June 2014 John Weeks Integrator Round-Up: Miscellaneous

John Weeks, Publisher/Editor of The Integrator Blog News & Reports provides his monthly Integrator Round-Up of the latest news in integrative health including updates in integrative health policy, integrative health research, integrative health resources, useful data points, international integrative health, integrative health professions, integrative health people, and more

From Google Alerts: Links to Integrative Medicine in Health Systems and Communities from May 2014

This typically monthly Integrator feature is a quick capture of highlights from the multitude for links that flow in daily via Google Alerts for "integrative medicine," "complementary and alternative medicine" and "alternative medicine." While my focus is on integrative medicine in health systems, the later search term nets developments from around the world. Here are 9 selections related to hospitals and medical organizations in integrative medicine, 12 from integrative medicine in community non-system practices, and 10 from around the world for May 2014.

Ullman on "nanopharmacology" firm HEEL's decision to pull out of the U.S. market

Author and homeopath Dana Ullman, MPH, CCH, sent along the following news piece he wrote up after seeing this media release on the decision of the German homeopathy company, HEEL, to stop business in the U.S.

"A leading German homeopathic company, HEEL, is halting operations in the United States and Canada due to the present highly litigious environment here that has led to the encumbrance of several class-action lawsuits against them by skeptics of homeopathy and their attorneys. All of these lawsuits have been resolved through mediated settlements.

"The HEEL company is owned by Stefan Quaint, who also is a primary owner of a famous German automobile company called Bavarian Motor Works (BMW).  The HEEL company's leading product is Traumeel, a homeopathic medicine for sprains and strains that is exceedingly popular worldwide and used by many professional and Olympic athletes, as well as anyone who injures him or herself. Other HEEL homeopathic products include Zeel, Sinusin, Luffell, and Adrisin.

"Although HEEL is moving out of North America, all of their products, with some modification, will remain available here as a result of a management buy-out.  The products they have made historically in the USA will still be made at the same manufacturing plant as in the past, and the same CEO and management team will continue to run this new company.  Cliff Clive, the CEO of HEEL America and of the new company, MediNatura, told me that several of the products will undergo minor formulation changes to distinguish the products from those of HEEL. The new formulations will include more natural and environmental friendly ingredients (for instance, no petroleum base will be used in the topicals), and none of their new products will contain ingredients be deemed to warrant Proposition 65 warnings in California. The HEEL company will cease distributing their homeopathic medicines in North America on September 1, 2014, and the new company, MediNatura will begin to distribute to consumers and to health and medical professionals starting in January 2015.

Ullman also noted that "there are many of us in the field of homeopathy who now prefer to refer to this field as homeopathy and as 'nanopharmacology.'"

Comment
: Sorry to hear that the anti-CAM crowd is having this effect, especially coming as I do from a home that is a regular Traumeel user.

Calls for Abstracts:
IN-CAM, Oregon NDs in interprofessional effort, chiropractic leadership conference

  • The 2014 symposium of IN-CAM, the Canadian network of CAM researchers, is entitled “The Next Wave of Complementary and Integrative Medicine Research.” Abstracts for the November 6-8, 2014 meeting in Calgary are due by June 30
  • The Oregon Association of Naturopathic Physicians is urging abstracts from a diverse set of practitioners "as a reflection of the growing trend of working in collaborative teams to address health" for their December 6-7, 2014 conference in Portland. Submit through the OANP website at www.oanp.org. Due June 30, 2014.
  • The American Chiropractic Association is accepting speaker and panelist presentation proposals for the 2015 National Chiropractic Leadership Conference (NCLC), to be held Feb. 25-28, at the Hyatt Regency on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. Submission will be only accepted through the online submission form until June 25, 2014.