Research in Complementary Medicine

BACKGROUND: Magnesium sulfate has a long tradition as a laxative. It osmotically prevents water absorption in the large bowel and thus leads to an acceleration of the intestinal transit and better stool consistency. We wanted to investigate the efficacy of a carbonated calcium/magnesium sulfate-rich natural mineral water in subjects with functional constipation (FC). PATIENTS AND METHODS: In this double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled study, subjects with FC (Rome III criteria) received 1 l/day (4 × 250 ml) of mineral water (Ensinger Schiller Quelle) or carbonated tap water (placebo) for 6 weeks...

BACKGROUND: Effective control of hypertension is deeply associated with the secondary prevention of stroke. The blood pressure-lowering effect of acupuncture alone is controversial but worthy of exploration, considering the side effects of and the problems of low adherence to drugs. CASE REPORTS: One male patient experienced severe dizziness after overuse of valsartan, which decreased his blood pressure to 110/70 mm Hg. Our acupuncture treatment of 40 sessions alone regulated his blood pressure to about 110/70-130/80 mm Hg, with disappearance of the dizziness after 3 sessions...

Oxygen specificity of acupoints has been studied for nearly 30 years. Studies have considered oxygen partial pressure, nitric oxide, carbon dioxide, and other factors. The results of the experiments have shown that the content of oxygen and oxygen-related compounds is statistically significantly different between acupoint and non-acupoint tissues. Despite certain differences in the methods and results across studies, including some contradictory experimental data, most reports agree that metabolic activity, utilization of oxygen, and activity of oxygen-related compounds were higher in acupoint tissues than in non-acupoint tissues...

Honey has been considered as a therapeutic agent; its successful application in the treatment of non-healing infected wounds has promoted its further clinical usage for treating various disorders including eye disorders. There is evidence that honey may be helpful in treating dry eye disease, post-operative corneal edema, and bullous keratopathy. Furthermore, it can be used as an antibacterial agent to reduce the ocular flora. This review discusses both the current knowledge of and new perspectives for honey therapy in ophthalmology...

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BACKGROUND: Auxemma oncocalyx and its main component oncocalyxone A (onco A) have a high level of antioxidant and antitumor activity, but there are no studies on the action of both of these drugs regarding folliculogenesis. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Caprine ovarian tissue fragments were fixed (non-cultured control) or cultured for 1 or 7 days in α-MEM+ alone (cultured control) or supplemented with dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO; 20% v/v), bone morphogenetic protein 15 (BMP-15; 100 ng/ml), doxorubicin (DXR; 0...

BACKGROUND: Patient-practitioner-remedy (PPR) entanglement postulates non-local triadic interaction between patient (Px), practitioner (Pr) and potentised medicine (Rx), resulting in the patient's journey to cure; the in-depth homeopathic interview is considered a major contributing factor in this process. Also, by modelling entelechy, a quantised gyroscopic analogue of the Vital Force (Vf) has been developed. OBJECTIVE: To discover whether entanglement notions explain the mode of action of homeopathy during the treatment of epidemic diseases, when the individualising in-depth homeopathic interview is neither possible nor necessary...

BACKGROUND: Homeopathy use continues to grow in many European countries, and some studies have examined the characteristics of patients using homeopathy within the general population. The aim of this study was to identify predictors for homeopathy use among internal medicine patients. PATIENTS AND METHODS: A cross-sectional analysis was conducted among all patients being referred to the Department of Internal and Integrative Medicine at Essen, Germany, over a 3-year period...

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BACKGROUND: Pediatric use of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) is popular in Europe, and utilization may be even more prevalent in chronically ill children/adolescents. This study's aim is to assess CAM use among adolescents with chronic conditions. METHODS: Data on drug utilization (past 4 weeks) and consultation with CAM providers (past year) were collected using a self-administered questionnaire from 4,677 adolescents from the German GINIplus/LISAplus birth cohorts...

BACKGROUND: Chronic otitis media with effusion (COME) and adenoid hypertrophy (AH) are common entities in the pediatric population. The conventional treatment approach (conventional medicine; COM) involved mainly surgery after a period of close observation. In this study, we aimed to introduce an integrative, non-invasive approach (integrative medicine; IM) for COME, AH, and associated episodes of recurrent acute otitis media, and compared outcomes with conventional treatment. METHODS: We conducted a prospective, non-randomized study in an integrative primary care pediatric practice and a conventional pediatric otolaryngological clinic, where treatment modality was determined by patient preference...

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BACKGROUND: Neck reflex points (NRP) are tender soft tissue areas of the cervical region that display reflectory changes in response to chronic inflammations of correlated regions in the visceral cranium. Six bilateral areas, NRP C0, C1, C2, C3, C4 and C7, are detectable by palpating the lateral neck. We investigated the inter-rater reliability of NRP to assess their potential clinical relevance. METHODS: 32 consecutive patients with chronic neck pain were examined for NRP tenderness by an experienced physician and an inexperienced medical student in a blinded design...

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Hintergrund: Erkrankungen der Atemorgane treten mit steigendem Alter öfter auf, nehmen weltweit zu und sind häufige Ursachen für Morbidität und Mortalität. In dieser Pilotstudie wurde der Frage nachgegangen, ob eine einmalige 10-minütige Behandlung mit einer Körpertambura eine signifikante und effektive Verbesserung der Lungenfunktion von Patienten mit chronisch-obstruktiver Lungenerkrankung (COPD; GOLD-Stadium A oder B) erbringen kann. Patienten und Methoden: 54 Probanden konnten je zur Hälfte in eine Behandlungsgruppe (Körpertambura) und eine aktive Kontrollgruppe (Atemtherapie) randomisiert werden...

Einleitung: Die Misteltherapie ist im deutschsprachigen Raum ein häufig angewandtes komplementärmedizinisches Verfahren (KM) in der Onkologie. Diese Studie hatte das Ziel, die Beweggründe für oder gegen eine Inanspruchnahme der Misteltherapie zu untersuchen und Themenfeldern zuzuordnen. Patienten und Methoden: Es wurden qualitative leitfadengestützte Interviews mit Krebspatienten geführt. Der Interviewleitfaden fragte nach der Inanspruchnahme von KM, der Motivation zur Inanspruchnahme, Informationsverhalten und -bedürfnissen zu KM sowie nach der Krebserkrankung...

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