Category Archives: Alternative Medicine

By Vincent Ujumadu

Awka THE Anambra State government said, yesterday, that it had put measures in place to flush out quacks among practitioners of alternative medicine in the state.

State Director of Medical Services, Dr. Azubuike Nweje, who spoke at a workshop for members of National Complementary and Alternative Medical Association, NACAMA, in Awka, said the state Ministry of Health had listed hospitals practising alternative medicine, regretting that there were still some quacks masquerading as alternative medical practitioners in the state.

Nweje said: It is compulsory for all the alternative medical practitioners in the state to come to the Ministry of Health to be listed. It is also necessary that all practitioners must belong to the National Association of Alternative Medical Practitioners. This will help us to know the practitioners and also to be controlled by both the association and the ministry of health.

Let it also be categorically stated that the listing certificate issued by the ministry is only aimed at noting all the alternative medical practitioners and the fact that registration and certification can only be done by the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria, MDCN.

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Anambra to flush out quacks in alternative medicine - Vanguard News - Vanguard

You are here: Home News Blog Integrated Health: Combining conventional healthcare with alternative medicine

Functional Medicine is an emerging specialty which considers dysfunction of cellular physiology and biochemistry as the cause of chronic conditions and aims to restore function. Patients are more frequently turning towards this form of medicine, as they recognise that much orthodox prescribing is based on placating symptoms with little focus on cure or treatment of underlying cause.

When any such therapy is offered by conventionally trained doctors, who may also concurrently prescribe orthodox medicine, the term Integrated (or Integrative) Medicine (IM) is now used.

IM medicine is a mixture of conventional with Complementary and Alternative medicine (CAM).

In 2010 a study by Hunt KJ et al showed data from 7630 respondents in the UK.

There are many reasons for the popularity of CAM therapies and it is not just the public who seem to be showing an interest. A Californian study in 2015 has shown 75% of 1,770 USA medical students think it would be beneficial for conventional Western medicine to integrate with complementary and alternative medicine (CAM).1

As global health systems feel the pressure of increasing costs, the sensibility of combining some Integrated Medicine into national health care seems logical and has been proven as viable. The budget for the NHS in England for 2016/17 is 120 billion. This is forecast to rise by nearly 35 billion in cash terms an increase of 35% by 2021. Treating people with chronic diseases may account for 86% of our nations health care costs based on USA figures.2 Arguably this makes the cost of care, using the current model, economically unsustainable. We need to find ways of changing this slide to affordability.

There are a number of studies suggesting that CAM may reduce medical expenditure and costs3 but others, based on the current paradigm of orthodox medicine, that do not.

In 2008 the UK annual spend on alternative health treatments was 4.5 billion, a market that has grown by nearly 50% in the last decade.4 This increasing expense would be surprising if people were not actually benefiting and may reduce the current increasing expenditure if it keeps patients away from General Practice and hospitals.

Doctors and academics see benefit in better understanding of CAM use by their patients and establishing what is and isnt working5, yet there continues to be concerted attacks on CAM with authorities not caring to take a balanced view of the evidence and calling it a waste of resources. Unfortunately, lack of finances means a broad defence has yet to be established and studies struggle to be funded.

Most detractors of IM will argue there is a lack of published evidence to prove the efficacy of CAM and it is generally agreed that too few studies on CAM/IM are initiated and concluded. This is a financial issue as complementary practitioners and centres do not have the necessary funds to publish large studies.

Yet there is an astonishing amount of peer-reviewed, published scientific evidence behind a myriad of naturopathic therapies, but many studies are small and outcomes not repeated frequently due to funding issues. We must not allow a lack of evidence to reflect a lack of efficacy.

It is a sad scenario that despite peer-reviewed and published papers calling for UK curriculum coordinators to improve CAM teaching, there is little movement within medical schools to do so.

Study design is an issue. Much of IM practice is about dealing with an individual rather than his or her disease process. A disease may have many different causes and so one specific treatment may not suit all cases. Double-blind, placebo-controlled research is, therefore, unsuitable for many types of CAM.

But this should not be the only way to evaluate a therapy after all, there are no double-blind, placebo-controlled studies in major surgery. To Cut Is To Cure is based on theory then trial and error. Unfortunately, CAM seems not to be allowed that due process despite it being far less dangerous to implement.

Therapy involving an acupuncturist or osteopath treating a similar number of individuals, as might be found on a pharmaceutical trial, may take a variable and considerable length of time depending on the set-up of the trial, the therapy and the variation within the individual patients. It is hard to govern such studies because some patients may respond swiftly whilst others will take much longer. And, of course, placebo is a difficult concept to administer with hands-on therapies.

Many herbal treatments, with hundreds of years of evidence through anecdotal and practitioner observation, have been discarded or made illegal for having insufficient evidence, often because there has not been the finance available to put them through a typical modern day drug trial.

That said, I believe that placebo has its place in healing. Remember, most drugs are tested against placebo and it nearly always has some benefit and sometimes more so than the drug being tested. There is a huge body of evidence supporting placebo. Perhaps placebo works better when a doctor has time to show deep interest and concern. The relationship between practitioner and patient must focus on the whole person. This is not possible when a patient is advised to bring only one symptom to a 10-minute consultation and all too frequently to be seen by different doctors. Arguably, if CAM were only to be working through placebo, it should automatically be considered a main stay of conventional therapy.

IM does not reject conventional prescribing and should not be confused with CAM that might be antagonistic. We must also not automatically accept alternative therapy uncritically, but remove the pre-fixes such as orthodox, complementary, functional, etc, and simply focuses on offering the Medicine.

Medical training, without doubt, allows practitioners to scrutinise evidence. Most GPs, spending up to 40% of their time on administration, rarely have time to study and consider therapies outside of major general practice journals which rarely have an integrated commentary. Whilst this situation exists we will continue to have doctors without interest or knowledge in alternatives and we will continue to have complementary medical practitioners without the safety net of medical training.

The Integrated Doctor is at least overcoming that obstacle.

Dr Rajendra Sharma is the author of the award winning Live Longer, Live Younger Watkins Publishers. He practices Integrated Medicine in Wimpole Street, London and in Exeter, Devon.

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Integrated Health: Combining conventional healthcare with alternative medicine - European Pharmaceutical Review (blog)

Patients who face serious illnesses are sometimes attracted to alternative medicines, also referred to as holistic or new-age medicines. These can include treatments like homeopathy, hypnosis, energy therapies like Reiki, acupuncture, and herbal remedies, to name just a few.

These approaches raise various medical and ethical concerns. An important 1998 article in the New England Journal of Medicine sums it up this way:

What most sets alternative medicine apart, in our view, is that it has not been scientifically tested and its advocates largely deny the need for such testing. By testing, we mean the marshaling of rigorous evidence of safety and efficacy, as required by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the approval of drugs and by the best peer-reviewed medical journals for the publication of research reports.

Beyond the fact that their clinical efficacy has not earned a passing grade using ordinary methods of scientific investigation, the basic premise behind some alternative medicines can also be highly suspect, raising concerns about superstitious viewpoints or misguided forms of spirituality motivating certain therapies.

If we consider acupuncture, this technique does appear to provide benefit in certain cases of pain control. Yet similar results have been reported using sham needles tapping the skin in random places with a thin metal tube. Brain scans have demonstrated that treatment with genuine needles, as opposed to the sham needles, does cause detectable changes in the brain. But, when researchers ignored acupuncturists recommended meridian placement of needles, and instead did random placement in the skin, the same brain effects were observed. Hence, it is unclear whether the results seen from acupuncture arise mostly from the well-known placebo effect or not. Further research should help resolve this question.

Even if the observed effects are not placebo-related, acupunctures non-rational justification for its purported effectiveness remains a concern. It is based on energy principles that neither science nor faith affirm. Glenn Braunstein, M.D. described it critically in the following way:

Chi, the invisible nutritive energy that flows from the universe into the body at any one of 500 acupuncture points, is conducted through the 12 main meridians [channels] in (ideally) an unbroken circle. Meridians conduct either Yin energy (from the sun) or Yang energy (from the earth). All maladies are caused by disharmony or disturbances in the flow of energy.

Clearly, then, some alternative therapies, beyond the basic issue about whether they work, raise serious spiritual concerns as well.

Another new-age therapy known as Reiki, developed in Japan in the late 1800s, claims that sickness can be caused by a disruption or imbalance in a patients Reiki or life energy. Reiki practitioners try to heal a patient by placing their hands in certain positions on the body in order to facilitate the flow of Reiki from the practitioner to the patient.

A 2009 document from the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops stresses, "In terms of caring for one's spiritual health, there are important dangers" that can arise by turning to Reiki. The document notes that because Reiki therapy is not compatible with either Christian teaching or scientific evidence, it would be inappropriate for Catholics to put their trust in the method, because to do so would be to operate "in the realm of superstition, the no-man's-land that is neither faith nor science."

Scientific investigations of another new-age therapy, the popular herbal remedy known as echinacea (taken early to ward off a cold) have revealed no difference between echinacea and a placebo in controlled studies involving several hundred subjects. While some herbal remedies may be harmless and inert placebos, others may have more serious health consequences if ingested above certain dosages due to ingredients of unknown potency derived from natural substances.

Sometimes a remedy can be borrowed from Chinese, Indian or another medical tradition, but it should be chosen for its efficacy, safety, and reasonable mode of action, and not be in conflict with principles of sound medical science or Christian teaching.

Health improvements that arise from alternative remedies may be due not only to the placebo effect, but also to the fact that patients are usually given more time, attention and focused concern by alternative practitioners than by traditional physicians. This can translate into modified habits and changed lifestyles, leading to various health benefits.

Modern medicine can be legitimately faulted for downplaying this dimension, so that, in the memorable words of pediatrician Jay Perman, Doctors tend to end up trained in silos of specialization, in which they are taught to make a diagnosis, prescribe a therapy, and were done. But were not done.

The famous Greek physician Hippocrates once noted the same point: It is more important to know what sort of person has a disease than to know what sort of disease a person has. Todays physicians-in-training, fortunately, are seeking to incorporate more and more of these patient-centric and holistic aspects into their own traditional medical practices to improve patient care and outcomes.

Rev. Tadeusz Pacholczyk, Ph.D. earned his doctorate in neuroscience from Yale and did post-doctoral work at Harvard. He is a priest of the diocese of Fall River, MA, and serves as the Director of Education at The National Catholic Bioethics Center in Philadelphia. See http://www.ncbcenter.org

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Father Tad Pacholczyk The ethics of new age medicine - The Tidings

SAN FRANCISCO, April 17, 2017 /PRNewswire/ --

Thecomplementary & alternative medicine marketis expected to generate a revenue of USD 196.87 billion by 2025, according to a new report by Grand View Research, Inc. Factors such as the increase in adoption of alternative medicine by people combined with the government initiatives of a number of key countries to enhance reach is expected to help in expansion revenue generation avenues.

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20150105/723757 )

Complementary and alternative forms of therapy are used in the treatment of chronic ailments, long-term pain among others and are also used for additional vitamins and other dietary supplementation of regular diet. Moreover, with considerable increase in the costs of conventional medicine and inclination towards body wellness rather than pharmaceutical cure is likely to boost the market over the forecast period.

As of early 2016, approximately two thirds of the population in most of the developed and developing countries have reported using one or the other form of alternative or complementary form of medicine. There are certain countries that are moving towards the legalization of some alternative medicine therapies that are being backed with approved clinical data.

Browse full research report with TOC on "Alternative And Complementary Medicine Market Analysis By Intervention (Botanicals, Acupuncture, Mind, Body, and Yoga, Magnetic Intervention), By Distribution Method, And Segment Forecasts, 2013 - 2025" at: http://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/aternative-medicine-therapies-market

Further key findings from the report suggest:

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Grand View Research has segmented the Alternative Medicine market by intervention scope, distribution method scope, and region:

Read Our Blog: Complementary & Alternative Therapies - Consistent Revenue Generation - Inconsistent Scientific Backing

About Grand View Research

Grand View Research, Inc. is a U.S. based market research and consulting company, registered in the State of California and headquartered in San Francisco. Thecompany provides syndicated research reports, customized research reports, and consulting services. To help clients make informed business decisions, we offer market intelligence studies ensuring relevant and fact-based research across a range of industries, from technology to chemicals, materials and healthcare.

Contact: Sherry James Corporate Sales Specialist, USA Grand View Research, Inc. Phone: 1-415-349-0058 Toll Free: 1-888-202-9519 Email: sales@grandviewresearch.com

Web: http://www.grandviewresearch.com

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Alternative & Complementary Medicine Market Worth $196.87 ... - Yahoo Finance

Many of us have found generic medicines to be good alternatives to more expensive brand-name drugs. But sometimes, they are not available. If we need a certain pharmaceutical, we have no choice but to pay the higher price for the brand-name version.

There may be good, acceptable reasons for that in many situations. But sometimes, there are not.

U.S. Reps. David McKinley, R-W.Va., and Peter Welch, D-Vt., want to do something about that. They have introduced a bill aimed at making more generic drugs available.

Their proposal, the Fair Access for Safe and Timely Generics Act, would, in McKinleys words, thwart manipulation of the Food and Drug Administrations drug safety regulations in order to block the production of generic alternatives to brand name medicines.

That could save Americans as much as $2.35 billion a year, according to an estimate by the Congressional Budget Office.

Last years scandal over the EpiPen device, a lifesaver for many people with severe allergies, illustrates how much money can be involved.

In 2009, a two-pack of EpiPens cost about $100. But by last year, the manufacturer, Mylan Pharmaceuticals, had increased the tag to more than $600.

Other companies had applied for FDA permission to sell alternatives at much lower prices but approval had been delayed.

No one wants the FDA to take chances with drug safety. But there is ample evidence that sometimes, that has nothing to do with delays in approval of some drugs and medical devices.

Sometimes, companies seeking to block approval of generic competitors throw roadblocks in the way of FDA approval. The McKinley-Welch bill is aimed at removing such obstacles.

As McKinley put it, The high cost of brand name drugs should never force patients to make painful financial decisions. Medicine must be affordable to those who need it most.

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Alternative medicines - Gloversville Leader-Herald

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Bill Nye, the science guy, says I convinced him that philosophy is not just a load of self-indulgent crap Quartz His Netflix show, Bill Nye Saves the World, will focus on issues such as climate change and alternative medicine. Nye believes a philosophical approach to studying the facts should convince everyone of the scientific validity of climate change and the ... and more »

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Bill Nye, the science guy, says I convinced him that philosophy is not just a load of self-indulgent crap - Quartz

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Alexis Olson (20) and Erin Haefner (20) practice alternative medicine techniques.

Madeline Ajack ('20) | Chips

Madeline Ajack ('20) | Chips

Alexis Olson (20) and Erin Haefner (20) practice alternative medicine techniques.

Madeline Ajack, Staff Writer April 13, 2017 Filed under Features

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Kathy Salazar (17) created an Alternative Medicine club with the help of Doctor David Gehling from Decorah Chiropractic in hopes of providing students with information on alternative medicine.

The club had its first meeting the week of April 12 and meetings will continue into the next year. Alternative medicine is defined as therapies and treatments that are implemented as substitutes for other mainstream medical therapies and treatments. Students involved in the alternative medicine club will study these therapies and treatments scientifically and academically.

The alternative medicine club is lead by both Salazar and Gehling. Gehling will teach students about different kinds of alternative medicine. As a certified chiropractor he brings a professional view on alternative medicine.

The club began because Ive had great experiences with alternative medicine, Salazar said. I wanted other people to know that its another option along with traditional methods of medicine.

The alternative medicine club will meet approximately twice a month. The first meeting is going to be lecture-based with guest speakers and seminars from Gehling. The second meeting of the month will be a hands-on learning experience with alternative medicine.

Meetings will consist of Gehling coming and speaking, maybe bringing some of his equipment too, Salazar said. He also suggested heading into the labs to work with some anatomical structures. He wants people who are going into medicine to understand that when patients come to them with questions about alternative medicine that they can say that Yes, this is real and it works.

A January term class for first-year students allows students to explore the world of alternative medicine. Students, such as Alexis Olson (20), learned how to reverse a humans natural energy, how to use herbs to help remedy illnesses, and different points on the body that can be massaged to counter chronic pains.

It was fun to explore different therapies that Id never heard of before, Olson said. I had so much fun in this class, and I actually use the remedies that we were provided in class.

One of the techniques Olson learned in class is reversing someones energy.

The purpose of reversing energy is to stay focused, Olson said. It also helps maintain someones positive energy flow and recharge yourself.

Similar to the class, the club will give people an introduction to alternative medicine and how it can be used in everyday life. Those who attend club meetings will research and experiment with the scientific aspects of alternative medicine.

Basically this club would be a resource for students, Salazar said. You dont get this kind of exposure in Decorah, IA. Its made my life better, honestly.

In other parts of the world, these alternative medicine practices are commonly used in everyday life. Current members were drawn to the club for many reasons.

When I was growing up I had a lot of exposure to different kinds of alternative medicine, Haley Ogoy (17) said. I always thought it was fascinating having grown up in Juneau, AK, and I wanted to help people have a better understanding of alternative medicine.

Another focus of the group is to help medical students to expand their knowledge of different treatments, therapies, and remedies outside of the traditional methods. These include home remedies that are easily accessible to all people.

I think, especially for pre-med students, Luther prides itself on having a very well-rounded community, Ogoy said. This is just another way for people to discover new methods for treatments.

Salzar hopes the club will help make Luther a more diversely educated community.

Not only will this club be super helpful, especially to college students but it can help people find other career options through the club, Salazar said.

Items such as acupuncture, chiropractic practices, cleansing diets, holistic healing, spiritual healing, herbs and oils, and meditation can all fall under the category of alternative medicine.

Students would be using these skills on a day-to-day basis, Salazar said. It helps with stress and daily pains, its super useful.

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Salazar initiates Alternative Medicine club - Luther College Chips

At a time of little knowledge, when medicine was searching for answers how to help those needing care, several local healers were offering their assistance. In the 1880s, physicians were not licensed and traditional medicine was not yet organized. In the present day, their treatments would be considered alternative medicine. Here is some information about two such practitioners in late 19th century Niagara County.

Professor Wamon

Professor Wamon, the "magnetic healer," was based at the Magnetic Institute, 74 Walnut St., Lockport, in the 1880s. He traveled to local towns including Wilson, Somerset, Lyndonville and Medina, offering magnetic healing to those in need. An ad in the Lockport Journal, 1889, titled "Professor Wamons Public Healing!," listed his many skills. The report also mentioned:

He is certainly endowed with an astonishing and phenomenal healing gift, and thesebold, public exhibitions of his beneficent power, have now placed its absolutegenuineness and the reality of his singular cures beyond all doubt. The cures witnessedand carefully investigated by our reporter, he asserts, exceed in marvelousness any of theapparently incredible testimonials that have been so often advertised in the Journal in the past.

Further on in the advertisement, there are many stories of his miracle cures in local towns. Here is an example from Newfane:

Mrs. Hern lay on a sofa and had long been unable to walk from inflammatoryrheumatism. Within five seconds, she started up, ran and leaped several times,and next day amazed everybody by walking to church.

The belief was that as the professor placed his hands on the patient, magnetic radiation energy was passed from his hands through the patient's body, assisting in the healing process.

Magnetic healing was promoted as a drug-free approach to cures. The drugs that were available and utilized by traditional physicians at the time could be dangerous to your health.

Wamon was practicing his healing skills at a time when colleges, the government and the American Medical Association (AMA) were trying to standardize and license doctors, as there were many paths to becoming a doctor and many medical schools, some of questionable quality. The professor who never claimed to be a physician avoided this scrutiny.

Dr. Daniel Lester

According to city directories, Dr. Daniel Lester practiced in the Lockport area from the 1880s onward, with his first Electro-Medicated Bath at 144 Washburn St. Eventually in 1887, his facility, now named the Electro Therapeutic Bath, moved to 131 Church St. at Green Street. This large sandstone building is listed in an Index of Stone Buildings, which indicates that the house was once the residence of Patrick J. Hopkins, a blacksmith. S. Parmele and and Dr. Lester are also named as past owners. The listing, compiled by Teresa Lasher, can be found at the Niagara County Historian's Office.

Lester was educated at the Virginia Eclectic Medical College in Philadelphia. As an eclectic physician, Lester would have been trained in the use of non-traditional medicine. Eclectic physicians considered themselves open to a plan of treatment that would fit the patient; they were educated in the use of herbal medicines and alternative practices, which contrasted with the mainstream allopathic medicine of the time.

Lester also offered Electro-Therapeutic Baths as a treatment. These baths could range from an old-time tanning bed to a battery-powered machine producing low-level electric current through sponges placed on the body. They could also involve the use of hot and cold water and vapor.

Eclectic medicine was a reaction against established medical treatments of the era and there were many eclectic medical schools, some legitimate with a prescribed course of study and others which have been now labeled diploma mills. The last eclectic medical school closed in 1939. Before medical education was research-based, with schools certified and physicians licensed, much of the education was of unquantifiable quality.

As traditional medicine struggled with a questionable reputation, there developed a market for alternative healers. In early Lockport, Rattlesnake John sold boiled-down snake fat as a cure for rheumatism and other ailments. Doctor Dean the Sweat Doctor and Dr. Knapp practiced hydrotherapy and operated a water cure just up the street from Dr. Lesters Electro Therapeutic Baths. Sleights Mineral Baths was a few blocks away. Teasdill the charm doctor and many others operated in the city as well.

In 1905, Dr. Lester and his wife Mary are listed in the city directory as living at 186 Green St., just up the street from his Electro-Therapeutic Baths.

Life Animated will be presented from 7 to 9 p.m. April 28 at the North Park Theatre, 1428 Hertel Ave., Buffalo. This PG-rated, Academy Award-nominated documentary tells the story of Owen Suskind, a young man with autism who was unable to speak as a child until he and his family found a unique way to communicate via classic Disney animated films. The documentary is presented jointly by the Museum of disABILITY History and Autism Services Inc.; a brief discussion with Q-and-A will follow its airing. Tickets are $7.50 each; buy them at the North Park box office on the day of the show. For more information, go to disabilityfilmfest.org

Lockport native Jim Boles is a senior researcher with the Museum of disABILITY History, focused on early care and healing in Niagara County. His US&J column Abandoned History is published every other week. Contact him at Jboles@people-inc.org

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ABANDONED HISTORY: Alternative medicine in the Lockport area - Lockport Union-Sun & Journal

They would say that, wouldnt they? This bon mot has been attributed, not entirely correctly, to Mandy Rice-Davies giving witness in the Profumo affair. During the trial of Stephen Ward, the defence counsel pointed out that Lord Astor denied having had an affair with Mandy, and she laughed it off by replying: Well, he would, wouldnt he? In a way, her rhetorical question aptly highlights some of the issues related to conflicts of interest that abound in medical research.

When a researcher publishes a paper in a medical journal, (s)he must disclose all conflicts of interest that he might have. The aim of this exercise is to be as transparent as possible; if someone has received support from a commercial company, for example, it does not necessarily mean that his/her paper is biased. Yet it is nevertheless important to be transparent so that we can make up our own minds.

The questionnaires that authors are being asked to complete prior to publication of their article focus almost exclusively on financial issues. For instance, one must disclose any sponsorship, fees, travel support or ownership of shares. In conventional medicine, these matters are deemed to be the most important sources for potential conflicts of interest.

In my field, alternative medicine, financial issues are usually thought to be far less critical; it is generally seen as an area where there is so little money that it is hardly worth bothering. Perhaps this is the reason why many journals of alternative medicine do not even insist on declarations of conflicts of interests and few authors disclose them.

After having been a full-time researcher of alternative medicine for more than two decades, I agree that, in this field, financial interests are often negligible. Yet I have become convinced that conflicts of a different nature are at least as prevalent and potentially more powerful. Sure, there is less money at stake, but this fact is more than compensated by non-financial issues. Quasi-evangelical convictions abound in alternative medicine, and it is, I think, obvious that they can amount to significant conflicts of interest.

During their training, alternative practitioners learn many things which are unproven, have no basis in fact or are just plainly wrong. Eventually this education or is it brain-washing? creates a belief system to which practitioners adhere, regardless of the scientific evidence, and which they tend to defend at all cost.

Moreover, this belief is indivisibly linked to more existential issues. In alternative medicine, there may not be huge amounts of money at stake, but any criticism or challenge nevertheless has the potential to endanger an alternative practitioners livelihood. And this creates a situation which is fundamentally different from conventional medicine. If someone published evidence to show that a new drug is ineffective, most GPs would simply use another one. If, however, someone demonstrates that acupuncture is a placebo, acupuncturists would automatically fear for their cash flow.

In other words, in alternative medicine, such conflicts of interest tend to be very acute, powerful and personal. Consequently, enthusiasts of alternative medicine are often incapable or unwilling to look upon criticism as anything other than an attack on their income, their beliefs, their status, or their person.

When chiropractors deny that neck manipulations carry a risk, when herbalists insist that traditional herbalism is based on good evidence, when homeopaths claim that their remedies are more than placebos, when acupuncturists tell us that meridians, yin and yang are real and evidence-based, we should ask who, in these often fiery and emotional debates, might have a conflict of interest. Who might have an interest that might directly benefit his or her income? Who is more likely to be objective, the person whose belief is being challenged and whose livelihood is endangered, or the independent expert who studied the subject in depth but has no axe to grind? If you ask such questions, you might end up concluding: They would say that, wouldnt they?

Edzard Ernst, emeritus professor at the University of Exeter, is the author of Homeopathy: The Undiluted Facts and the awardee of the John Maddox Prize 2015 for standing up for science. He blogs at edzardernst.com.

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Why debates with alternative health gurus so often turn ugly - Spectator.co.uk

HANCOCK, Md.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

PetLife Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (PTLF) (the "Company"), a developer of a new generation of high potency veterinary cancer medications and nutraceuticals for pets, released today an overview of the current state of holistic pet health practices in veterinary medicine.

As discussed in a recent report by the Company, a health-conscious society is creating the desire for holistic health options for both themselves and their pets. According to the National Center for Health Statistics, Americans spent approximately $30.2 billion in 2012 on holistic health approaches for themselves and their family. With pets increasingly being referred to as members of the family, this demonstrates a trend that will soon impact the pet healthcare industry.

Over the years, the paradigm shift in veterinary practices to include alternative medicine is directly related to consumer preferences for natural, nonintrusive, and often more affordable wellness solutions, said PetLife President, Geoffrey Broderick, Jr. This phenomenon is growing across the globe and current statistics of holistic health adoption are much higher than what is being reported since many veterinarians may not register themselves as offering holistic approaches as part of their practice, simply because they dont have the time or may not participate in a particular association. For example, the American Holistic Veterinary Medical Association has approximately 1,000 members in the U.S., yet this growing organization comprises less than one percent of those veterinarians whom currently offer holistic approaches.

Holistic medicine is attractive to pet owners for the same reasons they are attracted to it themselves: It focuses on preventative treatments and the mental and emotional wellbeing of the patient in order to maximize healing.For both humans and animals, holistic approaches may include treatments such as herbal remedies, acupuncture, chiropractic care and massage, homeopathy, and nutrition.

According to a Kroger Co. 2011 survey:

The availability of veterinarians that offer holistic health approaches is not meeting the demand from pet owners, added Dr. Geoffrey Broderick, Chairman of the Product Advisory Board at PetLife. Traditional health approaches are generally unaffordable for most pet owners, as well as undesirable due to the inherent side effects. Companies like PetLife are striving to fill this gap in the pet care industry by developing and making available nutraceuticals, drugs, supplements, and pet foods that are affordable, non-invasive, eco-friendly, and holistic in nature. Of course, the ultimate goal of natural products is to prolong pets lives in the first place and prevent cancer and other diseases prevalent in companion animals.

About PetLife Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

PetLife Pharmaceuticals (PTLF) (http://www.PetLifePharma.com) is a registered US Veterinary Pharmaceutical company, incorporated in 2012. PetLife's mission is to bring its new, scientifically proven, non-toxic, potentiated bioactive nutraceuticals and prescription medication, Vitalzul, to the world of veterinary oncologywith the ultimate goal of preventing cancer and extending the life of pets suffering from cancer while improving their quality of life. In the US alone, consumer spending on domestic companion animals reached over $60 billion in 2015 with over $29 billion spent on veterinary care and medications.

Forward looking statement:

This press release contains certain "forward-looking statements," as defined in the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, that involve a number of risks and uncertainties. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate and the actual results and future events could differ materially from management's current expectations. The economic, competitive, governmental, technological and other factors identified in the Company's previous filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission may cause actual results or events to differ materially from those described in the forward-looking statements in this press release. The Company undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170412005301/en/

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PetLife: Holistic Pet Health is Next Big Trend in Veterinary Medicine - Yahoo Finance