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The National Centre for Research on Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIM) – What is it?
The National Centre for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM) recently changed its name. It replaced the word ‘Alternative’ with ‘Integrative’, to reflect both the “growth of integrative health care within communities across the US” and its research focus. This is the third time this agency has been re-named. Is this just another attempt to give…
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Crazy, cruel cancer ‘cures’
Some cancer patients, ignoring medical advice, are choosing ‘natural’ approaches to their disease. Steve Jobs (co-founder, chairman, and CEO of Apple Inc), Penelope Dingle, Sharyn and her daughter, Jess Ainscough, all used alternative interventions before dying of cancer. Despite phenomenal progress with medical treatments, cancer quackery remains a flourishing and lucrative business throughout the developed…
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“Bite Back Campaign” – a toothy tiger?
Water fluoridation is one of the 20th Century’s most important advances in public health. It has been successfully practised for more than 70 years. However, tens of thousands of our children will continue to suffer from bad teeth as a growing number of anti-science local councils remain determined to strongly resist fluoridating their drinking water.…
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Vitamin C Infusions – where’s the evidence?
Soon after finding an engorged tick in my hair, during a recent visit to northern New South Wales, I found myself nursing a sore head in the waiting room of a busy ‘Integrative Medicine Clinic’. This was not the first time I had experienced a tick bite, so, as a cancer patient concerned about infection,…
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Bogus bed wetting interventions
I was recently contacted by a general practitioner who specialises in treating children who wet their beds. He raised concerns that he was seeing an increasing number of parents who had previously taken their child to alternative practitioners. One child had been to a chiropractor more than 20 times to be “adjusted”. This was causing…
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Weasel words, fuzzy phrases and other chiro “cons”
Claims advertising therapeutic services, unless supported by high level evidence, can mislead. With many chiropractors suggesting that spinal manipulation can alter the course of childhood diseases, why do regulators duck for cover? If you believe that you are being misled or deceived by a chiropractor, you can complain to the Australian Health Practitioners Regulation Agency…
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When it comes to cancer – who are the brave ones?
The recent death of Jessica Ainscough, the ‘Wellness Warrior’, sparked headlines that she was ‘brave‘. Suffering from a rare, slowly growing cancer, she rejected a drastic, but potentially life-saving medical treatment. She embraced ‘alternative medicine’. Two other beautiful young women, Amanda Rootsey and Belle Gibson, were also praised for ‘bravely’ fighting cancer ‘naturally’. Is that…
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The truth about herbal ‘medicines’
Herbal medicines have been defined as “an unknown dose of an ill-defined drug, of unknown effectiveness and unknown safety“. Now under the spotlight by regulators in the US, the UK, Canada and here in Australia, do they work, are they safe and do you even get what you pay for? More than 60% of Australians…
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Wondrous Wiggly Worms!
Human evolution and parasitic infections have run hand-in-hand since antiquity. Humans can be hosts to nearly 300 species of parasitic worms. Some cause death, suffering and economic loss in both developing and developed nations and research is ongoing to develop vaccines for these infections. Can some worms offer health benefits? People become infected by consuming…
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Fish oil – is it on the nose?
Considerable confusion and many unsubstantiated beliefs abound when it comes to fish oil supplements. An estimated one in four Australians currently take them for a wide range of conditions, even though good research is unconvincing. However, there are suggestions that increased doses of fish oil might provide health benefits. What are fish oils – and…