Complementary Therapies - Science topic

I believe it is important to understand and research the novel benefits of nutraceuticals and their bioactive compounds. Bioactive macromolecules such as polysaccharides, β-glucans, lectins, lovastatin, peptides, phenolics, and flavonoids exhibit nutraceutical properties including antioxidant activity, anti-cancer effects, and anti-diabetic benefits.

Thank you. It is indeed difficult to locate the alternative therapies. The known modalitites of the alarms and training of parents and children are already well documented but the accupuncture , herbal and other modalitites lack concrete head to head evidence.

Thanks, this is a clear and very well laid out set of steps.

I do feel that for non-pharmaceutical studies that removing or minimising the placebo effect may be a disservice to the methodology that is studied.

I believe that the placebo and nocebo effects are integral to understanding treatment outcomes. Some treatments derive their efficacy from enhancing the placebo effect, which is a well-documented and beneficial phenomenon. Conversely, the nocebo effect can exacerbate perceptions of danger and elicit exaggerated responses to perceived threats. The challenge lies in isolating and accurately recording these cognitive influences.

There is a crucial intersection between science and innovation where research should focus on understanding why certain treatments yield positive results, rather than solely aiming to disprove hypotheses through traditional falsifiability methods. Both approaches—proving a treatment's efficacy and attempting to disprove it—can introduce bias.

In my own research, I have found that excluding placebo and nocebo effects might be counterproductive. Instead, we should explore ways to harness and enhance these natural healing phenomena to alleviate chronic pain. Investigating the mechanisms behind treatment efficacy can accelerate the development of effective cures more efficiently than traditional hypothesis testing.

In 20 years of practice I've never seen this done. Most of the time temporomandibular disorders are a conservative musculoskeletal problem that should be managed by a properly trained physiotherapist. Needles are rarely required.

Depending upon the evidence base for their effectiveness, as well as the placebo response, alternative and complementary therapies may build immune system resistance. RCT trials will be needed to evaluate effectiveness against standard antibiotics and other treatment methods.

Dear Dr Manal Hadi Kanaan , thank you very much for your encouraging contributions. Much appreciated Manal Hadi Kanaan

FMT has some studies treating intestinal disbiosis caused by chronic inflammation in HIV, not as an alternative to ART to control the viremia.

Maybe it's not 100% what you're looking for - but i think the 10-item Belief in Science Scale by Farias et al., 2013 is really close to what you're trying to measure ( ).

It measures the extent to which people believe in the superiority of science and the extent to which people believe science is an important and valuable social institution (Some items sound like the one you were talking in your question: “Science provides us with a better understanding of the universe than does religion”).

Maybe you can check out all of the "Bullshit receptivity" stream of research as well (e.g. "On the reception and detection of pseudo-profound bullshit, by Pennycook et al. 2015" - http://journal.sjdm.org/15/15923a/jdm15923a.pdf ).

There's a nice debate around religiosity, spirituality and receptivity to pseudo-profound claims, we talk about it in our working paper ( )

Hope it's useful!

Dear Mwihia Stephen,

Propolis has a complex composition. Many of its pharmacological affects are believed to be related to phenolic compounds. Caffeic acid phenethyl ester (CAPE) is among the most active compounds with antiinflammatory activity. Here we have reviewed of the pharmacology of CAPE and clinical trials: https://www.academia.edu/40588958

Yes!

Please take a look at these RG links.

TRD (Treatment Resistant Depression) is the subject of my research. However, I will let you know as soon as I have it ready to announce here. Thanks for your interest.

The "Gold Standard" is fMRI imaging.  Eg, if you stimulate a point near the 5th toe, areas in the occipital lobe "light up",  or stimulate a point on the ventral wrist between flexor carpi radialis and palmaris longus, near where your wrist watch might sit, and multiple centres in the cerebellum "light up". You need large sums of money, even in a small pilot study. Costs range from a low of AUD$360 per 1/2 hour at University of Melbourne, Australia through USD$621 per hour at University of Michigan to up to USD$800 per 1/2 hour at Indiana University.

Dear Vijitha, 

check these papers and their references out: 

Any injury can be treated with yoga and CAM effectively. Time and nature of intervention, would depend on the type of injury. Divine association can also make the patient feel comfortable.  Yoga and Asanas may be correctly practiced with concurrent use of other CAM medicines also. Surgery may be an aided requirement. Diseases may be treated with multidisciplinary approach, all that is required is a perfect coordination between them.

Meant to add that the letter we published can be found at:

Constipation: patient perceptions compared to diagnostic tools.

Liz Brown, Iain Lawrie, Viv Barros D'Sa, Sarah Wilcox, Mike Bennett

Palliative Medicine 11/2006; 20(7):717-8.

Dear Samira,

Cupping therapy is good for many diseases and it is Sunnah. However one has to be very careful in this. Certified and recognized clinics should be approached for this. The relevant physicians should also be consulted. To my knowledge its an effective treatment for so many known and unknown diseases in human body. Do read about articles on this. Its called as Hijama also. Please visit Al-hudaI International website.

I think integrative method is the best