Epidemiology of complementary alternative medicine for asthma and allergy in Europe and Germany
OBJECTIVE: To describe and discuss the epidemiologic characteristics and determinants of the use of complementary alternative medicine (CAM) from a European, particularly German, perspective. DATA SOURCES: An unrestricted literature search using the keywords alternative, allergy, complementary, epidemiology, and medicine was performed in PubMed (National Library of Medicine). In addition, background literature and the opinion of the author contributed to the article. STUDY SELECTION: European studies that provided data on the epidemiology of the use of CAM were selected and discussed in more detail. RESULTS: Approximately 30% of patients with allergies report experiences with CAM in Europe. In selected in-patient populations, the prevalence reaches 50%. Users of CAM tend to be younger women with a higher educational background. Furthermore, users and nonusers differ in terms of psychomedical characteristics, such as health locus of control or health-related quality of life. Although a larger number of different CAM modalities are provided, only a few techniques account for the majority of use (eg, acupuncture, homeopathy, herbalism, bioresonance, autologous blood injection). The use of CAM is associated with considerable costs, reaching an estimated amount of 0.9 billion Euro (approximately 1 billion US dollars) in Germany. CONCLUSIONS: CAM is widely used by the public to treat allergies. National peculiarities concerning the individual methods, providers, or reimbursement must be considered. The economic and public health implications should be discussed in context with the limited evidence of efficacy.
Ann Allergy Asthma Immunol. 2004 Aug;93(2 Suppl 1):S5-10. Schäfer T. Institute of Social Medicine, Medical University of Schleswig-Holstein, Lübeck, Germany. torsten.schaefer@sozmed.mu-luebeck.de
If you are anything like me, by the time you reached maturity there were probably numerous things in your history that you regret. These could be things that you said or did – or even failed to do. Indeed, we go through life with this ever growing collection of stuff that we wish we could discard. How we look at those events or failings determines much about your current and future behavior. Your relationships with others and your health can easily become victim to your inability to release the bonds that guilt place on our mind, body, and soul.
Like eating-related addictions, those involving sexual urges stem from what is a normal and healthy part of life. However, once sexually-related behavior becomes less of a choice and more of an uncontrollable behavior, help is needed.
A man with a significant sexual addiction once came to see me. Apparently, his life had gotten so far out of control that his behavior patterns had ruined many otherwise successful relationships. Of course, this does not count the problems of participating in activities that were medically dangerous and even illegal. In his case, he was addicted to...
Improving the performance in any given area most likely requires that you stop bad habits and strengthen the necessary parts of your brain and body. When someone is performing poorly they should realize that actually what they're doing is doing their poor performance at an expert level. This proves that they have the ability to achieve mastery. However, they are merely doing it in the wrong way.
Getting rid of an expertly performed bad habit is not easy. In fact the brain and body will resist any efforts to change. Additionally, such efforts will most certainly strengthen the hold that...
