New Study: Eating Walnuts can help curb Type 2 Diabetes risks.

Eating walnuts may reduce the risk for Type 2 diabetes in women, a large new study concludes.

Previous studies have suggested an inverse relationship between tree nut consumption and diabetes. Though the findings are correlational, walnuts are uniquely high in omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids, which may be of particular value in Type 2 diabetes prevention.

The scientists, writing in the April issue of The Journal of Nutrition, used dietary and health data on 138,000 women participating in a large continuing study of women’s health. Beginning in 1999 they collected data on walnut consumption, and followed the women for the next 10 years. They found 5,930 cases of Type 2 diabetes.

Women who ate walnuts tended to weigh less, consume more fish and exercise more than those who did not. But researchers controlled for these and many other factors, and found that compared with women who ate no walnuts, those who consumed 8 ounces of walnuts or more a month reduced their risk for Type 2 diabetes by 24 percent.

Read more here: 

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/04/08/walnuts-for-diabetes/?ref=health

Nestlé develops Traditional Chinese Medicine.

For the purpose of combating medical issues like obesity, heart disease, and diabetes through developing personalized nutrition treatments, Nestlé began the health science business in 2011. The new NSP venture will focus initially in the United States on gastro-intestinal treatments, ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease, possibly branching out in the future into metabolic diseases and brain health.

Nestlé Health Science's CEO Luis Cantarell was quoted by Bloomberg News as saying on a conference call, “We believe traditional Chinese medicine has a real potential to become part of innovative solutions.” Chi-Med chief executive Christian Hogg said, "Botanical are in the forefront in our view in the search for new medicines." One fifth of the global population is believed to rely on traditional healthcare and, according to WHO, 119 countries have regulatory traditional medicine frameworks. Dr. Zhang Qi, coordinator of the WHO's traditional and complementary
medicine unit is quoted on Voice of America news as saying, "This shows we should recognize the existence and harness the potential of TM [traditional medicine] to contribute to healthcare."

Read the full story here: http://www.examiner.com/article/new-nestl-chinese-medicine-and-world-health-organization

Homeopathy being used to help fight dengue fever .

Indian health authorities are using Homeopathy to help combat dengue fever. 

India 

The Medical and Health Department has taken its first step towards a major crackdown on dengue fever by intending to cover a population of 25 lakh residents of Chittoor district. The officials have announced that they will distribute homeopathic drugs throughout the district in the next seven to ten days, starting from Madanapalle.

Homeopathic drugs are said to have better preventive qualities when compared to allopathic drugs. In fact, the recent swine flu attack in Kurnool district was contained in less than a fortnight after the mass distribution of a homeopathic medicine.

Taskforce formed

The Department of AYUSH (Ayurveda, Yoga, Unani, Siddha and Homeopathy) has formed a taskforce with district programme co-ordinator Murali Babu, which will ensure the distribution of the drug to every nook and corner of Chittoor district. “We formally launched the event at Madanapalle on Monday, with a team of 40 doctors going for a house-to-house survey, both to create awareness as well as distribute the drugs,” said K.V. Ramana, Regional Deputy Director (Rayalaseema), Department of AYUSH.

For safe and cost effective treatment of eczema skin disorders : Homeopathic Medicine

from ModernMedicine.com 

Boston – Classical individualized homeopathic medicine provides a safe, inexpensive and nontoxic alternative for common dermatologic conditions such as acne, warts and eczema, according to Robert J. Signore, D.O.

One specific advantage of incorporating homeopathic medicine into one's existing dermatology practice is that it might help reduce the amount of topical steroids and systemic antibiotics prescribed, says Dr. Signore, a Tinley Park, Ill., dermatologist in private practice. Dr. Signore spoke at the 2012 American Academy of Dermatology Summer Academy Meeting.

"There's nothing wrong with conventional dermatological treatment. We should be proud of what we can do with conventional dermatology. But homeopathic medicine can help sometimes when we have patients who don't seem to be getting better with the best conventional medicine we can give them,” he says.

Study proof 
A 225-patient study in atopic eczema showed that after two years of homeopathic treatment along with conventional treatment, average eczema severity scores improved substantially, and patients could reduce their use of conventional drugs (Witt CM, Ludtke R, Willich S. Acta Derm Venereol. 2009;89(2):182-183), Dr. Signore says.

A 17-case series showed similar results (Itamura R, Hosoya R. Homeopathy. 2003;92(2):108-114); when researchers added classical homeopathic medicine to these patients' conventional medications, "All 17 improved," Dr. Signore says. About half got 50 percent better; half got about 80 percent better; and one cleared completely, he says. Additionally, at the study's end, five of 17 were off topical steroids.

Diagnosis-driven 
In conventional dermatology, clinching the diagnosis drives treatment choices, Dr. Signore says. But with individualized homeopathic medicine, even when one knows the diagnosis, two patients with the same dermatologic condition often would require different treatments.

Dr. Signore cites the example of a person with a warm body type and extroverted personality who most likely would benefit from taking a highly diluted form of sulfur orally, as opposed to a patient with a cool body type and shy personality who might instead require calcium carbonate.

It's also not uncommon for homeopathic medicine to improve seemingly unrelated medical conditions, Dr. Signore says, adding that in one case he treated, homeopathic sepia failed to improve a woman's melasma, but the patient considered the treatment successful because it appeared to lift her depression.

The Emergence of Health as the Business of Health Care.

In an article in the New England Journal of Medicine, a discussion is begun on what the future of health care should, and could be from the view of many in the medical community; and that is the business of health, not just the business of treating those that are sick. 

"(The) situation in health care is that whereas doctors and hospitals focus on producing health care, what people really want is health. Health care is just a means to that end — and an increasingly expensive one. If we could get better health some other way, just as we can now produce images without film and transport people and freight without railroads, then maybe we wouldn't have to rely so much on health care.

To some of us, the point may seem both obvious and irrelevant. We might concede that even if people don't intrinsically desire doctors' visits, medications, surgery, and imaging, those services are still the way to get people the health they want. Although that may be true, the leaders of Kodak or the railroads may have had similar thoughts in their own day. Yet they seem to have missed some signals. What signals might we be missing?

One signal is that while much of recent U.S. medical practice proceeds as if health and disease were entirely biologic, our understanding of health's social determinants has become deeper and more convincing. An enormous body of literature supports the view that differences in health are determined as much by the social circumstances that underlie them as by the biologic processes that mediate them. Examples include the Whitehall study of British civil servants that revealed that civil-service grade is more strongly associated with mortality than any broad biomedical measure2; research conducted in the Veterans Affairs health care system and elsewhere demonstrating the persistence of health disparities even within fixed health insurance and delivery systems; and models of fundamental causes that provide a conceptual explanation of how such disparities can persist over time, following different pathways in changing circumstances.3"

Read the entire article here: http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp1206862?query=featured_home&

Olympians turn to familiar acupuncture and traditional medicine as treatment.

While some athletes remain wary of remedies that are not certified due to doping concerns, for the vast majority regular treatment has boosted fitness and the ability to overcome injury quickly.

"I have had lots of physical therapy, which takes a long time to effect a cure, but Oriental therapy works faster. My pain halved after a day," Kim Yeon-koung from the Korean women's volleyball team told Reuters.

"I used to dislike it (acupuncture) due to the pain. Now I receive therapy regularly even if I am not hurt as my body has experienced benefits which I think boost my performance," said Kim, grimacing in pain while receiving acupuncture at at a gym in Jincheon, 150 kilometres south of Seoul.

Park Jung-geu from the men's handball team said oriental medicine helped his muscles relax quickly.

"I can tell that I am getting better after being treated about three times, while physical therapy requires long, consistent treatment," he said.

Shin Joon-shik, chairman of a major traditional Korean hospital in Seoul, has treated high profile athletes such as soccer player Park Ji-sung, figure skating gold medallist Kim Yuna, baseball player Choo Shin-soo and golfer Paul Casey.

He said Korean traditional medicine helps to treat sprains and muscle injuries.

"Traditional Chinese medicines are more effective for chronic diseases while Korean medicines are for acute illness," he said.

Official data showed the number of oriental medicine clinics surged 32 percent to 12,292 in 2011 from 2004.

Read more: 

http://in.reuters.com/article/2012/07/12/oly-korea-medicine-adv-idINL4E8GI5MZ20120712

Steroid Injections for Back Pain - No More Effective Than Placebo.

NY TIMES: Steroid Injections for Back Pain - No More Effective Than Placebo. 

A randomized trial of steroid injections for back pain has shown that they are no more effective than a placebo.

Because the long-term benefits of surgery remain unproven and pain medicines often have serious side effects, doctors have increasingly turned to steroid injections to treat lumbosacral radiculopathy, a common cause of back pain. The condition stems from damage to the discs between the vertebrae that often leads to sciatica, numbness or pain in the legs.

Researchers tested 84 adults with back pain of less than six months’ duration, dividing them into three groups. They received either steroids, etanercept (an arthritis medicine) or an inactive saline solution in two injections given two weeks apart.

At the end of one month, they were assessed for pain.

Leg and back pain decreased in all three groups, but there were no statistically significant differences among them. The researchers conclude that steroids may provide some short-term analgesic effect, but that the improvement in all of the patients was mainly due to normal healing.

The lead author, Dr. Steven P. Cohen, an associate professor of anesthesiology at Johns Hopkins, was disappointed with the results but said that he still hopes drugs like etanercept might someday be proven effective. But for now, he said, “the strongest evidence for back pain relief is with exercise.”

The study appears in the April 17 issue of Annals of Internal Medicine.

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/04/27/for-back-pain-steroid-shots-no-more-effective-than-placebo/

Homeopathy and Anthroposophic medicine benefit Healthy Aging

Homeopathy & Anthroposophic medicine benefit Healthy Aging*excerpt from Avilian.co.uk article; full story found in footer

"Old age is associated with chronic disease. During the period 2003–2007 more than 25% of the total Dutch population had a chronic disease, and 8% had more than one. Of those that were 65–74 years old, 50% had a chronic disease and of those 75 and over, 57.5%. Since chronic disease is associated with lower quality of life and higher healthcare related costs, it is very important, both for society and for the individual, to stay as healthy as possible into old age.1

In the last 150 years, modern Western medicine has achieved enormous success with its approach to fighting disease. This includes the fighting of disease-related organisms, cells and functions in the body; the reduction of disease-related symptoms; and the manipulation and/or substitution of non-functioning or dysfunctional parts of the body.

However, in the last decades, there has been a growing interest in the additional approach of ‘health promotion’ in both healthcare and society in general. One of the definitions of this approach is: ‘Health promotion is the process of enabling individuals, groups or societies to increase control over, and to improve their physical, mental, social and spiritual health.’ This could be achieved by creating environments and societies characterised by clear structures and empowering environments where people are able to identify their internal and external resources, use and reuse them to realise aspirations, to satisfy needs, to perceive meaningfulness and to change or cope with the environment in a health promoting manner. Within the health promotion approach, one can distinguish between preventative health promotion which aims at becoming more healthy and remaining healthy in order to prevent diseases; and curative health promotion.

Antibiotics and cytostatics are typical medicinal products of the fighting disease category. Homeopathic and anthroposophic medicines can be regarded as medicinal products within a curative health promotion approach. This approach aims at supporting and increasing the self-healing capacities of the human organism and the self-management of the person. Health promotion activities and therapies, both at the physical and the psychosocial/mental level, are thus hypothesised to improve the health status of people. This might result in healthy ageing with fewer chronic diseases and a reduction of health(care)-related costs.

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