Re: Swiss government approves of Homeopathy

[Guest guest]

Thanks -- this is very interesting especially in view of the Codex rules and

inclinations.

blessings

Shan

>

> The Swiss government's exceedingly positive report on homeopathic medicine

> Sunday, April 08, 2012 by: Dana Ullman

>

>

http://www.naturalnews.com/035499_homeopathic_medicine_Swiss_report.html#ixzz1rT\

ttlQKX

>

> (NaturalNews) The government of Switzerland has a long history of

> neutrality, and therefore, reports from this government on controversial

> subjects need to be taken more seriously than other reports from countries

> that are more strongly influenced by present economic and political

> constituencies. Further, when one considers that two of the top five largest

> drug companies in the world have their headquarters in Switzerland, one

> might assume that this country would have a heavy interest in and bias

> toward conventional medicine, but such assumptions would be wrong.

>

> In late 2011, the Swiss government's report on homeopathic medicine

> represents the most comprehensive evaluation of homeopathic medicine ever

> written by a government and was just published in book form in English

> (Bornhoft and Matthiessen, 2011). This breakthrough report affirmed that

> homeopathic treatment is both effective and cost-effective and that

> homeopathic treatment should be reimbursed by Switzerland's national health

> insurance program.

>

> The Swiss government's inquiry into homeopathy and complementary and

> alternative (CAM) treatments resulted from the high demand and widespread

> use of alternatives to conventional medicine in Switzerland, not only from

> consumers but from physicians as well. Approximately half of the Swiss

> population have used CAM treatments and value them. Further, about half of

> Swiss physicians consider CAM treatments to be effective. Perhaps most

> significantly, 85 percent of the Swiss population wants CAM therapies to be

> a part of their country's health insurance program.

>

> It is therefore not surprising that more than 50 percent of the Swiss

> population surveyed prefer a hospital that provides CAM treatments rather to

> one that is limited to conventional medical care.

>

> Beginning in 1998, the government of Switzerland decided to broaden its

> national health insurance to include certain complementary and alternative

> medicines, including homeopathic medicine, traditional Chinese medicine,

> herbal medicine, anthroposophic medicine, and neural therapy. This

> reimbursement was provisional while the Swiss government commissioned an

> extensive study on these treatments to determine if they were effective and

> cost-effective. The provisional reimbursement for these alternative

> treatments ended in 2005, but as a result of this new study, the Swiss

> government's health insurance program once again began to reimburse for

> homeopathy and select alternative treatments. In fact, as a result of a

> national referendum in which more than two-thirds of voters supported the

> inclusion of homeopathic and select alternative medicines in Switzerland's

> national health care insurance program, the field of complementary and

> alternative medicine has become a part of this government's constitution

> (Dacey, 2009; Rist, Schwabl, 2009).

>

>

> The Swiss Government's " Health Technology Assessment "

>

> The Swiss government's " Health Technology Assessment " on homeopathic

> medicine is much more comprehensive than any previous governmental report

> written on this subject to date. This report carefully and comprehensively

> review the body of evidence from randomized double-blind and placebo

> controlled clinical trials testing homeopathic medicines, plus they also

> evaluated the " real world effectiveness " as well as safety and

> cost-effectiveness. The report also conducted a highly-comprehensive review

> of the wide body of preclinical research (fundamental physio-chemical

> research, botanical studies, animal studies, and in vitro studies with human

> cells).

>

> And still further, this report evaluated systematic reviews and

> meta-analyses, outcome studies, and epidemiological research. This wide

> review carefully evaluated the studies conducted, both in terms of quality

> of design and execution (called " internal validity " ) and how appropriate

> each was for the way that homeopathy is commonly practiced (called " external

> validity " ). The subject of external validity is of special importance

> because some scientists and physicians conduct research on homeopathy with

> little or no understanding of this type of medicine (some studies tested a

> homeopathic medicine that is rarely used for the condition tested, while

> others utilized medicines not commonly indicated for specific patients).

>

> When such studies inevitably showed that the homeopathic medicine did not

> " work, " the real and accurate assessment must be that the studies were set

> up to disprove homeopathy... or simply, the study was an exploratory trial

> that sought to evaluate the results of a new treatment (exploratory trials

> of this nature are not meant to prove or disprove the system of homeopathy

> but only to evaluate that specific treatment for a person with a specific

> condition).

>

> After assessing pre-clinical basic research and the high quality clinical

> studies, the Swiss report affirmed that homeopathic high-potencies seem to

> induce regulatory effects (e.g., balancing or normalizing effects) and

> specific changes in cells or living organisms. The report also reported that

> 20 of the 22 systematic reviews of clinical research testing homeopathic

> medicines detected at least a trend in favor of homeopathy.* (Bornhoft,

> Wolf, von Ammon, et al, 2006)

>

> The Swiss report found a particularly strong body of evidence to support the

> homeopathic treatment of upper respiratory tract infections and respiratory

> allergies. The report cited 29 studies in " Upper Respiratory Tract

> Infections/AllergicReactions, " of which 24 studies found a positive result

> in favor of homeopathy. Further, six out of seven controlled studies that

> compared homeopathic treatment with conventional medical treatment showed

> that homeopathy to be more effective than conventional medical interventions

> (the one other trial found homeopathic treatment to be equivalent to

> conventional medical treatment). All of these results from homeopathic

> treatment came without the side effects common to conventional drug

> treatment. In evaluating only the randomized placebo controlled trials, 12

> out of 16 studies showed a positive result in favor of homeopathy.

>

> The authors of the Swiss government's report acknowledge that a part of the

> overall review of research included one negative review of clinical research

> in homeopathy (Shang, et al, 2005). However, the authors noted that this

> review of research has been widely and harshly criticized by both advocates

> and non-advocates of homeopathy. The Swiss report noted that the Shang team

> did not even adhere to the QUORUM guidelines which are widely recognized

> standards for scientific reporting (Linde, Jonas, 2005). The Shang team

> initially evaluated 110 homeopathic clinical trials and then sought to

> compare them with a matching 110 conventional medical trials. Shang and his

> team determined that there were 22 " high quality " homeopathic studies but

> only nine " high quality " conventional medical studies. Rather than compare

> these high quality trials (which would have shown a positive result for

> homeopathy), the Shang team created criteria to ignore a majority of high

> quality homeopathic studies, thereby trumping up support for their original

> hypothesis and bias that homeopathic medicines may not be effective (Ludtke,

> Rutten, 2008).

>

> The Swiss report also notes that Sackett, M.D., the Canadian physician

> who is widely considered to be one of the leading pioneers in " evidence

> based medicine, " has expressed serious concern about those researchers and

> physicians who consider randomized and double-blind trials as the only means

> to determine whether a treatment is effective or not. To make this

> assertion, one would have to acknowledge that virtually all surgical

> procedures were " unscientific " or " unproven " because so few have undergone

> randomized double-blind trials.

>

> For a treatment to be determined to be " effective " or " scientifically

> proven, " a much more comprehensive assessment of what works and doesn't is

> required. Ultimately, the Swiss government's report on homeopathy represents

> an evaluation of homeopathy that included an assessment of randomized double

> blind trials as well as other bodies of evidence, all of which together lead

> the report to determine that homeopathic medicines are indeed effective.

>

> The next article will discuss further evidence provided in this report from

> the Swiss government on the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of

> homeopathic care.

>

> REFERENCES:

>

> Bornhoft, Gudrun, and Matthiessen, F. Homeopathy in Healthcare:

> Effectiveness, Appropriateness, Safety, Costs. Goslar, Germany: Springer,

> 2011. http://rd.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-642-20638-2/page/1 (This

> book is presently available from the German office of the publisher, and it

> will become available via the American office as well as select booksellers

> in mid- to late-February, 2012.)(NOTE: When specific facts in the above

> article are provided but not referenced, this means that these facts were

> derived from this book.)

>

> Bornhoft G, Wolf U, von Ammon K, Righetti M, Maxion-Bergemann S, Baumgartner

> S, Thurneysen AE, Matthiessen PF. Effectiveness, safety and

> cost-effectiveness of homeopathy in general practice - summarized health

> technology assessment. Forschende Komplementarmedizin (2006);13 Suppl

> 2:19-29. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16883077

>

> Dacey, . Therapy supporters roll up sleeves after vote. SwissInfo.ch,

> May 19, 2009. http://www.swissinfo.ch

>

> Linde K, Jonas W. Are the clinical effects of homeopathy placebo effects?

> Lancet 36:2081-2082. DOI:10.1016/S0140-6736(05)67878-6.

> http://download.thelancet.com

>

> Ludtke R, Rutten ALB. The conclusions on the effectiveness of homeopathy

> highly depend on the set of analysed trials. Journal of Clinical

> Epidemiology. October 2008. doi: 10.1016/j.jclinepi.2008.06/015.

> http://www.jclinepi.com/article/S0895-4356(08)00190-X/abstract

>

> Rist L, Schwabl H: Komplementarmedizin im politischen Prozess. Schweizer

> Bevolkerungstimmt uber Verfassungsartikel ?Zukunft mit Komplementarmedizin?

> ab. Forsch Komplementmed 2009, doi 10.1159/000203073.

> (Translation: Complementary medicine in the political process: The Swiss

> population votes on the Constitutional Article " The future with

> complementary medicine "

> http://www.ayurveda-association.eu

>

> *Although this Swiss government report was just published in book form in

> 2011, the report was finalized in 2006. In light of this date, the authors

> evaluated systematic reviews and meta-analyses on homeopathic research up

> until June 2003.

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