The todays paper reads a little bit like an ad for alternative medicine. It is about “the clinical practices and perceptions of professional herbalists providing patient care concurrently with conventional medical practice in Australia.” (Mavourneen Casey, et al. , 2007). Back then, in 2007, “a total of 1.9 million consultations for herbal medicine and naturopathy have been reported to occur annually in Australia.” I first thought that this isn’t much but this was due to a lack of my geographic knowledge. In the surprisingly small population of Australia of 23 million people (compared to Germany with 80million people), 1.9 million is around 8%. Herbal medicine comprises oral medication of strong pharmacologically active compounds. In a former "paper of the day" I wrote about the health supporting effect of the traditional Maori diet which included e.g. plants with cancer suppressing effects. Also “common pharmaceutical medications such as aspirin, morphine, codeine, atropine and digoxin were originally derived from herbal medicines.” So herbal medicine is interesting, especially its position to conventional medicine. Therefore, Casey et al. sent a postal survey “to all full members of the only national association of Western herbal medicine practitioners in Australia, the National Herbalists’ Association of Australia (NHAA).” The questions covered educational qualification and years of working experience of the herbalists as well as the methods/workflow of their therapy and the interaction with conventional medicine. Moreover, the herbalists were asked about their perceptions of their role in patient care, including medical diagnosis and the understanding of herbal therapy/pharmaceutical drug interactions. The results of the survey show a tight connection between herbal and conventional medicine. On the one hand, the number of herbalists with university qualifications increases which supports the trend of the integration of orthodox medical knowledge into herbal practices like blood test, lever function test and hormone profiles for treatment decision. On the other hand, the patients themselves tend to seek treatment in both medicines parallel. “Most patients who visit professional herbalists tend to seek care for chronic conditions, already have a medical diagnosis, and continue with concurrent conventional medical treatment.” This increases the risk of drug interactions. Therefore, in order to guarantee the safety of the patients, a study of the active compounds of the herbal medicine is important as well as a closer collaboration and cooperation between the medical communities. “An understanding of the ways in which herbalists practice and prescribe may be invaluable in the debate about the safety and efficacy of herbal medicines and may help the planning of reliable and valid research in the future.“ "An examination of the clinical practices and perceptions of professional herbalists providing patient care concurrently with conventional medical practice in Australia"
Mavourneen Casey, Jon Adams, and David Sibbritt Complementary therapies in medicine 16.4 (2008): 228-232
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Deleterious oral habits? That term summarizes all habits which are destructive for the teeth and supporting structures like lip/thumb sucking, lip/nail biting and buxism (teeth grinding). Based on previous studies, it its hypothesized that deleterious oral habits are connected to mouth breathing and the time interval a baby is breast fed: “Babies fed preferably with mother’s milk for a short interval or not breastfed at all have increased probability of developing mouth breathing and deleterious oral habits than babies breastfed for at least six months of age.” So does breast feeding prevent deleterious oral habits? In 2005, Trawitzki et al. published a study were they tested this hypothesis. They tested 62 children (3-6 years old) for their breathing and oral habits and sorted them in groups of mouth breathers and nose breathers. Statistic analysis of the feeding history of the study revealed that 100% of the nose breathing children were fed preferably with mother’s milk for intervals higher than three months. However, there were also breast fed children among the mouth breathers (37.5%). Moreover, the study showed that the feeding history of the children showed no significant difference in feeding by milk bottles between mouth and nose breathing children. Significant differences occurred in the presence of deleterious oral habits between mouth and nose breathers. Suction and biting habits were more common in mouth breathers compared to nose breathers. But what do we learn from these results? Does breast feeding prevent deleterious oral habits? No.
Breast-feeding and deleterious oral habits in mouth and nose breathers
L. V. V. Trawitzki et al. Brazilian journal of otorhinolaryngology 71.6 (2005): 747-751 |
IdeaI love to increase my general science knowledge by reading papers from different fields of science. Here I share some of them. Archiv
März 2018
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