Wiener klinische Wochenschrift
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Wien. Klin. Wochenschr. · May 2020
ReviewA critical examination of the main premises of Traditional Chinese Medicine.
Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) consists of a plethora of therapeutic approaches aiming to both characterize and treat diseases. Its utilization has gained significant popularity in the western world and is even backed by the World Health Organization's decision to include TCM diagnostic patterns into the new revision of the International Classification of Diseases code, the global standard for diagnostic health information. As these developments and potentially far-reaching decisions can affect modern healthcare systems and daily clinical work as well as wildlife conservation, its underlying factual basis must be critically examined. ⋯ Nevertheless, the (re-)discovery of artemisinin more than 50 years ago introduced a novel development in TCM: the commingling of Eastern and Western medicine, the appreciation of both systems. The need for more rigorous approaches, fulfilment of and agreement to current guidelines to achieve high-quality research are of utmost relevance. Thereby, ancient knowledge of herbal species and concoctions may serve as a possible treasure box rather than Pandora's box.
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Wien. Klin. Wochenschr. · May 2020
ReviewFrom St. John's wort to tomato and from Rhodiola to cranberry : A review of phytotherapy and some examples.
This study evaluated the definition, the prevalence of use and the governmental regulations of phytotherapy and four examples of herbal medicine are discussed in more detail. ⋯ The findings were diverse and must be individually taken into account. Evidence for efficacy varies within and between the four examples. An explanation for the lack of reproducibility of findings from preclinical and clinical experiments might be the insufficient standardization of herbal medicines. There is no scientific reason why phytotherapy should not be investigated with the same rigor as conventional drugs to establish the efficacy and potential risks. Meanwhile, it is concluded that care is essential when using herbal medicine in the daily routine and informing patients about potential shortcomings and dangers of herbal medicines should be considered a duty of pharmacists and physicians.
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The use of homeopathy is remarkably popular. Popularity, however, is not an arbiter in a scientific discourse. In fact, the assumptions underlying homeopathy violate fundamental laws of nature. ⋯ Relaxed regulations and lack of scientific literacy and of health education allow for continuous thriving of homeopathy. While the tide may be changing on the regulatory side, health education of the general public is presumably more important to support informed decision making by patients. Otherwise, the responsible patient, who is posited to decide on the medical choices, remains a convenient legal fiction.
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In summer 2019 an extracurricular activity was started at the Medical University of Vienna (MUW) with the title: "Esoterism in Medicine", where different chapters were evaluated by students. Here we present the subheading "Vaccine Hesitancy". ⋯ Other objections were taken from blogs and social media. The students' rebuttal was based on current scientific literature (preferentially pubmed), but also from other scientific sources like authorities.