More or less a year, a group of professors from the University of La Laguna published an open letter on the occasion of the celebration of the First Congress of Medicine and Health Natural. " On these dates, which recently celebrated the second edition of that event, the Cultural Hall Popular Science, University of La Laguna witness takes the initiative and introduced a new version of the original show, considering that their approaches are as valid now as twelve months ago:
The next Monday, July 23, 2007, will start in La Laguna the First Congress of Natural Medicine and Health, organized under the auspices of various public institutions, most prominently the Cabildo Insular de Tenerife and the University of La Laguna. His goal, according to highlights on the official website, is none other than discuss major complementary therapies, from western therapies such as homeopathy and osteopathy, in ancient medicines like Ayurveda in India, Traditional Chinese Medicine and Shiatsu from Japan, with the objectives of promoting the acquisition of an overview in different non-conventional medical therapies, its historical evolution, current status and future prospects, gain knowledge in scientific and cultural aspects related to health and therapies, promoting a spirit of collaboration between professionals and researchers with the aim of improving population health.
Congress, so appears, try to build bridges of unity and cooperation among a number of alternative therapies, encompassed all under the ever rescued stamp of "natural." Among the group of speakers are prominent names linked to research and teaching at the University of La Laguna, with excellent records. Precisely because of this, and have the blessing of one of the top academic institutions in the archipelago, is so worrying that, under the umbrella and those who give them, they are placed a series of alleged therapies that can only be labeled as pseudomedicinas.
The conference aims to facilitate obtaining scientific knowledge related to health, but the paradox is that none of the therapies mented successful in providing reliable evidence of its effectiveness by using the scientific method.
In the case of the more popular Western therapy, homeopathy, in August 2005, the medical journal The Lancet published a meta-deep in numerous clinical trials that have undergone homeopathic therapies, identifying clearly the Homeopathy does not have superior efficacy to that of any placebo. Practitioners of this therapy have not provided research, findings, discoveries or novel therapies, in a dogmatic way deny the existence of microscopic pathogens such as bacteria and viruses would be in addition to making statements about "healing spirit" of certain substances that have failed to prove. Also denied knowledge of the chemistry we have to show that the effects of a substance are greater the smaller its amount, where it is easily shown that in the real world is exactly the opposite. Homeopathic doctrine contradicts much of the knowledge that we have provided disciplines such as physics, chemistry, biology or medicine (the real medicine), knowledge which has been a major improvement in the health and welfare of citizens. What happens with this pseudoterapia can be extended to any of those mentioned in the conference program.
Beyond the traditional (and misleading) distinction between medicine "official" alternative medicine "philosophy of the event seems to affect the level of complementarity, on the basis that the latter are a good tool to strengthen effectiveness of the first, an idea that conflicts with the aforementioned problem: failed to demonstrate its effectiveness in objective conditions. As Alfonso Lopez asked Borgoñoz (ARP- member Society for the advancement of critical thinking and creator of manifesto for a healing that protect our health only through proven therapies ) regarding the controversial decree Catalan on alternative medicines, how can it be beneficial for host health institutions under its mantle ineffective practices? Is it not rather a serious risk to public health authority providing a number of people ill-prepared to use a range of therapeutic techniques that have never been shown to be ineffective?
What matters to public health, in fact, is that there are therapies that heal and therapies that do not heal. No official and alternative therapies. And all that is shown that cure is always accepted by the medical that officer has been called. And only you know if a cure for real or do not, requiring them to meet a set of protocols and proving their effectiveness through a series of controlled clinical trials as potential targets. What will be the social interest is not so much to defend a kind of medicine itself or another, or place, as outlined in the Congress-in a harmonious collaborative relationship, but promote only those therapies that have been able to clearly demonstrate actually provide health benefits beyond the faith of those who practice or who receive, or private comments, no statistical significance. No forget that public resources are limited, so we do not understand logical that funding wasted no proven effective therapies.
not deny us the news. Science is that, continuous renewal. We will not reject new healing therapies, the science-based medicine is just that. This is not to defend privilege or to defend any particular medicine, but only one whose application is proven to cure, and we refer to accredited studies in the proper conditions and are testable by other research teams. In fact, as we have said, think that modern medicine is official, the search is based on y demostración continua de mejores terapias, de fármacos con más posibilidades de actuación. No es un conocimiento estancado, fosilizado, como el de las terapias alternativas que se enumeran en el programa del congreso. Criterios como la antigüedad de una terapia o la autoridad moral de quien primero la hizo servir, han sido felizmente retirados de la praxis médica en muchos países desde hace mucho tiempo, lo cual ha significado un notable crecimiento en la mejora de la calidad de vida de miles de millones de personas de forma objetiva y demostrable, así como un incremento notable en la esperanza de vida de la población de la mayor parte de países.
Por todo ello, manifestamos nuestra sincera preocupación by the fact that under the institutional umbrella and together with representatives of science, to be placed formally activities that contradict the first principles (importance is the social interest) and head on the methods and results pertaining to the second. There are no official and alternative medicines, only one, the one that heals. And, as has been said many times, their only alternative is a better medicine.
who wish to support this campaign can send an email to acdcull@gmail.com , indicating the object of it supported the "Letter on the Second Conference on Medicine and Natural Health" and its name , number of DNI o similar y profesión.
