Alternative therapies in health and medicine
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Altern Ther Health Med · May 2001
Randomized Controlled Trial Multicenter Study Clinical TrialUse of Iscador, an extract of European mistletoe (Viscum album), in cancer treatment: prospective nonrandomized and randomized matched-pair studies nested within a cohort study.
In anthroposophical medicine, total extracts of Viscum album (mistletoe) have been developed to treat cancer patients. The oldest such product is Iscador. Although Iscador is regarded as a complementary cancer therapy, it is the most commonly used oncological drug in Germany. ⋯ Iscador treatment can achieve a clinically relevant prolongation of survival time of cancer patients and appears to stimulate self-regulation.
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Altern Ther Health Med · Mar 2000
Randomized Controlled Trial Clinical TrialRandomized prospective double-blind placebo-controlled study of dextrose prolotherapy for knee osteoarthritis with or without ACL laxity.
Use of prolotherapy (injection of growth factors or growth factor stimulators). ⋯ Prolotherapy injection with 10% dextrose resulted in clinically and statistically significant improvements in knee osteoarthritis. Preliminary blinded radiographic readings (1-year films, with 3-year total follow-up period planned) demonstrated improvement in several measures of osteoarthritis severity. ACL laxity, when present in these osteoarthritic patients, improved.
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Altern Ther Health Med · Jan 1997
Randomized Controlled Trial Comparative Study Clinical TrialVoluntary control of vascular tone by using skin-temperature biofeedback-relaxation in patients with advanced heart failure.
Advanced heart failure is characterized by activation of the sympathetic nervous system and intense vasoconstriction. Biofeedback-relaxation techniques have been used successfully to treat conditions with similar pathophysiological features. ⋯ Despite the presence of marked vasoconstriction in patients with advanced heart failure, a single session of biofeedback-relaxation can increase finger temperature and cardiac output and decrease systemic vascular resistance and respiratory rate, apparently without effect on systemic levels of catecholamines or oxygen consumption.