yet well structured representation of general reasoning patterns. Argumentation schemes include one or more premises, a conclusion, and a set of critical questions that challenge the validity of the relation between premises and conclusion. We exploit argumentation schemes to interpret the assertions made by the participants in a meeting and to generate a graph of arguments connected through edges that represent support or attack relations existing among them. The resulting graph is then used to carry out a logical analysis of the discussion, highlighting, for instance, conflicting opinions or suggesting the need for gathering additional information. To show the potential of our approach, we have developed a sample case based on a clinical discussion taken from literature. After having identified a set of argumentation schemes appropriate for the medical domain considered, the case has been analyzed and a detailed logical analysis has been carried out. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Premise: Applied Kinesiology (AK) is a diagnostic technique widely used within the Integrative Medical community. In essence, it posits that a question can be mentally held in a person’s mind, sometimes while they are holding a substance like a vitamin, or a food sample, and by measuring relative muscular weakness an answer as to whether the substance or the condition represented by the question is good for that person can be obtained. This AK is presumed to have a diagnostic capability. That being presumed, this study asks the following questions: (1) Is there a difference in muscular strength when an individual holds a substance that is inimical to life processes (a poison solution), as compared to a substance that is essential for life (normal saline)? (2) Is this effect a transaction involving input from both the person being measured and the kinesiologist doing the measurement or is it only the person being measured? (3) As an extension of question 2, is the result the same when different kinesiologists take the measurement or when no kinesiologist is involved? (4) Does belief, expectation, gender, or time cognition play a role in determining response? Methodology: To answer these questions, which would help to define the parameters of the AK process, 51 participants were tested during three trials each, first by one kinesiologist, then by another, and finally, with no kinesiologist present by grip strength indicated using a hand dynamometer. Grip strength being a self-administered AK test of relative muscular strength. For each trial, a pair of randomly numbered sealed vials, each pair in a randomly numbered plastic bag, were used as the objects of the trial. In each bag, one vial contained saline solution while the other was filled with a slightly smaller amount of saline solution to which had been added ionic hydroxylamine hydrochloride (NH3OH)+, producing a toxic solution of 9mg/ml. Each trial consisted of a separate muscle test for each vial. All present at the trials were blind as to which vial contained the toxin. And all who prepared the vials were blind to the trials. The force used by the kinesiologists in each of their trials was measured via a pressure pad system. The hand dynamometer trials were conducted with no kinesiologist present. Results: Of the 151 sets of trials, the toxic vial was identified correctly in 80 of them (53%), resulting in a one-tailed exact binomial P-value of .258. Results for two of the kinesiologists were almost exactly at chance. For the third kinesiologist, there was a one-tailed exact binomial P-value of .18 (unadjusted for multiple testing). Results for the dynamometer were also almost exactly at chance. Testing whether there was a significant difference in proportions for whom the AK test worked based on belief about whether it would work resulted in non-significant χ 2 values of 0.6 (P = .439) for the trials with one kinesiologist and 2.222 (P = .136) for the hand dynamometer trials. The final variable examined was gender. While there was no significant difference in performance for males and females for the trials of the male kinesiologist or the hand dynamometer, the combined data for the two female kinesiologists did reveal a difference. Of the 33 sessions with females, only 15 were successful (45%), while for the 18 sessions with males, 14 were successful (78%), resulting in a χ 2 statistic of 4.96, P = .026. However, given all of the χ 2 tests performed in this section, the results must be interpreted with caution because of multiple testing. Results indicate belief in whether the AK test will work was not significantly related to whether it actually did work. A χ 2 test of the relationship between time perception and correct vial choice showed no significant relationships. The χ 2 statistic for the relationship using the hand dynamometer data was 0.927, P = .629. Conclusion: The data in this study, particularly when seen in the larger context of a review of the literature from the AK field itself by Klinkoski and Leboeuf (1990), which considered 50 papers published between 1981 and 1987 by the International College of Applied Kinesiology, and the survey by Hall, Lewith, Brien, and Little (2008), using standard evaluation criteria [quality assessment tool for studies of diagnostic accuracy included in systematic reviews (QUADAS), Standards for Reporting of Diagnostic Studies (STARD), JADAD, and Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials (CONSORT)], for research methodology, as well as six prior non-clinical studies by Radin (1984), Quintanar and Hill (1988), Braud (1989), Arnett et al. (1999), Ludtke (2001), and Kendler and Keating (2003), all together suggest the following: The research published by the Applied Kinesiology field itself is not to be relied upon, and in the experimental studies that do meet accepted standards of science, Applied Kinesiology has not demonstrated that it is a useful or reliable diagnostic tool upon which health decisions can be based. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Alternative or complementary medicine emphasizes therapies that are claimed to improve quality of life, prevent disease, and address conditions that conventional medicine has limited success in curing. There are many techniques which are prevalent in many countries and these can cause harm if not scientifically evaluated. The objective of this paper is to validate the use of iridology to diagnose kidney abnormalities. Two subject groups were evaluated: one was 168 subjects free from kidney disease and the other was 172 subjects with chronic renal failure. The procedure to acquire, process and classify the iris images was designed in such a way that avoids any dependency on the iridologists by using wavelet analysis and Adaptive Neuro-Fuzzy Inference System. The results show a correct classification for both subjects with kidney problems and normal subjects of 82% and 93%, respectively. The proposed technique conducted on a systemic disease with ocular manifestations showed encouraging results. However, it is necessary to perform extensive studies with diseases that do not have ocular manifestations according to conventional medicine in order to validate iridology as a valid scientific technique. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The history of Australian medicine includes a period of 150 years when many sick and injured colonists relied on self-medication, home treatment, and self-administered healthcare. Many immigrants to Australia read domestic medical guides and, after the 1880s, first-aid texts. This paper documents the chronology of such 'medical' self-help and pre-hospital care, and places the theme of published medical and first-aid texts in the perspective of evolving medical practice. Domestic medical books were written by both doctors and lay citizens. The style of the former tended to be doctrinaire and promoted an ethic of 'first, do no harm'. By contrast, non-medical authors tended to write in a style encouraging the empowerment of colonists in the self-management of trauma and illness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

this paper describes principles of magnetotherapy as an alternative to classic medicine. The effect of an externally applied pulsed magnetic field for wound healing after trauma will be displayed. Novel design for stimulation coils is presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An almost exotic field in Romania, hippotherapy is one of the most effective treatments used to improve the position, balance, mobility and body functions, in all cases of impaired motor capacity, as a clearly defined method, programmed and inserted into a wider project of customize rehabilitation. Hippotherapy is considered as the first step in horse mediated therapy, followed by riding, pre-sportive and sportive rehabilitation, stages that show the increasing capacity of the person who undergoes therapy and its ever more active and independent role on the horse. The paper aims to identify and apply scientific methods of selection of horses to be included in a hippotherapy program as an alternative treatment, applied to institutionalized children with motor disabilities, as a recovery tool. Selection is based on the horses temperament, personality and reactivity, and a program for people with various disabilities will be customized and adapted to their requirements and resource availability. The results obtained show the importance of selecting horses for hippotherapy and the role they play in therapy for people with mental and motor disabilities by reducing negative effects and increase of confidence in their own possibilities [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper I address the question of appropriation by examining the diversity of medical practices in Germany by looking at their institutions of the Kur and the Heilpraktiker and their panoply of therapeutic practices. I do this by describing the poly-therapeutics of a Heilpraktiker in an Ayurvedic spa in an attempt to argue that the panoply, housed in a single person, produces a mangled medical episteme that befuddles any clear distinction between "source" and "recipient" traditions, or in this context between medicine and alternative medicine. I then attempt to offer an explanation at several levels for this epistemic and cultural mangling by discussing a) through a local register, the German institution of the Heilpraktiker within the larger context of the German health care system in terms of its legal, economic and pedagogic structures; and b) through a global register and the practice of biomedicine, to argue that the panoply is partly the sign of an epistemic impasse at the heart of biomedicine. This impasse summons of both practitioners and patients the panoply, leading them to borrow, steal, adapt, appropriate or expropriate from several spheres - such as religion, rocket science, or astrology - in an attempt to make the panoply not merely a "complete and impressive collection of things" against adversary but a necessary therapeutic armoury that resonates with its older meaning of being a "complete spiritual armoury for warfare against the Adversary" (c. f. the Panoply of God, Ephesians, 6:13). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Objective: To evaluate the antibacterial effect of aqueous and ethanolic moringa leaf extracts (Moringa oleifera) on the growth of gram-positive and negative bacteria. Methods: Paper disks were soaked with 100, 200, 300 and 400 μL of extract at 20 g/180 mL and 10 g/190 mL. All extracts were tested against Escherichia coli (ATCC25922), Staphylococcus aureus (ATCC25923), Vibrio parahaemolyticus, Enterococcus faecalis (ATCC29212), Pseudomonas aeruginosa (ATCC27853), Salmonella enteritidis (IH) and Aeromonas caviae. The susceptibility tests were performed using the modified disk diffusion method. Results: The strains E. coli, P. aeruginosa and S. enteritidis (IH) were resistant to all treatments. In general, disks with 400 μL extract were the most efficient against S. aureus, V. parahaemolyticus, E. faecalis and A. caviae. Conclusions: The study indicates a promising potential for aqueous and ethanolic Moringa leaf extracts as alternative treatment of infections caused by the tested strains. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Complementary and alternative medicine has been increasingly utilized by cancer patients in developed countries. Among the various forms of complementary and alternative medicine, Traditional Chinese Medicine is one of the few that has a well constructed theoretical framework and established treatment approaches for diseases including cancer. Recent research has revealed growing evidence suggesting that Traditional Chinese Medicine is effective in the supportive care of cancer patients during and after major conventional cancer treatments. This paper succinctly summarizes some published clinical evidence and meta-analyses which support the usage of various Traditional Chinese Medicine treatment strategies including Chinese herbal medicine, acupuncture and Qigong in supportive cancer care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay concerns an ethnographic project intended to document Latina/o traditional medicine in Los Angeles, organize the materials, and make information accessible to others. The paper describes methods and techniques for eliciting and recording the medical traditions. It presents some initial findings, discusses interview protocols as well as opportunities and challenges in obtaining information from individuals, discusses issues that arise in regard to transcription-translation and data management, and illustrates several ways of making the traditions available to different audiences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article describes Building A Nation, a store front program located in the heart of the core neighbourhood (west side) of Saskatoon and its use of the Medicine Wheel in providing a blend of traditional and western support services including supportive therapy to those who come through its doors. This article begins with a discussion of the need for culturally safe and competent counselling programs and how Building A Nation meets that need. Following this the paper discusses the Medicine Wheel and how the Medicine Wheel is used in the Building A Nation program. This article is a step toward completing the recommendation by the Aboriginal Healing Foundation that Building A Nation "provide more clarity about how western and traditional healing methods complement each other or blend together (Aboriginal Healing Foundation 2006, p. 275). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It has been proposed that to understand (1) the evolution of science and medicine, and (2) the integration of conventional, complementary and alternative medicine, it is essential to consider at least eight universal implicit meta-cognitive hypotheses. It has been suggested that these implicit “world” hypotheses can be applied in every discipline of science. The present paper reviews the eight world hypotheses and proposes an additional hypothesis, termed the nonvisualizable or “Nth” world hypothesis (adopting the mathematical concept of “N”; eg, as in N dimensional space). Drawing on contemporary mathematics and quantum physics, we propose that certain theories and data—by their inherent nature—can not be visualized, and therefore may seem “unimaginable” and “impossible” (if not “unbelievable”), even though they are real. Certain seemingly anomalous observations in mind-body and energy medicine, including areas historically labeled as parapsychology or spiritual energy healing, often elicit strongly skeptical and dismissive reactions. We propose that these skeptical and dismissive reactions to purportedly impossible (yet logical) theories and seemingly unbelievable (yet replicable) data can be tempered when the Nth world hypothesis is understood and incorporated. Integrity in evidence-based science and medicine may require that scientists and nonscientists alike develop comfort and humility in accepting the human mind’s restricted ability to envision and imagine certain nonvisualizable—yet fundamental and real—concepts and effects, as illustrated in contemporary physics and complementary and alternative medicine. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Objective: Efforts to integrate complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) into conventional healthcare systems raise questions about expected levels of CAM use and its cost in an integrated system. This paper documents actual patient usage of a hospital-based alternative medicine clinic that has been operating on a conventional healthcare campus since 1993. Setting: Hennepin Faculty Associates (HFA) is a multispecialty physician organization serving the Hennepin County Medical Center (HCMC), a public teaching hospital in downtown Minneapolis. In 1993, HFA opened an alternative medicine clinic, primarily providing acupuncture. The clinic has since expanded services to offer chiropractic, massage/bodywork, and herbs. Administrative claims data showing visit dates, treatment received, payment source, charges, and patient complaints are available from 1997 through 2002. Results: Of all HFA patients who received conventional care on the HCMC campus every year (1997–2002), 6.5% also received care at the Alternative Medicine Clinic (AMC). Nearly 80% of AMC patients received third-party reimbursement for AMC services. Averaged over 6 years, self-pay patients had 3.2 visits per year and incurred $173 in charges per year; patients with a mixture of third-party payment sources had 8.0 visits per year and incurred $634 in charges per year. Number of visits per patient per year remained relatively constant over the 6 years, except for patients aged 65 or older, who showed an increase in number of visits, particularly for acupuncture. Conclusions: This report contributes a new perspective on use of CAM in the general population. Results from this perspective differ markedly from those provided by published survey data, showing a lower prevalence of use and lower charges incurred. Concern that insurance coverage for CAM would increase healthcare costs dramatically are not substantiated by these data. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This is the third in a series of 5 articles providing a contemporary overview and introduction to unconventional dentistry (UD) and its correlation to unconventional medicine (UM). UD presents issues of dental quackery, fraud and malpractice, and it also engenders professional concerns about public protection and professional risks. Case reports illustrate numerous issues. The reader is encouraged to evaluate the cases for problems related to malpractice, fraud, ethics, behaviours and professionalism. A discussion of ethical issues is beyond the scope of this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pain is one of the most common complaints that general practitioners encounter in everyday practice. The swift and effective management of pain is a medical mandate, not only to fulfil an ethical obligation to the patient, but also to prevent long-term complications, such as chronic pain. General practitioners are often required to manage mild-to-moderate pain, and have multiple pain management treatments available to them. The challenge is to tailor a treatment plan to suit the individual requirements of each patient. In this paper, we will explore how best to manage acute mild-to-moderate pain in general practice in a logical stepwise approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In South Africa, and in several countries in the world, several traditional medicines are used often, although their pharmacology is not yet clear and the extent, if any, of their benefit is not scientifically documented. The Australian’s “Therapeutic Goods Administration” guidelines for the use of traditional medicines, non-registerable medicines, and other listed medicines, is used in this paper to assess the strength of the traditional-use evidence for the utilisation ofGunnera perpensa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]