Alternative Medicine and Why It Seems To Work

Very rarely have alternative treatments or medication been able to show any therapeutic value. Yet countless people swear by it and are convinced they can’t do without.

The mysterious placebo effect has everything to do with this. But what is it and how does it work? Harriet Hall explains.

Is there hope after all?

Yesterday I received some e-mails.

The first was from a lady whose mother is suffering from cancer. During her mother’s illness, this lady searched the internet for information on cancer and decided it would be a good idea to collect everything she found in one place. So she started a blog.

She says on her blog: “I wanted to have a place where all the information I was researching on the internet could be stored in one convenient location (…). In addition, I wanted to make sure that all the information was positive, so having our own blog made that easy.” 

Switzerland to insert CAM in the constitution?

On 17 May 2009 the Swiss people voted in favour of a constitutional article for complementary medicine in a national vote. 67 percent of voters supported the new constitutional article. Switzerland is the first country in Europe to set out in the constitution, authority for the state and constituent states (cantons) to take complementary medicine into consideration in the public health service.

Breast cancer movie project

A young man loses his girlfriend to breast cancer and decides he will make a documentary of his struggle to save her. He sends an email with the film’s trailer to scientist/surgeon. We think it is important that you see the trailer and read what the young man wrote, as well as the response he received.