Following the debate: homeopathy and anthroposophic medicine in the news

Reported news on homeopathy and anthroposophic medicine can be both good and bad for the sector. Positive new developments often get little media coverage, while attacks on the sector are commonplace, although not always founded on fact. In this, the first in a brief round-up of relevant news items, we provide links and background to some of the recent news stories of relevance to the debate about our sector – both positive and negative.

• In September, in the foreword to a new publication in Italian ‘Elogio dell’omeopatia,’ (In Praise of Homeopathy) by Giovanni Gorga, Italian health Minister, Beatrice Lorenzin positioned herself openly in favour of democratic governance of the citizens' demand for health services, including homeopathy; subsequent public pressure from the Italian sceptic organisation, Committee for the Investigation of Claims of Pseudoscience (CICAP), means that her statement will no longer be included in future reprints of this book (September 2015)‎.
• An article in the Journal of Law and Medicine, ‘The medico-scientific marginalisation of homeopathy: International legal and regulatory developments’ tracks international legal and regulatory developments affecting the homeopathic sector, including the 2010 report of the United Kingdom Science and Technology Committee of the House of Commons, the 2015 report of the Australian National Health and Medical Research Council, the 2015 inquiry by the United States by the Food and Drug Administration and recent class actions in North America against manufacturers of homeopathic products; it argues that the changing legal and regulatory environment is generating an increasingly scientifically marginalised existence for homeopathy. The Homeopathy Research Institute website provides some of the facts behind the headlines (September 2015).
• CAM and Integrative Medicine may have substantial benefit for military organisations: a special issue of Medical Acupuncture (Vol 27(5)) reports on interventions in integrative medicine for military personnel of NATO. It concludes that the field of integrative health and healing is a new model of cost-effective patient-centred health care (October 2015).
• New research which detects the presence of homeopathic potencies has important implications for the understanding of the nature of homeopathic medicines and their mode of action: read ECHAMP article (November 2015).
• In the UK, the Department of Health is planning a review to consider whether or not homeopathic medicines should continue to be available through National Health Service prescriptions, reports the BBC. The Faculty of Homeopathy responds and Homeopathy Research Institute offers reliable facts on homeopathy and the NHS so as to ensure a balanced argument (November 2015).
• 11 leading professors in Sweden (including four Nobel prize winners) wrote a joint statement in the Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter, arguing that homeopathy and anthroposophic medicine are not scientific and should not be regulated in Sweden. The article includes responses, both for and against this argument, from a range of stakeholders (December 2015).