British Homoeopathic Journal April 1988. Vol. 77. pp. 124-125

Report on Vienna Dialogue on Holistic Medicine

I had the privilege of attending this conference and conducting a workshop on homoeopathic research, at the request of Professor Mathias Dorcsi of Vienna.

The conference, held on 15-21 October 1987, was aimed at bringing together experts in a wide variety of so-called alternative or complemen- tary therapies, and also conventional physicians, surgeons, gynaecologists, psychiatrists and medical historians. These were mainly from Austria and Germany, but there were repre- sentatives from the USA, Russia, East Germany, Hungary, China, Africa and Pakistan. Michael Endecott from the Institute of Complementary Medicine and myself reported on the situation in the United Kingdom.

Each day had a special theme with five lec- tures in the morning, four separate workshops in the afternoon, and several open evening lectures.

Friday: Dealt with common paths towards healing. A surgeon's reflections concerning holi- stic medicine with reports on the use of Iscador, homoeopathy and psychotherapy after surgery. Research in alternative medicine and nutrition is being conducted in Munich at the Medical School. An Open University Course in medical sciences is being started to supplement the hom~eopathic training of non-medical homoeo- paths in Britain, and a clinic has started with several practitioners of different alternative therapies working together.

A workshop on holistic medicine in hospital discussed total patient care, the use of comp- lementary therapies alongside conventional drugs in hospital and the need for good after care, both physical and emotional.

Saturday was taken up with the use of acu- puncture, neural therapy using local anaesthetic injections, the importance of reflex signs, Voll's method of diagnosis and treatment, and the possible value of Chinese traditional medicine as a part of holistic care.

Neural therapy is now used widely by doctors in Europe for chronic inflammatory tissue, scars and foci of old infections or damage. The work- shop I attended was particularly on this topic. It is not of value in degenerative disease, or mental

illness, but can be of value in polyarthritis, trig- eminal neuralgia, migraine, tennis elbow and in old scars. Acupuncture is widely used with modern techniques in headaches, arthritis, asthma, cardiac and gastrointestinal problems. Good results are reported in chronic mastitis and also in speeding up deliveries in pregnancy. Auricular acupuncture is helpful in obesity and to stop smoking.

Sunday concentrated on hom~eopathy, herbal therapy (phytotherapy) and anthroposophic medicine. Dr Gebhardt from Karlsruhe stressed the importance of homoeopathy for present-day medicine in inflammatory and destructive disease and in prevention particularly in chil- dren. About 40% of doctors in Austria now use some form of homoeopathy and there is a strong demand from students that it should be taught in medical schools.

Dr Lesigang (speaking for Professor Dorcsi), reviewed the development of teaching of homoeopathy in Austria with regular one-week courses three times a year for different grades of students. Several thousand doctors have been through these courses in the past 10-15 years. Professor Harisch, a Veterinary biochemist from Hanover, gave an excellent research paper describing the effects on histamine release from mast cells in experimental rats of potencies of Silica, Zinc, Phosphorus and Calc. carb. from D4 up to D30 or D1000. Dr Heusser from Arlesheim described an 80% survival with Isca- dot in treatment of melanoma.

In our workshop on research, Professor Harisch pursued the effects of hom0eopathy on cellular systems using established biochemical methods. Two fields must be studied: - - Informat ion content of the cell and its ability

to retain this for long periods in a stable way and pass this on to other cells. This is a field for the physicist. (The work of Resch and Guttman.)

- -Deve lopment of information within the cell which is the field of the biochemist or pharmacologist.

These aspects of research he felt should be kept separate and investigated in laboratories with special skills. The need for a central data file on

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Volume 77, Number 2, April 1988 125

computer was stressed. He also pointed out that the homoeopathic effect requires a whole organ- ism to act on.

I reviewed the research in the UK in recent years, mentioning the work of Robin Gibson in arthritis, Peter Fisher in lead intoxication and fibrositis, veterinary research by Chris Day, and David ReiUy's recent Lancet paper on grass pol- len and placebo. This paper was available in German at the conference and has already caused quite a stir in European medical and scientific circles.

Monday was devoted to ethnomedicine, the role of traditional medicine and how much of modern medicine has evolved from old plant remedies and traditional practices in Africa, India and China. We heard about natural child- birth in primitive communities and the develop- ment and practice of Chinese holistic medicine, which involves not only different preparations, but a completely different cultural and religious background to medical practice.

The workshop received further statements from representatives of WHO and UNESCO on the problems of importing and controlling the standard of traditional remedies brought into the West.

Tuesday was dominated by a fascinating

account by Maggie Creighton of California of her clinic for cancer care, which seems to employ similar ideas to those used in the Bristol Centre. She described with great clarity the techniques of visualization of the white cell and the cancer itself--facing up to it and using all forms of treat- ment, chemotherapy, homoeopathy, diet, as allies in the fight. She stressed the importance of caring for self, looking at suppressed emotions, what events may have precipitated the illness and, by means of family counselling, changing people from the helpless/hopeless into the vital challenging state with goals to aim at in work, in pleasure, in relationships.

The workshop pursued further the tremen- dous importance of total care, physical, emo- tional and spiritual, in all chronic illness. A most inspiring session.

The conference concluded with a call for more dialogue, more cooperation between all forms of medical care, both conventional and comp- lementary, and the setting up of an Academy of Holistic Medicine in Vienna for teaching and research into all these forms of therapy.

I felt privileged to have taken part in this dialogue, and hope perhaps in the not too distant future we in the UK may encourage a similar cooperation.

HAMISH W. BOYD~ MB~ FRCP, FFHOM